Philly

I do that when I want longer pieces to use as streamers. It can be a pain getting them out. I have a narrow nail driven into my tying desk. Just loop it over the nail and twist it back into a long mop piece. If I want a thicker mop piece, I'll put two strands over the nail, and twist them together. I'll do this for bass streamers. I've also been playing with the mop chenille, but it's not quite the same as a mop piece. Still it's easy to make a light weight streamer that's five or six inches long.

I had the same inspiration a couple of years ago. Picked up a pack at the $1 Store and tied up a couple of flies. Didn't have any luck with them. I used the yellow and the green ones. They're stiffer than mop pieces and don't have the same movement as a similar size mop piece. Still they've got nice segmentation, Coloring them black or olive with permanent markers would make a nice leech pattern, I'll have to really stretch them and see if I can get more length and more movement from the longer pieces

denduke, I have a pair of Orvis zippered wading boots. They're probably about 5 years old. They have rubber soles with cleats. You might check out the Orvis site. They weren't cheap, cost me, I think, $150 when I brought them.

I didn't go out. It was to cold in the morning and the wind picked up in the afternoon to about 25 mph with higher gusts. Not ideal conditions for fly fishing. In PA the trout season is pretty much open all year except for six weeks before opening day on the stocked trout streams. I'm fortunate that there is a wild trout stream within about a 30 minute drive from my house. It's open to fly fishing and using lures, no bait. Catch and release only. The story behind it is in the mid-1980's the state stopped stocking the stream because of PCB contamination from a Super Fund site and the trout already in the stream went about their business and today it has a good population of healthy wild brown trout. Not and easy place to fish. The trout are spooky and well educated. If you're lucky you can catch something like this.

Some crayfish patterns I've been working on. I didn't take pictures of the all white one with pink eyes or the black and purple one. I used the colors of the soft plastic crayfish bodies in the catalogs as models. Hook: Eagle Claw Aberdeen Crappie hook, 3/0. Otherwise whatever hook or size you want to use, the hooks are 3XL Thread: Match the color of the fly Weight: medium lead dumbbell eyes. If you're tying a smaller pattern then small dumbbell eyes Body: Ice or sparkle chenille, or estaz depending on the size of the fly, and two saddle hackles or schlappen twisted together Eyes: Artificial flower stamens. You can get them in craft stores. They come in different colors or you could make your own for smaller patterns Claws: Zonker strips

Sure. They might be a bit large for carp. I haven't decided if I'm going to tie some smaller ones Hook: Eagle Claw Aberdeen Crappie hook, 3/0. Otherwise whatever hook or size you want to use, the hooks are 3XL Weight: medium lead dumbbell eyes. If you're tying a smaller pattern then small dumbbell eyes Body: Ice or sparkle chenille, or estaz depending on the size of the fly, two saddle hackles or schlappen. You could probably use soft hackle on smaller ones Eyes: Artificial flower stamens. You can get them in craft stores. They come in different colors or you could make your own for smaller patterns Claws: Zonker strips Tying steps. 1. Tie dumbbell eyes on top of the hook shank. I tie mine 10 mm behind the eyes. Leaves space to tie off the body material 2. tie in the eyes on the bottom of the hook shank at the bend of the hook 3. Tie in the claws just behind the eyes on the side of the hook shank 4. Tie in the chenille behind the claws. Make a wrap between the eyes and then one in front of the claws, then one behind the claws, tie it down so it's sitting on top of the shank 5. Tie in a hackle feathers by the end on the side of the hook. One on each side. Depending on the feather it should give you a tapered body. 6. Twist the hackle and chenille together and wrap it to the dumbbell eyes, I try and stroke the barbules forward after each wrap, so they're facing forward. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. 7. Tie off in front of the dumbbell eyes. Trim what's left of the feathers from chenille/feather twist, then wrap the chenille over and under the eyes and one in front. Tie down and cut the chenille. Build a small thread head. Calcasieu Pig Boat The Calcasieu Pig Boat was introduce in 1951. Tied by a guy named Tom Nixon. It was designed to imitate a Hawaiian Wiggler, the hot bass lure at that time. You can google it, and get the tying instructions and what the original looked like. I updated it by using spinner bait skirts rather than rubber strands and instead of a body of chenille with the hackle wrapped on it, I use the twisted feather and chenille. Basically my Pig Boat body is the crayfish pattern without the eyes, claws and weight. I tie it unweighted. I use either my 6 wgt or 8 wgt when fishing it. I haven't tried it on smallmouth yet, but the largemouth like it and so do the chain pickerel. Here's a couple of pictures.

No vodka was required to tie these. I've never found a crayfish pattern I really liked. These are based on the body of the Calcasieu Pig Boats I tie up. They may intimidate the bass but they should work. As far as colors go, I just thumbed through the catalogs I get and tried to imitate the colors of the soft plastic crayfish I saw in them. I didn't take a picture of the white one with pink eyes or the black and purple one I tied up. These are the other "flies" A continuation of the flies with props and blades from the Fly Tying Board Road Runners A in-line spinner and a spinner bait. Now it's time for a wee bit of vodka.

