Pintsize

Spanflex is made by Wapsi, another name for it is flexi-floss.

For the lighting , the best option I have found is to use 1 x Tungsten lamp with a 500 Watt bulb (3200K). This lamp produces hardly any shadows even when the vice and fly are very close to the background. Almost all digital cameras can be set to Tungsten in their Whitebalance setting on the camera. ie. Camera adjusts its picture to the exact type of light. (Tungsten makes everything go yellow but the camera compensates). The Interfit Tungsten 3200K lamp and stand retail for around £65.00 ($100 US). Its the best lighting system I have found yet. Regards Pint ============================ http://www.diptera.co.uk Diptera - Fly Fishing and Fly Tying Resource

Rather than paint your own beads , has anyone tried the Spirit River brite beads these are shipped with a baked-on enamel finish in various flourescent colors. These however need a bit of extra weight adding to the fly as they are not as heavy as traditional beads but the paint never comes off.

I use a sealed plastic toolbox similar to the one in this link - http://www.diy.com/bq/product/product.jhtm...Id=&CATID=72291 I use it to store all of the bobbins and tools in the top and all the capes / skins etc in the lower compartment. It seems to have an airtight seal also which protects any capes/skins stored in there. An exellent fly tying chest.

http://www.diptera.co.uk http://www.troutflies.com/ http://flytyingworld.com/ http://www.virtualflybox.com

I tie mine in Black, Red, Olive and the most successful being a deadly combination of fluo green Crystal Chenille head and black body / tail. I use pieces of crystal hair run in parallel with the tail.

Plenty of Damsel Patterns here http://www.diptera.co.uk/patterns/flies_d.htm

I currently tie in the region of 500 flies per year. It really depends on how many times I fish and the amount of flies that get ripped to shreds on the outings.

In the UK I use Ostrich Herl in the place of red wool for patterns such as the "Zulu" and also for bloodworm / buzzer (midge) patterns. The action this herl makes in the water seems far superior to Marabou and catch rates improve significantly.