Bob Cunningham

A Happy and Healthy New year wish to all. Hope your 2011 on the water is a great one!

Nor Vises are an interesting thing. It seems like a love it or hate it with little middle ground. I enjoy hearing the different points of view, but I don't think it is on my short list.

Sounds like you are on the right track as to what to try neo. I have a tendency to crowd too much at the head, and have improved my efforts lately by taking more care. I have found the whip with the matarelli to be really reliable, so as long as you're keeping pretty good tension there concentrate on giving yourself more room at the head.

Me too. There was a looooong period of time I was away from FFishing and tying, but I got back in a few years ago and the old A holds hooks just fine. It is +30 years old but very low mileage. I have been mulling a HMH, but I may just wait.

Some very nice ties, 'funk. I would like to add Clousers Swimming Nymph to the mix.

Interesting, and good thread. I usually do rib, but I think I would like to remove that step and try hackle only, or worse case scenario heavy thread if I felt the need on that particular fly application.

Good thread and it made me feel better about the time I take to tie a fly. I am a slow tier and like the others tend to go with patterns without a lot of ingredients. That's what make me pause about getting a rotary vise. I don't see for me how it will really speed things up, and the conventional vise seems to get things done just fine. The fish are happy.

I know at one time people thought this was an antron fiber, (Aunt Lydias) but then I read that a different yarn was eventually substituted. Is this stuff still an antron fiber? I don't know about anyone else, but I have had a devil of a time finding bulk antron, and I really like that stuff for the sparkle and "bling". Anyone have any current brands? Thx,

I'm on my second pair of the wadelites and like them a lot. For the amount of times I go out I get a few years out of each pair. I would also suggest going one size larger if you can't get to a local store to try them. I have read that the felt soles will be phased out in the very near future because of what you said above. It is for the right reasons, but I hope the replacement soles work as well as the felt. I hate dunking in river snot! LOL

I got one as well. Also the classic FTF.

you might want to check warmwaterflytyers.com pattern section, as well as of course this site. There are some excellent tutorials at warmwater, and I don't think you can beat the experience you will find here to get help with your questions.

Abolutely no problem whatsoever. Matarelli whip works great, but if you are working from a tutorial study it a little and then you have to reverse it. I'm making (mabe incorrectly) that you are tying left handed. I wind everything CCW. I just wanted to add that I learned the Matarelli whip knot using the late Al Campbell's tutorial at FAOL. It is an excellent pictorial, and once I got the tool in the right relationship with the front of the hook the rest fell into place. Practice for about 30 minutes on a hook and you will be fine.

I'm laughing because that has been my experience as well. I read an article a couple of years ago about how large a lure a fish will hit in relation to its size. Applying that to flies, it seems to work the same way - I am catching larger fish with the bigger offerings, but the smaller guys will attack it as well. Don't be afraid to try larger sizes and see how it works.

Hi All. I am looking for some advice on a nice hackle feather to tie Soft Hackle Woolly Worms, ala Rick Osthoff's designs. I'm tying in larger sizes for smallies, bigger than his 12's and hen neck feathers look to be too small. Would you guys lean to hen saddle, or what? I'm looking for that real nice pulsing action on a drift or working it. Thanks for any suggestions. Bob

There is an excellent discussion of this and the whole deal over at flyanglersonline.com, in the fly tying forum. "Mustad is going to shaft us..." is the thread title. There is a lot of very good info posted from Dr Fish, and employee of Mustad, and a nice conversion chart as well. Hope this helps.