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Fly Tying
Mark Knapp

What are you working on?

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Those shot glasses are nice.

 

One thing that I've been wondering about. When you make your own brushes, you must just use wire, right? If you used thread it would just unravel when you take it out of the fixture, yes? Where does one get such wire?

Stainless steel wire. One hook is on a spring so that it will give instead of breaking the wire

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Mines on a spring as well but I will keep turning until the wire does break. It typically breaks by the spinning hook since that is where the wire is the tightest.

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Mines on a spring as well but I will keep turning until the wire does break. It typically breaks by the spinning hook since that is where the wire is the tightest.

I had a problem with the wire breaking when i was using copper wire. It would generally break more near the center for some reason. Cant really use the brush after that. I havent had that problem with the stainless steel wire

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Well, I never seem to have a problem spending my money, even without booze and drugs. I do have a wife though, I also have some boats... so no trouble spending money.

 

On the other hand, I see where you're coming from with the flies and pictures. I tie for myself (and fish) and post here as a record of this project and so others can see what I'm doing if they are interested.

 

When I do something I try to do it well. Tying well and photographing well are for my own personal achievement, not necessarily for the approval of others but if I tied and photographed in my own little bubble, I would not get help from others and I would likely not get better ( I would not know what "better" looks like if I didn't compare my work to others). My eyes are not unbiased.

Your work continues to improve with each post. Your sense of proportion and hackling, in particular.

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I have been working on wet flies, both winged and spiders. Man, I love those. Time to tie some hopper type flies and poppers for Bream. Last year I got on a Bass fishing jag and never fly fished for Bream.

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Continuing in the Orvis index, the last two hair wings, then low wings and terrestrials.

 

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Hairwing Royal Coachman

 

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Ausable Wulff

 

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Kings River Caddis

 

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Henryville Special

 

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Black Beetle

 

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Black Crowe Beetle

 

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Inch WormDSCF3626-XL.jpg

Green Leaf Hopper

 

OK, the verdict is in, and it's unanimous, my hackles look much better when I strip one side first. That's what I'll do from now on.

 

On another note, I'm going panfishing with a friend of mine in Washington State in June so I've been thinking of flies that would work well for that. Panfishing is one of the things I miss the most after I moved to Alaska from Minnesota.

 

Any of the dry flies I've tied in the last couple of months would probably work for pan fish but I'm thinking terrestrials. Since I was tying some from the Orvis book last night I decided to mess with inch worms a bit. I tied a couple on swimming pupa hooks.

 

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Next in the index, lots of ants.

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OK, the verdict is in, and it's unanimous, my hackles look much better when I strip one side first. That's what I'll do from now on.

If I may ask. when you tie in your hackle do you leave a "bit" of bare stem after tying it to the hook or post? If you haven't leave enough bare stem for approx 1 wrap, that should help get your hackle to lat vertically or horizontally depending on whether your tying a collar hackle or a parachute. Keep up the good work.

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I may not be leaving enough bare quill outside the tie down. I will try something closer to a full on the next batch. I am tying it in perpendicular to the hook though on collars , or parallel to the shank on parachutes.Thanks a lot. Appreciate it.

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I may not be leaving enough bare quill outside the tie down. I will try something closer to a full on the next batch. I am tying it in perpendicular to the hook though on collars , or parallel to the shank on parachutes.Thanks a lot. Appreciate it.

You're quite welcome, by no means am I a know it all but I ran into the same situation you are a while back. I tie my collar hackle perpendicularly most of the time also. Shiny side to the front. I just tied this for you to see how I do it.

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