Kirk Dietrich

Smallie, thanks for the vote of confidence. These are weightless but ride hook point up. I'm thinking for deeper water, I could add some lead or bead eyes and a spun EP fiber, wool or deer hair head and maybe a sparser wing. Either that or just add some 1/8" wide stip lead to the belly??? The eyes would give a better jigging action and with the head push more water but may be more likely to hand where as the weighted belly would slide over bottom better??

Deeky, your idea is simple and obvious but brilliant! I'm going to have to try that. Its like an addict trying to quit his habit, you have to get rid of all temptation!! Thanks for sharing the thoughtfull reply.

Kirk

Ever get the feeling you're not fishing enough of your many flies you tie? I tied these a year ago and sent them to a friend, he has caught fish on them but I have yet to fish any I saved in my own box. I've got to either go fishing more or try more of these different flies people get me to tie and that I come up with on my own.

The standard Beer Belly fly is basically a zonker with a hair wing. This one has a thicker underbody and is over wrapped with two layers of narrow mylar tubing or metalic braid that is superglued, which gives it a more 3d belly that pushes more water than zonker beer belly and is a lot more bullet proof. Specks and Redfish love this, I'm guessing Bass and warmwater fish would to.

Tom, don't know how much photoshop work you do or would like to do but the Scott Kelby line of books are the best ever and his website is killer too. His books have screen captures that enforce his tutorials really great tutorials and organizational chapters and steps. Just do a search on Scott Kelby.

Kirk

Tom, I haven't tried any of these but I did a Google and came up with these links. Good luck, let us know how they they work if you try them.

Kirk

http://www.photoshop-pack.com/details/Gold_Text/1499

http://www.slicktutorials.com/carbon-fiber-chrome-gold-text

http://www.wowwebdesigns.com/power_guides/gold_text/

Balsa can be a booger, Jeff. Lately it seems none of mine have turned out as well as I had hoped, BUT the good thing is, udly catches fish, brother!

Big Daddy, what do you find is the booger with balsa? I may be trying out some balsa soon and wouldn't mind a little heads up on the challenges.

Kirk

That is one wicked ass looking hook! Great looking fly to match! Nice tie Hans.

Kirk

Dart, you're not alone, I think 90% of the population is the same way. In my opinion, that big ole bible story with Adam and Eve and the snake in the garden representing evil is a major influence on its negative wrap it gets. Even knowing they aren't evil still gives me the willies today!

Kirk

Fred, great idea and quick thinking to throw it a fish. Nice shot! What is the thing with the round pupils?

I took this shot last year, the snake eventually let the fish go, I think it was a little over zealous and bit off more than he could chew.

Kirk

very cool :thumbsup: I assume you use a dremel to hollow out the face a little. Do you use a Xacto knife to cut the foam, or just a regular knife?

I do use a dremel but you really really don't have to cup the face any; cupping the face on a popper is just one of those habits I've been in. I think it stems from growing up throwing commercial poppers that all have cupped faces. I've actually made poppers with no cup and they pop just fine. But, yes, I use a rounded end metal cutting bit on my dremel; I find the stone grinding wheel gets clogged and smooth to quickly.

You can use an xacto but I prefer the xacto hobby saw or a hacksaw blade. That foam is pretty tough stuff, I'll sometimes fine tune the slant face with a straight razor or sand paper on a flat hard surface.

Kirk

Thanks, they are Comel styrofoam floats cut in half and then a little of the small end taken off as well. Sometimes I stop up the hole, on these, I left the line/peg hole open. Very tough but lighweight bugs and cheap; down here you get 5 floats in a bag for a buck from Wal-Mart, which makes 10 heads.

http://www.comaltackle.com/catalog/peg_flt.html

I'll go back and edit to add the recipe.

Kirk

utyer, great story and at the center lies the spirit shared by many. You were EXTREME before extreme was even in our vocabulary!

Kirk

Thanks for the link, great find, really good article. I have read similar from other authors about the muddler being sparse and not like the tightly packed cork head it has evolved into although those catch fish too.

I really like a red tail on a fly and much prefer this design to the one by Bailey with the turkey tail.

