Philly

Same problem here. I have hooks ranging from size 30, though I may have some size 32's I just can't see them, up to 5/0. One thing I learned early after I was told that I would need dry, wet and nymph hooks was that I really didn't need wet and nymph hooks. I could just tie them on dry fly hooks. My one foible is that I prefer straight eyed hooks over down-eyed hooks. When I moved into salt water I eventually realized if I rinsed the fly off after I used it I really didn't need to tie them on "salt water" hooks. I use the same hooks I use for my bass flies. Those I buy from non-fly fishing sources. One of my favorite hooks for large flies is the Eagle Claw Aberdeen Crappie hook. Wide gape, long shank, and sharp right out of the box, and cheap. Materials, same problem that others have already mentioned. I really don't know what I have. I know I don't need peacock herl or starling skins. I just have to keep that in mind. I just open my birthday card from my sister. A $75 gift certificate for the local fly shop, and I'll get another one for Christmas. Definitely need to make a list before I had to the fly shop after New Year's.

It's about 90 minute drive for me, depending on traffic, but my saltwater club has a table for the show. I'll be helping to man it and tying some flies to keep me out of trouble.

I haven't had any issues with them. I use them for streamers and the crayfish patterns. I've caught smallies in the 1 to 3 lb range with the crayfish pattern. I was looking to see if I had any pictures. I found one. I've since taken the props off the streamers. They twisted the leader.

I've been tying for a long time. Still can't do a whip finish. It never stopped me from tying flies. Go for it. Start tying some flies. The more you tie the more you learn and don't be afraid to ask questions.

Last few flies for my Ontario trip in two weeks. These are patterns I haven't used in a couple of years. This one is called a "Bead Belly". A guy in my saltwater fly fishing club showed it to me many years ago. I used it for a couple of years as a silverside imitation, but moved on to unweighted baitfish patterns. Generic bait fish Perch Hook- Gamakatsu Straight Shank Worm hook, 1/0 Thread - clear polyester thread Body - Flash blended Mirror image Belly - Two large silver bead heads in front of a piece red Mirror Image Eyes - Living Eyes, 6 mm Head - UV Resin This one is a Short Floating Woolly Bugger. I usually tie them on a long shank and larger hook. Usually I'll fish it like a gurgler across the top. It has a big enough head to use it as a popper. Front View Hook- Kona XS Stinger, size 2 Thread - 3/0 color to match body Body - Crystal chenille and wrapped saddle hackle Head- 3/8" Foam cylinder Eyes - Living Eyes, 8.5 mm Crease Fly(modified). Crease flies were one of my go to flies when I fished salt water, but I moved away from when I fished fresh water. Normally tied on a single straight shank hook, I think the action is better "tied" this way. Hook- VMC 9648 BZ barbless treble Thread - only to wrap on the hook shank or in this case the articulated shank as a base to glue the foam Body - Large articulated shank with 2 mm craft foam, cut in a triangular shape, folded in half over the shank. Halves glued together then trimmed to shape Eyes - Living Eyes, 8.5 mm Tail - Dressed treble hook

I didn't have much luck dyeing pieces from a wet mop. I initially used some RIT dyes. This was almost five years ago. They looked good initially, but after they dried they held the color until they got wet and the color washed out. I went out and brought a tye-dye kit which had a great selection of colors. I also found a white dry/dust mop. The pieces weren't that long but they were good for panfish flies. When I dyed these they held the color but came out "muted"/pastel shades. The white, chartreuse and yellow are "natural colors . The others are dyed

I've been lucky over the years with finding large mop material. I have several pieces of mop material where the mop piece is close to two inches long. The best find was a white one. Pieces from a wet mop can't be dyed, but you can use a permanent marker to color small batches. Now I have patches of them in white, chartreuse, yellow, orange, gray and olive. I use either size 6 or 4 hooks when I tie with them. Haven't tied them on 1/32 oz jigs yet. I also tie them with foam dumbbell heads for top water bass. These pictures were taken in 2018. I didn't have an orange mop back then, so that one was colored with a permanent marker.

The last time we went up there, again many years ago, we worked the Jersey side. It wasn't a great day. I haven't been back there since then.

Sounds like a good day to me, Poopdeck. I haven't fished the Delaware in years. It use to be a regular stop for me and my fishing buddy. We didn't have a boat so we fished from the bank. Our favorite spot was the old factory just below the New Hope wing dam on the PA side. I thing there are condos there now. We'd park and wade out to a small island that gave us access to the main river. If the levels were low enough we'd make our way out onto the wing dam and fish from there. Caught a lot of fish there. Long before I took up fly fishing. This was a picture of me holding a nice crappie I caught one day about 40 or so years ago.

