SSC

will it take 3 months to receive your order?

Well done. looks like fun times

Mine came yesterday, they all look great. Thanks everyone and thanks to Kevin for hosting.

I was taught that when you walk up fish a stretch of river and encounter someone already there, it is polite to inquire whether they are fishing upstream or downstream and either fish the opposite direction or walk a few minutes to another stretch and give them some space. My experience on my local river lately has been that only about 5% of fly fishers were taught the same as I was. To make things clear I am talking about situations where there are hundreds of yards of empty publicly accessible water around and someone walks 25 ft upstream of me and starts fishing. This has happened to me at least once each weekend since the start of May on the local river I live above. I find it to be incredibly #%@^!! clueless. OK so I am done ranting........ My parents were Canadian, was I brought up excessively polite? What do you do when you approach the river and find someone already there fishing? Steve

Kevin, Can you PM me your address? If there ends up being no replacement then you can keep my extra. Thanks Steve

Your rod looks great. I've been eyeing the 5 or 6 wt Rainshadow switch kit (also from J Stockard), so far I have been able to hold off, but I find myself looking at it more and more often.

A brown I caught earlier this week, it ate the reel right off my rod!

Beautiful rods, what is the overall length? I was looking at the Quickline 6wt switch as a possible blank for my 2nd rod build. Have you built any rods on the Quickline Switch blanks? Do you have any opinion on them? Thanks

It's true....I got some at JoAnne in the sewing section, I believe they called it bathing suit elastic. They only had it in 3/8" width, so I use a rotary cutter and cutting mat to make the width I need. I also use permanent markers to color or mottle the underside of the elastic. Works great and is cheap.

I've found Wal-mart to have the largest and most reliable selection of the drink mixes, they have non name brand varieties as well as Kool-Aid that will give similar results. Also If you are going to do a fair amount of dying, Citric Acid smells better than vinegar and can be cheaper in the long run. If you have a home brewing / wine making supply somewhere near you they will have some for sale.

Funny, I just got done blending up some Kool-Aid dyed "Lemonade doggy dubbin" for the body of my fly in the Carp Swap. I'd like to join in. I was experimenting with white and black strands of Border Collie tail hair for use as quill bodies a while back and I would like to get back to that. I'll tie a #16 Mosquito. DISCLAIMER: no Border Collies will be harmed in the tying of these flies.

Check out the link posted by terrymiller1973 above. You can achieve "earth" tones with drink mix (Kool-Aid) by blending ratios of flavors. Shades of brown with the Grape and Orange combo and a lt olive with the Lemon-lime and Orange combo have both worked well for me on a variety of fur and feathers. I could not achieve a satisfactory dark olive with drink mix. For Black and Dark Olive (avocado), I used the powdered acid dye from Dharma Trading Company. I found it to be far superior and more economical in the long run than RIT. They also sell Synthrapol and their own brand of fabric detergent. I got a "blacker" black in one round of Synthropol prewash and DTC acid dye than in 2 rounds using RIT on deer hair. I have no interest in this company, but after using the detergent and acid dye I won't ever bother with RIT again. For bright colors, brownish and yellowish tones I'll keep using Kool-Aid.

Try using a lot more vinegar than you have been. Steve

I would like to take part. I'll tie the Mellow Yellow. Steve

I tyed up a couple of small tube flies for trout. I used the plastic section of a generic brand cotton swab for the tube and melted a "flange" on each end. Then I dressed the tube and left 1/4" of tube bare at the back end for the connection of clear tubing that will hold the eye of the hook. Does the clear "hook" tubing attach to the dressed tubing just by friction or do I super glue it to the tube ? Thanks in advance Steve

I haven't fished them either, which is one of the reasons I was interested in the swap. When I tried to find info about Blobs, one of the techniques I read about was stripping fast while using a sinking line. The foam, whether in the arse, or in the front as booby eyes, adds action to the fly. The Blob wants to slowly levitate up in between strips. There was a little bit about another method of fishing Blobs in this post also. I always like trying new methods and the easiest fishing for me to get to after work are lakes that are well stocked with Rainbows each year so I am eager to try them out.

I have access to a float tube this spring/summer and live near several lakes that I could fish after work. I have also built a few rods ( 3 spin, 1 fly) and was tinkering with the idea of building a longer rod to use with the float tube. 1) I would be fishing for trout 2)Weighted buggers and small streamers to size 8 would be the biggest flies most likely tossed 3)Much of the fishing would be in the afternoon and there will be wind to contend with some days 4) Looking to spend under $100 or under on the blank I have heard that a longer rod helps to make up for the low position on the water when casting. I am looking for suggestions on what length, weight and action I should consider. For those of you with rod building experience, I would appreciate any recommendations on blanks. I will post over on the rod building forum also, just wanted to get some opinions here. Thanks

Blobs showed up in my mail today also. They look great. I have access to a float tube this spring/summer, can't wait to try them out on my local lakes. Thanks to all! Steve

You can get colors also, try the big auction site under "magnet wire" . Comes in different gauges also, not quite the color selection of ultrawire but cheaper if you need alot

I have been using an aquarium net. Thanks for the tip on the paint strainer, I can just line my fishing net with the strainer and leave the aquarium net at home. The aquarium net also has black netting, so the white netting of a paint strainer will make things easier on my eyes. Sampling helps you see what is in the creek, but once you catch a fish, a throat pump will tell you which of the available food items the fish are after at the moment.

Some of the Blob variants use small foam cylinders to help give action. The FAB (foam arsed blob) has the foam in the "tail" section, the Boobie Blob uses the foam as "eyes".

Nice video, like the way you tied in the legs, I will try that out.

Will a standard tungsten bead fit on that jig hook or do you have to use the slotted beads?

Hard to tell from pic but if it has no visible secondary wings then Baetis

I have not used them myself. I recall seeing some you tube vids of Hans Weilenmann using them, sorry can't remember which flies he used them for, but he definitely would not tye with crap hooks.