Hatchet Jack

If I have understood any of this, I'm summing it up thusly: 1.) There's the farthest out fly - the Point Fly. Like the soldier 'on point'. 2.) There's the Dropper Fly, tied on to a 'dropper' tag end of tippet. Above the Point Fly. Any more than this, and I'm ready to call it Mutt & Jeff. And in the case of three flies, I'm ready to call it Tom, Dick, and Harry. In the case of four flies, it shall be known as Tom, Dick, Harry, et al. Sure is nice to have on our site someone with a good command and respect of & for the King's English. Hat's off to you a thousand times, SilverCreek. (and also for all your other accomplished contributions)

I feel dumbererer than a sack of hammers for posting this, but I am ever confused by 'point' fly & 'dropper' fly & 'lead' fly. I swear I read one chap's article & he states what it is, then some other Joe will describe their tandem fly layout and it's reversed. WHAT does one call the distal and proximal flies?

Did you say LAMB? Be forewarned. I just spoke with my neighbour and he's willing to pack his minivan with a bunch of us. We're coming over, armed with mint jelly, knives, and forks. And empty stomachs. A two-fer of cold IPA's too. Nary a nashing since Boxing Day. Whadya think aboat thet?

That would be very useful to me! Another thing is that the Air-Loc looks like it has a significant amount of surface area to securely pinch a section of tippet/leader.

Anyone out there try these yet? They look like the final answer for truly adjustable, non-slip indicators. I'm wondering how well they hold on thinner leader sections, like down around 4X, 5X, 6X, etc. Thanks. http://www.fishairlock.com/

Nice & buggy, good for trout and in larger sizes, for panfish and smallies. Now that holidays are about over, it's back to tying and your pattern is at the top of the list. Well done Vladimir!

That rod is built on an SCII blank, and it's 'short' - 7 foot, 11 inches. Never queued up for the short bass flyrod koolaid craze. For my self, throwing large bass flies a long ways on a heavy WF line requires a fast-action longer rod. 9, 10, 11 foot & at least an SCIII or SCIV blank. Caveat Emptor &YMMV.

I watched a video of your boat and found it's more of a canoe/yak shape than a 'boat' (length vs. beam). Don't know the river waters you'll be floating so I'm shotgunning two safety ideas here. If there are trees/brush laying in the water from shore, stay away from them, especially in fast current. These 'strainers' & water current can put you in a world of trouble right quick. Also - it's generally not a good idea to throw your anchor out in fast current - trying to get the anchor back into the boat can again put you in a world of trouble. Well good luck with your boat, it will come to you quickly out on the lake. Just practice on a calm day lest you find yourself blown to windward ☻

Not sure what rigging is going to be flowing through your 10 wt. guides, but if it consists of loop-to-loop connections, or knotted leaders and such, I have found snake guides more 'helpful' than single foot guides. You may want to look into Snake Brand guides, pricey but worth it. And perhaps a lightweight SIC ceramic insert guide for strippers and tiptop? Other considerations that I found helpful for me when building a rod ~ I think of the fish I'm after, the size of flies I'll be casting, then the line/leader/tippet regime, then the rod & reel. Building it backwards so to speak. A salt-proof reel is something else to look at too. Get yer eyeballs over to http://www.rodbuildingforum.com & http://rodbuilding.org - tons of good info when starting out.

Not sure what Cabela's is selling but I know from my own experience that PolarTec fabrics are the cat's insulated PJ's. Comes in different weights. Not exactly cheap, but it will serve you well in the long run. Just don't melt them in the clothes dryer (doh...read the washing/drying destructions ☻)

[:\insert thumb's up icon here] I have to learn this. It would be a cool way to palmer-wrap the hackle 'betwixt the chenille wraps of a Woolly Bugger or BHD pattern.

Interesting! A new version of the old FlyTrap from years gone by. Open to the atmosphere at both ends for better drying of flies.

I've found that making sure both wires are under tension before I begin twisting helps in the later processes. Then once it's spun up some, I begin to gently brush it out as I twist it up further, using a dog hair brush (has widely spaced wires tipped with plastic). Careful as I am though, I still do lose some amount of fibres but nothing disastrous. Tell us more ~ As Ray wisely says above, "At what stage are you losing material?"

"There is little to zero line sag within the guides. The line isn't affected by strong winds which drag your nymphs off the bottom & it doesn't grate through the rings or fall back through the guides." Well thank Dog, now I know what's wrong with my fly lines that I've used for years. Grating, sagging fly line. Sorry, I've no idea what SunRay is getting on about.

I got through maybe one, two paragraphs in the article and found my self waking up when my head hit the keyboard.

Very nice homemade lures! Never have seen an air brush in action, it sure lays paint on clean & smooth. Your show & tell gives us good ideas for making balsa poppers. 'Tis a labour of love you've got going there, thanks for posting.

Nicely done photos there Kirk B.

[/sidenote:] IIRC, a neat trick from one of Davie McPhail's videos is to coat the underside of the biot with a thin film of CA glue. I believe he used the side of a bodkin needle to apply the glue thus it went on paper thin. Tie in the tip of biot, then apply glue, then wrap.

TC, have you actually cast this pattern much, and if so, how badly do the stiff wings twirl up a tippet? Just wondering..........every pattern I've ever tied with stiff plastic-type mayfly wings furls up the tippet/leader.

Very cool.

I prefer to look at it as "Dubbing Loop and Split Thread". Both techniques offer a means of sturdy, more permanent attachment of materials. For example, two patterns come to mind: Maribou material in a dubbing loop, wound onto the body of a Balanced Leech pattern, and a teeny bit of thorax fuzz split-thread dubbed on, in back of a spider's soft hackle.

Any trouble with this thread's fibres catching themselves on the spool as it feeds into the bobbin? Some of my finer GSP is 'strandy' as hell & I have to unroll a section at a time, apply some wax, then roll it back onto the spool. Other than that, GSP is pretty cool to work with, winds up tight as a tick.

Gents, to answer some of your Q's: The hook is flat, no bend out-of-plane. Not sure what you folks mean by 'rod action' (?)...the fly veers right after the strip & during the pause, whether it's out 60' or 16' or 6'. The rod tip is low to the water and generally pointed at fly during the strip/pause retrieve. My 'knot' is an AFW Duo-loc snap; there is no snug knot to influence the fly's tracking. I'm going to study this fly some more before hard water hits us and see if I can finger out what the heck is going on. It' really cool to see this fly swim like a big fat tasty minnow.

A friend of mine gave me a nice muskie fly that always veers right on the strip. At first I was dismayed to see the fly constantly turn right but then I discovered that if I stripped/paused/stripped just so, I could actually make the fly 'swim' with a life-like motion. So what makes it veer to one side or the other so much? Looking at the fly, it appears nicely proportioned, nothing grossly out of balance.

This works wonders.