Gene L

Very inventive. Reminds me of the Norvise midge jaws.

I vote go with the flow, as Kirk said. I've had no luck using calf hair; it''s too short generally to use with larger hooks. It's straight, though.

I think the Thai flies are OK, but the ones I've seen are not top of the heap. Materials are not as good for the most part as they are here. I wouldn't say they're the GOAT fly tiers.

How about Meghan Boyd? Salmon flies.

You ever wonder why most earlier reels were RH retrieve? When I started (or attempted) to fly fish, the reel was RHW. Cheap reel. Then later to Medalists, which are RH but transferable to LH. I cast RH and reel RH as God intended so maybe the old time anglers were on to something.

I like Pfluegers too. They're sturdy and timeless. I don't use mine very often, maybe I should sell them to someone who would use them more often.

My favorite reel is the Orvis CFO III. Second is the Battenkill 5/6 click pawl. I've found both of these reels work well and aren't prohibitively expensive. Yes, I have other reels. My other favorites are Hardy JLH. Can't beat a Hardy with the noisy drag. I re recently sold a Teton 3. What are your favorites?

I would go with magnets over everything else. Rare Earth magnets are so strong you have to slide them apart. You can get them in any size, from small cylindrical about as big as a pencil lead. Smaller, really. And about any size you want. I've got some quarter-size magnets that are very strong. I use bigger of them glued on the end of a stick to pick up spilled hooks..

That will fool a bass. Tied in hand?

I tried to tie a fly or two on the Universal No. 1. It was a pain in the ass. I could use the rotary feature, but it required moving my hand from my strong hand to turn the wingnut to rotate the vise. If I didn't lock the rotary jaws, the jaw would rotate too easily and rotate to the lower jaw mechanism. I've had a number of vises in the past. I use a Renzetti now, but I have a cheaper vise that does great. I use it for my travel vise. It's the Maxcatch rotating vise (not a rotary vise, but one that rotates enough to allow you to look at the bottom of a fly.) It gets stellar reviews from Savage Flys.com which is how it came to me. You can find them for less than $50. They lock down when you want them too and are very sturdy. If anyone wants to go up vise from a fixed vise or wants a sturdy travel vise (10 oz) I recommend it. It meets 1-3 of FF's points, and 5 for quality of a cheap vise. So there.

My office chair i use at my bench is about worn out. So, today, I went looking for a replacement. I didn't intend to spend a whole lot of money for a great looking swivel office chair, so I went to Habitat for Humanity to see what they had. I found a good chair with small a bald spot on one of the arms for ten bucks. So i'm at the bench with something to sit on. Wheels great, and I'm not proud. A new chair would cost $300 or more.

What's that multi-testicle looking thing on your vise? A material clip?

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I haven't tied a fly yet, on my vise. I'll do that in the next couple of days. At first, the lever locking the hook had me stymied until I figured it out. Takes some playing with it to get confidence with it.

Lithium is good, too. And it's white.

I've got one that's like new. It, too, came with a very good kit. Which was not used too. The wheel is tight and I believe it's press fit. It doesn't wobble at all. I don't think it's made to come apart, but I might be wrong. A Last Stand suggestion would be to clean the gap and put some super glue in the gap and push to close it up. Heck, it might work.

English shotgun cased sets include an oiler bottle especially for Vaseline. Not motor oil or axel grease. Possibly because it doesn't dry out like axel grease does. It's a good oiler for applications. So it's a lubricant as well as a skin moisturizer. It's Vaseline PETROLEUM Jelly.

He's right. You're correct too.

Just for flotation: I wrapped some Parapost on a 12 and 14 hook. Bare steel. They both floated fine, so I believe the post will add to the flotation of the fly. Or am I wrong?

I lubed my reels with Vaseline. Is that a bad idea?

That seems very small to me.

Hook eye? Hook gap? I think if the post is too big, it will dominate the fly.

I used to shoot a lot in longbows and recurves. I edited "Primitive Archer" mag for several years and have made a number of all wood bows. My strength for shooting bows has left me, but it sure was fun when I could do it.

Finally got my hands on some seal, and boy is it difficult to dub. It looks great, has a translucent quality that is attractive. But it's not easy dubbing, like dubbing barbed wire.

After reading this, I changed my batteries in my Loon torch. It takes 3 aaa batteries and new batteries sure make a difference.