Show us your Fran Betters Flies!

[Moshup 0]

Nice Haystack !

[samsonboi 0]

Au Sable Bombers:

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[Flat Rock native 0]

My standard question on this.  What hook size? Guessing it is  a#12,1xheavy.  But I always want to know what the chassis is, for an index build.

[samsonboi 0]

Au Sable Bombers are usually tied on a slightly long hook, 1X to 4X long. Standard wire or 1X light. Whatever'll float, 1X heavy is OK too. This is a standard wire, standard shank hook because that's what I had.

[Flat Rock native 0]

20 minutes ago, samsonboi said:

Au Sable Bombers are usually tied on a slightly long hook, 1X to 4X long. Standard wire or 1X light. Whatever'll float, 1X heavy is OK too. This is a standard wire, standard shank hook because that's what I had.

Thought you might go heavy for the larger fish.  With relatively large amount of hackle and dubbing per Fran’s style, flotation is likely non factor on heavy wire.  How was my guess on hook size?

[samsonboi 0]

You were correct.

[samsonboi 0]

Another Bomber:

This was a problem- I didn't have any brown hackle left in the right size! I had to use several of the smaller barbed, very short feathered spade hackles. It didn't turn out perfect. Now I just wait until my brown Collins cape comes in!

[Flat Rock native 0]

36 minutes ago, samsonboi said:

Another Bomber:

This was a problem- I didn't have any brown hackle left in the right size! I had to use several of the smaller barbed, very short feathered spade hackles. It didn't turn out perfect. Now I just wait until my brown Collins cape comes in!

Still very good and one great thing about Fran’s style- perfection not required, just needs to be tied to hold together during many Strikes! 👍👍🎣🎣😎😎

[samsonboi 0]

2 hours ago, Flat Rock native said:

...one great thing about Fran’s style- perfection not required...  👍👍🎣🎣😎😎

Yeah you're right

Thanks

[petelangevin 0]

Whats the tailing on the bombers? Looks deadly?   And s-boi did you order the tailing fibers from collins too?  I hear they are a great deal.

[samsonboi 0]

The tailing is woodchuck. I've been thinking about the tailing fibers, I'm not sure how they are packed. Anyone know? Are they on the skin or just feathers in a bag?

[Mark Knapp 0]

Generally, hair is sold on the skin, feathers can come in a bunch of ways, on the cape, as strung "Chinese" hackle or individual feathers.

[samsonboi 0]

Yeah, I meant his $5 spade hackle. Apparently it's enough to tail an entire cape's worth of dry flies.

 

EDIT: 3-5 capes, apparently.

[Moshup 0]

From what I understand the tailing hackle comes loose. I never have purchased it so i can’t give a review

From the reviews I have read they are mixed but they are cheap enough for one to give it a shot and see for oneself.

[mvendon 0]

4 minutes ago, samsonboi said:

Yeah, I meant his $5 spade hackle. Apparently it's enough to tail an entire cape's worth of dry flies.

It's a big bag. Even though it's for tailing, some of the feather barbs are about the same diameter as you would find on a regular dry fly cape. It doesn't take long to find a feather/s that work just fine. Most of the mixed reviews that I've read are where folks pick through a bag and are looking for feathers suitable for Hewitt skaters. They are far and few between. They are not like a pack of CDL tailing at all either. For the price they can't be beat really, since most of the dry capes you see today just don't have much in the way of good spade hackle on them. It might be information overload, but when I bought mine at the show down in New Jersey, there were so many people in his booth that you couldn't even get close to the basket where he had all of them stored. I ended up asking the guy looking through them to hand me a bag of brown and a bag of grizzly. They are stuffed full, so it isn't like you can open one up and start inspecting a few feathers at a pop.