Tony would have appreciated that, Rick.

I known/know a few women fly fishers. Our salt water club has a few, mainly picked up through our work with Casting for Recovery. I'm not sure how many have taken up fly tying. The old FF@ list had few women on it. There's three or four that belong to my other fly fishing club. There's a women's fly fishing club in SE PA. Still most of the fly fishing boards and other fishing boards are dominated by men. Why? I have no idea. Might be a comfort level thing. As far as cussing goes, the F bomb has lost it's shock value. It's become the "You know" of curse words. I find it drifting into my conversations without thought though I'm careful, in certain circles, to keep it under control.

Is that one of Tony's patterns, Rick? He must have come up with after he retired, packed up and left New Jersey for the White River. Never did get down to the Sow Bug Roundup.

I fished Reelfoot a lot when I was in college in NW Tennessee, never ran into any chain pickerel, a few gar now and then. Still remember the locals with their coolers full of slab crappie and their cane poles leaning against the bait shop wall where we rented our boat.

Here I thought I was doing something original when I tried to make up some flutter spoons to use for shad fishing. It seemed simple enough I brought some small Willow hammered spinner blades in gold and silver, plus some painted ones in what I hoped were shad attracting colors. All I did was super glue the hook in the hollow of the blade then cover it with 5 minute epoxy. If I had thought it out I should have soldered the hook in which would have added more weight to the "fly" I was going through one of my storage containers looking for some dumbbell eyes and stumbled across a bunch of jig spinners and a couple of Idaho single spinners. Probably left over from my UL fishing days. If you're not familiar with them, jig spinners basically look like a spinner bait form and that you can attach a jig to creating a panfish size spinner bait and the Idaho single spinners use the same principle but creates a small in-line spinner. Took a break from tying up some crayfish patterns and was able to make a small in-line spinner that can easily be cast with a fly rod. I think it's too light for my UL rod. A spinner bait is up next. One further step over the line from "hallowed ground"

May have to whip up a couple of them for my fishing buddies. Not sure I have any of the jigs with the screw-in piece for the soft plastic.

I guess I could add some red to them. I'm half Ukrainian. Close enough to drink Vodka. 100 proof is just a bit weak. I just can't find the 150 proof stuff around here.

My most memorable failure was up in Vermont. I'd been fishing the upper section of the White River along Rt 107 for trout. I'd worked my way downstream past the junction of Rt 107 and RT 14 through the section where you could catch both trout and smallmouth along Rt 14 down into smallmouth water. Somewhere between Sharon and Royalton, I pulled off into a parking area and walked down to the river. I waded across to a gravel bar which formed the outside edge of deep pool. Tied on a size 6 Estaz Bug, tossed it in at the the top of the pool let it drift down and retrieved the fly. Something took a shot at it but missed. Decided to switch to a large white wooly bugger. Chucked it into the pool and let it drift. I noticed that my line seemed to be moving upstream against the current. I reeled in the slack and set the hook, a huge smallmouth jumped out of the water almost in front of me. I had a been to Northern Ontario several times by then and had a couple of 20 inch smallmouth on a fly rod under my belt. This smallie was much bigger. I figure in the 24 to 26 inch range. It jumped a second time and my tippet broke. I plopped on my butt on the gravel bar and waited for my heart to stop pounding. Reeled in my line and looked at what remained of my tippet. If I hadn't been sitting I would have kicked myself in the ass. I hadn't changed my tippet when I changed targets and the 5X tippet didn't stand a chance. I didn't get back that way for a few years. By that time Irene had ripped through Vermont and rearranged the White River. I never did find that spot again.

Nice, denduke. I've never tied any with the spinner hanging off the back. I'm still messing with the Road Runner imitation. Now that I finally have a actual Road Runner to use as a model, it looks likes like the second batch I worked up is closer to the real thing. I just ordered a pair of split ring pliers that will handle the smaller split rings I'm using for them. I'll finish them up when I get the pliers, hopefully by the end of the week. The Sonic Boom Fly is another pattern that I hadn't heard of. Definitely a Road Runner imitation. I've got all the materials. I may tie one up to see if it's easier to tie than the one I'm playing with. I like the two color idea.

That's a new one for me. Definitely don't have any of them in my dark side tackle box. Based on similar soft plastics where the top is flat I'd say between a 1/4" and 1/2" inch wide. Just got back from Dick's, if I had known I would've looked for them. Jann's Netcraft has them in their catalog. You might give them a try. They are Power Baits. You might have to scent the fly.

After all the discussion on props and blades. I dug out the one Road Runner I had in my dark side tackle box. The head needs a new paint job. Using it as a model, I tied up a couple of "Road Runner" flies. I have no idea if they'll work. They're a bit labor intensive, and with my fat finger I had a hard time getting the small blade on the small split ring and the combination on the small swivel. My split ring pliers are for larger split rings I use on in-line spinner baits and spinner baits I make up for my fishing buddies. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Nice crab, Denduke. I don't think I've ever fished a crab pattern in salt water. Tied a few but not as good as that one. I bet that would be deadly fishing it around structure and jetties for blackfish/tautog up here.

