johngunguy

I don't know if you are using wood or foam for the bodies, but for the foam bodies I make, I use the same piece of sand paper used to shape the body. I fold it in four and use the corner to insert into the face of the popper body while it is turning to cup it out. Seems to work fine and should work for either body materials. You can alter the coarseness of the sand paper to cut faster or slower as well as alter the finish.

I use the hopper body and hopper leg cutters quite a lot and the leg cutter is fantastic. As Sore Eyes said, you get a professional and repeatable appearance using the cutters.

I have the same problem with house flies.

I have never tried tying water boatman as I see many swimming in ponds and lakes but never saw any taken by warm water fish that I go after, like bluegill. Are they regularly eaten by warm water fish species? thanks

A friend of mine wanted some blockhead poppers and being cheap I wouldn't buy the pre-made heads. These were cut out of foam letters you buy for kids from the dollar store. Once put on the hook they are coated with Fabric Fusion to make them shiny, same for the foam crickets.

These are flies that I tied for a friend of mine.

I have used the clear straps used to keep a blouse on a hanger that come in some of my wife's blouses. It works great and has just the right amount of stretch. They are free and the wife cuts them out of her shirts anyway.

puffer ball fly tail I can't find the video on making this fly but the way the guy did it was to lay down a thread base on the hook then take a piece of the puffer ball for the tail and heat his bodkin with a lighter to melt a quarter inch crease in the tail. He then put a bit of super glue on the thread and touched the tail to the glue and held it there until it set. You can't pull the tail off without tearing it. Holds great. I put a tinsel wrap down over the hook for a bit of flash. You can very the head with either peacock herl, dubbing, or hackle, whatever floats your boat.

I use only one pair of scissors and never got the hang of keeping them in my hand while tying. I just tie for myself and one friend so speed isn't a concern. I did do the rare earth magnet trick that I glued to the right hand riser of my table. Just get close to it with scissors and they almost jump out my hand and stay put till I need them again. I have several round magnets glued to my tying table to hold hooks and completed flies till I am ready to put them away.

I love tying flies. In addition to the pleasure of catching fish with something you made there is the relaxing nature of tying itself. I am like netabrookie above, I can accumulate quite a few flies before getting to fish them. I have a lucky buddy that benefits from my tying habit. I just ordered that book for reference, thanks for the suggestion, oarfish.

I'll play!

I found some LocTite brush on and have been using it for a week now and it seems to work well. The bottle has a long tube with a wide opening with a small locking area for the cap. I also put some petroleum jelly on the cap locking area and have had no problems with it yet. thanks for all the help John

I checked three local dollar stores and a hardware store and non carried the Krazy glue with brush applicator, but the hardware did have a small bottle of Loctite with a brush applicator so I got that. I also got some Vaseline to coat the cap threads so that might help as well. I also like the single use container idea as well. I always carry a Maxpedition Falcon II bag with all sorts of items that I may need when traveling and on vacation. Single use super glue would be an added benefit item.

I live in southeast Louisiana where high humidity is a 365 day a year certainty.

Great info guys, thanks for the suggestions.