ratfacedmcdougal

Its a lot quicker anytime your making multiple flies ( more than a dozen) at a time to tie them in stages. Like when I tied commerically if for instance I was making adams dry flies, I would tie all the wings and tails then go back and add the body and hackle to each fly.

Make a good thread base, try useing something called zap a gap or if your doing that many use 5 minute epoxy... do all the bodys first then go back and put the feathers on. That way they are all dry by the time you start tieing in feathers.

Yeah, hes right about single edged razor not being quite as sharp as a double edge.. I guess because a single is used for box cutting and industrial use and a double for shaving a face. But I never really had a problem with them cutting. Try each and see which your more comfortable with. Cutting a double in half is an idea though.

Watch your top knot, dont ever peek over the top, look around the side instead. When walking look down, Look up, Look around the front, turn around and look back THEN take a step.. repeat. If things get tough remember its just as hard on the other guy only your better than he is.

Hey Wolf, Luckily being from Tennessee my wife lets me pick up road kill. She's happy being able to lower the grocery bill and as long as I skin it she don't mind me having the fur

is it better to have fished and missed and come home pis*ed then to have never fished at all?

Anyone who can do more than net fish out of an aquarium has my vote. Anyone who can continue to go and not catch anything has my respect. I'll trade anyone the " hope I can get to go salmon fishing one day" that I have for the "I went and didn't get anything" that they have any day.

Yeah, I have to agree with steel drifter. as a kid i loved them, especially when we would chase each other with firecrackers and we would forget and not throw quick enough and it blew up in our hand. i guess depending on how you look at it were lucky in TN in that fireworks are legal. even smaller versions of the big ones they shoot at shows.. they call them mortar rounds i think. Being older I usually do some for the kids but it rained this year so even the show was out. The kids were upset but I looked at it as not having to pick up those little bottle rocket sticks all over the yard the next day

Yeah your right fly guy,, not much out there ive seen when it comes to shiner or river shad.. the fishing world could use one. Hmmmm.. its a salt water tye but when put on a streamer hook should work. Check out some of the lefty decievor patterns. Just dont go by my spelling on that when you go look for decievor haha...

Hi Steven, glad your here. I just joined this site a few days ago and these guys are terrific. There is some awesome talent here anyone can learn from and they dont mind helping. Iv'e been tying a long time and have learned things in just the few days iv'e looked around. Thats the whole "hook" (pardon the pun) of flytying! The worlds coolest fly is the one you come up with next. The funnest one is the one you discover on the next page you turn in a pattern book and it just keeps you wanting to improve yourself and find new things to do with all the fuzzy feathery stuff there is in the world... youll find even the pet cat isn't safe as your addiction grows You'll have a divorce and a bald cat and canary before you know it Get a good pattern book or they have a great pattern site here and pick a cool fly you like and go for it. place a post if you have a question and i guarantee one of these guys knows the answer.

Hahaha, cool vacation report. I think Thodore Gordon exspressed the same frustration in his book. Wow your lucky!that would be so cool to go salmon fishing one day.Hey, at least you got to go.. I hope one day I get around to being able to do that.But yeah, everything i read that was written by those not to uppity to admit it say the same thing about salmon and their biting flies. Think maybe it was all the frustration which caused the classics to be invented to begin with? Oh.. have you ever fished a full dress? And did you have any luck? Iv'e always wondered about that. Carl

I used to tie a lot and tie commercially but got out of it except to tie for myself and friends. I recently opened a plastic box of chinese neck hackle which contained about 15 necks. Basically 80% of it was dust and bug casings. Normally I put moth balls in my boxes of materials but didn't in this case. I'll make sure to do that with everything now... looking at that stuff was NASTY... and exspensive

RIT dye is a good cheap dye thats readily available at most supermarkets. There is a dye which i buy from england thats really good that i use on feather but i dont know how it would do on hair.

I use fine point scissors until I get it close to shape then switch to a single edged razor, which cant be beat for getting a flat body on the under side

Hi Eddie, I started off many years ago with a fly tying kit by Eric Leiser, it got me started but knowing what I do now I would have done it a little different. I would have bought a good pattern book, decided which flies I wanted to tie then bought material for them.That way I wouldn't have a lot of things I never use. I guess I did use it all eventually but most kits only allow you to tie three of four different flies.

Whoohoo!! Great job Emilee, daddy, take that little girl fishing with that fly

loss prevention/ risk management consultant currently working for a supermarket retail chain. My wife is a teacher at a school here.

Hi guys, I posted a fly pattern thats done really well for me over the years on here and one of the members asked for a pic of it. I managed to take a pic of it but couldn't fiqure out how to put it with my pattern like everyone else is doing. How ya do dat? Instead I put the pics in my photo gallery

I managed to get a 1/2 way decent picture of the fly in my pictures in my profile along with one of my tying bench. I couldn't fiqure out how to put the picture with the fly pattern though. Do you guys know any way to do that?

I hate to see someone get frustrated. Send me your address and i'll make a tape of me tieing in married wings, whole feather wings and segmented sections like for your march brown or a lead winged coachman. My e-mail is [email protected] The problems you must be doing to have your wings turn out that way though are: 1) Your holding your wings DIRECTLY on top of the shank. You want the ends over the body directly over the shank but at the tie in spot they actually set just a lil over the sides of the shank. This seperates your wings. 2) Your pushing down on the wing when you tie it in. NO DOWN... squeeze sideways. Once you start pulling that loop through your fingers increase the SIDEWAYS pressure of your thumb and fore finger.

Start right here in the forum. Find the patterns section and browse through them. ALso, look at the warm water section on here for some pattern ideas. Once you know what you want to tie, get the materials for it. Most starter kits will have stuff you won't use including a vice. You will also need a bodkin, hackle pliers, and probably a whip finisher.. but learning to use your first two fingers to finish the head of a fly is the best.

Hmmm, sorry, but I think that one has been done before.. for a while now. It's called an elk hair caddis, except you have black thread instead of brown. It's a trout fly but it's also killer on bream.

I think you can. I saw that option on here. I will try to get a picture up in the morning.

I caught a blue gill on a piece of orange peel once.. with all of that you should clean the lake out. hahaha

Hi Guys, Iv'e been tying about 15 years but i'm brand new to this site. There is a fly I would like you guys to try and let me know what you think. Oh yeah, I would like to give it a name also. In the 10 years iv'e been tying and useing this fly iv'e yet to name it so any suggestions would be cool. After all this time I still use it because it works great on trout, bream, crappie, small to medium bass and iv'e fished it from Florida to Tennessee. Here it is: HOOK: 3906-B mustad sized 8 to 14 THREAD: black 6/0 TAG: fine flat silver tinsel (use the good french stuff) from bend of hook to just over the barb. BODY: guard and underfur from between the eyes of a wild rabbit hares ear mask. Dubbed on useing the spinning loop method with wax. Taper the body from thin at the tag graduating to thicker just behind the eye. WING: black and white barred woodduck flank. Trim off about 1/2 a feather worth along the stem. holding the trimmed part in one hand to keep them in line rub the tips to seperate the fibers so they pulse in the water. Tie the fibers all around the hook shank so it's in a soft hackle style like the partridge and orange with the tips going back over the body to the bend of the hook. HEAD: black and varnished or epoxied. NOTE: This fly can be weighted with a small piece of lead strip tied in along the shank before you tie in the body. I can send pics of this fly if anyone wants. But so far iv'e been the only one to fish it and I wanted to see how it does for someone else. I fish it by short twitching strips of the fly line.