ted patlen

i have recieved all the beauties last week, very happy to be invited. sorry i couldn't reply sooner but it seems everytime i try to use this i keep getting refused and have to change the blasted code name :wallbash:over and over... ted

thanks for the nice comments, glad you like them, looking forward to see all the flies at home.

hey, it finally worked! i tried a few ties to try to get on but had trouble. very happy to be part of this. paul, i sent the flies about a week or 2 ago, get em yet? ted

dartigan and ilikefish she was sunburned and started peeling ...she had me peel her back i was into realistics and noticed the patterning on the skinn...so i laid it flat, gave it a few coats of clear krylon to stiffen it out and it worked beautifully...lasted about 10 years before it started to really dry up and shrivel... i keep bringing her to the beach yo

besides dust bunnies for nymphs and emergers... i once used my wifes skin as spinner wings when i was tying realistic mayflies

what are you tying? small trout flies #16 and smaller tied sparse with anything as a material will float very well with the proper tippet?leader..without the aid of floatants... bigger traditonal styled trout flies depend upon stiff hackles and tails while some of the british patterns didn't have tails...the water they were fishing were very smooth easy flowing streams...cdc is very usefull as a floating commodity dry flies for rougher, broken pocket water are usually more heavily dressed and frequently use deer, elk etc to help with floatation...and materials like kapock (if you can find it), nylon (doesn't absorb water)......and most recently closed cell foam...the most traditional "bass popper" material i'd say is deer belly hair which floats well if constructed properly...not enough deer hair and the bug will absorb water after a short time and sink pretty rapidliy... am i helping?

i've seen something very similar made from zip-lock bag coated with a perescent nail polish...

the older, the better...newer ones can be reformed...some people have re-instated the hand made hook forming process and there are some very nice irons out there to play with (like ron's hooks) but the old ones were made for a specific purpose and that's how i like to use them...and tye on them to match that purpose...the old flies have a distinctive look...tough to fully explain but a fly that was tied to fish has a ...i don't know ...blue collar look? ...not perfect (what is?) and it's fun looking for those old guys too.

you may be trying to put too much hair for a wing too

yo, didi yu get to use those hackle plier made from the frenchman (don't remember his name) who had a booth at syoke-on-kent? best i've used small and hold feathers very well...yo

yo roy, got it home, safe and sound..along with that "pub" fly...will i see you in newark? yo

on a train going through norway; in a car parked on the banks of the gallatin; on a card table on a dusty red rose parking lot in roscoe, ny; 2am in a pub somewhere in holland, a bus somewhere near Stoke-on-trent in the UK...various tents but the neatest one was next to a 12th century cloistered nunnery in the middle of italy and a few other places that i can't mention :bugeyes:

andy, todays hooks are quite different from one another...in ahort a #14 for one company can be a #16 or 18 for another...there is not a standardized chart that i know of that has all the hooks available now... so if you do find one remeber that whatever the unknown hook is you'll match it up to the chart and it'll say that it is a #x according to that particular chart... if you're worried about sizing hackles or such you may find that prorportions for those flies are much more important...that is if you're trying to tie a classic catskil style dryfly the hackles would be 1.5x the hook gap...whatever the gap is... if you're getting into commercial tying then yes you need scales and guides so all your flies are cosistant...if for yourself then there is much leeway good luck ted

yo flyweaver.. how mnay and how big, and when do youwant them..what the hell are they fishig for over there? then send me your address and when are we hitting the little lehigh? yo

undertow what do you mean by big? what length do you want the individual hairs? what sre you fishing for? for smaller lengths then any tails will do however if you want to tie long clousers that many guys up in the northeast tie for sand eel imitations then you have to look through what ever you can...long fibered hairs 5-6 inches long are not that easy to find...(if you do have this stuff PLEASE don't cut then shorter...i'll trade up with you... so?