Flat Rock native

eide and piker 20, Those are some fine fishcatchers. Eide, the vise I went with is found at www.hmhvises.com and is the Premium Tube Vice Package. It was $269 at full retail. It is their top of line model with tube jaws and standard jaws. There may be others that work as well, I went with this because I shop local when it is not stupid to do so, and my Sheridan, WY flyshop was an HMH dealer. I am very happy so far and a local commercial tier uses this vice for all production and recommended too.

Will test this one in 2014, see if the Wyoming trout like it as much as I suspect.

Bassmaster 876, I agree with Piker20, I think it will be a fishcatcher. Pike flies with Marabou and Rabbit have great movement but get chewed easily, while synthetics are more durable-although they may cost more and may sacrifice some movement. It is a balancing game. Personally, I am liking synthetics combined with salt yak hair for many of my own, because when the pike are on the bite they are very aggressive and a small loss of movement seems irrelevant, and rabbit can get hard to cast when soaked, IMHO. The Prince of Pikes with yak added is a model I prefer. In 2014 I will see if the local tiger Muskies agree, too.

FFJam, Thanks- you are the King

ffJam, Those are all some incredible examples of fish catchers and fisherman catchers. I want to copy all of them for my 2014 fly boxes. Any chance you would be willing to step-by-step those carp models. I need every advantage I can get on the local carp pods, they kick my a55 about every time out (except twice when 15 pounders towed my kayak, actually worked better than the drag on my cheap reel) and are very discriminating eaters. Current score is Carp 365-Kenduardo 2, but now I am hooked on chasing them. So help me out if you have the time tp post again or PM me.

And I have a 12wgt Sage for Saltwater use which will handle it without trouble. I have friends and relatives that will no doubt want to try it with spinning gear, too.

It will throw with my 8wgt and lighter rods with a sinking tip or sinking line. It weighs about as much as a Double Bunny when the rabbit strips are soaked. Akin to casting a wet sock on the end of your line I used the ammo casing because the fly rattles are not cheap but I may need to make it lighter for more applications. It should be real tough and resist the toothy critters and should work good when fishing from watercraft which is mostly what I do.

eide, I posted this tube slider in the fly tying bench under separate topic with a few details and will add to database. It is tied on an aluminum tube with gel pen grip body and total size is about 4 inches with some tailing a bit longer. I am going to try soon for copies of the two-three you put up and thanks for inspiration. This vise works so well, especially with metal tubes and thread torque is not an issue and the tubes never spin. Then has full rotary. This is the most expensive vice I own, the rest are all cheap knock-offs or entry level models I picked up with "big lots" from ebay. Very happy and should have done this years ago. Have not tried the standard jaws that came with it but will convert when I get tired of tubes. Have a large number to try out. So little time, so many objectives........

Will put into fly data base. Basis popper-slider construction with: Rattle built from .17HMR shell casing, glass beads, steel .17 bb, crimp neck of shell Eyes built from gold craft bead-plastic, burned weed-eater mono, black Sharpie Legs bead stretch cord Tailing materials: Large domestic turkey, white bucktail, silver xmas fine mylar tinsel, pink bucktail Body -pink and white Schlappen, Gel pen grip from Office Depot

Another craft store coup. circulars should work great on tippet attached disc, and will be great on tubes or long-shanked hooks where you don't interfere with the hook gap. Still thinking about uses for the others but you can never have too many options when trying to head-up a baitfish pattern.

alpine4x4, Looks like your last month was well spent. Good job on both, and they will catch fish. You have come to the right place, imho- FTF is the superior site of it's kind on the www.com, but there are hundreds from which to choose, depending on what you want to twist up.

