FeedEmFeathers

Thanks J! Got to get into that whole bubblegum lip mentality for summer carp runs!

Don't know why it didn't attach the photo...Sorry!

At some point a fly tier surpasses addict and enters a world near insanity. For me, I think the craziness set in when I began coming up with mathematical formulas to coorrelate a fly's rate of descent with the average speed of a fish. In the case of Carpie Leggerson, I figured that the average cruising carp travels at a speed of around one foot per second at generally two feet beneath the surface. Given that a fly must be placed on average five feet in front of a cruising carp to avoid spooking the fish, my fly needs to sink at an average rate of two feet per five seconds, or one foot every 2.5 seconds. Carpie Leggerson is spot on when first thrown, but speeds up a little once it really starts soaking up water. So Gink the bastard back up and right back in the appropriate time zone. BINGO! Tying is extremely simplistic (somewhere between a Bitch Creek and a Woolly Bugger). Number one rule...DO NOT ADD ANY WEIGHT! Standard size 8 streamer hook; two rubber legs in back; chenille up; heavily hackle; two rubber legs off front. Done. Again, DO NOT ADD ANY WEIGHT!

In regards to streamers, I prefer classic styling (as with a fly like the Grey Ghost) with a downward hook for trout. The reason for this is that often when stripping streamers through deep pools fish will shoot up from the bottom and swipe the fly, thus a downward angle means that the trout will inevitably reach the hook point first and often be hooked regardless of whether they actually take the fly or not. However, if I'm planning to fish the streamer slowly and bottom bounce then I set it hook side up. Furthermore, with streamers tied for more aggressive strikers such as largemouths, snook, or seatrout then I don't generally think it matters unless you are trying to keep the fly weedless. On nymphs, if possible I prefer to have the hook point upward, particularly if there is any type of vegetation. Although I've rarely encountered any issues with hooksets from downward facing hooks, as with anyone who has spent much time on the water these flies inevitably get snagged even on freestone bottoms. For dries, I always fish hook down, period. Downward hooks on top insure that the hook point is the first thing the fish reaches and often a topwater bite comes more in a swipe than a swallow. This is particularly true of fish that have inferior (on the bottom) mouths such as redfish and carp.

As I'm sure you all do, I'm always looking for new materials to tie with and recently walking a trail near my home in Appalachia I was looking at the tiny cones of a hemlock tree. I noticed that the scales along the cones were tapered and overlapped one another perfectly this brought about the idea of dissecting the cones and using the scales to create the segmented bodies of a variety of bugs. I ended up creating a crawfish, hellgrammite, stonefly, beetle, and salmonfly using the scales. What I do is dissect the scales from the cones, play around with them until I find scales that perfectly overlap and taper, five-minute epoxy those scales together, tie the pattern, and epoxy the segmented line of scales over the bug. Take a look and let me know what you think.