brad432

i finally just got to restocking some yellow and chartruse clousers, and a few half and halfs. boring to tie but they do catch most of the fish for me. i occationally use a wooly bugger or some poppers.. but, as a bass angler, i love to see topwater, so i keep some deer hair and foam gurgler bugs around, usually i use those first to see if i can have the thrill of a topwater explosion... then go to the clousers if the deer hair doesn't work, and finally to wooly buggers if the clousers dont work. if none of those work, i generally give up and grab a bream/crappy fly and just have some fun. glass rattles are a real attraction to the bass. i try to tie most of my half and halfs with rattles instead of lead eyes, works dually as the weight and the rattle. the only problem ive encoutered is getting hung up with the half and halfs because they dont ride point up like clousers. as far as different streamers, i dont think the pattern should matter much for bass, mostly a fishers preference. i think they look more to the size and how annoying the fly you throw out there is.

Lets start off by saying this, my family is moving, and i cannot tie flies for the previous and next weeks. My mom said if i dont find a way to keep my fly tying materials neater and off the floor i wont be able to tie there at all, which wouldn't actually happen since i wouldn't stop. all my fly tying stuff is at the new house in a box . i hope i remember how when we finally get into the new house when we finish moving id like to build my own desk/station. While contemplating, ive run across a few problems, as i am not good with woodwork. so, naturally i have a few questions. I plan to basicly make a desk, with legs and storage for my materials. i also have a size limit as it will be in my room with all the other furnature. So, here are my first round of questions: for the storage, i was planning on drawers, but i also need room for bigger items, bucktails pheasant skins and full hackles. are there any reccomendations? also would be grateful for any reccomendations for flash, and keepng it close by, but still out of the way. I have seen various ways of holding threads and tools, but i would be able to make a decision on that later. If i were to put in drawers, would i need to learn to make a ball bearing, or is there an easyer way to create useable and lasting drawers. is there a specefic brand of finish that is better or smoother? or how would i go about selecting a finish? im sure i will come up with some more questions as i start to plan more specifically. some of these questions probably seem dumb, im only 16, with very little experience building. i dont expect a perfect result, but i expect to learn, and hopefully have some fun while making my desk. Thanks for all the help in advance Brad

wow thats a great idea. im going to try that right now, i assume its somewhat similar to spinning deer hair?

hm. i have a fly that i really like its just white bucktail with red in the middle then more white on top. its quite big, about 4 and a half inches long and its pretty fat.. otherwise, i baught a streamer a couple years ago before i started tying, its just a large saltwater deceiver i wanted to try on bass, but i never did try it out. light blue and white hackle with silver feathers and red thread. i woudlnt go with anything to complicated really. if you put it by a big bass the right way, hopefully hell hit it. i got about a 8 or 9 pounder on my spinning rod last spring on a popper in the local pond over here in raleigh.. was a great explosion. anyways good luck! Brad

crayfish imitation?

so, i have a hopper imitation that uses the bullet body typeof deer hair when its folded back, hows the best way to do something like that? i tried with some success but couldn't make it even. heres an example of what im talking about http://www.flytyingforum.com/pattern9703.html Thanks, Brad

ok thanks, ill be over a few miles from the auburn section in montgomery, ill tell you how itgoes. i had already been tying up buggers, as i thought thwats what id be using. thanks. Brad

So, this is why when i tye streamers with my dry fly hackle, they stay close to the surface? i have very little soft hackle, but i do have some.

thanks everyone, ill take all of your advice into my next thinking, but im still confused as to what feathers soft hackle actually is, would it be a marabou and..? and ill have lots of readingto do about dubbing and what to do with my new pheasant. and Davie Mcflail will definately be something i look at too. Thanks everyone, Brad

bass bugs and streamers is what i do on the orvis g he said 210 deneir, i assume thats right. its pretty thick, but for what i tye, which is never smaller than about a 4x long 4 or a size 2 hook, works great for me. and spinning hair you have to be careful not to break your thread, but its easily possible.

in all honesty. i do about all of my tying in an orvis g. i dont know what diameter thats like in other brands, but i fish bass, and i have 3 colors. Black cream and white.. most of the time the dye takes up all the other colors from stains of the fly materials and the cream could be if needed, tied into every fly. if a pattern calls for a certain color, on top of the thread i tye in a very very thin layer of thread that i baught from a store in a variety pack, costed about 2 or 3 dollars. thats me, on tight budget tying. id be much happyer with a large array of colors and sizes, but for 2 dollars, it sure is a lot of flies. with the "g" diameter, i can tye a small head, or i can spin hair, it really doesn't matter what i need it usually gets what i need to have done, done. Brad

