JSzymczyk

check out this guy's youtube channel: seems very honest, and calls it as he sees it. I have no affiliation with him or any product.

if the outside pressure was pushing against the fabric and there was an unequal (1 atmosphere) air space on the "dry" side, I'd agree with you. With waders they are pressed tightly against the structure underneath them, your leg and clothing, so in either case, the patch is being clamped in place, not pushed out of place. I'm (believe it or not) with you on this one though, patches on the outside give waders some character.

Keep. It. Simple.

fairly happy with my HMH Spartan for streamers and bucktails- with the jaw set horizontal it allows easy access to both the upper and lower side of the hook without bending any long materials out of the way.

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if that was mine, there would be one addition.... bloodstains on the carpet from where my wife shot me and dragged the body out.

I have definitely had new spools of the same thread break at different tensions. Absolutely. I tie with danville 6/0 waxed most of the time and there is no doubt about differences in material or manufacturing or whatever, some of it "weak spots" in the spool too. Not often enough to be anything but a minor annoyance, but I have broken thread while tying, tested it in my fingers and it is weak, rip off a couple yards from the spool, and it is back to normal. I have 3/0 Monocord that is at least 25 years old and it still seems fine. Always stored out of direct light in a box or plastic drawer. To me the inconvenience is acceptable because I like the way that thread performs for the most part. I much prefer it to other threads which are braided or twisted strands. It's thread, it's cheap, there are going to be differences from one batch to the next.

Then tie them and go fish them and watch them. Tie your flies and go get real world experience with them. Change one variable- tippet, weight, hackle density, hook style, water condition, tail fullness, body material, leader length, on and on and on, at a time and watch what the fly does. Woolly buggers don't have a "wing" and are tied with a mostly equal density and amount of materials 360 degrees around the axis of the hook. The only way to "KNOW" how the flies YOU tie are going to perform is to tie them and go fish them. I could give you one bugger that I tied and I KNOW will ride hook point down, on my line/leader/water conditions, and you could take it and fish it with different variables and have different results. There are very few large-scale absolutes in fly fishing. In my opinion you are overthinking this and stressing about a variable that doesn't mean much in the real world. In my experience catching a lot of fish with woollys, it doesn't matter much where the hook bend is at any given moment, and no matter how it is tied you are going to catch fish hooked in the top, bottom, and side of the mouth with all the other variables being constant.

yep cold, far below the 120 rule, but dressed for a swim and only in calm seas. I'm not going out if there is much risk with wind and waves. It would be really embarrassing for a retired Coastie to die out in the water because he was stupid.

Obviously, so we can pick your dumb asses up when you fall out of a boat!!! 😋

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any day I can get out on the big water in my kayak, away from everyone, sometimes MILES away from anyone, and catch steelhead like this- out where they can fight and run like crazy, is a blessing. Hopefully in about a month will get the chance again for the first time in a couple years. I am tying some trolling streamers and want to get one on my fly rod out there, but most of the time a fly rod isn't the option that makes the most sense.

Lake Erie. Better than any ocean I've ever been on, and more temperamental. I've tried to get back up there in spring and fall for the last several years and often get zero fishing in because of the weather witches. Grew up fishing it in a small boat with my Dad. It gets in your blood. Here's another memorable day, the only Laker I've caught from my kayak-

I am given to understand that a whole lot of freshwater fish, even cold water fish, can have parasites which are no fun if they get into your digestive tract alive.... in other words, no fresh water sushi. Good saltwater fish, I'll eat it raw all day long. 😋

they need to be tied very sparsely to ensure they will ride hook point down. The mass of the hook bend/point must be enough to overcome the torsion forces along the axis of the hook shank. Add a leader and tippet, and a rather heavy "radial" dressing surrounding the axis of the shank, and you have a lot of variables. Some of which will certainly overcome the mass of the hook bend. I've not personally ever experienced it to be a problem with woolly buggers. With streamers, if they are tied correctly, the "buoyancy" of wing material (even if it doesn't float) adds to the effect of the mass of the hook bend- helping the situation. There are a ton of variables and the fly fishing world is not like gear fishing- I've had so many fish caught on rather heavy Clouser Deep Minnows which I know without any doubt are swimming correctly (hook point up) yet they are hooked in the bottom jaw. There are a lot of forces at work. Woolly buggers, you could try an Up-Eye hook if you can find any. If you fish woolly buggers in any kind of current and turbulence you'll see them roll. Pretty hard to get away from with a fly tied "in the round". WB have to be one of my favorite fly styles and I have never felt I missed a fish because the hook was up, down, or sideways.

since everyone is going on about carp--- here's one that smashed a jerkbait in 50 degree water a couple years ago- had no idea for a while what I had on, light spinning rod, 6lb line, you just never know.

