Steve P

I am doing something all wrong I've never been able to successfully land a gar on a rope fly. I always tie very simple zonker flies on 2x #10 steamer hooks. Slam that hook home on the first hit and my ratio is pretty high. I fish a lot of gar here. Steve

Tyvek is one of the best materials I have ever found for stone nymph wingcases. Tie it in and then color with a sharpie or prisma or copic or whatever. Go to the nearest office store (or wally world) and buy a package of Tyvek envelopes. Cut with scissors to desired width and tie is anhs normal. Steve

You know they sound like you're stepping on a kitten when you shoot them with your bow??? No kidding, the worst sound you can imagine multiply it by 3 and that's. The noise they make when shot with an arrow. Steve

That's actually a really good looking fly. Just for giggles you may throw a boit in for the body portion as opposed to thread and wire. Would give a super buggy look.

Just like rockworm said... borax and salt. I mix 50/50 kosher salt to borax and rub the skin down really good after scraping. Then apply a generous amount and press flat. Check next day and remove and reapply. Daily until I check and its dry all over, and I mean dry as a bone everywhere. I also add a couple table spoons of seven dust to the mix to discourage mites. That step is frowned upon by many so use it at your own discression. Steve

I'm seriously loving that fly. Think I'll be adding that to my boxes for drifting in front of some big ole carp. Very nice SBS. Steve

I'm 6 of one and a half dozen of the other most times. I ocassionally fish impressionistic patterns like various flats fodder for carp but also will go with a more realistic cray fly as well. Here is a fly that I picked up here on FTF. And then adapted slightly to my own appeal. Steve

I have one like in J Stockard link, its ok but I'm always nervous opening an entire side of it considering there is rarely less than 200 hooks in each little compartment and with size 22 to 10 dries on one side and standard wets on the other. Sometimes right after a hook order I get really antsy because I try to bulk up to 700 of each size and style. Individual lids and rounded bottoms is the best idea. Steve

They look like you may get a couple gills on those. Here are a couple of youtube videos I did on some gill and crappie flies. First is the panfish charlie. Good all around gill and crappie fly. Subsurface and can be bounced off the bottom or slowly twitched under an indicator. Second is the shad dart. Again a subsurface fly. Little heavier and different action and profile. That has been super good for crappie over the last couple years for me. Also has accounted for a few channel cats and a bunch of small bass. The hook for both flies can be found in you local bait and tackle store, probably not your local fly shop though. Enjoy and take your time to learn the basic stpes and master them. Steve

Upon further reflection I will admit I am a bit of a jerk to some terminal guys. Mostly the ones that cruise over in their bass boat to tell me there are no trout in the lake I'm bass fishing in. I tend to tell them that there was a private stocking of the rare and elucive purple spotted orange himilayan sailfin trout about 10 yrs ago and if I could stop these pesky bass from eating my fly on every cast I could catch one of them..... I usually get puzzled looks. Once I had a DNR agent friend of mine ask me to stop telling guys that because they had people calling the district office asking about the purple trout thingy with sail fins....... didn't really stop me but made me laugh pretty hard. Steve

I'll bet my wife would buy me a ticket like that..... I'll also bet it would be a one way ticket. Looks like you had a really great time, congrats man. Steve

I have the same issue Mike. My left arm is always telling my right how much of a pansy it is. Just the fore arms though I have a large piec on my right shoulder, my left forearm, and my left bicept and shoulder area. I so desperately want to get my right forearm full sleeve from elbow to cuff. I also know how to buil a jailhouse gun and even how to sharpen staples and set them into the end of some paper rolled up with water and toothpaste for prick and poke tats..... not my proudest days but I know how it works. Steve

Coinman, they make that hook without the baitholder barbs and sell it at walmart as well. They are the same price. I use every size of them from an 8 to a 1/0. #2 thru #8 make awesome hooks for carp flies. Nice super heavy wire so you can put a ton of pressure on the fish, and they are cheap so loosing a few here and there to snags doesn't hurt as much. Alos I'm not a big fan of stainless unless you're in brackish or salty area. These hooks will rust out in 3 days tops in the lakes around here.

Glad you like the video. Did you go to wally world and get the 084 eagle claw hooks? It looks like them in the picture. They look pretty darn good and hope the slay some gills and crappie for ya. Steve

I tie these fairly often, Jeremy Hunt (the gentlemans link you posted) used to be a close friend of mine and he showed me how to tie them. If you're shooting for a pumpkin color go with olive, olive and a rusty brown or burnt orange color. If you can find it the verigated chenille with black and rust is smoking hot. Also as stated further up, use a heavier rod. I don't fish them on anything under my 8wt. Steve

Just a reference I pretty much use nothing but congo hair for my charlies. I also only carry 4 colors. Charteuse and white, pink and white, olive and brown, and black and red. Steve

I jealous of a few of the fish you all have in the centrarchidea family (panfishes). Interesting reference materials. Steve

Totally agree with Bruce, not to mention this site is about FREE information sharing. Selling the instructions to how to tie a fly.... really dude? No offense and last thing I want to do is get kicked off of here so I won't speak my mind.

BassMouth, thanks for pimpin' one of my youtube flies man. Made me grin ear to ear. Coinman, here is a link to my youtube video on how to tie the panfish charlie. Hope you enjoy. I'm not too sure its still in the data base I think it got lost a few years ago in a transfer to a new board format but I can't remember. http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=ifRAZtLDOEo&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DifRAZtLDOEo Steve

I sorta always wanted one but realized I would out grow it quickly. Instead I. Used a small oak desk for several years which I also outgrew. I purchased a very large wooden desk from the local DAV for 20 bucks about a year ago and have since built a very large shelving system for the back of it as well as modifying the inside of the drawers for other needs. Most "part time" hobby tiers can and will use a small tying table for a very long time if not for life. Steve

I don't know one way or the other but... I haven't used head cement in close to 6 or more years. I've gone to making 2 whip finishes and have yet to have a fly come apart at the head. Most times its mor that its been chomped on so many times that its just plain done...

I just thought it was funny, I fish lakes so much I didn't even take into account that he may be fighting the current sweeping him down stream. I mostly use mine to just tickle the bottom to stave off wind drift, the rest of the time its an anchor. Steve

Being the moron I am I didn't even think about that Kirk.... you're extremely correct. I use a 2' section of log chain that I've woven through the links 5 or 6 times with the cleapo' small cord from the hardware dept at wally world. Steve

I agree with Mike. You've always got to have the rod pointed as directly at the fly as you can. Strip line to impart action into the fly. In a very short period of time you will figure out how to make a fly act differently by controling the length, speed, and pause between strips. Then when you get a strike you can lift the rod and set, or just strip long and hard for a strip set. Steve

That's 1/4" or 6mm craft foam. Comes in a 9" x 12" sheet and is available in white and black. Just ran in the other room and checked. Steve