Don Bastian

Hi Mickalo; I'm glad you found some helpful information in the video! Tying Comparaduns with consistency among how much hair balanced to hook size takes some practice. Thanks for your compliment and comment!

Hi utyer; Thanks for your compliment on the video, I'm glad you liked it. I've always got a few Comparaduns in my fly boxes. They do the job well in certain situations. Thanks again!

Hello Murray; Thanks for your comment and for your support. I appreciate it!

Hi everyone; I have been active on the Classic Fly Tying forum since 2006, and while I have personal, commercial, and custom fly tying experience, and three instructional DVD's (classic wet flies and streamers), I have seldom, if ever, made posts here on this part of the Fly Tying Forum. Also, I've never done any general trout fly videos. Until yesterday, when I filmed my tying sequence of a March Brown Comparadun and posted it on youtube. Here is the link: I also attached a photo of a March Brown Comparadun that I tied: The hook is a #10. Thanks for looking!

Hi guys! Thank you all very much for your input! I just found out today, when I left this site on Thursday for the Classic Wet Fly side, I ended up being logged in here for three days. No big deal I guess. I do appreciate your feedback, thank you very much, everyone!

Hello everyone! I've been a FTF member since 2006, and usually am on the classic wet flies & streamer side. I want to start a discussion going basically to get some survey results. I would be grateful if you can please give me your feedback: Extended Body Dry Fly patterns: Do you tie them, buy them, fish them, do you like them, yes / no, positive and negative aspects. Hard to tie, hard to hook fish, not durable, too delicate, etc. Your input is appreciated. I'll be away from my computer for several days, so please just post away, and I'll check on this topic next week. Thank you all! Don

Mustang Mike: It was interesting how the replies to your question got more and more specific, until letumgo posted the pictures. He thinks like me but as yet I don't have a digital camera to do what he did. Good info everyone! Here's a bit more info: you won't find spade fibers on genetic rooster saddles, where most premium medium to small, and smallest dry fly hackle comes from. And "spades" are usually web-free and often long enough to tie tails on a #8 dry fly. The Whiting Tailing Packs are nice, and also there are tailing packs available from Collins Hackle Farm in Pine City, NY. Regards: Don

Ray: Thanks so much for taking the time to reasearch this question. Like I said, and I'm glad you agree, it is interesting. I was fascinated by Bergman's writing about his variation, and now thanks to your detail-digging it seems plausible that it could have been developed by a few guys around the same time period. Probably difficult to determine exactly who did invent it, and I wasn't necessarily lookig for that. I just though I'd throw the question out. Thanks again to all who entered their 2 cents worth. Appreciate it! Don PS - halcyon - missed pg. 2 when I made my last post. Appreciate your research time as well!

Thanks guys, for your input. Like I said in my previous post, I've been very busy. The fishing has been good but I have also been doing lots of projects around the house, mostly small ones that have a habit of stacking up. Anyway, as I mentioned, I recently came across something regarding the dubbing loop, or variation thereof, that I thought quite interesting. Not that this proves who in fact created this technique, but I will tell you what I found out. Ray Bergman, author of Trout, (1938) and the second edition, revised and enlarged in 1952, writes in the fly tying chapter of the second edition, page 410: "Some furs adhere to the thread easily but others do not. With some, in fact, it help to use rather sticky thread, or use two threads. To do this last first lay a piece of waxed thread on your knee. Then fluff out the fur to be used and lay it on top of this thread. Then take another piece of thread and lay on top of the fur, and twist the two together. This is a good stunt for making fluffy and bulky fur bodies, but it can also be used for making sleek, tapered ones. To my knowledge this is simply one of my own little ideas, which I stumbled on when trying to make the Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear pattern." This was written in the 1952 edition, but not in the 1938 first edition. So sometime in between the two dates, Ray Bergman, according to his words, created this particular method, which is actually what we know as a dubbing loop. Bergman at this time was angling editor of Outdoor Life magazine, during a time when there were no fly fishing publications on the market. Any fly tying articles published were in various periodicals of the day, Outdoor Life being one of them. And this method, like many fly tying techniques, could have been developed by more than one person around the same time without the parties involved knowing about someone else having a similar idea. One final thought - Ray Bergman was the type of man who was rather modest and he probably wouldn't have thought of this technique as a big deal. Just thought it interesting... Tight lines to all! Don

letumgo & sturgeon_catcher: Thanks for your "serious" replies. Bill Blades is a good guess and right in there with my "guess." Polly Rosborough, could also be, when? The rest of you, thanks for the laughs. I'm very busy & will be so, I'm going to wait a while yet. If no one else checks in, I'll try to get back here next week, thanks! Don

