Kirk Dietrich

Well Jeff, thanks for the tip. I finally got around to making a real flybox, actually two of them. Previously, I've just relied on jumbled up flies loose in a box. I like these, I hope I can keep up with the neatness, it makes selection on the water much easier. Kirk Saltwater box. Freshwater box.

Those look great! I really like soft foam for bream. Kirk

phg, you'ld think I'd have figured something to do for sure but being a pack rat, getting rid of them was something that I inadvertantly avoided. Like ChefBen, I dispise stripping my hooks. I think the donation ideas are the route I'll take and the links and suggestions give me some direction. I'll just have to put a disclaimer note in whatever I send saying to feel free to toss out what isn't appropriate. I feel like one of those old guys on American Pickers that has barns full of stuff and when the guys come to buy something, most of what they pick out, the old guy says, "well, no, I can't sell that" and you know he hasn't done anything with it for fifty years and will never touch it again before he dies... Kirk

phg, this problem has amassed from having tied for 30 years. When I donate flies, I tend to tie up fresh new ones thinking that the ones in my box aren't good enough. I do give flies to fishermen I fish with and friends but I've still got boxes. I may have to look up the Project Healing Waters, I did donate a batch to them once. Kirk

Good ideas!

Those look great. A marabou tail with some supple flash material really adds some seductive action too. The LMB down here like those especially when they are feeding on schools of shad. Kirk

There was a post recently asking how many boxes of flies you have, I counted the ones I use but omitted in that number, the ones that have gotten pushed aside by my current ties. As I develop and just plain ole tie more flies, I find those flies get moved into my vest (figuratively speaking, its actually the back of my car where I keep my flyrods and current boxes of flies). To make room for those, I take the few flies out of the existing boxes and remove the "old" boxes of flies out to my shed. Now, I've got boxes of good flies, some slightly used, some that never touched the water. What am I supposed to do with all of that? I've thought of donations occasionally, but I always wound up tying up "new" flies for donations. It seems when I look through the old stuff, it isn't good enough to give away. What do ya'll do with those excess flies? Kirk

Jeff, I used to fish a creek in Mississippi using #10 bugs and caught the heck out of bream and small bass. One day, I decided to bring my spinning rod and throw a plastic worm as the blowdowns had deeper water but I knew I would lose a sinking fly down in there. I caught the heck out of bass up to two pounds and that creek wasn't any wider than thirty feet with mostly shallow runs with deeper water in the turns and where the light current dug out around the blow downs. After I lost access to that place, I talked to a friend that loved fishing little creeks like that and he said I should have thrown a #4 popper to keep the bream away and the bigger bass would have come up. Not saying that would work on your creek but if you have any deeper holes where you can't see the bottom and you get tired of catching dinks, it may be worth a try. Although, I'm not one to give that advice as I often throw small bugs to keep my rod bent when a partner is throwing something larger to catch one or two fish... Sounds like you have a nice little spot though, I wish I had a clear little creek by my house even to catch those beautiful red bellies. Kirk

Cream described how I fish them except I haven't used an indicator as the water is usually just clear enough that I can read the fish when he takes like with redfish. I like using dark colors with an orange tail and the orange tail isn't for the fish although carp do seem to like orange just fine; it's mostly to make the fly easier for me to see and keep track of it to help manipulate it into the right place in relationship to the fish. My presentation starts after the cast. I cast away from the fish and lift the rod to pull the line and guide the fly into position, when it is near the fish's head/eye, I let it drop, if they turn on it, they'll usually eat. If they don't turn on it, I work it away from them slowly, ease it up and make another cast and present to them again. Sometimes I may make a bunch of casts like that to one fish before he sees the fly and eats. Then again, I've had days where I made a hundred or more casts and only had three or four takes and one hookup. Other days, I've made half that many casts and had a dozen takes with long distance releases and some landed and some missed strikes. With the murky water, an indicator may help. You don't need a "fly" indicator. Find a store that sells tackle for bream fishing and use one of those small bobbers as they come out of the pack or cut it in half and thread it up your leader and peg it that way you can adjust the depth. Kirk

Kirk , ever hear the old saying: sometimes "better" is the enemy of good enough?? the request is for a small hook I used the eagle claw hooks because of the size the price is an added benefit! needed something a little longer than the 3366 and didn't have any #10, 33903s' on hand. By the way the pencil poppers worked perfectly and really slayed the bream! I will definitely use that hook again. So sad both of the prototype pencil poppers were broken off. but I will put the pencil sharpener back to work soon. Gotcha. I know what you mean about shank lenghts for certain bugs. I like the little extra length the 33903 gives. You might want to look at some of the straight eye streamer hooks. I think Mustad sells some 6x long straight eye streamer hooks. I've also used the down eye 7x streamer hooks they sell for some of my Rabid Dogs, which are basically pencil sliders even though they dive and dart around. Kirk Why bother with very long streamer hooks? They have a piss poor dismal hook up rate and even worse losing a very nice fish on them. If you gonna go long then go the tube route and use short shank wide gap hooks that are really more available and hook up ratio are phenomenal. Poppers last helva lot longer and you can change rear dressings. Phish, that may be the case with bass bugs but I think the size 8 and smaller as originally indicated, it doesn't make much difference. Plus it makes it easier to retrieve your bug from the little mouth of small fish. I've never had a hook up problem with the 33903 and the streamer hooks are basically a 33903 without a kinked shank. Kirk

Looks great! If you get more bream than bass, you could go up to a size 6.