That fly is one of a kind. I keep it in a clear plastic box where it keeps good company with a Patriot fly tied by Charlie Meck. It's never going to see water. I'm planning on using them in a couple of largemouth lakes up in the Poconos in mid-May, though the lake we're staying on also has smallmouth in it. It's main test will be, assuming we get the green light to cross the border, in Northern Ontario in late summer. Last time up three years ago we were consistently catching 15 and 16 inch smallmouth. I hate to disagree with Kelly Galloup, but many years ago my nephew, then 12 years old, were fishing minnows for smallmouth and rock bass in a feeder stream to a lake. The stream and lake both have trout in them. We didn't get a hit on a minnow from a trout all day. At the end of the day, we had about a dozen left. They were on their last legs so I tossed them into the stream. They were struggling on the surface and out of nowhere trout started blowing up on them, and the one thing that stood out was the trout were grabbing them in the middle of the body and taking them down. I know eyes on streamers and baitfish patterns play a bigger role in salt water. I'm not so sure they do in fresh water. I put them on my baitfish patterns anyway, for a more realistic look, and on my streamers also. I do tie most of my baitfish patterns on the Gamakatsu B10S stinger hook.

Maybe I should drink more of it when it comes to tying them. I do fish them but the ones I catch fish on are at either in of the size spectrum. The ones in between seldom work. I catch fish on the ones I tie on size 14 to 18 4xl hook and ones that are 4 inches or longer. The problem was I was tying the longer ones a size 2, 6xl hook and I was losing more fish, particularly jumping ones like smallmouth. I blamed the losses on the leverage the extra long hook gave the fish. I decided to give articulated buggers a try this year. The hook is a 1/0 Daiichi 2461 and the longest articulated shanks I had lying around wondering what to do with them. I tied them in the three colors I've caught fish on. They're not original patterns I've learned them from other folks. They have names, in order of appearance, the White River Demon, the Catskill Killer and the Chili Pepper. They're messy, proportion is lacking. They run 5 to 6 inches long. Hopefully, they'll catch fish. Of course if you continue drinking you might wind up seeing a pig fly Disclaimer, I did not tie that. I received it as a bonus in a warm water swap, I think on this board, somewhere between 2004 and 2010. Time for a couple of shots, see if they bring the Road Runner flies into focus.

That's about of 5 hour drive for me, Mike. And 40 years ago. I wasn't even fly fishing then. Bluegills that big are few and far between around here. There are some trophy panfish lakes in the state. I checked and there are only two within reasonable driving distance(2 hours or less) though I might get a chance to fish one of them later this year. Still minimum size on those lakes to keep is 7 inches and the limit is 20 fish per species. 50 combined. A lot of them don't get the chance to grow that big. Last time we were up in the Poconos, two years ago, I hit an area where they were schooling and picked up 36 bluegills in about an hour and a half of fishing, all in that 7 to 10 inch range. All were released. Hopefully, they'll be in the same area. I picked up a digital scale over the winter. I'll weigh a few this year.

You'll have to define "big", Mike. 7 to 10 inches would be considered big up here. I'm basically a top water person. Like everyone else I use foam for my top waters my. My choice is craft foam. These are my three top water producers the last few years This one came about because no one taught me how to tie a proper spider pattern. I initially use the large soft foam spider bodies you can buy on line or at a fly shop. They were not very durable. I started cutting the bodies from craft foam sheets as best I could with a pair of scissors. I use 3 mm sheets for the panfish size ones and 6 mm sheets for the bass size ones. They're tied on Size 6, 2 xl hooks. The bass size ones are tied on 3/0 streamer hooks. This is one of the original ones. Today I use a single orange dot for visibility and spinner bait skirt material for legs. The hook shank is wrapped with micro pearl or ice chenille. Tail is marabou. Panfish Bass A friend of mine taught me this pattern. It's called "Tony's Froggie" It's basically a strip of craft foam. Same materials as the previous pattern. Tied for panfish and bass on same hooks. Eyes aren't required Panfish Bass The last one is me thinking a bit outside the box with mop flies. You can use them for more than a crane fly larva. Head is a foam cylinder. "Thorax" is pearl or ice chenille. Body is a mop piece. I treat the mop piece with a paste floatant. They're tied on a Size 6 Gamakatsu B10S hook. For reference the bass in my avatar took one of them.

Nice. I tied some up for shad a few years ago to imitate the flutter spoons folks were using for them. I used the fake finger nails. I didn't add any weight, so even with a sinking line they didn't get down into the shad's strike zone. Did catch a couple of sunfish on them. I've got some small blades, that I would use on a Road Runner or Coyote type fly. Maybe I'll tie up a half dozen spoons, along with the road runner imitations and add them to my panfish box. Maybe I'll get them right this time.

I haven't got any messages yet. I lost a lot of pictures when my computer crashed a couple of years ago. I'm copying pictures I thought were lost back onto my computer. I'm also seeing a lot of duplicate pictures from different posts. These I might try to delete. I've got 47 pages to go through.