wschmitt3

Flafly- I didn't see it until just now, I was going to ask then I saw your last post.

Eide, My vote is for the long rubber legs.

Stm and fishforlife, Tying the multi color deer hair bugs like you guys have done here is like some kind of mystical process that simply amazes me. I have tried a few two tone with black and orange alternating stripes and they were absolutely terrible. I can spin for muddlers and hoppers but not consistently well I get two good ones for every three I tie but what you guys do is amazing.

Hats off to all these tiers, very nice work gents.

-Will

Haha, thats very funny.

Yea, Vermont and NH can fish the Connecticut River Dec 31 - mid April catch and release with artificial only. I have been out a few times the last few days but no luck yet.

Took these today at a spot I fish a few hundred feet from my apartment. Not great photos or anything its just where I fish. Pretty good fishing water most of the time, dangerous wading because of very strong current. No luck after fishing a few hours the last few days though.

The collapsed bank in the pictures has slowly been making its way into the water for the last two years and now that mass of soil is sitting right on exposed gravel I used to fish from. I hope that when we get some rains and high waters it cleans it off because it was pretty good fishing in that channel against the bank and as it is now its unreachable with out climbing up on that unstable mass of soil.

That is awesome, great fish!

I have two suggestions.

1. Don't worry about upgrading the vise just yet. I use a Danvise and like it just fine, I have some complaints about jaws wearing out but you are don't have to worry about that for some time, but tying on a Danvise is just fine. Wait till you get more into tying before buying a new vise. Just my two cents on that.

2. All of the suggestions people made here for patterns to start with are great. I would scale it down if it were me, say maybe four patterns. Maybe start with a few of these, basic soft hackle patterns, gold ribbed hare's ear (bead and not), pheasant tail nymph (bead and not), black woolly buggers (again bead and not), and a simple dry fly (suggestions... x-caddis, elk hair caddis, harrop's hair wing dun, f-fly, ect.....)

By scaling down the number of flies in your initial set of practice flies you make it easier to select quality materials and focus on a few tying skills and materials rather than trying to take on the large number of skills needed for tying 10 different flies. In addition you will find that if you picked any of the four patterns I suggested you can tie a bunch of other flies with the materials for those flies and maybe just a thing or two extra.

A few things I would suggest getting right off the bat is assortments of natural rabbit or squirrel dubbing like SLF (synthetic living fibre), a dry fly dubbing like super fine and ice dub (Waspi makes good assortments of these things). Also a few different colors of 6/0 threads (black, olive, brown, grey, red), peacock herl and swords, rabbit mask in a few colors, Hungarian partridge skin, pheasant tail, copper and gold wire, some beads, some dry fly and nymph hooks a patch of elk and deer hair in natural colors, natural color cdc feathers.

Also check out Oldhat's website it has good stuff for beginner tiers.

Just spent a bit going through your tying lessons section. Very nice. I wish I had seen this site when I had just gotten started.

Well Done Sir,

-Will

David - I think the guy at the show was saying that the selection of feathers and all of the pictures of the feathers was arousing. I think that the "something from a porn store" comment was intended to say that the packaging was unmarked or plain packaging as in the "discreetly packaged" deliveries that contain things people don't want others to find about about. No one blames you for not getting it.

Barry - What online retailer have you ever known to send out a replacement product before they got the original item back? Thats just plain unreasonable. Pretty much the only thing I don't buy online is food and I have never demanded or expected that a business I purchased something from send me a new item before I send in the item I was not satisfied with and I dont think any one would fulfill that demand.

So Warren G your saying that a pool noodle is a good way to "Regulate" your fishing rigs?

One last submission for march. I am trying to photograph and post more of my flies. I don't like how my photos come out, (always blurry, so so blurry) my point and shoot doesn't have a manually select able macro setting just auto and it is very had to get it to focus correctly. This is my first attempt at a Usual

Whats wrong with that cape? It looks like it has really nice barring.

Sculpinmaster, your flies are awesome!

BCT, Your being way too picky about that fly, I dont see one thing wrong with it. The shuck looks good, body is nicely tapered and the wing is formed well and proportionate.