Kirk , ever hear the old saying: sometimes "better" is the enemy of good enough?? the request is for a small hook I used the eagle claw hooks because of the size the price is an added benefit! needed something a little longer than the 3366 and didn't have any #10, 33903s' on hand. By the way the pencil poppers worked perfectly and really slayed the bream! I will definitely use that hook again. So sad both of the prototype pencil poppers were broken off. but I will put the pencil sharpener back to work soon. Gotcha. I know what you mean about shank lenghts for certain bugs. I like the little extra length the 33903 gives. You might want to look at some of the straight eye streamer hooks. I think Mustad sells some 6x long straight eye streamer hooks. I've also used the down eye 7x streamer hooks they sell for some of my Rabid Dogs, which are basically pencil sliders even though they dive and dart around. Kirk

AGN, you're right. Jimbo Meador took me out of Mobile once to catch them on a fly so his son would have shark bait for the next day! I caught a few and we saved them for Jimbo's son to use for cut bait the next day. They were a kick in the butt to catch though especially on my 9wt.

fshrmanms, the Mustad hooks you and Stippled mentioned are pretty cheap on-line and I'm pretty sure Jann's Netcraft sells them as well as Barlow's tackle. Yeah, $4 for 50 hooks is cheap but I don't think the Mustad's are much more expensive. Anyway, who cares about getting a cheap hook? The Tupelo was probably free and you're spending a good amount of your precious time making some nice poppers, I'd go ahead and put some expensive hooks on those bodies, the hell with cheap when time is worth more than any hook you'll ever buy.

Referring to a fish as noble sounds odd to me at first but I know referring to a fish as being noble is a literary thing and I think I know what is meant by it so, I'll give it a shot. So far, it seems like all fish are noble. Maybe its something about holding that thing from the other world in your hand that has few words to describe the humbling feeling you get, so, noble is used to describe the subject that has brought you to awe. Also, considering I've been in awe over more fish in my hand than I have met men that I am humbled by. I think if PJ were reincarnated as a fish, he would be the noblest. Kirk

I'm with flytire, almost to many to count. I've got three or four in a vest that hangs in my shed, about eight hanging around my tying desk. A saltwater bag in my shed with about six, a satchel in my vehicle with five or six, a freshwater bag in my vehicle with about five, and at least two more bigger ones in the vehicle that I use to fish out of most frequently. That's just a rough estimate. Kirk

I have the fold up front secretary desk, bought with same intention. Used to have it in the dining room and only folded it up once for a party. Now that I have it in my bedroom, I have yet to fold it up. Kirk

As far as I know, Hareline Dubbing is supplying the shops with the "extra select" craft fur. I'm sure they aren't manufacturing it so it has to be coming from somewhere, some type of fabric store/manufacturer. I'd do some searches on-line and be sure to contact the seller of the item and ask them to measure the fibers. Some stuff that is labeled long may not be the long you're thinking. When/if you do a search be sure to use other names than craft fur such as Fake Fur, Faux Fur, etc. Maybe even look on a package of craft fur from the craft store and see who the manufacturer is and look them up. Kirk

Thanks Andrew, nice ties btw. AGN, they do have the right shape for that, I'm just so used to thinking light and shallow. It is kind of a paint to build the body up. That scud body would be good to put on a streamer hook and make a nice bottom bouncing, hook point up streamer for the cold water trout I'll bet.

Andrew, I often do that with the wing when I'm using a fine material like Craft Fur or EP fibers. Adding a coarse underwing such as bucktail or kinky fiber gives the hook point a headstart getting through the often matted finer synthetics. Kirk Some Rattle Rousers that are a bendback with a rattle in the belly. These are some 3d Beer Belly bendbacks. A friend liked the look and shape of the Rattle Rouser but didn't want the rattle so I use leather lacing to build a tapered body on the hook shank and overwrap with crystal braid or tiny mylar tubing starting in the front, wrapping to the back and back up to the front again with a squirt of CA on the body before each wrap over.

Whew, for a minute there I thought you were super-human getting up eating your Wheaties, tying a deer body hair bug from scratch, trimming it, puting eyes on, finishing it and then bidding the wife and kids goodbye as you go out the door for work...

Does that mean you started it last night? That would be me for sure. Great looking poppers! Kirk

Man, that looks great! What is the Nano Cone? Is that a weighted cone for balast? What hook do you like using? Kirk

Mike, those look great from the side!

Great looking deer hair bugs Jeff. Nice little room too! Congratulations.