Brian Myers

Fishnet Stockings

Don't tie so far into the hook bend especially don't fill it up with dubbing or you'll lose fish more often. That fly should be smaller on that hook , try to end (start tying} the body just above the barb. If you are going past the barb then keep it real thin such as a tag made of tinsel or thread/floss etc. Also for that fly try tapering the body ( thin at the rear to heavier near the bead ). Use half the dubbing you think you need then remove a little from that amount. Filling up the gap of the hook with dubbing etc. only helps the fish escape. You're on your way , keep up the good work.

I will need to steal this to try on smallies , maybe add a little orange into the cream dubbing.

Try black with orange legs

I wonder if it wasn't his variation of this https://www.skinnymoose.com/wanderings/2011/05/07/the-mysterious-slim-jim-northern-maine’s-elusive-dry-fly/

hook point down for the most part.

Foam core board cut to the size you want works well . It's rigid and can be stood up against whatever far enough behind the vise so as not to get in your way.

The buoyancy of the deer hair should help to keep the hook off the bottom on a sinking line or sink tip. I like to fish muddlers (loose head style) in crawfish colors in very rocky areas. They stay just off the bottom to keep snags to a minimum.

wet sock filled with sand

Eze Lap Diamond hone and stone http://TinyURL.com/y53njg2l I use the fine for sharpening hooks ( at the bench and on the water) but for large hooks the med may be better when you have more metal to remove. You can buy them individually but for what most places charge for one (plus shipping) you may as well get the set. They do come in handy for other things too.

Come now Mike we're all friends here. You can tell us the truth , we won't judge. They were that color until you dyed them magenta. Has anyone tried burning a hole in the ultrasuede with a large hot needle instead of having such a large hole from the punch?

Were they kind of like the ones Chief Jay Strongbow used to wear ? chief_jay_strongbow_stat.png Of course they weren't mvendon, Mike's were magenta not white.

Interesting vise but I don't want to see the price once it's available.

Have you fished it yet ?

The only decent time in Florida is the dead of winter.

They don't give any instructions on using the pad with the kit. It always left me wondering should the pad be dry or wet when used. I used it dry (rough side) on a Cortland Lazer line once then used the stuff in the bottle and the line wouldn't should worth anything after that. Now I use the pad wet with a bucket of soapy water and that seems to be fine on my current lines. Actually a generic microfiber cloth works just as well maybe even better than the pad.

Is that a recent thing? I ask because I bought a bunch of tying stuff at an estate sale years ago that included a box of 100 3366's in #6 from back when they came in the paper box, wrapped in glassine. I pretty much just use em for clousers, so I haven't used them up yet, but they're one hook in my menagerie that I have come to associate with being rather sharp out of the box. I've been buying 3366's for awhile now (8 to 10 years) and sizes 6 and up always needed sharpening . Size 8's maybe a quarter of them needed a touch up but this years batch all the 8's have needed sharpening. I didn't need to buy sizes 10 and down this year as I still have plenty from a few years ago so maybe even 10's would need sharpening now, I don't know.

I fish a smaller river for smallies all summer. If you want to use a curved hook try a Dai Riki 285 , it's a 3x long heavy wire down eye curved hook. I've been using size 6-8 on nymphs and soft hackles for smallies especially the size 8 and they seem to hold well.The gap on this hook is decent , at least to me it is. The only other curved hooks short of scud hooks that I have used are knock offs of 200r's & 2302's , their gaps are narrower and only seem to hold well on smaller bass. The Mustad 3366 works well and are cheap but you need to sharpen every hook in the box. I like using them on things like backstabbers and other short bodied inverted flies. I agree with Rocco , a strip nymph is a must have in a smallie box. They don't seem to like to let go of the fur strip. Tie your strip nymphs inverted with small dumbbell eyes to reduce snags on the bottom. Most of my smallie flies are size 10 to 4 with the occasional size12 soft hackle when they don't seem to want to chase anything but can be seen feeding in the current. I do tie streamers/crayfish from size 10 to 1 and this year size 8 to 2 seem to be working the best.

I haven't used Liquid Fusion on deer hair but have used it to coat mylar tubing ( mylar tubing over a foam body for a floating minnow ). It looks good at first on the mylar , doesn't make it hard , as Add said it's rubbery but it does get cloudy with use ( easy to see on mylar) and gets scratched up after a few fish. I let the Liquid Fusion dry a few days to a week before use and it doesn't seem to make a difference .

Mix the tolulene + goop outside, It'll give you a headache fairly quickly at least it does me. Once they're mixed together you can limit your exposure by keeping the top on your goop mix bottle when it's not in use. The tolulene evaporates and the goop of course gets thicker so just open the mix long enough to get out what you need and place it back on quickly. Even without opening the jar very often you still need to add more tolulene at least once a year to keep the goop thin. I use a baby jar for the goop mixture.

http://softhacklepatternbook.blogspot.com/ http://www.flyfishsd.com/how-to-tie-soft-hackle-flies/ https://donbastianwetflies.com/2013/03/21/soft-hackle-wet-flies/

Be sure to sharpen up that point on the red one. Mustad 3366's always need sharpening if they're larger than size 10.

That is very cool

Beautiful work CB but do they catch fish or are the fish too busy whistling at them ?

Fish small rivers or streams in the summer for smallmouth and you see this is usually the the case. It doesn't take much to spook a crayfish and when one shoots off, others that are close by will to. Now put yourself in the bass' place, several nice meals just popped up into the current but you are not the only that saw that. It's not just you the bass against the crayfish , you have half a dozen brothers and sisters that will knock you out of the way for that crayfish. Priority one is getting a hold of it before it gets to safety or gobbled up by the fat slob hanging over your shoulder. I love watching smallmouth ram each other when one takes the fly and others want what they now have . Little do they realize they don't want it , it's a one way ticket into the Light . That's when this happens: Nice double.