johnnyquahog

This navigation hint may help someone…or maybe not. I use an iPad to access the forum. I’ve tried safari, edge, chrome and now DuckDuckGo browsers. Using the newer DuckDuckGo browser I am able to accelerate the navigation between pages. It is still quirky but cleaner. If on page 9 and I want to jump to the previous page or say page 6 I simply touch the link button (1 or 2 seconds) that I want to jump to and a small pop-up preview page appears. Click in the pop up preview page and the page I am on is dismissed and the target page appears. In chrome I was generating multiple tabs that required cleaning up or dismissing. Not so in DuckDuckGo.

Thanks cphubert. On the clear gorilla glue; I’m a fan of Paul Monaghan and his videos. He has allergies to most adhesives and finishes his eyes with the polyurethane gorilla product as opposed to solarez or any of the light cured acrylics. He prefers the flat Mylar eyes saying the 3d style eyes have a backing on them which is usually where the eye will fail if it survives that long. So I’ve only done 10-12 flies using the gorilla. It will shrink just a little as it cures so I hope to get better at compensating for that. I don’t expect it to yellow or amber up. It is viscous so it does need to be rotated for thirty minutes or so. Monaghan has a video on how he applies it. I’m going to stick with it for now. Below are a few flat eyes coated in clear gorilla. It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye.

Bucktail Deceiver hook - 1/0 Ahrex minnow tail - bucktail / saddle hackles / flash belly & wing - white bucktail, flash, gray strung fuzzy fiber & gray bucktail gills - small pinch of Congo hair eyes - 1/4” 3d covered with gorilla clear glue and dried on turner

While I haven’t purchased any; there are sellers of both white and dyed turkey rounds (secondary feathers) on Etsy.com. It might be worth a quick look. Good luck.

Kudos! Great job on the Blue Devil. You definitely went above and beyond.

This is a confidence fly for me. Better directions can be found on jackgartside dot com and he also ties it on YouTube. I’ve also been lucky enough to watch him tie it a couple of times. He was a true trout bum. These are part of a set of 16 going to casting for recovery. Hook - size 10, 12 or 8. These are size 10 tiemco 5263 but any 2x or 3x works. thread - I use 8/0 in black, olive, tan or orange tail - short marabou fluffy feathers from ring neck pheasant or turkey. I also use pine squirrel clumps. Keep tail short / hook gap to 1/3 length. body - dubbing; above are Whitlock blends. Spikey hares ear or squirrel, rabbit synthetic sparkley blends work well. collar - see picture; natural or dyed pheasant rump feather. Concave side folded back extended to end of tail and beyond. Only one turn according to jack. I usually do two complete turns to get good distribution of barbules. head - aftershaft feather(s) taken from base of rump feather. This delicate feather is tied in and stroked back against the collar. I’m good with five turns and six is better. Moist fingers help. Electric test grabbers may help but I prefer just fingers. whip finish - try to keep the whip finished head smaller than my ties above. above is an olive dyed rump feather along side the aftershaft feather. Snip the rump feather right above the fluff, wax thread and tie onto hook concave side down, take a turn or two and secure with a couple wraps of thread stroking/shaping feather rearward. This fly can be fished as a nymph or streamer. these were tied by Gartside who passed away way too early. All black or peacock herl body is called an “evening star”. I need to review this thread to see what pattern hasn’t been done. next challenge: any Carrie Stevens style trolling streamer for landlocked salmon or trout. From Mickey Finn to grey ghost and beyond. Thanks and tight wraps.

I will pick up the Gartside sparrow since I am working on them for donations.

Some of the first nymphs I tied was Polly Rosborough’s Casual Dress. I think I have his book ‘tying the fuzzy nymph’. Another popular one (mid 80’s) I watched Dave Whitlock tie is his red fox squirrel nymph. I have half a fox squirrel skin buried in my materials. Then in 1986 Randall Kaufman published his ‘fly tyers nymph manual’. My fuzzy memory also recalls a fly called Ted Trueblood’s otter nymph. These are all pre bead-head.

