Jacks Grampa

Well done. After 42 years in a repair business I too keep bits, pieces and threaded things. Coffee cans work well for storage and a shop towel to pour them onto and back into the can after you've sorted through and found what you need. 

I'll try the wire wrap. The hackle is what's being chewed apart.

Slick process. Do you cast your own jig heads?

They are healthy and the water is clean. Lots of structure and bait fish. It's a tailrace so the water stays fairly cool even in summer. Saw an osprey the other day which is a good sign. Time to tie some more wooly buggers. I only get about three fish before they're torn up.

Learning where some of the larger bass are now.

Hopper dropper. Size 12 foam hopper and size 16 bead head prince for the dropper. It's about 50/50 which they hit.

It runs through the middle of Austin but gets very light fishing. Good healthy fish that love a fly.

I'm catch and release too unless they're hooked in the gills and bleeding out.

Nice bug and pretty fish. Crappie is the one freshwater fish I sometimes keep.

That fish was 3" if that helps.

I caught a small Guadalupe bass the other day. State record for them is only 3.71 pounds. I thought it might have been a Guadalupe fry but I'm not sure.

They are pretty and healthy. I never thought I'd see this fishery as clean and healthy as it is now.

I learned to back a trailer in the Army. We used to race jeeps with trailers. In reverse. You get to backing pretty well when there's a case of good German beer to the first one across the line.

I am enjoying the boat. I had to give up motorcycling when I wrecked a knee. At the gym with a" Master Trainer". The orthopedic surgeon said "Overweight and over 50 lunges should be illegal". 23 year old trainer didn't understand 63 year old bodies. I miss the bike but I'm really enjoying fishing more. Didn't catch anything yesterday worth posting a picture of but my casting is improving.

I saw the tweezers for a bargain of only $499.99. I read everything he wrote and learned a lot. I remember him writing that he doesn't really have a pattern down until he's tied a hundred dozen.

Lady Bird Johnson was a big part of that. After she passed away the city renamed it in her honor. I've been around it and Barton Creek for nearly 60 years and they're nicer now  than I've ever seen. Not heavily fished either. I'll be back out Monday morning.

After I posted I checked ebay and found a pair of tweezers of his. His facebook page hasn't been active in 3 years but at that time he was in Bozeman MT. Sorry about the vise.

They are healthy. These were the largest of the day but there were 3 more bass and at least a dozen sunfish.

Did A.K. ever get his tying tools business off the ground? I remember his adds in Flyfisherman magazine but never saw them in catalogs.

They are that and until a few years ago that river was so polluted you didn't go near it.

18 hours ago, Mark Knapp said:

Just google "popular fly patterns" and pick the ones you like the most. You should do what you want to do, something that intrigues you, not what someone else wants you to do.

If it were me I'd do some classics like Gold Rib Hairs Ears and Light Cahills because, they are classics and they are building blocks to other more complicated flies.

By far, the most popular flies will be panfish/bass flies and classic trout flies because that's what most people fish, so if you want a national following, do those. Very few people fish for deep sea fish so you may not get as big a following if you do those.

Good luck.

+1 on the classics. Royal Wolfe comes to mind as does elk hair caddis. Not a classic but Dave's hopper has some interesting technique.

I glued foam into Sucrets tins when I first started.

Been fishing a new place and I'm beginning to learn where they are. Not really new but I've never had a boat before. The 11 inch sunfish is pretty good size for around here. The surprise of the day was the bass on a size 16 bead head prince.

56 minutes ago, The Mad Duck said:

I normally fish out of a kayak, but, the ramps that we use are closed at the moment, so, I'm pond fishing at the moment I am well schooled in the wind/no wind conundrum when in a boat. I figured out to use a wind sock. It actually helps some. I have anchor trollys on my kayaks and a wind sock helps take advantage of the wind! AND....yea, the magnet theory makes a LOT of sense. I still think a fly rod causes wind too.

Definitely. The lighter the rod the more the wind.