flytyer

Just my thoughts on this but I have started to use Loon Hard Head for most of my applications instead of epoxy. Takes a couple of coats but you do not have the worries as with epoxy. I use the Hard Head on all of the shell backs of my shrimp and crayfish.

Toneloc, OK, let's see if I can help with this problem. First - I do not use very fine hair. It tends to not flare very well. I use a little bit coarser hair. Second - When I tie on the hair, I take 3 or 4 loose turns of thread, pull that tight and then take 2 to 4 more turns of thread around the hair and pull that VERY tight. I sometimes break the thread dong this but I want the hair tight. Third- I pack the hair VERY tightly. I use the Brassie for packing my hair. I also use my fingers. I place the thumb and forefinger of my left hand behind the hair and use the thumb and forefinger of my right hand to push the hair to the rear and at the same time twist the hair in the direction of the thread (generally clockwise). I do this on all of the hair that I tie on the hook. Fourth - When I tie on the eyes in front of the hair, I push them (eyes) to the rear and tie them securely. THEN, I take a small clump of hair and tie it directly behind the eyes. I turn the fly over and do the same thing on the opposite side of the hook. Fifth - I then tie and spin another clump of hair in front of the eyes. Then I go back and tie in a small clump of hair directly in front of the eyes, between the eyes and the clump that I just spun. I turn the fly over and do the same thing on the opposite side of the hook. Sixth - I tie on and spin the remaining clumps of hair and pack them using my fingers as described above. I pack the hair as tight as possible. You can also stack the hair to get a denser body. I have several tying lessons on deer hair on my web site if you are interested. Here are the addresses: Working with Deer Hair Stacking Deer Hair Article on Trimming Deer Hair Trimming Deer Hair with Photos Trimming a Different Fly with Photos Hope that these will help.

I am sure that there will be no problem with having a bunch of first edition copies that we sign. In fact, I am sure that both of us look forward to it. I know that I am. I am very glad that this book project is generating so much interest. John and I have talked for a long time about doing this book and I just kept putting him off. Seeing as how he would NOT give up, I had to final relent or he was going to pester me to death. Seriously though, it is a book that it's time has come and I feel that this will be a great book and most will be surprised with the content. Even I am getting some information that I did not know. John continues to email me or call me with tidbits of info that he has found. It is getting more exciting as we go along. Wishing everyone a safe and prosperous New Year.

John and I have undertaken quite a project here. It should be an excellent book and will bring to light some tyers and patterns that very few people know about. Both of us have been finding out things that we did not know and that should be of interest to anyone interested in the history and evolution of both fly fishing and fly tying for the "Salt". One example - How many people knew that Stu Apte tied flies commercially in the 1950's (I believe the date is right). He told me that he was tying simple bonefish flies in Florida and that he sold all that he could tie. When I spoke to him, that was the first that I had heard of that. We have found numerous people that were involved with Joe Brooks. Until we started researching for the book, several of these were unknown to me. I think all of us will get an education from this book. As some of you may know, I have some historical and "Classic" saltwater flies on my site. Some you are probably familiar with and some you are not. If you are interested here are some addresses for these flies: Ken Bay sent me this fly (Florida Cracker) that you may be interested in. It is circa 1890: Florida Cracker If you are interested in the Deceiver, here is the history of that pattern as written by Lefty: Lefty's Deceiver Here is another pattern that Ken Bay sent me, circa 1940's: Dick Splaine Here is the address to a woman that was very important for fly tying and her flies in Florida. Article on Elizabeth Greig - Elizabeth Greig Article with photos of some of her original flies - Elizabeth Greig's Saltwater Flies Ken Bay has and continues to send me patterns and their histories. I have a section devoted to the histories of patterns. If you are interested, here is the address to those patterns - Fly Histories Just thought that you might be interested. If any of you have any historical or "Classic" saltwater flies that you would like to contribute to either my site, the book or both, drop me an email and I will get you the information on the submission. Happy holidays to you all.

