bad fish rising

nice ive had great success with those montana style stoneflies you got in there

trilene knot is the way to go! your bloodknot/surgeons knot will break way before a trilene knot. i have even had the nail knot pull off the line on heavy leaders before this knot will give way.

all gama's are sharp as hell as for shearing off ive never seen it happen without smacking a backcast into a boulder straightening the hook on a fish use a little drag man gamakatsu is the best hook for my money

heres a big one nobody touched on the front hook should be 2 sizes larger than the rear hook this will stop most tangles example 2/0 x 1 = no tangles

you need a trip to a good smallmouth lake

pheasant tail barbs would make a great tail on a wooly worm instead of the traditional red wool tag

gill bug for sure

peterjay has a good point about leaders mine are heavy duty for sure 40lb/30lb maxima chameleon butt 20lb/15lb maxima flouro.

those fish are awesome i love the "down the hatch" shot on that first tarpon

maybe look into kelly galloups streamer line it has a sinking head attached to an intermediate running line there are several styles of these attached heads i use a rio dc 300 most of the time my 2nd is a rio versi tip that i over load with spey tips to help shoot further & turn over larger flies

i like your stuff very creative. i made a tool holder out of a piece of drift wood from my river. also a couple of hero fly displays on a rock shelf. i saw a really cool tool holder i think on here made out of a deer antler

the correct line also helps you cant cast a pike fly with a trout line

some catalogs make nice flyrod jigs they balance & sink way better than the pin/bead method

i was born a lefty but my grandma broke me of it when i was a baby. i still shoot pool left handed i dont think i can tie flies left handed but i can cast my flyrod baitcaster or spinning rod left handed so sometimes it helps catch an extra fish or two

learn to do it by hand you will still have to pick up your dubbing needle to hold the loop as you tighten the knot . ps sorry its a right handed world

pheasant crest or tippet would have been a great substitute you see alot of NWP steelhead flies & atlantic salmon flies made with pheasant tails

i use a leader for bass that i found in FLY RODDING ESTUARIES by ED MITCHELL. its a 9ft leader for my 8wt. here it is 4ft of 30lb butt, 3ft of 20lb midsection, 2ft of 12lb tippet. i use maxima chamelon for the butt & midsection + maxima flourocarbon for the tippet.

those are nice flies they should be killer on carp too

i just recently bought a magnum barred rabbit. i tied a woolhead zonkora with it on a basshook. you can find the fly on here. anyways. after fishing the fly all day most of the barring washed off the store bought rabbit strip. the barred strips were 3$ more than the unbarred at my local flyshop. i dont think ill be buying barred anymore so im intrested to hear how well the copic marker stays on after fishing.

i attach my rattle with 200gsp after i put ca cement on the thread base this really keeps the rattle in place on the hook

ask the man who made it next time you see him

i was using double deceivers for big browns but loosing alot of them so i looked in to the HIGH-TIE's i landed a 21" brown on this fly before loosing it to a log. aggressive fish dont care about hooks heavy leaders or bad casts

my friend randy tried to develop an egg fly with flash in the middle of the eggs could you show another pic of it sideways please

nice looking fly are those beads in the middle brass?

i have a renzetti traveler i added the fly plate which was exspensive for what it is but worth every dollar the only maintenance i have done to the vise in 15yrs is replace the O rings on the head & added a thumb screw for the plastic knob. i tie everyday so thats 5$ to maintain it in at least 15yrs. i also have a regal but think the renzetti rotates in a truer line