Seriously? I don't think there is anything dodgy about the products I got from Feather Emporium or the packaging. This matter of not getting products that were ordered is concerning but I am actually much happier with the items I got from F.E. in zip lock bags than the products I got in a whiting package. I purchased a package of 4 whiting half capes from Cabela's and the quality was terrible, they were all way too webby for dry flies. I literally have not touched them in two years. The stuff I've gotten from Feather Emporium has been very high quality and has all come in zip-lock bags, to date I have gotten five or six half capes, two full capes, 3 or 4 100 packs, some bugger hackle, grizzly wing feathers, 3 Brahma Hen with chickabo skins, a hen cape and a partridge skin. I have absolutely no complaints about these products. If I had I would have gotten my money back or a replacement product.

When it comes down to it it's what is in the bag that matters and if your not happy with what came in yours you should have asked for refund or replacement. I am betting you would have gotten it especially if you ordered with paypal.

"Buying in bulk and reselling at premium prices" so what? This is what all retail operations do that's how a profit is made. I would bet if he were claiming to be selling whiting products and wasn't they would be issuing cease and desist orders and suing him into bankruptcy.

I'm wicked jealous! I just got out for the first time this season yesterday afternoon and for an hour this afternoon. No catches yet but with water temperatures in the mid thirties and things still thawing out it will be a bit yet before things pick up.

Nice Fish!

Very nice fish that's a hell of a way to start the season.

That's a real bummer you haven't gotten your stuff yet. At this point you should be taking action with either your card company or Pay Pal.

When was the last time you had contact with him?

I was just getting ready to make an order with him, now I'm thinking about not.

Tied up some parachute adams today this one is size 16, tied up 4 of these, also tied up 4 size 18. It took 3 hours to tie these 8 flies because I had at least one hackle break on each fly. So frustrated but they all came out ok.

So like the title says I found this fly rod on the side of the road a few years ago in a case with the reel pictured. It is 2-piece, it seems to be a 4-weight but has no weight markings on it it just says Diamondback Graphite. It has a tip and guide wrap repair (poorly done) I think it's missing an inch or so and the ferrule doesn't hold together very well. For you rod builders/fixers and guys who have more years of knowledge than I do. Do you know the brand of the rod? Is it worth putting a few dollars into to get it into fishing form.

Nice tight head. Looks good.

Great advise Chase Creek, The remnants have been the culprit in several hackle slips for me. Also, I have used a pencil eraser as a cushion. I lost the little rubber thing on a hackle plier once and I squared off one side of a pencil eraser and jammed it onto one side and it worked fine for quite a while.

I use Griffin Hackle Pliers and they are pretty good for $2.50. I have a pair of the arrow points and they are pretty good.you can get in nice and close but I dont think they are much better than my regular Dr. Slick multipurpose scissors.

Love my Simms Guide G3 boots. Very Comfortable walking and good grip performance when wading on slippery rocks. Get what fits you comfortably, in my opinion that is the most important thing.

I think FlaFly meant polarized but he is right. Polarized is a must.

I wear a pair of Oakley Holbrooks with very dark almost black polarized lenses, I've had them for many years and I really like them for general use but they aren't the best for fishing. Brown is better, I had a pair of brown lenses I could pop in when fishing for a short while but I lost one, they were better than the black lenses they made it easier to see through the glare on the water. They are starting to wear out at the hinges after a few years of daily use so I have been shopping around for a new pair for fishing and I am quite interested in a couple of the Smith Optics Glasses with the Chromapop lenses. I've tried them on a few times and they are pretty awesome the lenses are amazingly clear and distortion free.

I feel like sunglasses are a thing that have to be picked out for the individual. You have to get out there and try on all the sunglasses you can. That's the only way you will get glasses you love and you want to love your sunglasses.

As for suggestions about what you should get I wouldn't make specific suggestions but I will say a few things...

-Buy Quality, That is the #1 thing don't get cheap glasses

-Polarized or nothing, Non-polarized glasses are utterly pointless

-Buy glasses that have replaceable lenses, I have replaced my lenses several times over the years its much better than buying new glasses when you get a scratch. I buy the replacements from Revant Optics and they are really good quality replacements and much cheaper than the Oakley lenses.

-Get a tether or retainer or what ever you want to call it so you don't loose them. I would probably cry if i lost my glasses to the river.

Hope that helps

Thanks. Yours also.