The DNA materials are manufactured in the Philippines and distributed through Farrow Allen. Farrow is the US distributor for the products. They (Ocean Pacific Leisure) sent me a huge package of all of their materials and they have some really nice stuff. John, did you use the Frosty or Powder fibers? Farrow does not sell direct to the public so you will need to go to your local Fly Shop to get the material. If you need the contact info, let me know and I will give it to you. I can order it for you as well. The average retail is somewhere around $2.25 to $2.50 per pack. Here is their web site if you are interested: Ocean Pacific Leisure

And here I was thinking that marabou originally came from the Marabou Stork. What do I know. The marabou that we use now, does, in fact come from turkeys. Just my 2 cents worth.

Well Heck, I might as well throw mine in too (if I can remember them all). Lefty Kreh Bob Popovics Jim Hester Jeffery Cardenas Ken Bay Gary Soucie Nick Lyons Dan Blanton Flip Pallot Poul Jourgenson Rod Yeager Donald Rothman Steve Abel Walt Jennings Joy Dunlap Dale Clemens Kim Rasmussen Pete Parker Charles Jardine Eric Leisure Bob Kay Tom Piccolo Lou Tabory Chico Bob Nauheim Bob Clouser Jack Samson Nick Curcione Joe Butorac Ted Juracsik Steve Bailey Numerous people (too many to list) via pohone etc. That's enough for now. Tired of typing. ADDED: I told you guys that I was tired and tired of typeing so: BIG DADDY Jimmy Nix Stu Apte George Hommell Sandy Moret Tim Borski Oh yea before I forget BIG DADDY Did I mention BIG DADDY?? That's enough from me. Making me strain my brain but then that is not hard if yours is not bigger than mine (brain that is).

Frontpage is an ok program but it does cost money and takes a little getting used to. If you do a web search for "Free HTML Editors" there are a ton of them out there that are very simple and cost nothing. Hot Dog Lite is a good one. Read the reviews about them and see which one seems the easier. You want one that you just type in what you want and the program does the HTML automatically. You DO NOT want to have to hand code anything. Any of them will take a little studying but most have good tutorials and several of the program web sites give you tutorials, help, tips and tricks as well. Here is a great web site for beginners - www.htmlgoodies.com If you really get into web design then you can upgrade to one that you pay for. As to doing the tutorials for your brother, you can use Word to write them up and there is a way to place photos within the text as well but you will have to have a way to get the photos onto your computer and then a graphics program to resize them etc. Then you can send it via email as an attachment. There are plenty of free simple graphic programs out there as well. If you do not have one then do a web search. You should have a simple program already on your computer. Go to your start menu, then accessories and you should see a program on the drop down menu called "Paint". That is a very simple graphic program. Hope that this helps.

I have several lessons on my site about working with, spinning, stacking and trimming deer hair. You might find them helpful. Some of the lessons include step by step photos. Lessons Hope that these will help.

From what I have learned over the years - the fly does not necessarily have to look like an actual crab but it HAS to act like a crab. With that in mind, the legs add to the overall effect of the crab and they have movement in the water. As to the legs being white, I have not seen tan legs but they should match the color of the crab body or the leg color of the natural that you are representing. Then on the other hand, I have tied them in numerous colors and have used the off white legs on them and never had any negative comments about the color of the legs. When I was tying for Jeffery Cardenas in Key West, he had me put blue legs on the crabs that I tied for him. The crabs were tan with blue legs. Ken Bay brought up an interesting observation about crabs and how he ties them up. The rubber legs will eventually deteriorate because of the sun and heat so he does not use rubber legs. He uses a type of velvet chamois or similar material and does not have the problem with the legs. Of course you could just cut the old ones off and tie on new ones.

I have just posted an article on my site about the orgins of the Wooly Bugger as told by the originator - Russell Blessing. I scanned one of the original articles that Russ supplied me, some additional information and Russell Blessings bio. Just thought that this might interest a few of you. Wooly bugger

While my site deals with saltwater flies, I have 4 lessons on deer hair that I think will help you. Here are the addresses Working with Deer Hair Stacking Deer Hair Trimming Deer Hair Another Way to Trim Deer Hair Hope that these will help you.