Thanks again,

Kirk

The person who started me fly fishing doesn't have a name or face but he did have a graceful loop and an old used car.

Back in 1973 I was bass fishing this borrow pit pond in the woods where we (my father and two younger brothers) were on a camping/hunting trip. It was in the middle of the day between hunts and nothing was eating our plastic worm offerings when a middle aged man pulled up to the pond in an old used car. He brought his rod to the rear of the pond where I hadn't tread before because that end of the pond was always weeded up. He stepped into the water which I hadn't even considered doing with all those weeds; hell, some deep water creature could have come

up from the depths of those weeds and grabbed a kid by the leg and he'd be gone forever. But what this stranger did next was even more fascinating.

He started throwing this thick looking white line back and forth with great control in a rhythmic and graceful way that was mesmerizing. I think I had heard of and maybe even seen fly fishing on the Kurt Gowdy show or something like that because I remember knowing it was fly fishing, but I had never seen a fly fisherman in person! This was very cool! And the thing that got my interest peaked even more was when he started catching fish. Which was a superhuman feat on that day, at least to a 10 year old. Although we went over and spoke with the stranger, I don't recall his name.

Sometime in the following weeks, my dad was nice enough to support my new interest and purchased a yellowish-orange fiberglass fly rod for me and I've been fly fishing ever since.

I'd really like to meet that stranger of 1973 again and hear whether he is still wading in farm ponds and see if he would be interested in chasing some redfish with me and his magical bass wand.

My first tying attempts came about 6 years later but I didn't get serious into tying until 1983 when I joined the newly formed New Orleans Fly Fishers. Now, I often daydream about fly designs, and look at every body of water I pass on the highway wondering if there are fish there and what fly I would use if I could be fishing for them. The later of which often gets my passengers talking so as to distract me from the roadside back to the roadway.

I do have much appreciation and many thanks to all the folks who have shared their fly fishing and tying experiences and knowledge with me over the years and continue to do so and I only hope that I can make an impression and help other fisher/flyfishers in ways that I have been inspired, motivated and helped.

Kirk

"Dragon Tail Fly" (That peacock just looks like the head of a dragon, which I think is where James Daly got his inspiration from too.) That tail is long like a dragon.

"Long Ass Tail Fly" is another that comes to mind.

Got my, Allen Lite Poppers done and boxed. I'll make it to the post office tomorrow or Monday and send them on their way. These aren't fancy or bullet proof but they are easy to tie, light weight, and very effective. I've casted the 1/0 size on my 4wt. Now, you can make them more durable with a coat of 2-ton epoxy but they will be heavier and not float as high, although they will still pop entirely well enough to cause a ruckus on the surface.

Kirk

Hook: Mustad 34007 or equivalent size 4 to 3/0 with open wind crisscrossed wrapped thread base

Head: Comel styrofoam "perch" float http://www.comaltackle.com/catalog/peg_flt.html

Butt: Pearl Estaz

Tail: EP Fibers

Skirt: Tri-Lobal hackle from Cascade Crest Tools

Eyes: Halographic stick-on with a coating of Zap-a-gap for some durability

I feel like a duh. I was thinking how to hold the knot when knotting on to the hook; guess I had that on the brain. I've both tied legs to make a joint by basically doing a nail knot, snell, whip finish with tying thread or tying mono. Also, I've done the knots and never had a problem. You have to slowly pull the knot tight so the strands stretch thin within the knot but don't break, then when you release and everything expands back out, the knot stays, which is actually how monofiliment fishing knots work. I've tried glue on silicone and it does not stick, maybe with rubber it would??? Thanks for clearing that up Stippled.

Kirk

That high BP sounds like a pain. I have noticed since turning 40 some years ago, I have different aches in the morning until I get things moving. The worst is for the last four maybe five months, I've had this Plantar's Fasciitis; I"ll take anti-inflammatory pills a couple times a week but don't want to make it habitual. Stretching helps temporarily and to get you walking without limping like a chimpanzie for several minutes as you plod down the hallway but the cure I've been told is to get on crutches for 3 - 6 months!!

Good thing this isn't the dinasour age, I'd be eaten and extinct! Crap!!

