Fish For Life

Yes i did. I saw a flash of color far out in the river and I first though i had a really nice brown. It was kind of disappointing at first as i though i was hooked up with a 30" brown, but in the end i was very happy and cant complain with a fish like this.

Special day yesterday. Somehow managed to catch this 32" pike out of the bow river in Calgary. Those of you who know the bow river will know that its an amazing trout river, not a pike river. Very few pike ever come out of this river as they are very rare in it, especially as far up as Calgary. So this was a pleasant surprise that i defiantly wasn't expecting. Along with some eagle and killdeer pictures, it was pretty awesome day.

Working on spinning hair for my bass box. Still dont know how some of you guys can do it so well. Truly pieces of art. This is the best ive been able to come up with so far. Along with a balsa frog popper and a worm pattern im hopping will be a hit with the bass.

Another quick photo test. This time with my new favorite egg pattern.

Testing uploading photos with phone for the first time. Hopefully everything works out fine. If it does here is a quick mouse I just whipped up. So simple yet effective.

I was starting to worry something went wrong with the shipping and they were lost somewhere. I know that it normally take a while crossing the boarder and all but this felt longer than normal. I was especially concerned because the guy at the post office was rather sketchy and didn't really seam to know what he was doing... Anyhoo, i am happy they got there.

When i think about it i was using yellow as well when this happened to me. Is it just yellow that this happens to or other colors as well??

Exact same thing has happened to me but with crazy glue. When the glue contacted the sharpie it turned it red?? No clue what happened, other than some kind of reaction between the two.

blank

Problem 1:Im thinking if maybe you tye on a longer shank you could tye the bulk of the body farther up front, leaving he back for a less bulky tail. This could allow for more room for the fish to bite??? Problem 2: Something i might try. Add dumbbell eyes to the top of the hook, right before the hook starts to bend. Flipping the hook over such as it does with a clouser. To compensate you might need to add a bit extra floatation, but not necessarily. Some poppers are already so buoyant that they may nit need any extra flotation. Again i dont really know. Im more use to tying trout and pike flys than bass. Only get to fish for them a week or two during the summer while camping in Ontario.

Ya that's the kind of idea. Im going to give that style a go in the next few days.

Ive got plenty of poppers with different methods of weedless (single mono, double mono, wire, and so on). Some work better in different situations and so on. I just want to be ready for any type of fishing. For instance, some bass water is so thick in weeds that the fly sometimes doesn't even sit in the water, its mostly on top of the thick weed mat. If the hook sat down like a regular popper it would most defiantly get snagged, even with the best weed guards. But if the hook were to be facing up you would be less likely to get snagged. Or maybe the fish are biting in a certain way that mono prevents to many hook up, try a different weedless method and maybe the fish will get hooked. I dont really know, just going with it. Again, i mostly just want to have a bit of variety with the weedless flys.

Im looking at tying some hook up poppers for bass, and was wondering what the different ways of doing this are? With a bit of trial and error while experimenting i have figured out a few patterns. Which got me curious what other methods might be used to make your poppers ride hook up. So how can this be done? One thing i am very curious about is hook up spun hair poppers?? After a bit of searching i didn't find anything on Google about this. Can it be done? It seams doable, just flip the hook while tying and make sure to trim so the major bulk of the fly is on the top. Would this not work?? Thanks

I dont think i should be to concerned with paint weight. Since im using an airbrush to paint them, they are getting a very light coat of paint.

I dont think i should be to concerned with paint weight. Since im using an airbrush to paint them, they are getting a very light coat of paint.

Not that it effects the fish. Some small poppers, such as panfish poppers, have a hard enough floating already due to there size. Im just worried that adding any weight will make this even worse... I doubt it will make that much of a difference. Ive always used epoxy on my balsa popper and haven't really noticed it. Just curious if there was something better to use.

What do you popper makers use as a final coat on your balsa poppers. You've shaped it, painted it, added your eyes, then you... Previously i have given them a coat of epoxy, which worked good and made the poppers bullet proof. Im just worried that epoxy might also be adding alot of unnecessary weight, especially for smaller pan fish poppers. Is this all that you do, or is there another type of finishing clear coat that works good as well? Something that makes them strong, wont allow the balsa to be shredded by teeth, and ads a nice shine. Thanks

Well for trout... Olive or white Bow River Bugger Chartreuse clouser Black bunny

What is the best way to add legs to spun deer hair flys? After you have finished trimming to the desired shape, how do you get the legs into the body? Do you just drag them down carefully through the body, or is there some other better way to do this? Whenever i try to get the legs done this way, i always end up capturing so much hair when i pull the legs down, leaving the fly with a gap of no hair where the legs went in. Am i just not being careful enough, or is there a better way. I always see such nice spun hair flys, with perfect legs right through the middle of the body. I just dont know how they do it. Thanks

Were going to a place near sioux narrows. It has a fairly good reputation as being good area for musky. Fingers crossed that i can find one willing to bite. Bit of a delay getting the eyes to finish up my articulateds. I was having some difficulties finding the right eyes that were big enough. Finally today i did find some and finished up the batch. I should be shipping them out next week.

I use it all. I like the main hair as it is much brighter and longer. But the back is sometimes useful because its darker. I guess why wouldn't you use it all, you get two colors per tail. lighter and a darker color. The only downside the the darker back is that it is shorter, so you cant make as big flys with it. But still good.

Can i get an address please. Just about done. All that's left is to see of i can find some large eyes for the articulateds and they will be on there way! What do you guys like to ship these massive flys in? Im still trying to find a container. I just found out that next summer Im going musky fishing in Ontario and that i will get to try these swap flys out! Were going to Lake of the woods, which is know for producing not only lots of musky, but some massive ones!! Cant wait!!

My two favorites are fish skull crawbody crayfish, and ones that use rabbit strips as the claws.

My two favorites are fish skull crawbody crayfish, and ones that use rabbit strips as the claws.

Yes like stated, keep it simple. The most basic of flys will have just as good results if not better than the fanciest of them. I have also found that smaller flys are often far ore productive than massive flys. Something as simple as a clouser has caught me pike than i can count. Or another fly such as a deceiver; simple, small, and very effective for pike. Do you fish for trout? If so just take some of your streamer patterns and make them a bit bigger, they dont need to be massive to have good results with pike.