After watching a few impressive tyers on YouTube earlier this year using Nayat I bought a few packs. I only did a handful of saltwater (deceiver) baitfish to imitate 3”-4” peanut bunker. The material lends itself to blending with flash, creating dubbing loops or incorporating with bucktail or synthetic fibers to get the look and bulk you want. The long stuff needs to be brushed out with a pet brush or fine comb.. There is quite a bit of underfur which is not a problem. The black hank I received really does not want to be tamed but I suspect the dying process made it unruly. I think the best use for Nayat is with pike fly patterns where 8” lengths of hair and long saddles are called for. This is between arctic fox and polar bear but doesn’t have the translucency of PB. I can’t think of any trout flies that would benefit by subbing another material with nayat but I’m no innovator. Maybe I don’t want t know what it is. I don’t want to know what is in that hot dog but sometimes they taste great. I prefer tying with bucktail but expect to still fish some Nayat or hybrid streamers next season. I lost this fly to a bluefish on the second cast.

How about a 41 prewar Ford. Not mine but I can imagine putting my bamboo rod, hardy reel with silk line and wicker creel in the back and heading off to the river for the evening hatch.

There is a wealth of info on the net on fly fishing the flats from flies to equipment to safety. I often read that the most important item to have is a compass. The fog will literally kill you. Polaroids are a must for sight fishing. I’m a fan of rigid plastic baskets. I don’t want to lose a “fish of a lifetime” due to poor line management/stepping on my line. Around $40 on Amazon solves that. I think sand eel flies are #1 and there must be a hundred sand eel patterns. Baitfish (natural or synthetic), shrimp and small crabs are also popular on the flats. I’d include small one or two-feather flatwings in the mix.. I’m not a big clouser fan but they catch more stripers than any other fly. Verses have been written about saltwater leaders. If trying to turn over a big fly, combined with distance then you want the most energy transferring directly from the fly line to the leader. This equates to a stiff butt section of slightly less diameter than the end of the fly line and with a 9wt line translates to #50 or #60 hard mono or fluorocarbon. The next section of leader should also be stiff. I use #40 fluoro. Your leader only needs to be made up of two sections with a small perfection loop on each end and joined with an efficient knot (blood knot is good). This leader system assumes you have a welded loop at the end of your fly line. Attach your 12# to #20 tippet using the loop to loop method. The butt should be longer than the second section and tippet combined. Example; 4’ of butt, 2’ of middle section and 1.5’ of tippet should turn over any fly in light winds. Having said all that you probably don’t want to fish big flies on the flats. Except for the tippet a saltwater leader can last many moons. Flies should be 1/0 and smaller. Again, there is a ton of info on the net. Don’t get caught up in the technical baloney, like my leader description above. Thousands of stripers have been landed on a straight shot of 20 lb mono. Stay safe.

Nayat Deceiver hook is Ahrex short curved shank 1/0 thread is white nano silk, then clear mono for head body is olive Nayat and flash blended on top and white Nayat blended with flash on bottom, dubbed flash filler in middle of the hook shank. stick on eyes & head finished with crystal clear poly gorilla glue (supposed to be brain cell friendly) downside is needs to be placed on a drying wheel to set and cure

Tabory Snake Fly Hook is Ahrex 270 in 2/0 thread is gsp 100 tail is white bucktail, 6 or 7 white saddle hackles, 12 white ostrich herl, 3 white marabou blood feathers head / collar red deer belly hair, head white deer belly

Nayat & Bucktail Deceiver Hook- Ahrex minnow in 1/0 Thread - nano silk in 18/0 white, finish in flat wax nylon Tail - pairs of white saddles on bucktail platform Body - alternate 360 degrees around hook shank using bucktail and brushed out Nayat 180 degrees on top and bottom. Add a small amount of flash. note - Giovanni (YouTube) inspired. I’d be surprised if Lefty ever used 18/0 nano or Nayat.

A mini Beast Fleye (Popovics) Hook: 3/0 or 4/0 straight eye saltwater, ~4” mono extension Thread: clear mono Tail: white saddle hackle Body: several reverse tied 360 degree small clumps of bucktail finish with pinch of pink on the bottom and grey on top and a bit of flash. Eyes: 3d or stick-on Note: try to mimic illusion of prevalent baitfish. In this case either river herring or bunker/menhaden. See G. Brammer or other’s vids for reverse tying technique on YouTube. 1st Picture shows fleye in a 2” x 8” ziplock bag.

