johnnyquahog

and to further hijack this thread; I have never used a vise; I have never seen anyone tie a fly and noone has ever seen me tie one. I have never read or had any fly tying instructions. Said by Carrie Stevens in a letter to Jospeh Bates. The words of a trailblazer. How fortunate we are to reap the benefits of a road paved by innovators before us, such as Mrs. Stevens.

Like riding a bicycle. You retired at 53... congratulations!

to add to the conversation here, I'm a big fan of the cauterizing tool. I tried the wood burner but it is too awkward for my style. You need to plug it in, I don't feel I have the same control and I'm always thinking it is going to fall on the floor and burn the carpet due to the sheer weight of the cord. The batteries last quite a few bugs. I use it mostly to form eye sockets in deer hair as in this 10" american eel I tied this morning. This is a 7.5 mm eye. I use beacon 527 as an adhesive and as mom used to say "it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye!".

Many guys coat the face and belly with watered down Liquid Fusion. I'm not sure what Umpqua is doing. Liquid Fusion is good stuff in that the chemicals won't damage your brain cells.

I see that the Bears Den now has this vise in their catalog. They refer to it as the TVR Spartan in the description. It does have that "buy me" look to it.

I'm surprised about the lack of success on the woolly or is it wooly bugger, maybe that's the problem. This has been my searching pattern for trout for 30 something years now. My bugger has evolved from using chenille to substituting seal to a combination of seal and other spikey (tyers dungeon) dubbings. The next step in the evolution is more of a Gartside sparrow where a dyed pheasant feather is wrapped soft hackle style instead of palmering a saddle hackle. I go back and forth and they both work. I must say that I've never done anything with an all white woolly bugger though yet I keep hearing about how effective they are.

Big honkin shiney brass base like those from the Bill Hunter HMHs from the 80's

Is the "well respected shop" processing their own hair? I'll bet they are simply selling you off the shelf pre-packaged Hairline, NatureSpirit or as Captain Bob mentioned, Wapsi processed hair. I've found that you really need to sort through a bunch of those packs to get what you want. If it was from one of these vendors then I'm surprised about the dying issues you describe. Unless you called them up and specified that if it is not a certain length then you don't want it then it is not their fault. Pat Cohen offers a decent product but don't expect to get the quality you see him using on the videos unless you request it. Whitetail Fly Tying, which used to be Chris Helm's place, has custom strips of hair in either natural white or bleached white. If they happen to have 2" hair you will pay a premium for it. The web site used to have, probably still does, a good explanation on how much usuable belly hair is on a typical whitetail and how scarce 2" hair actually if.

I feel your pain. I fish kettle ponds as well. If there is no activity on top my go to fly is a gartside sparrow which I fish like a wooly bugger. I use a slime line (slow intermediate). A couple years ago I started using the smallest swivel (actually I got the two smallest sizes from Cabela's display) on this rig with no apparent diference to the trout. The swivel increases the useful life of the leader, cuts down the twisting, lets me switch between stiffer 4x Maxima or a softer 4x or 5x or even 5.5x fluoro if I think it might make a difference. Other than a couple good days in October the fishing has been real slow which I attribute the the high water, and not catching a midge hatch. Tight lines..

I use and like the big Fugly. I also have two sizes of the Brassie and like those too. Pat deserves every penny for his innovative design. I can't imagine anybody producing the flies he does with the barrel of a bic pen but I suppose it is possible.

Used to pound the C&R section of the Swift river in Ma. These fish get educated after being caught a few times.... well some of them do. Classic dry flies had a short season. I caught many trout on a variety of ants, crickets, inch worms and bumble bees. These trout would not look at a hackled dry.

Chris Helm would approve!

I don’t think anyone has mentioned Sawdust And Stiches. They specialize in fly oriented shadow boxes in kit form, finished and custom. From scanning their web site they are a grade or two below museum and a few grades above your local craft/hobby store. I don’t believe the original poster is looking for museum quality.

Production Fly Tying is more of a reference book. There is a chapter on tools, tailing and materials, ribbing and materials, bodies and materials, wings and materials and hackling and materials. Remember this was for the person who was gearing up to sit at the vise and tie a bunch of consistant flies. It is not a pattern book. AK says that most desks are too high and most chairs too short for tying. Here I agree with him and never had a desire for one of those beautiful oak roll top desks that so often get posted. He gets into vises, bobbins, scissors and some home made tools. I recall searching everywhere for those Wiss scissors he raved about. When I finally found them I bought a few pair. I couldn't get used to them. He also liked the inexpensive S&M bobbin. I obtained some of those and again rarely used them. So from my perspective the tools chapter (unless the newer editions got revised) seems dated. Just think of the growing number today of hooks, threads, beads, dubbings, genetic hackle, plastic eyes, legs, dumbells and more. There are also many more choices today in selecting tools and lighting and such than when this book was published. Plus today, you can come to one of these forums and get all kinds of feedback and opinions on any topic related to fly tying. If you haven't been tying since the eighties you might feel like Rip Van Winkle walking into a shop like the Bears Den. The new tools and materials probably won't catch you any more fish but it's not about that. Or is it?

