Kirk Dietrich

I ran across a plant with these really great looking flowers, I wish my pics did them justice. I have no idea what they are - any plant people out there know what this is?

Kirk

A friend of mine is going to Salida, Colorado for business and will be fishing in is down time in the Arkansas River. He asked me to tie some flies for him. Any suggestions on flies or a source to find out?

Kirk

Cute picture of your daughter/granddaughter. Very nice picture of the trout in the middle but I've got to say based on that last pic, "man, you've got some huuuuge hands!!".

Kirk

I purchased a keyless chuck for mine, best $15 I've spent on my dremel. It is just like your power drill, you can chuck any sized shaft bit in it and never need the wrench or change collets. Don't know when they will start putting this on all of the dremels and just do away with the different sized collets.

Kirk

Beautiful bodies, can't wait to see the tail.

 

Kirk

 

We're still talking about fishing, right?

Still fishing, just threw a little dual lango in that one to see if any red-blooded men were reading.

Beautiful bodies Big Daddy, can't wait to see the tail.

Kirk

Both JSzymczyk and skidoosh made good points and gave good advice. Another plus to keeping on the skin is that if you tie splayed tailed flies on deer hair bugs, foam or hard bodied bugs, seaducers, etc. you will appreciate being able to select from each side of the patch for a nice splayed tail.

I used to be a taxidermist specializing in waterfowl. When a customer brought a duck, if it was fresh, I would skin it out and roll it up in a good bunch of newspaper to insulate it and stick it in the freezer until I was ready to prepare it for "mounting".

As I'm sure you know, the stem of the feather goes in through the skin and across all the tips of the stems inside the bird there is a membrane. In between the membrane and the skin is the fat layer. There are several ways to remove and/or expose the fat for curing; I actually had a big plexiglass box that I had a motor with a wire wheel that I would touch the fat side of the skin to, to remove the fat but that is because of the volume of birds I did it was convenient.

Before that, I used to snip the fat with a scissors by holding the hide with the feather side over the fingers of my left hand to feel and gauge the thickness of the skin. With scissors in my right hand, on the flesh side, just methodically snip/cut the fat from the hide. I actually got pretty fast with this method.

The faster but not as thorough way is to scar the surface of the fat membrane with a razor exposing the soft fleshy fat beneath, which exposes it to the borax for curing.

Whichever method used, prior to the borax, the skin would get a thorough washing in Dawn dishwashing liquid and then a throrough rinsing and squeezing the excess water out. After the rinse and squeeze, I would soak the skins in a bucket of unleaded gasoline for 20 minutes to remove any other fat residues and dirt. Then, I would squeeze the excess gasoline back into the bucket and leave the pelt out to air dry and let the gas evaporate before putting the hide into my clothes dryer with a dry towel. I set it for delicate heat and let it run for 30 minutes, when done, if any of the down was still damp, I'd dry it with a hair dryer. Man, let me tell you, that skin/feathers/fur comes out better looking than when it was alive on the bird/animal.

Then of course, you rub a generous amount of borax into the fat on the skin side of the hide and let cure/dry/dehydrate for several weeks. You should pin it to a piece of cardboard to prevent it from curling.

I've got ducks that I mounted 28 years ago that still look as good as the day I did them and have no stench at all. And, no, there is no gasoline smell either.

Kirk

I got a package this morning from Kirk. These things are too nice to fish! These things are unlike any poppers I've ever seen. You went above and beyond, my friend. If I'm brave enough, I'll get these bad boys wet this afternoon. If I get them caught in a tree, I just may have to chop it down to retrieve it.

Thanks Dart but are you talking about the foam poppers I posted a picture of back on page 7 or the two extra hard bodies I just included as extras for you? I would have loved to have done the hard bodies for everyone but I'm so busy right now with end of school activities with my children and extended family I didn't have time for all the painting. The foam poppers are really good bugs and I had the heads already made up - those are my workhorse poppers; I think you'll like the results when fishing them.

Kirk

Sounds like calf tail to me too. A picture would help. A calf tail will have hair that is one and a half to two inches and shorter where as a bucktail will have hair that is one and a half to two inches and longer - generally speaking for the average tails.

Kirk

hay dart' I have pics of fish on my prototype poppers on my cell ph. dont know to post them. also have to make some adjustments---- they spin too much.happy fishing Gerry

My daughter gets the pictures from her camera by attaching them to a text message that she sends to her email account, which she then downloads/saves to the computer. I don't have texting on my phone so I've never tried it myself but she does it that way all the time.

Kirk

If you made that with little forethought, you must do it a lot as it looked pretty well thought out and smooth to me. Nice video. Why are those things called "x cones"?

Kirk

How in the hell do you get down there to fish!?? Nice composition and beautiful picture. Don't know much about stream water color but if this off-color water is clear enough to see the bottom in a photograph taken from the moon I can't imagine how beautiful it is when it is not off color.

Kirk

Nice John! Finding them in City Park, Bayou St. John, Lafreniere, somewhere else? I caught a big one like that last month in Bayou St John but not one since; course I'm just fishing surface flies right now.

Kirk

Thanks Devin, that is the link I was going to post.

Day5, I like that Coyote Ugly fly. I had good success with a similar fly with the redfish this past winter; a little barbell weight and a big head to push water.

Kirk

Spoon fly. Although I rarely fish them any longer, its almost like cheating they're so easy to catch fish on.