Kinky Muddler This is a Jonny King fly Hook: 2/0 Varivas 2600 Thread: .006 clear mono Tail: small bunch of white bucktail platform under three pair of saddles tied tent wing style. White, olive and barred chartreuse Body: wild olive over white Farrrah blend tied V style (see YouTube vids) Eyes: goop on 3d eyes, brush over with diluted Liquid Fusion to make indestructible comment: this is a 6" fly. Can be tied larger or smaller in all kinds of colors to imitate baitfish as well as several different brands of synthetic materials.

A pair of larger Bop ‘Pop’ bulkhead deceivers in 7” length. 2/0 or 4/0 hook white saddle hackle - six or so saltwater length bucktail 5 or 6 turns of ep brush (Enrico Puglisi) reverse tied bucktail before hook eye to build bulk. flashabou or Krystal flash

Flies meant to target Striped Bass or Stripers which should be showing up in Buzzards Bay in ~6 or so weeks from now. Deceivers can take on lots lo looks. These are 5” and mostly bucktail, flash, and peacock herl.. Popovics inspired Bulkheads are designed to push water. These are two feather flatwings. A pair of saddles, contrasting dark over light bucktail, 7 strands of peacock herl, flash and eyes. 5”.

Back when subscriptions to fly fishing magazines were a thing I had read an article on scissors. It mentioned that most professional sharpeners were not skilled (sharpening and tuning) in fly tying scissors. It also had listed a few of those that were reputed to be good at it. I sent a pair of straight, one side serrated Thompsons to the first person on the list and got them back much better than new along with a mailer kit for next time. Those old scissors still have a lot of flies left in them. Does dr. Slick recondition their scissors?

Bob Popovics patterns often incorporate ostrich. These are larger flies, lets say 6” to 16”. His hollow deceiver, reverse hollow deceiver, bulkhead deceiver and beast fleyes may have long strands, the longer the better of ostrich tied in with the bucktail. Jason Taylor is just one of several tyers working with ostrich on YouTube. I’m thinking Gunnar Brammer has ostrich in some of his Popovics style flies as well. Ostrich just comes alive in the water. I have no doubt that you could catch a couple dozen striped bass on one of these patterns and still have some beat up ostrich attached to the hook. On the other hand, one or two blue fish might ruin it. Good ostrich in long lengths is expensive and so is long, greater than 5” bucktail. Look at some of Gunnar’s recent videos on thread control and bucktail. These larger bait fish patterns use a technique that works best with the hair that flairs found on the lower 40% of the bucktail. If you want to go the synthetic route then you may want to check out Jonny King’s kinky muddler. Just my peanut gallery observations.

I like this style of fly. Kudos! I just gifted four dozen seal dubbing looped buggers in black. I haven’t tied one using chenille in 20 years. I use it as a searching pattern on a slime line when no trout are visible.

Hook: #10 or #12 wet, this is a Varivas Weight: 5 or so wraps of 025 lead wire Thread: 8/0 uni Body: light olive to dark olive seal using dubbing loop technique Rib: gold ultra wire Wing: two wraps of chartreuse pine squirrel using dubbing loop technique

Bill Peabody commercialized the use of woven Mylar threads in saltwater fly tying. Unfortunately Bill passed away way too young in 1998. He was a saltwater fly designer, tying instructor, saltwater guide and one of the nicest guys on the planet. Bill’s bodi braid or Bill’s body braid is available in lots of fly shops in lots of colors. I believe there are a couple of YouTube vids where he ties his Rhode Island Flat Wing pattern as well as a few other patterns. The braid maybe more familiar to northeast salty guys.

Saltwater flies that were once constructed using 5 minute epoxy are good candidates for the thick resin. These include but are not limited to Mikkelson’s epoxy baitfish series, Bob Pop’s surf candies, his ultra shrimp and sand eels. Bob (a pioneer in both epoxy and acrylics) and most progressive tyers have advanced to the acrylics. I’m still living in an epoxy world for these patterns. I equate the thin resin as a modern replacement for the two ton or 30 minute epoxy for thinner coats and where a rotisserie motor was required for curing. YMMV.

Now there is a vise you don’t see everyday. I think the A.K. best McKensie is pretty rare as are the accessories. Nice!