steelsmith04

I'm Seth

Im done. all i need now is the address

Thanks. I'll have to check into getting some of the raffia. see if i can get it to look that amazing. someday Seth,

Whats raffia? Is it a paper-like material? They way i use the paper is by tying a section on and then pulling part of it back over the section i tied on. It makes an individual segment. I'll post some pictures. Maybe some of you guys have used a similar technique before. :dunno: I think there is some potential with this technique. More experimenting will tell me if it produces good enough results for what Im looking for. Seth,

I was doing some experimenting the other day with making bodies for my art flies. The foam works nice for fishable realistics, but i wanted a more convincingly realistic art fly. I was certain about one thing, I needed each segment to be tied on seperately for the most realistic effect. That was the biggest problem with wrapping latex. When i looked at it i could tell it had been wrapped. Maybe not at a glance but i could if i looked at it for a few seconds. I thought about what i had a lot of that may work as an art fly body. I came to the conclusion that it needed to be easily colored, semi flexible, and didnt have to be able to stand and extended period of time underwater. I eventually decided on paper. I can tie on individual segments. It doesnt have the wrapped look you get with latex. and chances are you have a lot of it anyway. It may even be able to be fished if you apply enough thin coats of varnish. I will be posting some of the results i have gotten from trying paper bodies soon. i havent tried coloring it yet but i think it should be just as easy as any other material. or because the paper is weak after you dampen it, you could let it dry, varnish it, then color the first layer of varnish. I still have some experimenting but im pleased with the results so far. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. Seth,

Troutguy, I think we can pass it as a wooly bugger. And if not we'll pretend :j_k: It's a great job man. If the rest of them are this good I might be afraid to touch them in order to put them in a frame. :headbang: Seth,

Ok I thought I'd get a start on them but I came acrossed a personal conflict with it. I wasnt able to decide if everyone would be ok with the color scheme I decided on. I started off with green for the tail Then I used peacock herl for the body. If you guys would prefer a different color body then tell me i can get a different color. I know the peacock herl isnt pretty but they're amazing little workhorses. and of course I ended up using brown feathers as hackle. I dont have hackle feathers and brown is the only color feather i have that would work as a hackle. All the other feathers are soft and fuzzy such as the tail. I form a dubbing loop and put the fibers in it and twist it. once twisted it looks like a pipe cleaner. sorta. Then wrap it, the hair on the pipe cleaners or peacock herl make sure the "hackle" fibers point up. Front view of hackle I know this one isnt great. I just wanted to tie a really quick one so everyone could get an idea of what they'd be getting if you guys dont have me change the color scheme. When I find out if I'm gonna be changing the colors I'll finish tying them up. Seth

I'm in. This is my first swap so i think it'll be good. i think i'll tie them on 8 or 12. I dont have any 10's. Seth,

Like everyone said, MERRY CHRISTMAS!! And a Happy New Years! Seth,

Ok i can finally post. First i had to tie the fly. then the computer wouldnt let me put the pictures on. So finally all of that is done. I have my fly. It not as good as i would have liked it but its ok. Any areas that need work would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Seth,

mine is in the vice about half done. looks so good i dont wanna touch it :j_k: i'll try to finish it this week end. schools kept my tying time so limited it seems i never tie anymore. great work so far guys. hopefully i dont mess mine up from here. keep you posted with how it goes. Seth

I got the body, legs and the antenna tied on last night. I was about to bend the legs when mom made me go to bed. I think next time i'll tie the wings in while im still working on the body after i have the legs tied in. I think it will turn out fair. I'll let you guys know when its done. Seth,

Ok I know i haven't posted a lot of flies recently. Schools in session and my grades take first priority then the soccer team. I try to make time to tie flies but i usually end up tying imitations for fishing sometimes i get some fishable realistics. This is a bumblebee i tied the other day. i just found the time to post it. Its not fishable. I didn't have time to make the wings so i found some wings off another bug and tied them in :wallbash: If i didn't have the real wings it would be fishable.tell me what you think. Seth,

i agree with everyone. I am also new to fly tying but I will try to help if you need anything. I don't have much i can really send but if a bunch of us are going to send some stuff over I could tie up a bunch of my favorite flies and send them on over. Its addicting. One day your content fishing with a spin cast rod then you think wow those flies look cool and try tying one in a mechanics vice. It sucks and you know it but you start to dream up tons of others to tie and before you know it your stuck with an addiction. and a need for a fly rod. Seth

that is a truly amazing fly that you are working on! It seems there is a recent interest in this topic. I think i will hit the mayfly again. I haven't gotten any pictures of my flies posted recently. Will attempt a new mayfly soon. Seth,

