hokiehunter07

Matt Miles designed that fly. I've tied it with him. It's incredibly easy to tie. When we tied it we used a curved size 14 terrestrial hook. Tie the biots in first. Get some .5mm razor foam and cut a strip about 1/16" wide. Tie the strip in at the biot tie in point and advance you're thread to about the 30% point on the hook.. This next part is a little tricky. Put tension on the foam strip and begin wrapping it forward. As you wrap forward slowly let off tension on the strip. This provides the tapered body. When you get to the 30% point stop and secure the foam strip. Cut about a 1" piece from the end of the strip while leaving most of the strip still attached. Tie the end of that 1" piece in on top of the hook at the 30% mark. and advance your thread to behind the eye capturing the 1" piece then double back to the 30% point. With little tension, wrap the remaining portion of the strip to the eye and back to the 30% point and tie off. Tie in a poly yarn wing at the 30% mark. Fold the 1" strip back over the "head" and tie off at the 30% point. Tie in the rubber legs on either side of the fly and whip finish at the 30% point. This is the exact same fly as the winter foam stone just in yellow instead of black. Excellent flies jut make sure not to tie them on too heavy a hook. A little gink and they're bulletproof.

I've been using a thin layer of uv cure nail polish.

I've got this thing down pretty good if you're still interested. The head is the trickiest part. If you watch Blane Chocklett's T-bone part 3 video on youtube he essentially shows you how to do it at the halfway point of the video. The key trick is having a straight eye'd streamer hook. It doesn't look quite right with a down-eye, but that may actually make it more effective.

Somewhere I read a review of the TU cape package. Sorry, but I cannot find it now. The reviewer was not kind. It's a very affordable package, but the stems, hackle stiffness, etc... were not up to the other brands. I'd definitely want to see these before buying. I think the Feather Emporiums Whiting cape bundle - any 5 colors of half capes for $100 is a safer deal. I think you're likely referring to my review on the fly fishing forum. I haven't tried the TU intro pack, but I was not impressed at all with the standard Whiting intro pack. Maybe the TU one is better.

I'm still a newbie, but I like versitility. This past Saturday I spent time on a small brookie creek. I used the following flies in a 5 hour period: - Standard Klinkhammer - Caddis Klinkhammer - Parachute Mr. Rapidan - Neversink Caddis - Copper John - Rainbow Warrior - Flashback Midge - Syl's nymph - Partridge and Orange - Foam and CDC Stonefly Last time I fished this stream (a week ago) all they wanted was the Klink and the rainbow warrior. The sky was clear, it was about 70 degrees out, and I was fishing the evening. Saturday it was in the 50s, rainy, and I fished morning to midday. Additionally it looked like someone had fished the creek the day before me. They wouldn't touch the klink and the rainbow warrior. I even fished a different section of the creek. I had the best luck on a red size 14 copper john. Last time they were mainly hitting the size 18 rainbow warrior, saturday they wanted a little more meat. I forgot my lanyard and therfore forgot my gink and my dry shake. Had I had some flotant on me I would have thrown some BWOs, Adams, regular caddis, comparaduns, etc. I had fish take just about everything I threw at them. Part of the fun to me it trying different flies to see what works in what conditions. To tie it in to the spin fishing world I used to throw zoom finesse worms in watermelon, black, or junebug or a zoom fluke 95% of the time. Most days I'd catch plenty of fish in cluding some big ones, but there would be days I'd only catch a few or only smaller fish. That's pretty much all I threw for maybe 4-6 years. a few years ago I started throwing tubes, walk-the-dog topwaters, jerkbaits, crankbaits, and all sorts of other lures in addition to my standbys. What I found was that while one lure may catch plenty of fiish in a given day, another would absolutely tear them upp, especially big boys. I could fish what I always did and catch fish or I could be come a more versitle angler and catch more and bigger fish every time out. The same applies to fly fishing. I could throw an adams every time and catch fish. I could add a small hare's ear dropper and probably catch even more. That said there'll be days where that's not what every fish wants and I won't have much luck. If I throw on a rainbow warrior or a klink or something else all together I may pull a few extra fish out of a hole. That's worth it to me.

I believe it's micro suede. I bought them precut from Chuck Kraft.

First fish of 2014. Crappie on a Chartruese and White Clouser.

Better view

Crittermite