jonathan creason

I've caught them on many different types of flies, but I'd say a good 75% of the fish I've caught have been on some sort of crawfish imitation. Granted, I've only been fly fishing for smallies for a little over a year now, but an olive crawfish, dropped behind large rocks in the river has been very consistent.

I rarely leave the house without sunglasses, I just can't stand to squint. I got by for a long time with Peppers glasses, which are budget friendly but have plastic lenses. I stumbled on a good sale on Costa's a year ago on one of the outdoor, over-stock websites and have been wearing them ever since. There is a big difference in clarity between the lenses, and duribility with glass is much better. I still have the Peppers, but pretty much just use them when I'm mountain biking now.

Great article. Thanks for the link.

Those are some great examples, hopefully I can get to where I'm half that good eventually. Hadn't thought about leather dye, that's a good tip. I appreciate it.

As a newbie I will say that I welcome criticism and critiques. I have tying classes near me, but don't have the time or money now to sit down with someone and learn firsthand so the feedback I get from places like this are my best opportunities to learn. I can see why many folks use that response, though. Often times the written word doesn't come across like intended, and often times people have skin that is far too thin to handle anyone critiques. I'm sure after a while it gets easier to just say that than deal with an e-meltdown.

Thanks again everyone for the advice. I decided to give a mouse pattern a shot today, and packed with an old pen. I was able to get the hair much more firmly packed with this than I was able to do with my fingers. This is the result.

Drying the skin is the same process as making rawhide. Tanning does require adding something to soften the skin (brain or eggs work) and physically breaking down the outer dermis layers.

Tanning a hide isn't difficult, but requires a bit of work. If you're only wanting dubbing material making rawhide will be sufficient though. Paleoplanet is a good place to check out for pointers.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the advice. The first one is loosely packed, mainly because it's a weighted streamer. The head is just to push water. The other 2 I tried to pack tighter, but obviously I need to work on that. I don't have a hair packer, so I've just been using my fingers. Probably need to look into rigging something up.

I love the look of a spun head, so I thought I'd save up a little cash and buy some to play with. Only had enough for 1 color, so the cool patterned heads are out for now but I'd like to give that a try sometime. These are my first 3 attempts, with none being any particular pattern, just hoping for something sculpinish. I appreciate any pointers or critiques. 1 2 3

Thanks everybody! Crackaig, those nymphs look great, going to check out your site.

For the fishies, it probably doesn't . Just trying to get a cleaner finished look mainly.

I've tried a couple of flies with a bead inside of the thorax instead of behind the eye, but I'm having trouble getting them completely covered. So far I've only tried it with peacock herl and dubbing, but each time the material keeps sliding off the bead leaving parts of it exposed. I tried to figure 8 around the bead and put some sort of base down, which worked somewhat better, but still inconsistent. Anyone have pointers on doing this to get full coverage?

I also have a spare (Thompson A), if you and utyer don't work something out.

Last one for today, I swear.