Barbless. Unless I'm catching for the frying pan, like bluegills, crappies, perch. Once in a great while I kill a trout because I love to eat them. As does my wife and both girls, now grown & out of the house. My dad taught me how to eat trout as a kid. There is absoultely no question in my mind that barbless hooks offer: > Easier removal from everything. Clothes, trees, body parts, vest, net, fishing companion, automobile rug, boat ropes, duffel bags, float tube coverings, & of course, fish. Oh and by the way, dogs. A friend of mine had a German Shorthair that wanted to go swimming. I was fishing three wet flies, and before I could react the dog got swept into my cast of flies. Hooked her right in the middle of the back. > Less damage to the fly upon removal. (BTW - how many of you use serrated forceps for fly removal?) Might as well get a pair of vise-grips on the fly. Serrated forceps are bad for flies! (except for saltwater). > Less damage to the fish, without question. IMHO, anyone fishing in a catch & release regulated area, or releasing trout in an unregulated area does a disservice to the fish by not fishing barbless. I have seen too many anglers wrestle with a hook, anything longer than ten seconds is too long. And how about the times when you foul hook a fish? Less damage with a simple puncture wound than one with a barb where some tissue ripping and damage can occur. If one is not killing fish, then hookups are what really matters. Hookups are the true measure of how well you are doing as an angler. Hookups are the true measure of how well the fish are feeding. Some fish will escape, after all, they are trying to get away, and the reality is, sometimes the fish wins. It is a simple matter to keep the leader tight after setting the hook, but I have seen some anglers set the hook, then drop the rod tip and stand there reeling all the line onto the reel then when the line tightens, wonder where the fish went... I no longer separate the tally of "fish landed" to fish hooked. But I don't count the ones that are on and off. If I play it, bring it in close, etc., it's tallied. At the end of the day, total number of hookups represent the experience. I'm going to release them anyway, the only time I might be disappointed is if a really nice fish that I might have wanted to photograph gets off. Finally, I catch many trout that have hook scars, both fresh and older. Some are caused by spinning lures. Others are caused by careless anglers, both fly & spin, lifting small trout out of the water by the leader as they flop around, often tearing off maxillaries, and other mouth area tissue because the body weight of the fish cannot support being hooked. Finally, if a fish breaks off, a barbless hook will come out of the fish naturally easier on its own, rather than with a barb. I have removed hooks from fish that were left by other anglers too, but always hooks with a barb. I have never removed a barbless hook from a fish. Barbs are for hooking and holding if you are going to whack the fish & creel it. Not that there's anything wrong with that... Obviously my opinion is pretty strong in this area. I have hooked myself a couple times, beyond the barb, but fortunatrely for me, my hook was barbless and came right out. I could tell you some horror stories about some of my friends, one of whom still fishes barbs - deliberately. I can't understand that...even after he had to go to the emergency room. Don

I'd like to put this question out there for all forum readers to rely on their knowledge and research materials to share what they know. I recently came across some information on this subject, and was surprised. That got me thinking if it is actually known and / or recognized, so the question here is: "Who invented the dubbing loop, and when was this technique invented?" I have my source and will wait & see how it goes here before I add my information on the possible originator of this technique. Thanks in advance to all participants. Don

Forgotten FliesIMHO, is a very good book. And I would say that even if I did not have over 700 flies in it. The info on all the famed celebrities, Ray Bergman, Preston Jennings, Charles DeFeo, Carrie Stevens & the Rangeley Lake Region of Maine, Mary Orvis Marbury, and the last chapter of the book with over 1,000 streamers and bucktails in it - all include photographs that you can only see in museums or if you know someone and have the privilige to view their private collections. Here's the link to the Complete Sportsman website, in case you haven't seen it: http://www.rareandunusual.com will take you to the site, and http://www.rareandunusual.com/troutwetflies.htm will take to to two pages of wet flies that I tied for the book. I know a shop that has a couple copies too, for $300 I think. Don