andrew.da.cook

Thanks gents, I will get to work. All the of my Skis have came off the same fly in the past year. Needless to say that will be the one I will be tying!

Can I get it on this again?

Sorry gents, but it was on a pattern that wasn't from the swap. I fished most of the flies but by the second day I was rotating through others in my box.

Alright guys, I know I am down south so I have a bit of a head start, but finally can broke the almost year drought!!

+1 for what they are saying. Get a line that reduces minimum amount of false casting. It is especially important because the fly will(and I repeat WILL) be stripped all the way to the boat, so only a short amount of fly line should remain past the rod tip when preparing for the next cast. Rio outbound short is a great line for this. The rio pike/musky line in intermediate is a great all around line, but I would also look at the SA triple density sonar lines. I have started using them for musky to smallmouth and trout lines. Never have been disappointed.

Great tying fellas! Looking forward to getting mine wet in the next couple weeks.

You can get tungsten carbide plates from McMaster Carr and then machine the part that you need. Not sure of the application but I imagine that would be easier than mixing and working with epoxy.

I'm no guide but I am willing to help you out and swim them for toothies;) Good tying!

Glue is always going to have a spot on my desk along with lacquer. Knowing when to use them is key. I never understood people putting lacquer while attaching lead eyes (maybe someone could explain the thought process here?) but a glue will bound, lacquer will protect. I have generally a thin and thick of glue and lacquer as they all have their certain purpose.

+1. I now have two of these, one for all my rods and one for all my reels. I have a rod rack in the SUV and/or just keep them in my drifter, but over time they will start to rub where the supports for the rods are from driving. If you want your rod to be completely safe, nothing beats a tube.

And check out the whole bar series. There is always something to learn when you see these excellent fly tiers tying their own pattern and not someone walking through how the perceive the pattern to be tied.

I would do bucktail on the back half and craftfur on the head if anything. Traditional hollow fleyes were tied with just bucktail (the hollow semper fleye with hackles). The issue is you are limited to length of fly by the bucktail, typically ends up being from 3.5-8"(I have a couple tails with ~9" hair on them, I save that for special ties). Just remember the sparser the better and even distribution of fibers or whatever material you end up using.

UV resin on the tail until it extends beyond the bend of the hook.

When that happens to me, I will just recenter it, and throw some UV resin on top to give it more of buggy look to it. If I can't fix it then I just save it for the Spring River stockers.lol

My best bass on the fly. Got to love golf courses.

Went out this past weekend to do a bit more tweaking to some patterns. Moved 6 fish, 4 came into the figure 8 for a few turns, and one eat that came unbuttoned :/ I have had worse days, now time to start cranking out some flies!

Sage did come out with the bass series, then a few years later revamped the project with the bass II series adding a few different models and weights. These came with matching lines from 230 up to 390 grain short heads specifically for each rod. Knowing how to read and do basic math, when the line got worn out over years of use I was able to put on an appropriate line for the rod without getting the SPECIAL line. While certainly what they did was not ground breaking, and I have never fished a bass tournament, it is still a "specialty" rod in todays market of 8.6, 9, 10ft rods(although things are slowing starting to change). I will never understand why people are so sensitive about overlining rods with aggressive front tapers to making casting easier. If that is what an angler wants to do to help their casting, then by all means do it. Yes, it makes casting much easier while sacrificing presentation and overall distance but it also allows me to pick up a fly and in one backcast shoot my fly back to where I need it. That is more time in the water, more chances to be catching fish. Maybe I am too sensitive this morning, or trying to work out my Monday blues but simply buying into the sales pitch from Sage letting them do the R&D so I don't have to start cutting down fly rods and experiment with lines makes sense in my book. Call me loose-with-money fly fisherman, sure, new--sort of, but because I keep a couple of these rods in my boat while fishing for bass to trout to redfish doesn't make me/anybody gullible or stupid.

There is a lack of consistency to their hooks. The finish varies, the gaps differ throughout the pack, but are a good cheap hook. My only issue is every time I find a hook that I like when I got to order more there usually have changed the hook. Typically it is a better quality(better finish, improved strength) but the dimensions of the hook are changed so it's back to the drawing board to find the right sized hook. But free is free.

Does everybody have at least a 10wt? Thinking about whipping up a few more of these..

How are you tying your game changer? Use EP fibers and some flash in a dubbing brush(you may be able to use a dubbing loop, but brushes work better) and wrap your body all the way the sections. With a final trim you should end up with a castable fly on a 6wt.

I use prismatic tab eyes on patterns when I am trying to maintain a flies profile. Gluing on eyes would pinch the profile changing the swimming motion of the fly, maybe be cool for a different retrieve, but to me the whole point of the FGC is its profile from all angles. If you don't like the prismatic finish and still want realistic eyes, I either glue them onto the tab eyes, or glue them on to a hen feather which gives a cool eyes plus fins look to the fly.

The fly I would tie doesn't have a name, but it is 2 big game changing shanks attached to a 5/0 x-heavy worm hook. Tied with hackle tail, bucktail cones over body tubing body with a body tubing head.

I am interested if still open..

Are there times when an Olive/White would work better than a yellow/white? Sure, but I doubt the difference would be more than a fish, and if I am a catching fish on a fly, I am certainly not changing to see if another could work even better... That being said, there are times when matching naturals will work better than the crazy color combos, my personal favorite for SMB and trout-- Pink/Electric yellow.

This is just a snapshot from a video. I will try to get better pictures from the vice sometime. As far as casting these flies, I break it down into 5 steps. 1. Finish figure 8!!--Important for not only this fish, but sets up the whole casting proceedure. 2. Make a roll or flip cast towards your next target shooting a little line out. 3. Pick up fly and make your first back cast. By doing it this way, coming straight out of the figure 8, you will have a short line~10ft of fly line or so~this combined with the water still soaked in the fly should rod your rod well enough to shoot more line on your back cast. 4. False cast shooting more line-the water will be working its way off the fly from the first back cast so the rod should still be fairly balanced. 5. Back cast, when fly line/leader is completely straight, do a strong haul and shoot your cast. If you do this too early you loose your power, and will kink your articulated/game changer style fly. Too late and your fly hits the water, which usually is followed by some ninja dance move to avoid a couple 6/0 hooks. Doing it this way gets your fly back in the water quickly--you tend to catch more fish that way. But more importantly this less time spent casting and that the fly is in the air the less time for things to go wrong. For me, it is about shooting line, by the time I have the whole head of the fly line out, it is time to let go, keeping 50feet of fly line and a big bulky heavy fly in the air is not sustainable.