gatorfly

Golden stone Sz 6 Partridge CZF Catgut body

Bottom line about Florida is that it is a sportsman's paradise. My family moved here when I was 2 so I grew up outside. Bass fishing is great down here. I definitely agree that golf courses have some of the best bass fishing around. On most of the lakes and canals all you really need in a aluminum Jon boat or flat back canoe and trolling motor. In South Florida, offshore is where it's at. When the Mahi are running, just remember to keep one on the line. The school won't leave a hooked fish so, as long as you have one on the line, you can keep alternating playing one while casting for another and pull the whole school. We also have some pretty good hunting. Our deer are a joke but hog, duck and turkey are great down here. In duck season, 3 of us can limit out in under 10 minutes on a good day. Hog hunting is fun but isn't very challenging. The things are so dumb they will charge at a pack of dogos or even a hunter. Smart money is always on the 140 lb armor clad dogs or .44 mag hollow point over the hog. I generally go for the young ones or the sows because the meat is better but there's nothing like a 400 lb boar taken with dogs and knife to get the adrenaline going.in general, if it has balls, it'll taste terrible unless it's brined, dry rubbed and heavily smoked. As far as where to live in the state, it depends what you want. Even in Palm Beach county, there are areas like Loxahatchee and Jupiter farms that are pretty rural. The good thing about that is you don't have the city feel at home but if the Mrs. wants some culture, you aren't that far from the arts, good food etc. Its also only 30 min to the coast so if you have a boat or charter one, you can get get to some great salt water fishing pretty quickly. Central Florida is nice but a little too cold in winter for me. The coast of florida is much more populated. The further inland you get, the less crowded. Where I grew up (Wellington) is the edge of civilization in Palm Beach county. Its 15 min to the cane fields / glades yet still has golf courses, tons of shops, bars and restaurants and even a mall. A lot of Floridians have cabins up north, usually in the Carolinas. In NC they call us half backs. It's because most of us come from up north (NYC in my family's case) and made it half way back. The ability to go north when it's 105 degrees and 99% humidity is great. It'll also give you an excuse to keep buying trout rods. One thing that is surprising to some is the amount of red necks in Florida. Many of my friends dive jacked up diesel trucks, have airboats, swamp buggies, center consoles and duck boats decorating the back yard and might die if they go 30 min without a wad of tobacco in their mouth. As far as snakes and gators, it seems like a lot of this has been overplayed. I have stepped on gators more times than I can count while duck hunting and the worst I've ever had is flooded waders from being knocked down by one swimming off. The fact that we hunt gators down here seems to keep them afraid of people and in line. I was a boy scout as a kid and can count the number of venemous snakes I've encountered in the wild on one hand. I'll take rattlers all day over a copperhead. At least I can hear them before I'm in trouble. I have yet to see a single moccasin in my 23 years of living here. I kinda view them as a north florida/Georgia thing. The turtles will drive you nuts fishing. My go to bass lure on a bait caster is a chart tailed worm on a texas rig. I wind up throwing many of them out because turtles will bite off the tail which is the entire point of the bait. If you wind up moving to Florida you won't be disappointed. If I were you, I would visit the keys, Palm Beach county, Orlando/Ocala area and the tampa and then choose between those. Keep in mind that in any of those places you can be as urban or rural as you want. Bring a 7 wt for fresh and an 8-10 for salt and have some fun

I was trying to tie a 28 the other day and with 8/0 or 70 it just seemed like the thread was too big for the job. Think I'm gonna get either one of the 12/0 - 18-0 threads suggested to try. How easily does that stuff break?

I find myself wanting to get a smaller thread for tying midges. What brand and size thread do yall use?

After playing around a bit I think I've settled on tying my shelf liner spider for this one. Works on trout and you'll hafta beat the bluegill away with a stick

Count me in

Finished stage one of the desk. Fished a little too much to do the whole thing. Plans changed a bit due to the space and the slab being a little thicker and heavier than I had remembered but I think it came out well. Huge change from the old couch/bed

Good info.Google has a preview of the book and luckily the bench section was in the first 25 pages of it. He suggested a 30 degree angle at the elbow which seems to be pretty much the same as chest height. That mikechell suggested. May shorten the desk according to ak but I'll need to see how much leg room that'll give me

I'm sort of grossed out that I've been sewn up with goat/sheep intestine whenever I've had to get stitches

Kinda bummed about caddis green and natural, those were the two colors I really wanted. I guess everyone else does too. Even the European sites seem to be hurting in those two colors.

Can't wait to get mine in the mail. It's supposed to come today. As far as hook sizes go, griffin says it can hold 2/0 down to 28. I've read other people that say it can go from 7/0 down to a 32. I don't know many people that tie a 32 so it'll definitely hold anything you throw at it short of some massive salt water flies

I agree with everyone that says ditch the standard kits. I replaced every single tool in my starter kit except for the bodkin in a few months time. The bobbin cut thread better than the scissors did, same for the hackle pliers. I gave the vise to a buddy who makes spoon lures and molded lead lures to hold hooks while he paints them. The thread and wire that came in the kit seemed like they were half or quarter spools. All in all, I felt pretty ripped off by the kit and wouldn't make the mistake again if I had a do over. Since its for your brother, just put together something you know he'd use rather than a kit that has him tying some really crummy flies. My kit made me so frustrated at times that I almost quit. Non kit tools increased my speed, quality and enjoyment tremendously

Oops posted the same thing twice

I was wondering about racquets. I know actually buying the string would be no savings at all but didn't think about discards from a pro shop. Free is my favorite price!

Okay, so I'm shooting for approximately chest level when I'm in the chair. Thinking about the metal boxes you suggested, I remembered that I have some tin cans that held Scotch bottles from grandpas old liquor store. Currently have them filled with drill bits but I think they would work great to mouseproof larger feathers. Considering putting a strip of cedar in the bottom for good measure. I'll wait til the dollar store gets the larger ones at Christmas time for patches.