dead_horse_bay_fisher

I asked the same question on another fly fishing forum and I go no answers at all. I took another look at the piece in Tom Rosenbauer's book and came up with my own version. Hook: Mustad Streamer 9672 Tail: None body: The book states dubbing, but I used Chenille that is a deep red color with sparkles. Wing: Woodchuck - I didn't use a lot, but enough to get a good effect. Make sure you add some zap-a-gap or something when you tie it in. It's a bit slippery. Head: Standard spun deer hair. I used a short brown dear hair for this. Clip in the standard sculpin fashion and leave a nice, unclipped collar. (The best way to do this is to slip a small piece of soda straw over the fly to cover the woodchuck and the collar. Trim the rest. I caught four salmon on this guy one afternoon and two smallies on another day. Good luck and tight-lines.

Toilet ring wax - 99 cents in Walmart - enough to last two lifetimes. dc

Ya gotta try a furled leader. Starting out to make one is a real pain at first, but you can quickly productionize the whole affair. I'm a new fly fisher and have just started to get my casting down. Furled leaders makes it a breeze. Thanks all for the info on the Uni-Thread. dc

That somes it up. I read the article on furled leaders and they specify uni-thread. I want to know if that's any different than the Danville's thread that I use. Thanks in advance, dc

For the small ones, I use two beads from a light pull chain - couple of bucks in the hardware store and you get plenty. They aren't all that heavy though, and they will tarnish. I add a little lead wire behind them - maybe two turns. The I use the Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails clear polish - works pretty good, but only for small wooly buggers and some small clousers that I tie. dc

I have never bought or read a book on fly tying. Learned most of it here. Download Al's videos. Also, welcom aboard mate. My dream vacation is to go to Ireland, Wales or Scotland and fish the salt. I also fish the salt near New York harbor - it's great. I wonder if Lefty's Deceivers and Clouser Minnows will work in you area. Bet they do! They are the two best baitfish imitations as far as I'm concerned. They work on Striped Bass, Bluefish, and False albacore over here. I talked to a guy that caught a flounder on a Clouser. Good luck dc

You are very lucky. This is where I learned to tie. Still working on it, but this site has been a great help. By the way, I tie a lot of Wooly Buggers myself - Sizes 4,6,8,10 and 12. If you put a little red up front the bass can't stay away- just like potatoe chips. Keep tyin' and straight lines dc

Take a look at the beginner's corner of talkflyfishing. I have written a bit about furled leaders. A bit of an effort at first, but once you get the hang of it and start casting a furled leader you will never go back. dc

As always, I can always get great information on this site. In the last year that I have been tying, I have learned a great deal and most of it has come from the folks on this website. Thanks so much for answering a basic question, it is greatly appreciated. Thanks again, Dave Capuano Princeton Junction, NJ

I see wet fly patterns and some streamers that call for Jungle Cock shoulders. Questions: 1. What is a jungle cock? 2. Where can I buy this? 3. Are there any replacements? Thanks in advance, dc

I ran into an explanation of tandem flys in an old book. I have been experimenting tying these for a couple of weeks now. These tandem flys are a two fly setup where the first fly and the one connected to the tippet has a piece either wire or mono tied into the body of the fly. This extends backward, under the fly tail (if it has one), and then another fly is attached. The setup that I found in the book show a large streamer with a nymph running behind and the whole thing attached by a piece of wire and a few inches apart. I have modified this as follows and would like some comments, or perhaps someone who could tie something similar and give it a try. I will be trying one of my versions this weekend on some smallies in the Delaware River (I hope). I reversed this procedure and have tied a size 12 emerger. I have incorporated a piece of 3X tippet into the emerger's body over the base wrap by wrapping it in and applying glue. At this point the line is attached the length of the hook shank going backward behind the fly. I then fold the tippet forward, tye it down again, add a dab more glue, and then fold it backward toward the shank and to a final tie down and whip finish. The tippet material is now pointing toward the rear of the fly so that a "chasing" fly can be attached. I then tie in a tail, dubbed body, and palmer some hackle down the thing. It doesn't matter what type of bug you want to tie here since the point is that it looks like some fishes dinner. I then attach a streamer to the tippet coming out of the emerger. I used a squirrel tail streamer with silver tinsel and red and yellow squirrel tail wings on a size 6 hook - nothing fancy. The net result is a moderate size streamer chasing his dinner. I know that some folks will tie one fly to another at the leading fly hook bend. I have always been concerned that this would limit the ability of the first fly to hook a fish. Also, I have read different ideas about small fly first being chased by a larger fly (like I did) versus the opposite (large fly chased by small fly), or even both the same size. I would like to get comments on this, perhaps someone to experiment with this as well and see where it goes. Thanks, dc

I started tying last year. Now, the first thing that I think of when my wife shows me something in a store is "Hmmm, can I use that in a fly or a popper or something?". I started eyeballing the cat last fall . Now, when she sees me she runs like h... BTW, cat fur makes great dubbing. But for you animal lovers out there, I just use what I get off the brush. The cat is fine.

I'm like JimT. I started fly fishing because of my son-in-law. I started fishing when I was a kid (1952?) But that was bait casting and latter on spinning gear and salt water. I stopped fishing for many years, but returned with a fly rod in my hand and fished the salt. Recently started fishing the Delaware River as well. I was 59 last year and heading way to quickly to the big six-oh. dc

This may be a little late since you sent this in a month ago. I started tying last year and had the same problem. I had picked two particular areas that I wanted to fish in: Salt and local smallmouth and largemouth bass in the Delaware River and local ponds. Not much choice around here. This turned out to be a benefit. My first flys were Deceivers and Clouser Minnows. Then I branched out to Woolly Buggers (thanks to Al Beatty's video). I bought some basic colors of bucktail and strung feathers that are good enough for salt, some barbell eyes and hooks in 2/0, 2, 4, 8. The 2/0, 2, and 4 are stainless for my saltwater fishing, but there is no law against using them for bass. My 8's were bronze for small bass that I find locally. I have since branched out and bought Chenille and different colored threads and some better quality feathers whenever I can find a sale. I am always on the lookout for sales on hooks. I also hit the local craft store for Peacock herl, ostrich hurl and corks for poppers (Lefty Kreh has a great popper made from a wine cork). I also raided my daughter's nail polish and bought some Sally somebodies hard as nails. I use this stuff on my deceiver's and on my poppers. One score I did make was to show up at the Somerset, NJ fly fishing show on the last day. I picked up some stuff that the vendors did not want to take home for a good price. Hope this helps, dc

Many wet flies and some streamers seem to call for "floss". What is it? I've been using some heavy colored thread.