Kirk

Fishing or tying, welcome to it all but the only way tying ever, ever balances out is if you sell a whole bunch of the flies you tie. Even then, I'm not sure it evens out.

Kirk

How do you all get your rubber legs to stay knotted after you tie them. Like these:

 

 

I have tried this several times on some hopper flies but the knot won't stay.

Any tips or suggestions. I would like to be able to do this, just to save some saddle hackle.

Great looking froggies! Whenever I attach rubber/silicone by knotting it, I make several criss-cross wraps across the knot with my tying thread.

Not sure how others do.

Kirk

Rob, that works well when tying something like a girdle bug or rubber legged buggar or some other type where the rubber will be overwrapped with chenille or dubbing. In fact, the overhand knot method is the best way of attaching "rubber leg" material when you only want one leg off of each side and multiple times up the shank. However, I don't think you'll have much luck tying a four strand bunch of legs onto that spider or across the back of the popper head without it being entirely to bulky.

I believe in simple as well and if you look at my photos, SIMPLE is precisely what I've demonstrated. Can't get any simpler than folding the rubber over your thread and tying it in; even an overhand knot is more complicated that what I've demonstrated above. Of course as I mentioned a few sentences back, if only one leg off of each side is desired then the overhand knot is the way to go.

 

Respectfully,

Kirk

 

 

hm... excellent point, Kirk. I was thinking deer hair bugs, and two strands for that. For the standard foam spider or bonefish bitters I use the 'fold-over-thread' method. As far as poppers go, for my own I rarely use rubber legs at all, but I add them to my friends' and customers' if that's what they want. Of course with foam poppers it's the needle trick pre-epoxy.

 

But what got me thinking is "four strands." So... four strands of rubber on each side? Really? Foam spiders and bitters, sure, but poppers? Okay, I use none, rarely up to two on a deer hair popper. Maybe I'm inside my bubble again (as my wife likes to say), but I didn't realize folks were putting so many strands on now-a-days. Is this the new trend (forgive my ignorance), and does it really make that much difference to have more rubber legs?

 

I could see perhaps at times it would. My hang up with them for my own personal popper flies is that the rubber just breaks off or deteriorates long before the popper is no good, and I've not seen any difference in catch rates without.

 

Okay, 'nuff ramblin outta me! Just thinkin out loud.

Rob, good conversation. You're gonna laugh at this but I never put rubber/silicone on deer hair bugs; for me, its not because I don't think its effective, but I always cut the damn things off when trimming the hair head.

As for rubber on poppers, I'm more apt to do that for the smaller bugs cause gills like em like that so much and it gives a larger look from below to attract the occasional bass.

However, for your question about poppers now-a-days, down south here, rubber legs used to be on poppers when I began fly fishing in the late 1970's although, I think you're right, I don't think it was four. Typically on bream and bass bugs, a single leg was threaded through the head diagonally from front to back and then one across the middle to create three "legs" on each side of the head and on the smaller bream bugs you would typically see two to four strands trailing off the back. Peck's made them with and without rubber too and I fished them both and found I had better luck with the ones with rubber. I hated that the rubber dried out but now-a-days with silicone, you don't have that problem.

I think on an average day, you won't see much difference but I think there are times when the rubber legged bug will out produce the one without especially with bream. Of course that could be biased as I often fish silicone legged surface bream bugs unless I'm throwing a diver.

Kirk

For those that feel or want to discuss the pros and cons of invitational swaps, I created a topic under General Discussion/Lodge as suggested by BDH. So, let Matt get on with his invitational swap and I suggest everyone including Matt delete their posts not related to the swap itself.

If someone would tell me how to delete, I'll be glad to delete this after everyone deletes their posts.

Kirk

Just a place for those with pro & con opinions on invitational swaps so that swap notices can just focus on the swap.

Kirk

Can't figure how to delete.

Kirk

Me too, wait for whole set.

Kirk

damsels

Riffle, I just happen to have a picture I took a few years ago in my garden. This should be a piece of cake for Fred. Fred, if these pics because of resizing are not clear and you think they would be helpful, let me know and I can email the original.

Kirk