Generally on that type of fly, you want to use long and fairly wide and webby saddle hackle. As I am not sure what type of saddle hackle you have, so it is hard for me to make a decision about it. If it is a general purpose saddle hackle then it is probably more on the dry fly type, even if it is a #3 but they will work. Just pick out the softest and most webby of the hackles and tie them in. The tail should extend twice the length of the hook shank. You can go shorter if you want but 2 times is a good rule of thumb. I buy all of my saddle hackles strung except for grizzly. I buy them on the skin because I cannot find them strung. What used to be considered rejects or junk hackle is now highly sought by warm water and saltwater fly tyers. These saddles were long, wide, webby and had very soft stems. They did not work well for a lot of the cold water applications so they were considered rejects. At one time you could buy them for next to nothing. Now, that is a different story. Some of the breeders are coming out with some decent necks and saddles for saltwater because the market is there. This is just my opinion but buy the cheapest saddles you can get if you are ONLY tying saltwater flies as the feathers will not be much good for anything else except bass flies and the like. I have seen some patches described as Deceiver patches and those are pretty decent. I still buy mine strung though. I do not tie a lot of small flies (size 6 and under) so strung works very well for me.

Watch that Mr. Branham stuff, might make me think that I am somebody. Joe is fine. Here are the links to the deer hair lessons on my site. There are 4 lessons. I will list the link to each of them. Working with Deer Hair Stacking Deer Hair Trimming Deer Hair #1 Trimming Deer Hair #2 The two lessons on trimming deer hair show 2 different patterns. One is a Dahlberg Diver and the other is a full deer hair bodied fly that imitates a baitfish. On the question of tying on a bare hook shank, I tie it on the bare shank if the hair is going to be the same color top and bottom. I want the hair to spin completely around the hook shank. If I am tying a fly with the top one color and the bottom another color, I lay a GOOD base of thread and tie on the belly then turn the fly over and tie on the top. This is the way that I have found works best for me. The thread helps to keep the hair from spinning on the hook shank but you still need to hold the hair to keep it from spinning while you apply the thread and tighten the thread. Here is a trick that works for me. Once you have spun the hair and the thread has been pulled tight, take the hair between your fingers and twist it in the direction that it was spun. You will have to keep tension on the thread but the hair will turn another quarter to half a turn and then be really tight. Take a couple of more wraps of thread and it is LOCKED in place. One of the biggest problems that I see when showing people how to work with deer hair is (well there are several actually) (1) they use too much hair, (2) they use too little hair (better than too much), and they do not pack the hair tight enough. I use the Brassie for packing my hair and THEN I use my fingers. Yes, I stick the crap out of my fingers but the hair is packed. A clump of hair about the size of a pencil is about right. Make sure that you clean out the fur and other junk in the hair before spinning. Watch out for using hair that is too thin to spin properly. If you tie you flies and they still do not look dense enough, try stacking some hair. I cover that in the lesson on stacking with photos. Hope that these help. If I can help further, let me know.

Everyone has given you some good advise but I will add my 50 cents worth. AS I ONLY tie saltwater and bass flies, my opinion is slanted in those directions but, The Dyna King wins hands down for tying these flies. I have 4 of them. My personal vise has a two digit serial number and the only thing that I have every done to it is putting a little grease on the shaft. I have never even replaced the "o" rings and this vise has tied thousands and thousands of flies. When we were tying commercially, I bought several more for my wife, son and the others that tied for me. In the saltwater/bass realm, I have never heard of anyone having a problem with the vise holding the hook although you might have a problem with hooks smaller than a size 10 but they are different size jaws for the Dyna King. The Dyna King is easy to operate and you cannot pull the hook out of the jaws. The Renzetti is a great vise but, personally, I did not like it for commercial tying. I had to continually adjust it, it would not hold a hook securely, the jaws moved and I had to change the setup every time I changed hook sizes. On top of that, I had to attach the Clouser attachment to tie Clousers. That was not practical for what I was doing. True rotary is nice in some cases, but, again, in saltwater, I do not see the need for the "True". If you are going to be tying a lot of small flies (trout) then you really need to use different vises to see which one you like the best. You can do a Goggle search and find all of the information you want on these vises, but it is like taking a test drive in a car. You really do not know until you do it. Take this information into consideration but it is you that has to be comfortable with what you are using. What works for one does not necessarily work for others. Simpler is better in that you do not have as much that can go wrong.