so. id consider myself an absolute begginer in anything that doesn't have to do with a bass streamer, wooly bugger, foam, or deer hair of some sort. i have a lot to learn. and some of this will probably sound very stupid. 1) today as a christmas gift, i received an entire " Ringneck Pheasant skin natural cock" its enormous and when i look at it, i dont know what to look at first theres so many different types of feathers and i know just about nothing about any of the different kinds. i see lots of possiblilties with tying the feathers into various streamers and such, but i have absolutely no idea what an average tyer would use a pheasant for, and also have golden pheasant medium tippets im sure that theres a few great bassing nymph patterns i should learn, and maybe even some trout ones. 2) A long time ago, i baught some dubbing, i have tan and black. i never found how to use this correctly, i have dubbing wax and know just about nothing about it, other than its used for hard bodys. if somone has a ddubbing guide online that they know is good, (or i could find one myself, but im sure one of you would be more than happy to give me a better one) or would like to share some basic tips about this, id be very appreciative. 3) im confused on why they call it soft hackle. is there another type of hackle? and if so which is which, i have saddle hackle of many colors that i use to wrap wooly buggers and use in deceivers and other streamers. i dont really fish for trout much, id like to make big buggy looking patterns, as thats what the bass like best! Thanks in advance, Brad

to a neat and easy end to my hackle wraps i simply pulla few of the barbs (hairs of the feather) where my thread and the hackle are touching, this way the hakle doesn't go aspew and you can wrap the shaft of the feather around the shank of your hook too, then cover with thread, works every time and this can create a nice looking head in less time once you get the hang of it. Brad

ah, no i think i was fishing the tar river, but it was late last season, i might have been on the nuese, cant remember. anyways, ill check that website out and hopefully youll see me at the next meeting!, most of the clousers for around here, i tye are on a 1/0 by the way, i dont think that fish get discouraged from a mouthful, but then again, i catch most of the bass that i catch on the fly on a deciever clouser half and half, so ill have to tye up and try a smaller one next time, thanks for the tip. anyways happy tieings, and tight lines to you. keep in touch on the triangle area fishing. Brad

alright, so im headed down to alabama for the holidays, and i will be able to fish a small pond. i was wondering whether these bass would be hitting an average streamer or am i going to have to use a bugger? because i love fishing streamers, but gotta get to the fish .. if anyone has been fishing in the areas around alabama, Montgomery, the capital is where i will be, id appreciate the heads up on what to fish, if not ill just have to find out when i get there. planning to bring flies of all types and sizes so i can get the fish no matter where they are . Thanks Brad

no, what is that, a fly fishing club? not familiar with the area, i really dont get around further than a few miles from home usually, and on occation with one of my dads friend fish a little river, but never fish trout, mostly just bass and panfish. do you know how deep the fish are around here nowdays? id like to get out this weekend, but id have to spend a while finding some fish before i started catching and i dont have to much time.

umm lets see. i started by learning from a friend of my dads in about the 8th grade... the first patern i tied was a wooly bugger. i tied about 20 ofthose before i moved on to anything else at all.just a simple brown marabou chynnell and hackle. the hardest part of that for me was the hackle wrapping. i also didn't understand how long of a tail i should be using. and didn't understand that i should be using the tips of the feather i was always trying to conserve the feathers before i realized tht i wouldn't ever run out of them. but uh you could even just have them tye a little beatle for sunfish it would be a quick tye and its hard to mess one up real bad with the foam already cut for them. also, i broke my first hook by putting too much pressure. so itd be a good idea to have extras of lots of things, because somones bound to break a feather or two. id go with a thicker thread too because i broke about 3 threads nd was very discouraged on my first few flies. hope this could be of some help, Brad

yeah, i live in north raleigh, have access to that great outdoors and the orvis over in triangle, although neither are a short drive. i havn't gotten out for much fishing though.. what have they been hitting? i tied up a couple of leach patterns too thats what id have to guess on whats being eaten.. itd be nice to share reports with you since were so close in location, although i am usually fishing on ponds, but i have a house on lake gaston that i fish occasionally. usually spincasting there though

i put it through ymy facebook and then got a url from it and put it through the system, was some what of a trouble. but, ill just have to get used to it.

well, this is discouraging, my file wont load from my computer to the website.

well, today was a bit of a successful fly tying day, got the camera set up to picture flies, and the hackle dyed for intresting tying. this is the first tye with my new intresting colors need to get some more materials that will match my colors, i used grizly and white hackle and dyed with the Kool-aid Technique. it was quite sucsessful for what it costs id say. a bit of an intresting tye, thats what comes from my brain in the late nights. made of only hackle and flash. anyways. here it is:

i did the koolaid method this afternoon, worked very well. results were much better than i expected, very dark colors. only thing i didnt like was the purple was almost too dark, looked black. but after a couple hours, it toned down and is now a nice dark and rich purple.

great tie, quick and simple, but fishy for sure. im going to be making afew of these buggers for my box. another great leech type pattern. Brad

intresting, illjnust have to try it out and see i guess. thanks