And I should have said anything by Barry Reynold's too

Agreeing with Fish for Life as pike flies can be very basic. Personally, I think bi-colored flies with light and dark contrast are most productive. the major retailer online catalogs will give you plenty of ideas. Here is a short list of easy to tie patterns, colors are your choice, but red/white are go-to,: Blanton's Flashtail Whistler Clousers Deceivers Prince of Pikes Anything by Derrick Roethermal (See Flytiers pages at Han's W. new site, not suggesting all are simple to tie) Pink Wonders (Steve Schullery is a major advocate of this one for dozens of species, and correct as applied to trout per my "research." There is also a forum topic on pike flies with recent posts and nice photos that began in April 2013, I think. Cannot help with the Steelies, wish I could but I have not had opportunity to pursue any so have not tied for them. Good luck and have fun.

eide, Beautiful work on that tube. Now I am inspired to go back to tubes for next ties. Ironically, I have been working on some nymphs and emergers, so back to the big ones for me.

They cast fine if you do not have to double haul or false cast to hit the zone. The cast fine on 8wt floating line or 5wgt and up with a sinking tip. I have used the sequins and they are ok but the craft bead on the Kenduardo's Sonic MicroMink is a better model. They thrown fine with my Betters' Custom which is basically a 5.5 wgt. First test drive on a public trophy catch and release lake -which gets totally hammered by the area locals- with tremendous natural forage and very picky eaters produced a 6.6 pound Rainbow that hopefully is still growing. I believe the trout use the lateral line to sense food as much as eyesight and thus anything that moves water is going to improve your chances.

Smurf Emerger size 18-16's are go to patterns in my area. Have captures smaller live ones in bug net but not frequently

Nice work, Luca. We successfully use the Orange Blossom Special for many trout waters and your Muddler is a fine specimen with similar traits.

Hope flytire does not give it up on this site but that is a long bucket list, he may need to quit posting just to get all that admirable stuff done. One of mine now will be to try to remember to disagree without being disagreeable. I hate the idea that any contributors are being driven away by caustic and personal attacks. The last people we should be emulating are the members of US Congress and hopefully we will all benefit from more honorable argument, debate and give-and-take in 2014 and beyond.

Will check out the help forum, and I would gladly walk 3 miles to catch a +/- 3 pond smallie almost any day, need the exercise and love the bronze bugeaters.

Thank you, I will be checking the pictures.

Confession time: I have frequently fished a live grasshopper on a bare #12 hook. When I could catch some, I just hooked from top of thorax into the chest plate, then cast downstream at 90-45 degree angle, stripping out a lot of slack and trying to keep control of about 9 feet of line if strike occurred. Usually, when the little beasts were kicking their little legs and splashing about, they did not survive to the end of the drift. When they did survive to the end of drift, I still caught many fish stripping the line back -about one foot increments. Once caught a big golden trout on a Joe's Hopper, in Wind River range, in a glacial lake about 1/2 mile above the timberline, there wasn't a real hopper within 5 miles of the place. I think there is something instinctual bored into the trout's brain and hoppers rule in moving water in August. Good luck with tying and fishing these patterns-many very cool and innovative, thanks for putting up the topic.

Here are few from my archives, Sampler. If you run a Google Images search - Dave's Hopper Fly Pattern- there are many variant's shown. Have fun, I may have to tie up a Rummy's Dummy for old times sake, it is simple and one of the first things I learned to tie back in the early days. Worked well on the Sweetwater River browns and Little Wind River cutthroats.

Piker20, There is a long history of specific grasshopper patterns like Joe's Hopper and Dave's Hopper but since foam an even larger selection has evolved. Almost any major fly retailer will have several imitations among their inventory Usually, a yellow Trude, or Humpy or Yellow Stimulator will imitate the majority of hoppers we see in Wyoming, having a similar profile and coloration. We also had a local pattern known as a Rummy's Dummy that was basically tied like the traditional Yellow Grayback. Yellow Double Humpy very popular on Snake River in Western Wyo. Simple and durable is premium because the fish just pound them when keying on land dwelling bugs.

Thanks Piker20

Piker20, Yes, I meant the shortest length of the tube but smallest diameter tube would also be of interest. I have a bunch of those crimp tubes from my lure building materials but never thought of using them for a tube fly. How do you attach the hook on the smaller types?