TheRadiant

Saltwater...catfish, stingrays. Freshwater...catfish, grinnel, gar or pickerel.

Water is warming here in southern Bama....nothing beats a Catalpa worm......

Thanks for the advice, Utyer...I try to keep it thin near the gap, but I still need practice. Fla....its freezing over here in Bama right now....I guess its freezing everywhere. If we could just a little warming spell..I would give it a go. I've never had much luck catching any kind of fish in Feb...saltwater or freshwater for that matter.

Still being relatively new to fly tying, (three years), I have dabbled ever slightly into dubbing bodies. Recently, I began using plumage from the base of marabou feathers to dub bodies and such. This technique works fine, I guess, but lacked the attraction I like in bluegill flies. I use chenille 90% of the time, but my recent foray into dubbing has been fun as hell, to say the least. I ordered some Master-Bright from Cascade Crest as I liked the flash attraction of this particular dubbing. I still need practice building the proper thorax sizes and such, but I feel these examples aren't so bad. Please leave some input.

I live in south Alabama and its still waaaay to cold to bream fish...so...I pass the time with more tying. At this point, I`m not sure if I enjoy tying or fishing more...Anyone else have this issue?

Tim...always panfish, (bluegill, white perch, goggle-eye, occasional bass....)

Well...I DID nuke the thread head.....no harm done, my tippet still looks ok

These remind of "less than average" Gartside Sparrows...one of my favorite flies. Less than average ...hence the name, "Dirty Birds". I blew the thread head on the last one. Ticks me off.....

This is good advice, but I think I may have misspoken. I did say Poppers, but was referring more to foam flies in general, (spiders, beetles, etc). Would a lot of this advice apply to foam flies as well? I am tying more on #8 Eagle Claw standard hooks. They look a little bigger than other brands #8 sizes, but I like the beefier quality of this hook. I think it will help right the landing of the fly.

very nice design

I`ll trim those up. The more common problem I have when casting poppers that I tie is the fly landing upside down on the water. Sometimes this corrects itself as the fly gets wet, but many times it will persist. I have read from various sources that if I go up on my leader weight this problem goes away....? This seems counter-intuitive to me as I like to use small leader tests...mostly 6 lbs test. Can anyone bring experience to bear on this?

Here`s few more basic patterns utilizing a mix of natural and synthetic materials. Please feel free to comment! Shane

Cool..thanks everybody. Utyer, I downloaded PhotoScape this afternoon...gonna mess around with it some.

Greetings all...I have lurked here for a couple of years, looking at flies and trying to expand my knowledge of fly tying. I have tied for about three years now and am completely addicted to it. I live in extreme southern Alabama..very near to the coast and my dad taught to fly fish at a very early age. I grew up fishing the local creeks and streams for gills and crackers with the occasional bass and white perch thrown in. Over the years I became interested in inshore saltwater fishing and currently split my time between that and my passion for tying and then finding bream and various panfish in my home waters. I wanted to introduce myself as I would like to begin posting some pictures of my ties. I only tie for warmwater species..mostly bluegill and crappie. 99% of my ties are on #8 or #10 basic dry fly hooks. Now, my fly photography sucks, but I am trying to do better with what I have. Please feel free to critique,(albeit not too harshly..lol), I enjoy this forum for its civility and respect. One other thing about my style... being a panfish purist I am not a traditional tyer in the sense that I use $50 capes and saddles for delicate dries and whatnot. I really love using synthetics...in particular synthetic hackle materials. I like lots of flash and fluorescent colors. The panfish in my part of the world like bright attractor colors as well as traditional browns and blacks if you will...so don't be surprised to see some eye popping colors. Many thanks to all...Shane

Have been tying for around a year now. Mostly have been satisfied with my flies. However, I do have a recurrent problem with foam spiders, gurgle-pops, bugs, etc. About 50% of the time the fly lands in the water upside down. This can be corrected with a quick jerk..sometimes. This can be counter-productive for bluegills who will sometimes look a fly for five minutes before inhaling it. Any tips on how to correct this upside down problem? many Thanks, Shane B.