KayTs Flies

Everyone thanks for the information. I appreciate all of your input. Peterjay, it is a keel hook. number two mustad. The person who asked for a squid pattern wanted it, how do i put it lightly, Heavy Duty. To say the least I think its a sturdy fly. Thanks again for all your input. I dont have much to go on as far as saltwater baits go so im stuck googling a pic and trying my best to recreate it on the vise. Good luck everyone and Tight Lines.

Thanks for the advice guys. I appreciate your words of encouragement. I will try to track some of the "old salts" down and see what they think. I personally have only been saltwater fishing 2-3 times but I received a request for something to use on the flats and I accepted the challenge. The finished product is shown. Needless to say, the person who issued the challenge was very impressed. I was just wondering what you all thought. Thanks again and Tight Lines.

Personally, I like using craft fur after I got the hange of it. Ive made a few simple "streamers" in various patterns. What do you all think?

Ive been playing around on the vice again when I have the time. I got a request for some saltwater flies that I had no idea where to go with. Ive never fished saltwater or anything like that so Im going off of research from books magazines and the internet. If anyone has any ideas on improvement please let me know. Thank you for your input. Brian

First off I want to thank everyone for all their advice. I greatly appreciate it. Second, My question to you all is, would an airbrush setup be a useful tool. Im not looking at the cost due to the fact that over time i will get my use out of it and my wife will be needing one anyway for her taxidermy mounts. In respect to fly tying would it be a useful tool to look into getting? I used one when i was younger for models and things of that sort but those days are long since gone. Thank you for all your help......again. Brian

Those look great! You have an excellent command of colors. Thanks brandon. Those are my trial runs to see what needs improvement. I usually do a couple then post them on here for the experts to review and give me feedback on. That way i dont screw up a dozen or so by skipping a simple step that could be the difference between a good fly, and a great fly.

Frank, thanks for the tip. I do have a few hacksaw blades laying around from the wifes taxidermy stuff. Im pretty sure she wont miss one. As far as sprays, i havent had much luck with them. The only thing I have to paint through is an old piece of screen that was salvaged from my front door after the dog wanted a new window to look through. Do you think that will work? Am i holding the screen right to the popper or what. How would you do it? I can find some other material im sure but im just getting started with poppers and dont wanna give up on them right after i started. Thanks again for the tips. I appreciate all the info you all have given thus far.

for additional inspiration on colors just GOOGLE "bass lures" thanks for the tip flytire. I appreciate it. Ive noticed that on here you give awesome advice and constructive critizism. I thank you for sharing your knowledge with everyone.

stippled popper, i understand what youre talking about and with the wapsi bodies i have no problem with that because they have a grove on the bottom that slides right over top of the kink. as for the cork bodies, i tried using kinked hooks and ended up ruining a couple of corks tring to get them onto the hook kink. i dont have the tools available to make that groove evenly on a cork body then fill it in later. as for the hook riding as low as possible, thank you. i actually tried a few hook positions out because i have a small fishtank i test how the flies sit in the water. Youre absolutely right sir. the lower the hook, the better it sits and pops. this pic was one of the first ones ive done and since have adjusted the hooks, so the body rides higher in the water. thank you for your advice. i appreciate it.

Poppers is looking good. I make from foam and from cork. I have customer that demand cork and I like them too. I have found that the first thing you do to cork is to fill in any voids you have with a good putty. I use a latex base wood filler from Wallmart. You then seal the cork. I use a sealer for acrylic paints also from WMart. Two coats of sealer and then two coats of white acrylic paint for your base coat. Then your color coats and eyes and decorations. I keep small spray cans of spray to put on some detail...like spraying a little color through a piece of screen wire or table napkin...then two coats of epoxy on the turner.....I like em done this way. Tee Nootsie, Thanks for the advice. I didnt fill in any of the imperfections in the cork on this first one. Im glad i only made one. I will certainly follow your plan because im pretty sure it will come out looking better. You also solved the wapsi body issue i was thinking about. After i sealed in the hook on the wapsi it still had a void in the bottom. I can just fill that in to make the body appear to be seamless. Thanks again for all your advice. I appreciate it. Glad that you make the fly. Here is a bad picture of what mine look like following the pattern I told to you. The picture is not one that is good T has camera problems...but you can see what I do. thats not a bad picture. i can see what youre talking about so its a good picture. Those look awesome. Mine a bigger than that though. Is there a reason yours are small or is it just that size of the pattern youre using? Thanks again for all your help

Poppers is looking good. I make from foam and from cork. I have customer that demand cork and I like them too. I have found that the first thing you do to cork is to fill in any voids you have with a good putty. I use a latex base wood filler from Wallmart. You then seal the cork. I use a sealer for acrylic paints also from WMart. Two coats of sealer and then two coats of white acrylic paint for your base coat. Then your color coats and eyes and decorations. I keep small spray cans of spray to put on some detail...like spraying a little color through a piece of screen wire or table napkin...then two coats of epoxy on the turner.....I like em done this way. Tee Nootsie, Thanks for the advice. I didnt fill in any of the imperfections in the cork on this first one. Im glad i only made one. I will certainly follow your plan because im pretty sure it will come out looking better. You also solved the wapsi body issue i was thinking about. After i sealed in the hook on the wapsi it still had a void in the bottom. I can just fill that in to make the body appear to be seamless. Thanks again for all your advice. I appreciate it.

I started doing poppers a few weeks ago and got tired of the solid colors quickly so i switched up and started going wild with it. Anyone have any suggestions on how to make em better. One is just a plane ol cork popper and the other is wapsi pencil style. I wanted to see the difference between cork and foam as far as painting goes. all suggestions and critiques are welcome. Mind you they arent finished yet, but i will take suggestions on that too.

Im doing some traditional popper heads from cork. I have the wapsi foam ones but eventually i will test the difference between the two on the water. Anyways, im having a thoughtblock on a tail. can anyone give me any ideas? how would you finish this one out. any info would be great and feel free to comment on the head itself, any ways to make it better? thanks to all.

thanks flytire. i appreciate the info. Ive seen alot of your post and consider you to be a wealth of knowledge. im new to this stuff so i have to rely on what i know and what i learn from pro's like yourself. thanks again

Wife just gave me a whole heap of seed beads in different colours. I'll have to take a look at using some for this. seed beads? can ya post a pic of some. i may call em something different but im interested none the less. Thanks Piker20