That is an incredible fly! I could only dream of tying something that great. Seth

these are easier to see. im not happy with the color yet. or the legs. but its fasy and decent way to make realistics. Seth,

Ok here is the step by step for a caddis larva. : This is a two inch paint brush. I cut two bristles off for each leg. This brings you to a total of sixs bristles. Just leave these for now. Then you start like you'd start any other realitsic. I don't know what type of foam everyone else uses but i found a thing called "funky foam" It has been excellent for my work so far. my second stonefly was the first fly to use the foam technique. You tie the foam on the inside so far then one full wrap around the outside for the body segmentation. Wrap as far as your taste will let you take it. I like bending the hook for larva. When you get to your stopping point you make a couple wraps inside the foam to hold everything in place. Tie in the legs by alternating "x" wraps around the leg till they stay semi straight. I use two- three wraps to hold each one. start with the front legs and work your way back. Then wrap the body segmentation up to the eye of the hook. Whip finish and trim the excess foam. bend the legs to desired position with heated needle. I hold the needle over a candle in the orange/yellow part of the flame for two seconds then immediatley bend the legs. Heat needle again for every leg. When you have the legs bent use a craft glue and glue the two bristles that make each leg together. Let dry. Trim the legs short so the just hold the body up in the front. The hook will support the back of the body. paint the body and legs white. Make a mixture of clear varnish with aztec gold pigment powders and metallic gold paint to paint the front few body segments. Build up to make a clear skin look like on white grub that you dig up in your yard. Coat the back section and legs with a coat of clear varnish. Let dry and there you go. I didn't put a case on this one so i could save a little time. This one must have lost its case to another larva . the picture is a bit dark becasue it took it around 9:30 PM in Ohio. Hopefully it looks decent enough for my first step by step. Tell me what you guys think. Seth,

The legs are plastic paint brush bristles bent with a heated needle. I will start a larvea that i use for the caddis and do a step by step showing how I do the legs. I will post it in here to make it easier on myself unless someone thinks i should do a whole new topic on realistic legs. PM me if you think i should just do a new topic. Seth,

I tried the cased caddis again. I'm not happy with it though . The coloring was better on the first. I also like the leg positioning on the first one better. I was trying to make it look like it was turning and it didn't work. here they are. the one with the gold red head is the second one. Seth,

I tried the cased caddis and i'm not happy with it. I like the legs. The paint job should have been better. I was going for the pale one on page two. I think it was page two at least . Photographing this one was hard. On the black background it was two white looking and on the white surface it appeared all yellow. I thought the yellow was better. This is my first attempt. It was fairly easy. I made the eyes huge. They are about four times too big . but hey stuff happens. I might be back with another cased caddis here. Seth,

The legs are plastic paintbrush bristles from a large paintbrush. I tie them on and use a heated needle to bend them and then i stick them together with a craft glue and paint over them. I think its similar to the way you use japanese nymph legs. By the way, Are hornets any good at catching fish. If so what type of fish. Thanks for the help and compliments. Seth,

Ok i got attacked by a wasps nest today while mowing the yard. So i decided that the wasps in the yard was a bad idea and sprayed them. Later that night while making another mayfly nymph i became inspired by them to make a hornets nest. I am fairly pleased with this. Please feel free to tell me where to improve on my next wasp if i do another. They all float. I already tested them to make sure. Seth,

Nice fly albert ! I tried one of those about a week ago. I wish it turned out that nice. The one i tried was brown though. I'm not sure what the proper name for them is but i've always called them grasshoppers. I might post a picture of mine if i can overcome the embarassment of how terrible it is. Seth,

I'm actually on the team. A bunch of us ninth graders are trying to get enough people for the JV team so until then we get stuck on varsity. We've been practicing from 7-11:30 so i'm too tired to spend a long time at the tying bench. I have been keeping it simple with only one realistic at a time or a few imitations. i think the wasp is the best one there. the legs need work on the mayfly nymph. the wing on the stonefly got messed up so i need to fix that. and i need to re do the cricket. All of this tonight. I'm going to hear mom yelling at me all night to get to bed while I finish them . I'll see everyone later with some better flies. Seth,