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Fly Tying

Kirk Dietrich

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Posts posted by Kirk Dietrich


  1. Accardo is special in the sense that Tony tied his firs bug in 1952 when Ernest Peckinpaugh passed away, which in and of itself isn't all that special but it is ironic since Accardo built his business and in 1961 quit his regular job and became one of the two largest commercial producers of warmwater bugs. The other being Peck's bugs (which was carried on by Ernest's son and continued to sell bugs). Then in 1980, Tony Accardo purchased the patents from EH Peckinpaugh's heirs and the then struggling business. I guess his specialness is that he was a self made man and even went to the extent of buying a cork farm in Spain to have his heads made directly for him.

    Tony Accardo's son sold most all of his father's bug making supplies after Tony passed in 2006. The business was dormant for years but just recently, the son has been making some bugs for a local shop in Baton Rouge on a very limited basis. A friend Ted Cabali visited the little tackle shop and bought a few bugs, but there was not a large selection at all - nothing remotely like Tony had going.

    As the others said, a little bream bug is easy to make from foam, can be done from small tapered cork bottle stoppers, balsa and the pre-formed hard foam bodies from WAPSI - to name a few options...


  2. Hey Mike, thanks. I'll have to start popping in more often. Have got wrapped up with Facebook and hooking up with old flyfishing folks. Still tying, fishing and regular life been going on. Not sure what of me there are to sing praises about but thanks.

     

    FlaFly, the Michaels by my house sells the corks. The tapered bottle stoppers are pure/raw shaped cork. The "craft" wine bottle shaped stoppers are composite wine corks. I have some and they are very nice; no pits, float good and are tough. I think they are natural constructed of recycled all natural corks ground up and fused/glued together.

     

    If you check ebay once or twice a week, you may come across the tapered bottle stoppers like Kentucky Steve posted a picture of. Last year, I got a really good deal on 50 each of two sizes, just right for a #6 & #2 or 4 hook.

     

    Kirk


  3. Jann's still sells the tapered "bottle stopper" corks. If the link don't work, just go to their site and type in cork popper bodies in the search box on their site.

     

     

    http://www.jannsnetcraft.com/bug-popper-bodies/665105.aspx

     

    You'll be hard pressed to find shaped and cupped ones except maybe a rare posting on ebay or an old friend, garage/estate sale, that sort of thing.

     

    You can wine corks for wine makers and turn down as someone suggested but that is a lot of work for bream bugs. If you go that route, don't get used ones with a corkscrew hole in them.

     

    Kirk


  4. Like SilverCreek, I like a rod that breaks in half so I can keep it rigged and in a sock or case. So, a 2 or 4 piece rod works great for me - it is the 3 piece that gives me fits cause it doesn't break in half, it breaks down in thirds and that extra piece when rigged is a pain to corral. For traveling and I think like someone mentioned, resale, the 4 piece would be the way to go.


  5. The running or bleeding of colors is certainly fine but if you're going through some effort to make specific markings, then the bleeding will ruin your efforts. We all know the fish don't care either way.

    Certainly though if you want acrylic paint over the markers, the sealer will allow you to do it without having the ink bleed through.

    Heronwheels, glad that tip helped.

     

    Kirk


  6. If the Copic ink runs, give it a misting of Krylon Clear Acrylic spray. That will lock in the ink. I also use that over the Copic when coming back over with acrylic paint decorations such as painted eyes or dots where the ink actually bleeds up through the acrylic paint. The Clear spray locks in the ink creating a barrier to put you paint onto.

    Epoxy does not make the paint run but various other clear coat products will indeed do so.

     

    Kirk


  7. If you like the WAPSI popper heads, you may try asking your fly shop if they can special order 100 heads. I did it with my local shop to get 100 of their long Lightning Strike hooks and 100 of the #6 size heads.

    Of course, all of the other options thrown out there are good ones with several being pretty cheap, just thought I'd throw this idea out if you have a fondness for using those WAPSI heads like many folks do.


  8. Den, that is what I do. It may not show in the photos in the original post on page 1 but the ones I tied, I rounded all the edges except the face. I also recessed the face a little. However, Lefty's original does not have rounded edges or a recessed/cupped face. In fact, I sent him the ones in the photo and he said he liked them except for the cupped face. I tried explaining to him that the face was recessed and still had an open bottom for easy pick up but he didn't like it. Oh well, hard teaching an old dog new tricks I guess.

     

    Kirk


  9. Chuck, look forward to seeing what you come up with. Although I said pin-vise, it may be called something else it is basically a chuck with a checkered handle. The chuck is good for a range of two or three size bits - I got the one above in a set of three or four. The larger one accepts larger drill bits and I even use a small Forstner's bit for recessing larger eyes.


  10. Chuck, I like the brad tip cause it gives me a point to stick in and makes a flat bottomed hole.

    As for using a tiny bit for legs, there are pin vises that work well to hold the small bit and are checkered to give you a grip to twist by hand.

     

    kirk-dietrich-albums-fly-tying-picture23

     

    kirk-dietrich-albums-fly-tying-picture23

     

    Here's a pic of hand drilling a hole in a WAPSI popper body using a pin vise.

    kirk-dietrich-albums-fly-tying-picture30


  11. Chuck, those look great. Nice to know the thread inspired someone! If you have a problem with those doll eyes popping off, you can use a brad tip drill bit to do a shallow countersink hole to glue them into. (I hold the drill bit in my hand and just twist it - I tried it chucked in a power drill and it dug to deep - by hand you can control how shallow you go much easier.) Great work!

     

    The longer Mustad is the old 33903 double kink shank hook.


  12. Mike and Buz, good explanation of the spring end.

    Buz, nice little video.

    A wire tooth dog brush works exceptionally well for preening/pulling fibers out when twisting long hair brushes but unlike the way you used the wire brush parallel with the core, I kind of poke and brush with the dog brush and pull up; of course I've never done a thin angel hair only brush - seemed to work fine for you in your video. For thicker materials, that dog brush really fluffs up the materials nicely.

     

    Kirk


  13. Art, with the sewing machine motor, it spins as fast as you want but what happens is long dubbing gets pulled down and twisted and needs to be teased out. Now that I spin it by hand, it is much more manageable.

     

    Check out my Youtube channel, link below, I think I have a tutorial using the twister.

     

    Norm, I find myself using a dubbing loop most of the time especially for small flies. I mostly just use the dubbing twister to make long hair brushes for tails and heads on large flies.

     

    Kirk

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