Production Fly Tying was published in 1989. Hard to believe it was that long ago. I adopted several of his suggestions from the book when setting up my bench and tying area. It sounds like you are beyond that stage. AK is still tying and you can own some of his flies for $40 a dozen. I think you will find that quite a bit has changed/evolved in the tying world since 1980. Welcome back! PS If you like AK Best then watch a few videos on youtube from Davie McPhail. He is a very, very efficient tyer as well.

If the ferrules fit nicely then just keep them clean. Before the use of modern adhesives the six strip bamboo rods were assembled using hide glue. If put away wet then over the years they tended to delaminate. Many of these rods were fished long and hard. The one thing I was taught was when putting the rod together; line up the guides first and press the sections together for a snug fit. Never, never twist the sections together. Now to take them apart... I use some cut up pieces of woven rubber place mat that you get at the dollar store to get a good grip on the bamboo and again never twist the sections apart and your rod will last another 50 years or a thousand fish, whichever comes first. tight lines!

Tied lots of surf candies over the years with super hair and 5 minute epoxy as well as popovic's ultra shrimp. Also used it as a core to stiffen up softer synthetic fibers in salt water streamer patterns.

I totally concur with vicente. Gel Spun doesn't seem suitable for streamers in that there are several better choices. Gel Spun is ideal for stacking deer hair. If you are talking saltwater size 1/0 - 4/0 then Danville flat waxed nylon is or was a popular choice when I was cranking them out. There are more choices with all the designer threads available today. There must be an online thread chart someplace.

I too was curious about the rationale of getting a regal knockoff when you are used to tying on a quality vise. Another option might be to just get a c-clamp allowing you to set your vise up while on the road and lighten the load a pound or two. Jack Gartside used to tie with a Regal clamped to the steering wheel of his yellow cab while waiting for fares (most likely while bogarting a butt).

David Mcphail does this fly on utube using the more common deer hair body. I like how he protects the tail while working on the body although not sure why he doesn’t leave the protective tape on a bit longer.

I was fishing the South Holston and Watauga Rivers in TN. I usually use a 12' 6X leader down there, and this time used 7X fluoro tippet. My fly setup was a #18 BWO flavored Klinkhamer with about a 12" dropper of the same 7X to this midge. A small handful or trout took the BWO Klink and over 90% of them took the midge. I was fishing shallow runs on both rivers, with the flow being faster on the Watauga than the Soho where we were fishing. On the Watauga I was just fishing blind to "fishy" looking shallow runs, and on the Soho I was sight fishing to rising trout. Funny thing was, they were rising to BWO's, but almost always took the midge on the short dropper. thanks for the story that goes with the fly. I can't even see the 7x flouro in the photo.

Cream - curious, how are you fishing these chironomids if you don't mind? Stillwater? Indicator? 6x+? one fly? xtra long leader? Thanks for sharing your magic.

While your question is specific to tools and tool kits you will also need a few other items to get you going. When I read this I visualized you finally getting the 3 or 4 basic tools you need to get started but not the materials for the fly you want to tie or the hooks in the model or size suitable for the quarry you are after. If that is the case then why not bundle the remaining tools (bobbin, whip finisher and bodkin) into one order along with a couple spools of thread, some hooks and those materials you need to tie the first three patterns you plan on tying. There are a few places that have their own line of tools as well as hooks that cater to the budget conscious. Hook and Hackle (hookhack) on the internet is one of those places. There are, of course, others. HookHack has sample hook packs plus some very decent tools that won't have you breaking the piggy bank. good luck and tight wraps! ps - by the way, if you get get your order up to $35 they will ship it for free which is ~ a $6 savings.

For the bench I like the Millstream Ripple Foam found on Ebay and hundreds of fly shops. (check it out) It comes in sizes as large as 12" x 15" and can be cut in half or quarters. The ripple foam gives you a good perspective of what you have tied as your flies are all lined up like soldiers in formation waiting to go into a master fly box or your working boxes. Don't rule out zip lock bags in several sizes. Not too practical for dries but I often use them to store or mail some wet flies, soft hackles, wooly buggers as well as the 2x5 and 2x8 bags that folks use for saltwater streamers. Your fly storage will evolve over the years from Altoid tins to designer boxes and they all work for a particular situation.

Thanks for the intel. Hope you don't mind more questions. Do the regulations call for barbless hooks only or is that your own choice? Do you use a turle knot, double davy or some other knot to attach the #22 and smaller hooks? I looked up the trouthunter material. I wasn't familiar with half sizes or 10X. Learned something new.