mattb

Critiques I had (lack of taper in body, spacing in hackle wrapping and small post) seem to have been fixed in your most recent flies. I personally wouldn't cut the post as short as you did on the black fly but that's up to you. Tail does appear to be pointing down on the black fly, throwing a few wraps underneath the tail fibers can alleviate this in the future.

I've bought these many times over, and no issue as long as you don't mind the wait. The key to purveying materials from china is to never need it then and there, always be a month ahead. A lot of times I'll order stuff and once it shows up i'll think "oh, I completely forgot I bought this". Just wish they had bigger than 9mm and some solid colors.

Thanks, but the second isn't mine. Gunnar Brammer tied the second, hes definitely up there in terms of innovative streamer tyers these days. I would be happy to do so but not sure if it's original enough to warrant it. Simply explained, the steps are 1. Attach dumbbell eyes 2. Ice dub the body 3. Attach magnum zonker strip 4. Tie in hen hackle pectoral fins (honestly, they don't hold shape once in current. They either need to be coated in flex resin (yet to try this), or just use bunches of rubber legs trimmed to the appropriate length) 5. Tie in 1" dubbing clumps I make myself behind and in front of the eyes 6. Trim to shape 7. Coat with resin (optional) Flyfishfood has quite a few sculpin videos, including their most recent "dual threat sculpin" (just ignore the double hook eye thing they do) that would offer a pretty good base on how to tie these. Here are some more that I tied, both with dubbing made from yarn. While brushes have their place, for these jerkbait style heads, a vertical profile is ideal. Brushes result in a more cylindrical appearance, and you cannot control which colors are where on the fly. So currently for a lot of my baitfish streamers I do reverse tied craft fur with flex resin, and the end result looks good in my opinion but the dubbing option is much faster and user friendly. Here is an example of my craft fur work I picked up a second dog brush today, and was finally able to get a clump of usable material. The requirements? I had to untwist the strands that are spun up to make the yarn, and then after scraping for seemingly forever I was able to get what I wanted. Not ideal, not worth the time. I'm not sure if the 2" length coiled is strong enough versus my 1" stuff that it is unwilling to cooperate. Trying the dog brushes without untwisting the yarn made a tangled useless mess. The single clump created: I think there is some confusion on these heads, here is a picture (not mine) of the process. Fold back, comb and ideally control with resin. I think I'm going to pick up a can of air and play around with it before devising a canister with a valve stem in order to "borrow" my gas station's air set up.

Appreciate everyone's input. I'm going to pick up a second dog brush tomorrow (already have one that I use while making dubbing brushes) but just running some yarn strands through a single brush by hand shows promising results. The hareline kit appears to be essentially a wool carding board, and if this is successful enough I'll probably build one for about ~25 bucks. Seems like a lot of work for some dubbing, but streamers made in this method use quite a bit of material and you can go through a $2.50 bag of streamer dubbing incredibly quickly. I tie a ton and I already have most of the yarn on hand from other projects so if I can find a way to make it myself, I'd like to do so. Here is a simple single hook sculpin I tie with dubbing I make from yarn purchased at michaels, the entire ball of yarn may have cost $2, and calculated per fly the dubbing cost is not even measurable. Takes no time at all to make this ~1" stuff in a grinder. Here is an example of the head style I plan on using for some things I'm working on once I get this material dialed in. The method is really straight forward, tying in at 50/50-70/30, doubling over and controlling with resin. Obviously it isn't for everyone, but I fish streamers exclusively except when the hatches are really going.

I make a lot of my own dubbing out of yarn but with the coffee grinder I am limited to about a 1" length. I am trying to make 2" dubbing ala laser dub and the like for streamers but that length just doesn't work in the grinder. Things I've tried so far 1. Flipping the coffee grinder so it avoids the blades 2. Blender dry 3. Blender wet 4. Using my vacuum as a wind vortex I know the air compressor method is the way to do this, but I don't own a compressor. Anyone have experience with somehow making this longer stuff without it?

Anyone with some shanks and calipers on hand mind taking a measurement of the wire thickness for me? I'm guessing 1mm, I am planning on making my own but don't have any on hand to measure. Much appreciated!

Been wanting to tie some emerger patterns for the upcoming season, and I'm seeing a wide variety in wing styles. Back, forward, looped, foam, etc. Could someone please offer some insight as to why one would pick one over the other? Specifically, for mayflies. Thanks. http://www.bluequillangler.com/core/media/media.nl?id=2690&c=664775&h=13e63025a36ad72ed626 https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT5ho6VUhFKVwc-nFnB7pHaB8QSYcIGca_s8h3qq40NXPxYao_n

Looking for some help regarding materials for freshwater tying. I've been salt water fly fishing for about 15 years now, and tying nearly the same length of time. I have enough salt materials to fill a studio apartment. I am starting to fish fresh a lot more and am trying to buy materials to tie, but my mind is going to explode trying to interpret everything I need. Saltwater is stupidly simple in comparison, 99% of flies can be tied on a mustad 1 or 1/0 hook, tie some various sythetic materials and some epoxy, and you're done. Browsing on the allen site for hooks, and there is thin wire, 1xl this, 2x that, 3x the other thing, wide gape, down eye, sideways eye, etc etc. Materials is a whole other ballgame. I'm going to get my dubbing from ftd, after that I don't even know what I need. Is there some kind of master list that has a good explanation of what i'll need? Standard trout flies for the NE, dries, emergers and nymphs.