Curtis Fry

I've tied on one for a few years, switching to the newer model when it came out a couple of years ago. I used to be a Dyna King guy, went to a Nor-Vise for a titch. Tried a Vosselor (hated it). Ended up ditching my Barracuda for the Mongoose. Kind of a personal preference type of thing, but I'm sticking to it. A lot of my tying buddies are on the Mongoose now too....

What are you using to shoot the flies? camera/lens, etc... I'd give it a "B". Nice shot, little soft. Maybe that's just my taste, but either way, you tie some clean bugs!

Check out Rainy's flies. They pay a lot of nice royalties to the "little guys" as well as the big guys.... They're always looking for good patterns.

I use a Sage Bluegill rod (equiv of a 6 wt) for most of my panfish. I always carry a 3 and/or 4 wt on the boat as well, especially if I can get into a pod of fish in relatively open water that doesn't require a lot of casting into cover. But when needing to cast poppers, bigger flies or fish into and around cover, the smaller weight rods don't cut it, IMO. I was a little skeptical about fishing for such small fish with such a "big" rod, but I actually love that rod for panfish.

Awesome assortment and photo there!

Here are a few I use: And probably my favorite:

I don't use mono very much. That's just me, cuz I like wire weedguards a bit more. But if you do go with mono, I found that coating the mono with some super-glue where it joins with the eye of the hook area, it will actually stiffen it nicely and keep it in place better. Not sure if that ultimately weakens the mono, but it seems to do the trick for me. I probably use day5's method more with mono than loops, FWIW. Just not a big fan of loops, and yes I know how to tie them in...

My 3 cents on the matter... I fish for bass and panfish a good portion of the year and mostly from a big bass boat. I usually string up 4 to 6 rods. I don't like 9 footers as much for the mere fact that they don't fit nicely on the boat. Seems silly, but it makes a world of difference. I also find myself "flipping" heavier flies into cover and it's much more difficult for me to do it with a 9 footer. Also, when fishing overhanging trees, bushes etc, the shorter length is another advantage. As far as regular casting, I can adjust the stroke to fit the length of rod I'm throwing. Now the big thing I run into is matching the fly and cover to the rod -- NOT the size of the fish. People too many times get hung up on the fish size aspect, but IMO, that's really not got as much to do with it. I've caught huge trout and big bass on my 6 weight with no problemo. Try casting a heavily weighted striper minnow 50 feet into a boil with a 6 weight. Ain't pretty and you can't keep it up for more than a few casts without getting a flacid casting arm. I like the Sage Bass lineup (6, 8, 10 wts) and fish them along with another 6 wt and a smaller 4 wt for the smallish 'Gills. I fish the 10 wt in order to throw big topwater or very heavily weighted weedless creations into the muckety-muck. I can't do that with any accuracy or efficiency with a 6 or even 8 wt. That way, rather than switch flies, I switch rods. My gear buddy has something like 20 rods stored on board all rigged up, so I'm trying to at least keep up with that... But, of course, everyone will give you advice on what they have and use personally. Go to a shop and have them string up some rods for you. Try casting with all sizes and weights of flies as well.

Check out my channel below for some ideas. I live and fish in Utah so most of these flies are locally tied and tested.

I have a Barracuda. Great vise. If you've tied with rotary, I can't imagine you'd want to go without it. FWIW, I tie on a Griffin Montana Mongoose and the Barracuda is now used by my kids and tying visitors. Might be worth looking into that as an option.

Genial! Che, hiciste bien bien bueno con estas moscas truchas (ya q son para las truchas)

You nailed it! Nice tie!

While I am a self-admitted hackle junky, I do find it easier/better to go with options that don't need hackle sometimes. Here are a few: X-Caddis: Hopper: Fripple (mayfly): Beetle: Foamerger (midge/mayfly):

Awesome as usual. That's deer hair I assume? Where do you get your materials?

Nice, Ray! That's a total score! You'll have fun for sure!!!!

Fly Lipps and some CCG for the head. Crank-bait style lipped fly. We'll see the damage for some stripers and smallies in a couple of weeks...

I have the older Sparmax that you see shown with the airbrush on various sites. This is the newer model: http://cgi.ebay.com/Sparmax-Windstorm-1-8H...d#ht_7151wt_967 I ended up getting mine on eBay for $60. Anything around 40 to 45 psi I think is what you're looking at.

So with the CCG (Clear Cure Goo), I will sometimes apply Sally Hansen's on top of that if it's not as shiny as I like it. But no, it's not something where you want to apply SH's to the paint job. It will run and make a mess. I will give the COPIC system a full endorsement. I have an air compressor for it for home use and I take the air cans with me to shows and demos. I keep probably 15 to 20 markers on hand and replace a few every year or so, just depending on use. I've done masking with it, flat out painting and whatever else I need to do. I even painted up one of my buddy's crank-baits to give it a more "perchy" look. Just FWIW, here's another option you can find in craft stores: http://www.amazon.com/Testor-Corp-ColorArt...h/dp/B002ZWJUXY Haven't used it, so I can't vouch, but it looks cool.

Beadalon and a regular ol' brass swivel... (you can "thread" the Beadalon through the rabbit strip a couple of times if you'd like)

Yep, that's the one I use. I love it. Super-easy to swap from one color to another and the ink is actually fairly "sticky" so I haven't had many problems with it running or bleeding. I usually do a coating of CCG or previously epoxy to give it a nice finish, but the Copic brand markers have been around for a long time and are used by many artists for a variety of applications. You can even buy ink refill kits so that you don't have to buy new pens when you run out of ink.

Wow, this was a great swap. Seriously the best swap I've ever been involved in! You guys have some serious tying skills. I don't know that I can bring myself to fish some of these things...I just like to look at them.... And just in case it wasn't clear (I probably should have added some instructions), but the "Po-hopper" is to be fished tube-fly style with leader/tippet going through the popper attached to the swivel whilst the popper body just "floats" on the line. The idea is that it gives the whole rig a hundred different degrees of freedom in the water. Which is also why I did without any sort of tube connector, so that the swivel would move more freely. Like Matt's said before, I'm all about function in my tying...

That's some tight tying there. Very clean, nicely done!

Very nicely tied flies. Clean and proportionate

I think I'll stick to good ol' foam poppers for this one. I'd better get crackin'! I'm just jazzed to see some of these awesome patterns!

I usually have 4 or 5 rods rigged on the boat. A small 3 wt for gills/perch/crappie, the Sage Bluegill, the Smallmouth and a 9 wt RPLX with the Sage 330 GR line. I usually decide which rod to throw based on the flies I'm throwing. Bigger weighted stuff goes on the 9 wt. I can throw most topwater stuff on either the BG or SM rods, so a lot of that is determined by the fly type and size. I've landed a 4 lb smallie on the SM rod as well as some nice 4 to 5 lb LMB's on it, so I'm not so worried about fish size per se. Although hooking into a big bucketmouth on my 3 wt last week was kinda scary. I guess if I had to choose only one, it would be the SM rod. I'm hoping to get another SM rod this fall or next spring, but I might get the LM rod instead.