streamerstoscuds

TheCream, Wow, thats a giant! Rainbow it looks like?

Recently something happened to me while tying that has never happened to me before. I was putting a size 14 dry fly hook in my vise(griffin MT pro). I put it in and closed the jaws with the lever. The hook literally shot out of the jaws and hit the wall on the other side of the room. I heard it hit, but I couldn't find it. I figured I tried to put it to far forward. Has this ever happened to you?

I'm more or less a newbie, and I haven't been tying long enough to be willing to spend $200+ on a vise. Originally I was tying on a piece of junk that came from a Wapsi kit. It never held hooks very well, and whether I was tying a size 12 scud or nymph(smallest I could tie at the time) or a size 2 bass fly, the hook would always be slipping. I eventually started looking for a new vise, and since I live near where Griffin is based, and all my local fly shops carry them, I decided to get a Griffin. Originally I was going to get a $50ish vise, because I didn't think it was worth getting a more expensive one. When I walked into my favorite shop one day to look for material and vises, on of the employees sold me on the Montana Pro. I walked out of the shop with it that day, and a few weeks later, I am really seeing a difference in the quality of both my flies and my experience tying them. Everything is better. It is a nice vice overall, and there is not much to criticize from what I know about vises. Compared to my old vise, the jaws are super efficient, and it is simple to adjust them. The hook almost never slips no matter what size it is. My main criticism is that the jaws can't rotate at all. I don't need a full rotary that is used for wrapping things, but I like to see the far side of my fly on some occasions. Also the clamp doesn't hold to well, but my table/desk isn't to good either. For someone looking to start tying, this would be a great vise. P.S. Sorry my post is so long, I was trying to be thorough, but maybe I was a little extreme.

That big a box would really help when you would otherwise have to have a bunch of smaller boxes. If you were to sell something like that, I would buy it for sure.

I've been tying for about two years and I haven't had much experience with bass flies. The people at the fly shops around hear don't tie too many since we mostly just have trout. I was wondering if anyone had some ideas for easy to tie, effective bass flies. I'll be fishing in upstate New York (adirondacks) and there are lots of little bluegills there. Any easy topwaters would also be cool. Any suggestions?