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fishfrnzy2

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About fishfrnzy2

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    trout
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    Colorado

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  1. For right handed tiers, Counter clockwise the bobbin in your right hand and pointed straight at the fly using your left thumb and forefinger to twist the dubbing. Twisting the dubbing this way requires no wax. I have not owned or used any wax in decades. Sorry to those of you that like it but I hate the stuff. even for slippery stuff like coarse synthetics and in the old days natural seal fur. The trick is to roll the dubbing with forefinger under the thread using a very light touch, then hold down with your thumb, then repeat. Make sure you roll just the material around the thread, do not squeeze down, twist both or thread breaks and technique won't work. Once you get good at this, it is very fast and easy to pull down material to stretch out the noodle and control the diameter and length.
  2. Yea, that thing looks pretty hideous. Gonna be a tough sell at any price I think.
  3. Green Drake-AP Nymph Learned this one from the man himself, Andre Puyans. This was a variant he came up with adding marabou gills on each side of body brushed out after ribbing the fly. Tail and wing case-Dark moose body hair Rib-Reddish copper wire Body and head-Muskrat dyed olive brown Gills-olive marabou
  4. Green Drake dun-no hackle This thing probably will twist the hell out of the leader so may turn out impossible to fish but who knows. Will try next season. Tail- micro fibbets split Body-Semperfli fine dubbing Wing-goose quill
  5. Green drake dun Tail-micro fibbetts split Body-Semperfly fine dubbing Hackle-Chartreuse died grizzly clipped on the bottom Wing-CDC
  6. Green Drake cripple Tail and body-olive marabou Rib-reddish copper wire Hackle-Chartreuse died grizzly clipped on the bottom Wing-dyed olive elk hair
  7. So on a couple of the tailwaters I fish they have some green drakes still hatching through most of August so need to restock the boxes for next year. Even when you only see a few on the water the fish seem to move a long way to take these over pmd or bwo hatching at the same time. Hackle stacker green drake Some hints for tying “hackle stacker” for right handed tyers. This is a bit windy but here goes. I tried a few of these many years ago using the 6 loops of thread or whatever the original called for and without a special post to hold it up while you wrap the hackle around a flimsy thread post then fold over. Was not practical to hold that and keep everything together so never tried again til about 5 years ago. So……a much easier method is to tie in your tail material of choice, take about 12” of 5x leader96x for size 18 and smaller if you like and fold over and tie in the two loose ends with facing back very tightly so you are folding over the mono when you fold the wing forward, tie in your hackle, hold the mess out of the way while you get the that to back of hook, apply your dubbing then dub to just behind eye of hook leaving about 1/16” or a little more of space hook the mono loop over your little finger of your left hand then wrap the hackle parachute style around the mono post up so that the height is about the same distance as from tie in point to tie off point(I do not find it necessary to wrap up the post then back down or tie off the hackle as it is held down tight and cannot unwind) then take your fingernail and compress the hackle a little as necessary, pull the mono over and tie down with 3-4 wraps and fold the mono back and make 3-4 mor wraps and whip finish. Cut the mono and hackle stem close with one blade of your scissors or with the tips just barely open pushing into the tensioned material so you don’t cut the wrapped hackle. Manipulating the hackle with your fingertips is a bit of a challenge to get down but once you do they go pretty quick. Using a long saddle hackle helps and I do not use a hackle plier until I get to the last inch or so. I can crank out one with split tails ever 5 minutes so way faster than the original method and very durable. Can tie close to a dozen flies with one piece of mono and one long saddle hackle in smaller sizes. Soak the hackle stem in a little water for a minute or two as they will spit trying to wrap around the small diameter of the mono. They float well, are fairly easy to see and sit low in the water so for picky fish…...well you get the idea Hackle stacker green drake Hook-standard length dry 10 Thread-8/0 Semplerfly, that stuff is super strong. Tail-micro fibbetts split Body-Semperlfi fine dubbing Wing-blue dun hackle 1-1/2 -2X hook gap Hackle stacker green drake-rusty dun variation-please ignore the stray hair hanging down in the picture, lol Hook-standard length dry 10 Thread-8/0 Semplerfly Tail-micro fibbetts split Body-Semperlfi fine dubbing Wing-“rusty” blue dun hackle 1-1/2 -2X hook gap Hackle stacker green drake-sparkle dun variation Hook-standard length dry 10 Thread-8/0 Semplerfly Tail/trailing husk-burnt orange/olive mixed darlon Body-Semperlfi fine dubbing Wing-“rusty” blue dun hackle 1-1/2 -2X hook gap I had this Metz saddle from about 1980 that is mostly size 12-8 hackles that has this unusual rusty dun color and really had not used much but this is perfect for these critters I think. The yellowish at the base of the feathers is the fat from the skin dissolving and soaking part way up the stem for those who have never seen it. Doesn’t hurt a thing.
