TimJ

Thanks I have some white ice chinelle and some bright marabou, I think I can make some kind of flashy buggers with that. Guess I'll have to make a few more clousers too. Size 6 about right? I might do a few with 4's also. Tim

Anyone here have a favorite white bass fly? I did a little searching but couldn't find anything. Any pictures of simple patterns that a 6wt will handle. I suppose some bright colored clousers are at the top of the list. Thank you, Tim

The only thing that I would say is a house hold item is a black permanent marker. I tried some with a little rubbing alcohol just to see what would happen. Dyed the marabou nicely...but not to black. I got a nice mottled olive color. Maybe with more time it would have been darker. If you try it I'd recommend wearing rubber gloves and doing it outside in a bowl you can throw away or a zip lock bag. Crack open a marker and pour a little alcohol on it, then soak your marabou. You will have to get the marabou wet with the alcohol first or it will just want to float, you can squeeze and rub it quite a bit. Rinse with soap and water after they dry. It will change the color just no guarantee that it will be what you want. If you are in need of black quickly most craft stores will have some that is of OK quality to get by. Tim

:thumbup: That is a really great idea. Thanks for sharing. I can see some in black, brown, white and purple being added to my fly box. Tim

The Sparrow made me do it. :devil: Tim

Yep, sparrows work. Black and natural was a hit on this day. Tim

Thanks for the pattern GHow. That is a nice basic panfish fly. I tied a few up and tried them this past weekend. Caught a couple nice crappies on a black one. I tied them with bead chain eyes and rabbit tail instead of marabou on the smaller ones. So many options with it. Tim

Thank you Mike, that helps a lot. Not likely I'll meet up with a Welsh fisherman who'll correct me no matter how I pronounce it but I'd like to be close. Tim

Hello all, I have a simple question, anyone know how to pronounce Diawl Bach? :dunno: Due to my ancestry I wanted to add a welsh pattern to my box and the diawl bach looks like it will work well for my warm water situations. The one problem is I would like to be able to say the name at least close to properly. Thanks, Tim

You have to be careful what you pick up and where. Some states it's a no no and others it's OK, but waterfowl are under federal law and it could be argued that you can't pick up road kills out of season in the USA. I doubt G-men would come to your house if you did pick it up. If I wanted feathers off of a road kill I would just quickly pluck them off and put them in a bag and be off. You can clean them with warm soapy water if they are bloody or dirty. After they dry stick them in the freezer for a couple weeks and any bugs should all be gone. btw Most ducks are a pain to skin unless you do it a lot or have a lot of time. Then you have to scrape off all the fat and put something like borax on the skin to preserve it. Pheasants, quail, grouse and partridge are easy to do. If you know any hunters ask if they can save you a skin from them. Tim

Gilly, After seeing these I've been searching a bit to see about other patterns and instructions. This may be a dumb question but since I can't find pictures of them being tied I need to ask it. Is there just one wing feather or is it two? Hard to tell from the pictures. The rest looks pretty straight forward. I haven't fished for trout in years but I can't think of a reason why they wouldn't make some pretty crappie flies. I'm going to have to tie a few. Tim

Gilly, You tie some gorgeous flies. I love the colors and shape of these old flies. Tim

QUOTE (blackdog1101 @ Apr 15 2005, 11:13 AM) Gilly is in Canada, and I think they have more flexible laws on these sorts of things. But you raise an interesting question. I see coot skins for sale quite regularly. I wonder what the liability is for someone here in the USA who buys one? There are Eurasian Coots that are OK to buy but the American Coots are a no no from all I have seen. Snipe are the same way. There are people who watch for that kind of thing so always play it safe when buying or selling. I'm glad I hunt, snipe feathers are nice for soft hackles. Gilly, Did you hit it? They are a big bird, that had to be a big thump. I know if I ever get a crane I'll be trying to figure out a use for the feathers. Does it look like the neck feathers could be used for soft hackles? I bet the primaries would have some nice biots. If the tail feathers are large enough you could probably tie something like a pheasant tail nymph, you probably won't run into too many people fishing crane tail nymphs. I doubt you are going to find many recipes calling for crane, at least not sandhill crane. Tim

I'd say I fish with size 8 about 60% of the time while after panfish. The other 40% is probably about half bigger and half smaller. I don't fish them too often now but at one time I found 16 and 18 Brassies to be great gill flies. I don't remember having a big problem getting fish unhooked safely. I'm sure it was better on them then worm fishing. Lots of room for forceps and the hooks don't go as deep. I also would keep them moving a little most of the time so I could see a bite as soon as it happened, I think that helped a little. Has anyone tried to tie nymphs on some small circle hooks? I have some size 6 circle hooks that I have thought about tying some flies with. They didn't work too bad with live bait but when they did fail it was nasty. I've seen that they make them to 14s, not sure if they would have a wide enough gap to catch on the fishes lip. Tim

My favorite panfish fly is a simple mini zonker. I use an 8 or 10 2x or 3x nymph hook, I have even used aberdeen hooks, and just a dubbed or yarn wrapped body and a rabbit strip. Only have the rabbit strip hang out the back about 1/4". Unweighted is good when they are feeding near the surface. If you want some weight add a few wraps of lead on the hook or a bead. I use black and natural rabbit as my all around panfish flies, white and chartreuse work great on crappies. I haven't tried mink strips yet but am planning to since I have to split some rabbit strips to get them thin enough. I bet they will work great for smaller zonkers. Tim