Tightlines, you might want to just buy a spin fishing spoon and use that as your template. Spoon flies vary in shape from tear drop to a narrow strip to a little width in the front and getting a little fatter in the back but not as drastic as a tear drop. Important is a little curve or small depression toward the rear.

A side note, I would strongly recommend adding the weight to the shank and forgo the tailing material. Tailing material may not hinder the wobble of a spin casting spoon likely because of the weight of the metal. However, anything added to the hook to make it more "fly-like" will hinder the action you desire in a spoon and that includes bead chain. Granted, there are some spoon flies with tailing material and bead chain but I promise you they do not have the action of one without.

Good luck, spoon flies sure do put the meat in the cooler; I rarely fish them any more unless the redfish just absolutely refuse everything else.

Kirk

Great looking fly and I always like the fish pics. Does the prop actually buzz like the torpedo?

Kirk

I'll just take a little longer than i normally would.

 

If you don't mind them looking not so good then i'll tie them in forceps but i'd rather wait.

Mark, do you have a fly club in your area? or a friend that ties? Maybe you could borrow a vise for your tying until you get one for yourself (not just saying that for this swap but for your general dilemma).

As I mentioned in your "Noooo" post, I tied on a borrowed vise after my Herter's vise bent out of shape. A friend of mine's father had become to busy to tie flies and said if I tied him flies, I could use his Regal for as long as I wanted.

Kirk

Cheri, I've used different small box/jar organizers found in the bead craft section of craft stores but I learned years ago to cut the label off the hook pack or if its a hard plastic hook box to make my own label with a index card and cut it to fit inside the small organizer so I don't forget what hook I have in there.

I used to write on the little boxes but that often wears off or I change organizers and wound up not being able to use the written on boxes for something else.

Kirk

I usually tie weedguards on almost all of my surface flies. In general I have not found there to be much if any difference in hook-ups with the exception of schooling bass. I found out last fall that bass chasing shad are thrashers and hit a fly and spit it out, short strike and things in between. I was only getting maybe one hookup in ten strikes, which actually would happen on two or three casts! Anyway, I cut the weedguard off and began hooking two or three fish per ten (of course, it goes without saying, those numbers are only approximate, I did not conduct a recorded scientific experiment). So, what I thought was a big weedguard problem was, I think, just the nature of the strike in open water and fast moving fish. So, if you think you're missing fish cause of the weedguard, you can always cut it off.

Kirk

Make sure to file the teeth of the vice grips smooth or else you will indent the hook with the teeth marks in the vise and weaken it. Man, you better get to cutting grass, painting houses, landscaping, delivering newpapers, wash cars or whatever it takes to make some money to get a decent vise. Don't rush, you are addicted so you will want a good one - be patient, earn your money and get a good vise.

Don't use a vise and you can call your tying business, Hand Tied Flies.

Kirk

Dart, as far as staying on the hook, just don't make it to tall. I used to fish balsa poppers and a lot of old timers like the one mentioned below did and that was before they had the good glues of today. If you're uncertain about that, you can use a thinned lacquer or other glue and prime the balsa prior to painting. I've never done it but it should toughen up the balsa. Acrylic paint and 2-ton epoxy overcoat is what I've used to make durable balsa bugs.

For shaping the balsa, you can use a sharp knife, razor blades, sand paper blocks, sand paper rolled on a pencil, rasp, etc. You can make a balsa stick, cut a notch in the face for the "cup" take a few slices off the top edges to taper it and just sand smooth to round the edges. There was a guy here in south Louisiana, I think, used to make a fly like that called the Fayard Minnow, he painted an eye on top and bottom to represent a minnow on its side.

Man, you need to go fishing before you pull all your hair out.

Kirk

Here's my dozen; two for you Dart. I don't need mine back, I've got a few in my box.

Hook: Mustad 33903

Head: 6 sheets foam glued together, 4 green & 2 yellow. Sloped face with razor, glued to hook and trimmed to shape with scissors. The square face really gives a better pop if needed than a round popper on same size hook.

Eyes: Halographic stick-on with super glue for good measure

Tail: Enrico fibers w/two strands white silicone legs

Skirt: Estaz trimmed flat on bottom

Legs: 8 strands white silicone, well really its 4 strands tied in across their center to make 8 legs.

NJ, you ain't old enough to have to worry about labeling!

Sounds like a good plan. I have both the drawer things you're talking about and the clear boxes commonly made by Rubbermaid. I have the boxes on shelves stacked about two or three high, they have a recessed lid so they stack really nicely. I like those containers cause I can pull one down and set it in my lap and dig through it. Many of the drawer things have little protrusions making it difficult to pull the individual drawer out, which I often do in order to find something. I think the smaller drawer units do not have the tabs and the drawers conveniently come out.

Actually its kind of funny how I've organized things over the years. I started out labeling all my boxes and stuff but wound up re-organizing as I collected more and more materials and found myself moving to larger containers and re-using boxes for other materials and the labeling had to be removed and re-labeled.

Oddly enough, now, I don't even label; its amazing how a man can know where his stuff is in a disorganized garage. Having his stuff in unlabeled organized containers is a piece of cake.

Post some pics when you get set up.

Kirk

I was thinking something like surgical tubing or the spinnerbait skirt cinch things. Then again, I wonder if a small piece of foam would be better there for helping keep the hook riding point up; like taking a small diameter foam cyliner and cutting a piece off and just thread it onto the hook. That would certainly assist in turning the fly over and keeping the hook point up.

Kirk

I'm game. Probably do a perch float popper.

Kirk