I have made a couple of them, flytire. I just couldn't get the twist tight enough. Both my hands are arthritic, so its a pain to twist the line. They worked but I always preferred the thread furled leaders over the mono or fluorocarbon ones. I use a 5 or 6 foot tippet with the Dacron leaders, so I end up with an overall leader length of 9 and 11 feet. It uses up some material that was just sitting around.

I really like thread furled leaders. I didn't make any of the ones I have. They're all getting a bit long in the tooth. The trout leaders are in good shape. I've hardly used any of them since I pretty much only fish warm water these days. The two warm water ones have gotten a lot of use and they're getting pretty ragged. To be honest I don't have the skill to make a furling board. It takes me an hour just to change a light bulb. When rummaging through one of my storage spaces, I came across two spools of Gubrode Dacron line. One spool of 50 lb line, another of 20 lb line. We used on our 20 and 50 pound Penn Internationals for inshore and offshore trolling. I've used the line for backing on my fly reels. It comes with a tool that allows you to make loops in the line. Maybe I could figure out how to make a Dacron leader with it. The loop tool wouldn't do the trick, but since the Dacron is hollow I was able to use a blunt nose needle to "thread" the line through the hollow line to form a loop at one end, then made a loop at the other end, and continued to "thread" the line through the hollow line. This is what I ended up with. A leader about 5 feet long. The 50 lb line(bass) tapers from 100 lb to 50 lb since I normally use a 20 or 25 pound fluorocarbon tippet. It was a good fit. The 20 lb line(panfish, maybe trout) tapers from 40 lb to 20 lb and I'll probably fish a 10 lb tippet with it. I made one back in May with the 50 lb line and took it to the Poconos with me. To my surprise it actually worked. It turned over all my bass and panfish bugs. So I made up three more to take to Ontario with me. I compared it to one of the furled bass leaders and it was actually thinner than the furled one. I didn't like the white color, so I used permanent markers to darken them. I also water proofed them. I'll see if they continue to turn over my flies. At least I won't have to worry about replacing my old furled leaders.

Here's a couple of "Senko Flies" I tied up using Hareline Large UV white Squishenille. I twisted two strands together for the body. Colored them with permanent markers to match some Senko colors. Still trying to figure out how to get Green Pumpkin. I tied them on 1/20 oz Senko jig heads. I usually fish Senkos on jig heads.. Plan to use them on my trip to Ontario in late August. I'll see how they work.

Nothing fancy. Just some WTH flies. Maybe the smallmouth in Ontario will like them. This one is a 1/2 and 1/2 version of an Estaz Bug. Normally, I tie it with just an estaz body and usually on a size 6 hook. Hook: Ahrex Traditional Shrimp size 4 Thread: Color to match body, in this case, white and chartreuse Weight: 6 to 8 wraps of medium size lead in the center of the shank Tail: Marabou w/ 6 strands of crystal flash(color to match body Body: Small flexi Squishenille twisted with estaz and trimmed to shape Head: UV resin(white or chartreuse) General idea of the original was to imitate a Mr. Twister grub Another variation of a Mop fly. Fished as a streamer. With the tail the flies are about 3 inches line Hook: Gamakatsu B10S size 4 Thread: Color to match body Weight: Unweighted Tail: Marabou color to match body Body: long mop piece Thorax: crystal or sparkle chenille Head: Stonfo Soft Head #2 Eyes: 7 mm Living Eyes Color on Fire Tiger pattern, permanent marker This one was real hard to tie. Soft Foam Floater Hook/Body: Soft Foam Body, size 2 Thread: Color to match body Weight: Unweighted Tail: Marabou w/ a couple of wraps of small crystal chenille to cover shank. Originally brought the bodies to use for walleye on my Ontario trip. Normally fished behind a sinker with either a leech or piece of night crawler attached. Keeps the bait off the bottom. Figure I can use them as top water or fish them off an intermediate or sink tip line. If they don't work as flies, we'll just use them like they're supposed to be used.

I use mostly flex resins. I coat my foam flies with it to help with floatation or use use a thick hard resin to build heads on some of my streamers. I have three different lights. One I picked up at Home Depot. I picked up a plug in one at Michaels. I can only cure a couple of flies at a time with it. Most of my resins are a couple of years old, so they tend to dry tacky. Most of the time wiping the fly with an alcohol wipe will remove it. If not I just let them cure in the sun which does the trick.

I've never really used Mustad hooks. When I first started tying Mustad hooks usually had to be sharpened. They weren't sharp right out of the box. By the time I started tying salt water flies, I settled on using Varivas hooks for bait fish patterns. I really don't remember the model numbers. They came in short and long shank. I still have a few left. I've also used Tiemco hooks. I also used the Partridge Ad Swier Pike hook for larger patterns. Since I'm prejudiced against Mustad hooks. I would not use any of them. To me it's worth spending extra $ for hooks I have confidence in.