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Fly Tying

milkman

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About milkman

  • Rank
    Beginner

Previous Fields

  • Favorite Species
    smallmouth bass
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    22

Profile Information

  • Location
    NE Okla
  1. Keep an open mind at garage sales, look on the tables you would normally pass. I bought a 6-foot red feather boa for 25c. A lifetime supply.
  2. Sorry, a little late here, but I just ran across this. Some months back I bought a pack of dished sequins at Wally World, super cheap as usual. They were red, had a gently concaved shape, and as I recall, several sizes in the pack, all small enough for flies. Almost weightless of course like typical sequins. I thought it was crazy at the time, but what the heck, fish like vibrations, and I figured they would provide that just like the lip on a crank bait. My plan was to slip one onto the bare hook right up to the eye with the dished side forward, then tie the fly behind it. It might get a little inconvenient working behind the disc, especially tying off, but probably worth the effort. I can't conveniently locate the package to photograph. Just picture a typical sequin, except dished.
  3. Well, I see my mistake has been punching little cylinders out of the flip-flop and making poppers. I didn't realize I was supposed to use the whole thing to make the fly.
  4. I was given the book for Christmas by a beloved niece who is an editor for a major magazine. She knew I was a voracious reader and interested in tying and, without reading it herself, surmised this might be a good fit. I found the book to have virtually zero about the tying of flies. But I found it to be absolutely fascinating. The first half anyway. They should have stopped there, but then there was this dull wild goose chase (no pun intended) where he tried to count the feathers and skins still around. Dull, deadly boring, and the book sort of just wound down. It was interesting that the museum had no clue what they had. If he had left some in each drawer the theft might have never been noticed. But someone eventually wanted to look in a drawer, and an empty drawer with a label is some sort of clue. My late wife was in charge of accessions for a museum, and there was a major paper trail for everything that come in or went out, they knew what they had and where it all was at all times. He sold birds, skins, feathers, some with museum packing in the eyes and museum labels attached. Buyers had to know, but apparently didn't care since they had money and a source. He beat the rap with apparently no remorse, not the best outcome for my taste, but that didn't detract from the interesting narrative. It's not about fly tying. It seems to be well written. I learned a lot about a subject I knew nothing about, which is plenty of justification for reading the variety of things I read. I consider my time well spent. I can't pick up an owl feather out of my own woods, but I understand the logic. If sale and/or possession are allowed, there will be birds killed.
  5. I've been admiring the potato chip bag lately for the very shiny silver interior with a variety of outer colors. A dollar will buy you a square foot or so at Dollar General, and as a bonus you get all those free munchies inside.
  6. Back before autocad I spent a lot of time (mechanical design) bent over a drawing board, and I'd get bad upper back pains between the shoulder blades. My late wife was doing some shoulder therapy and commented about this to the therapist. Therapist asked if my jaws popped. Yes, a condition I've had sorta forever. From 50 miles away and with just this brief exchange with my wife, she solved my problem. I was holding my head forward. I started paying attention and sure 'nuf, I kept my head pulled back to some normal position and I never got back pains again. Started again a few years ago after losing the wife. Cooking and cleaning up the kitchen means bending a bit for me, and I fall into the old pattern of head forward with the old results. Pain drives me away until I get my back straightened out for a while in my recliner, but no problem if I pay attention. Hope there's something in this that helps a little.
  7. Call me old-fashioned (I am), but when I find something I want to ever see again, I make a hard copy. Not just flies, any kind of information. I have Wallyworld print photos of images (my printer and computer are not too terribly compatible), I copy and paste text and print it out. Comes from a lifetime of storing information before the computer took over our lives. Probably too much hassle for most folks, but it's sorta handy to be able to put a photo above the vise and tie somewhere besides at the computer. I'm still at the "monkey see/monkey do" stage, and visuals are helpful.
  8. Thanks Mike. Good to know it's not my inability to click on a link. Basically great site, I can deal with the glitches. Thanks to the administrator for keeping this site alive.
  9. When I find a fly I like in a forum that says it is in the database, I am unable to access it. I click on the link and it takes me to the main menu. I got to the database and try to search by keyword and I am sent to the main menu. Most recently I tried searching by tyers name and the fly was not there. What am I doing wrong? Thanks.
  10. Yard sales and garage sales are common in NE Okla, Thursday to Saturday or Sunday, estate sales preferred but not as common. I run my errands on Thursday or Friday A.M. (~50 mile round trip to town, different route going and coming) to beat the weekend shopping crowd. I sure hit pay dirt last weekend at one of those sales where they were just trying to get rid of stuff. Spent $3 (three dollars) and got 61 new unopened spools 200 or 225 yard acrylic punch embroidery yarn, plus 104 spools mostly less than half used, plus a new spool each of gold, silver and pearlescent thread. Every color under the sun, full range of crawdadish hues, and dupes are in white, black and red. Someone had tried the hobby and wanted out. I conservatively estimate over 23,000 yards. I realize this won't solve all my thread problems, but it will sure entertain me for the rest of my life tying warm water flies to donate to the waters. Sure, I hit a lot of sales not worth the stop, but occasionally I make up for it. One problem at that sale, they didn't leave me much room to negotiate on price.
  11. Interesting point. I was looking for "the scrape", without considering the characteristics of the underwater sound. Bass might sort the metal sound into some category other than crawfishy.
  12. Soft, flexible, textured, crawdad color. What's not to like? A friend gave me a bag of these finger cots as a joke (which I shouldn't have to explain).
  13. I'd say my question was fairly well answered. And based on what has always worked, they'd probably eat a crawdad fly tied sideways. And yes, whatever way, the hook point must be up. I never thought about the problem of probable twist with the rudders forward, Mike. Thanks, and thanks to all. I'll tie them backward. I understand they make a scraping sound as they crawl on rocks, and bass home in on that. I was wondering how to add something to scrape, maybe little wire whiskers. Saw a fly somewhere (here?) with 4 beadchain pairs beneath, plastic I think. Don't recall the explanation, too big and too dark to be in berry, but I saw an answer. Multiple metal beadchain would provide the scrape sound and eliminate the need for lead. I'm sort of guessing I need a little strip of foam topside to assure which way is up. Maybe foam body which will also keep the beads from wrapping and getting too high relative to hook shank. Experimenting will answer all, as usual. Probably overkill, they eat crawdads any ol' way, but aint it fun thinking we're outwitting them.
  14. Crawdads move slowly headfirst unless spooked, and then they dart backward very quickly. As I understand the research, bass prefer to suck in an undisturbed crawdad. Less effort expended due to no chase needed and no effort expended to turn the prey around to swallow. So why does every crawdad fly version I see have the hook point at the head end and pull the crawdad backward? We're supposed to fish them slowly, and crawdads don't creep backward. Yes, it looks a bit awkward with the point exposed back there instead of sort of lost in the area of the antennae and claws. But virtually every other imitation has the hook blatantly exposed, so it shouldn't be a deciding factor here. Also, research has shown that bass prefer smaller claws, yet most crawdad flys seem to make a big feature of the claws. Sure, it looks more crawdaddish to us, but who are we trying to please here, us or the fish?
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