  8. lots of good tips by flytire and others. some of the best so far: I was told to get used to tying with your scissors in your hand to save looking for them on the table and you got em when you need them. Learn to tie whip finish by hand.....tied several tens of thousands of flies over 45 years before buying a whip finish tool. Finally broke down about 5 years ago and bought what because in wintertime hands get so dry and cracked it was fraying the thread too much. Was told god gave you a whip finish tool, use it! In the post just above, using chenille from zip log bag to save waste, yes to this. I now usually wrap all body materials from the spool or card if it is chenille or the bundle it comes on including wire, lead wire etc instead of cutting off a 8" length or what ever and working with an ever shortening piece. I seldo make one or two of anything so economy at scale. Also saves time when you are in production mode. This is darlon from making quite a few sparkle duns. some others: Along the same lines when making multiple flies, usually I would make at least a half dozen of a pattern( I tie for 3 of us in the family and give many to friends) any material like flashbou, darlon, etc pull the 6 or so strands out of the bundle instead of cutting if bundled in the middle and tie a knot in one end to keep everything aligned. keeps the ends even as you cut and saves time. Tie the ends in from the cut end very close to the end and you do not need to cut off any excess toward the eye. Use the gap of the hook for measuring hackles, wings, tails etc. That way your size 10's will look right and so will your # 20's Steaming duck, goose, turkey quills etc to restore folded or buggered up feathers to they way they came off the bird. Started tying when synthetic dubbing choices were very limited and dear and elk hair were rarely tanned. Almost always washed in dawn dishwashing soap(shampoo works too) to get rid of animal dirt and oils. Pat dry on paper towel and let dry or blow dry if you are in a hurry to use.. makes tying with natural materials soooo much easier. make dubbing needles from 1/16" stainless steel TIG welding wire. Put an 8" length in a cordless drill and run against a belt sander with fine belt or grinding wheel, easy enough to bend loops/hooks in the end when you are done for dubbing twister. 2 36" lengths will get you about 8 a lifetime supply or give some away. Keep the amount of thread between your bobbin and the fly to a minimum. Gives you much more speed wrapping and much more precision for thread placement. If in doubt try a little experiment with 1" of thread out vs 5" of thread and see. When your nail polish head cement gets thick add some acetone with a eyedropper or straw. When your Fleximent gets thick, add some toluene, or you can just make your own with shoe goo, E6000, GOOP etc by putting in empty jar with about 2x the volume toluene to the glue and let it sit for a day to dissolve. Shake the bottle a few times during the process.
  9. Hey Chug, thanks. Interesting to tie these. Need to make 3 or 4 to get one good enough for a pic. lol. I still have a couple given to me on my first trip to the Henrey's Fork over 40 years ago tied by Rene Harrop. His are all perfect.
  10. Nice, old style dragonfly tie on a 40 + year old Fenwick glass rod!
  11. Woodchuck caddis Olive poly dub Blue dun hackle Woodchuck guard hair wings
  12. A few Perdigons all CDL tails and various thread and flashabou/tinsel wrapped
  13. Agree that some Mustad hooks seem very brittle. 94840 and 94838 short shank 94842, and I think the ring eye was 94841 as well as the 3906 and 3906B were really bad and was very easy to break the point off or mid bend. Area right behind the barb is cut very deep and easy to break trying too pinch the barb down. Some of that was likely ticking a rock or branch on a back cast, lol. Mostly Mustad was about the only thing available across a whole bunch of sizes as well as some eagle claw fly tying hooks unless you could afford Partridge at about 3X the price. That was out of my budget in mid seventies for a 14 year old. Started seeing some VMC in the late 70's and the trout models were also pretty easy to break the points. Got a hold of some TMC(Tiemco) around 79 and those were nice. For prospective in 1980 while working in a fly shop the pricing for Mustads were about $2.50-3.50 per hundred and TMC were 6.25 for the dry fly and nymph hooks and they only sod them by the hundred. TMC wants $26.00 per hundred now. Hooks are sooooo much better today with so many choices. FWIW, the Mustad streamer/nymph hooks 9671, 9672, 9674(ring eye) and I can't remember the 4XL down eye are all really good and tough. Points may need a touch up on the file though but a good value.
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