Fish For Life

Yup!! Got one a couple years ago and it has been sitting at my bench ever since. Defiantly not bright enough alone, but in combination with another light it works very well. It is nice because it is small and very moveable. Makes it nice to pinpoint a good amount of light right at your fly.

I always get confused when people ask about what pike flys to tye. Hundreds of pike flys i have tyed and i dont think a single one has been actually following a patter. Thats one of the best and most fun things about tying pike flys, you can do practically whatever you want and it will still produce great results. Make something big, something flashy, and something with lots of movement and you will be set to have pike action all day long. Just have fun with and learn what works and what doesn't as you go along. It sounds like you have a great selection of material to produce some great pike flys, just sit down at the bench and get at it!! For a start tye try some flys like my last picture. It is a very simple pattern and has been probably my most productive pike fly. All it is is a buck-tail tail surrounded by flash, with a wrapped rabbit body and some sort of head.. Simple and so effective. Combine whatever colors you want and ad some weighted eyes if you want it to sink faster. Good luck and have fun

Woke up early eager to get into my gift. I tore into it and couldn't have been more happy. Thank you Horse Shoes for lovely flies and box. I cant wait for next season, i already know where i want to try some of these great flys out!! Merry Christmas all!!

Just finished up my articulated flys tonight!! Know onto the singles!! Im always so paranoid crossing the boarder that somethings going to go wrong, so im hoping to get these done and shipped by mid January early February to make sure they get to you on time.

If you just made the tail a bit shorter, as well as the legs, if would be a just fine fly just as capable as catching trout as the most precise tied flies out there. Like Add147 said, if you could get a fly like this down to a 14 or 16 you would be in a great position for catching trout. To be honest your fly as it is is more than capable of catching fish, many times proportions and good looking flys are more for the fisherman than the fish. Keep it up and you will be well on your way to having a very nice box of nymphs.

Last Bow river trout for my 2015 season. Ended it off with a nice 21" rainbow on a white streamer.

Im curious as to what people do with the flys they receive in swaps. Ive heard of some people not fishing with them and just keeping them. Do many of you guys do that or do you like to actually use them? Just curious and all. Thanks

Got it in the mail today! Surprised and glad it got here so fast! And so the wait begins. Its going to be hard but well worth it. Thanks Vicerider

No i haven't. I have always been a mac person so haven't had the chance to use it. Many of my friends are pc guys and seam to like it enough.

Check out GoPro studio. It is simple to use, yet still creates high quality films. Nice thing about it is that it is so basic. You wont end up getting overwhelmed like some people do with higher end video editing software. I have the best video editing software available to mac, IMovie and final cut pro, yet still opt out to use GoPro studio for alot of my film making. Unless your trying to create something very technical it is the easiest to do the job.

Yes thanks. I haven't been this excited for xmas in a long time!! Just curious if you did have time to photography them all? Not a big deal if you didn't as you already had enough work to do.

Im starting to use shanks more and more. I find one of the biggest benefits of using them is when you get that 50" musky or pike on you dont want to have to worry abut any wire slipping and loosing your fish. With a shank you have a strong fail-proof connection, unlike wire articulated flys which may slip if tied incorrectly. Im not saying its bad to use with, i still do with lots of articulated flys. Just make sure it is tied in properly so it cant slip. And like Adam has stated, a benefit of using shanks is that if you want you dont need to have multiple hooks to make a larger fly. For instance if not using shanks and you wanted to make a very large articulated fly you would be looking at using 3 maybe even 4 hooks. But with shanks you can use only 1 or 2 hooks and still turn out a very large fly.

Im still in A, i just decided to also do B.

Ive decided to go B as well if that's alright A fly is going to be on a 5/0, 6/0 if i can find the right hook at the fly shop. Flashabou streamer B is just a creation i have made so it doesn't really have a name. I just tyed the prototype up and it looks awesome in the water, lots of movement. It will be tyed on 2 5/0 hooks with a shank between them.

Im in! Can i get back to you with what im going to tye. Not sure at the moment, want to scan through the boxes first to determine what im going to tye. Edit: Im defiantly in for A. Might be in for both if i can find the right fly.

But i though thanksgiving was last month (sorry canadian here) Happy thanksgiving!!

Yes thank you for the complement. I just wanted to try and keep up with the outstanding tyers on this forum. Didn't want to screw up my first secret Santa swap so i did my best to make a suffice set of flys for my recipient. Im surprised they got to you so fast, having to cross the boarder and all. Sure is a load of my shoulders not having to worry every day that something was going to screw up during shipping. Thanks again for hosting this swap. I cant wait till Xmas!!

Flys were all tyed up with a box ready to go almost a months ago. However complications always happened while trying to ship them... First i got to the post office and realized i forgot the address Few days later i show up to the post office to find out i forgot the money for return postage, only had Canadian no American money About a week later i though i finally had it and walked into the post office confident the flys were getting shipped out that day, turns out i was wrong, the system was down so nothing was getting shipped FINALLY for the last time i got to the post office today and everything was in check, flys are on there way, a month later They are coming from Canada so they will take a bit longer, hopefully not to long though.

Im pretty sure its just a really good way to make your fly float. With the hackle splayed out horizontal on the surface the fly is suited to float better. With more surface area on the water it is harder to break the surface tension resulting in a higher better floating fly.

Finished tying and got the box yesterday. Will hopefully get them shipped out sometime next week.

Sounds like and awesome day!! Its always good to here when people make the right decisions when its safe to shoot, and knowing when its best to not. Especially younger hunters. You in this case made a very good and safe decision not shooting knowing your mother and brother were in a bad line of fire. Its also good to here that you let the big buck walk because you knew you couldn't make an ethical shot due to your shaking. Im not much older than you, only 18, and still get a good amount of buck fever when I see the big boy step in front of me. Last week while bow hunting i had a nice buck walk in front of me 40 yards. I had to let him walk as i could not hold the pins steady on him. That wild buck fever sure does make it hard to hold your bow steady, far more so than with a rifle i found out. While at home practicing i can confidently make a 40 yard shot every time. But i knew better than to take the shot because i was not 100% confident my shot would be were i wanted it to be. I was a good 85% confident of my shot but i knew better than to risk shooting it possibly wounding the animal and not finding it.Even if your a tiny bit unsure of your shot its best to just let the animal walk, no matter how big that buck is. Just keep at it and one day of these days you will get another chance at a monster buck, and this time hopefully things work out better for you. Good luck during the rest of the season, and do report back if Mr. big returns.

Sounds like fun, ive always missed out on doing this swap in previous years and always regretted it. Well not this year! I would love to join!

I honestly prefer to use mono for my stinger. Or wire if i need some better bite proof. I like that it holds its position and stays straight out the back. Right where you want it in the tail of the clouser. If you were to use brain and it be flimsy it will not always be in the right spot.

Haha Alberta for the win!!! Not like anything is wrong with other locations or anything, Alberta is just by far the best Welcome to the site, look forward to seeing some work of your new found hobby!

When will part 2 be ready?? Cant wait to try making some pike flys like this!