I like those- I've been tying something vaguely similar and doing well- most of our crayfish around here seem to have blue on their claws and I've been putting a few strands of blue flash in mine as well. I can only ASSume the fish see it as a small crayfish or some kind of nymph or something.

I'm all over the road on this- it's more like I have favorite materials to tie with rather than a favorite fly. Bucktail is probably my #1 favorite. Good quality tails are very difficult to find, at least with the qualities that are important to me. When I need one of a particular color I may or may not even find one on the rack at a shop. Tying with good quality deer tail is enjoyable and makes extremely effective patterns for me.

I mostly come here just to bust MikeChell's chops about stuff.

unless things have changed, there ain't much between Tok and Delta. First time I drove from Tok to Fairbanks, I left Tok it was negative 40, about 10 miles from Delta my truck wouldn't shift out of 2nd gear, got to Delta and it was negative 50. Thankfully the grocery store had cardboard to stuff in front of the radiator.... I didn't even realize my piece of sh** Dodge had a transmission cooler... Might have needed it in new mexico but not in interior Ak. Still have the Grizzly Bear in the grocery store? I do have great memories of the very few times I got to fish for Grayling up there.

Pattern/style which has proven itself. Size 10 and 6 seem to cover things. I have to think that it suggests a small crayfish on the waters I've fished it. Gotta say though, in 40 years I have never seen an orange crayfish (which was not cooked). Orange has been working. Absolutely no need to add the barred ginger hackle sides, but on the bigger flies I think it just looks better. I tie flies for me to like as much as for the fish to like. Lead eyes, fine cut silicone tail, spanflex body, craft fur wing, root beer krystal flash.

it sucks. all around, it just does. there is so much misinformation, disinformation, misinterpretation, wilful exaggeration, and everything else regarding recommendations and restrictions and actual laws. Sorry to hear and see what happened. 100% pro LE here, and if the Officer was like 99% of the LEOs I know he felt bad about having to tell you to leave too. Here in Pa the Governor (who I do not agree with on almost anything) is constantly under attack for his recommendations... and the general population of geniuses continually prove that restrictions are needed. Bottom line, you did the right thing and you did good by both your boy and the Officer. There are very few right answers. You don't have to like it, you just have to do it, and if it is actually an infringement of your rights, it can be settled later.

I've used Trilene XL clear or green for tippet in all my freshwater fly fishing (with the exception of wire when I was trying to catch pike and pickerel) for the last 30 years or so. I don't seem to remember a time when I said "Dammit! I wish I would have spent $7 on 25 yards of XYZ tippet material!" I've bought fluorocarbon, I've bought this and that and a lot of everything else, but just haven't been anywhere it mattered. I'm having a new house built less than a mile from the Letort Spring Run near Carlisle Pa, apparently all the trout there have doctorate degrees in very intelligent intelligence, so maybe I'll need to buy special tippet. We'll see.

Blasphemy! You will be excommunicated if you continue to display common sense while discussing fly fishing.

"hate" takes more energy than I really care to expend on anyone at this point in my life- if it is an emotion opposite of love, I may have felt hate twice in my life. No time for that shit any more. Dislike, detest, abhor, suffer crippling disappointment, oh yeah, all that and more. A problem here for someone like me is there is no chance to get away from population on a quick-trip basis, and this year with travel restrictions at work, no chance period. Even with the crowds of morons, I have had a few very early morning floats and wading sessions in which I was almost alone. The older I get, the more I value solitude (I always have valued it), or spending time with a very few non-morons who I have met. I keep trying to give people the chance- I will like you until you give me a reason not to. Occasionally my hope is restored- last week I was out on a bike ride, where I live I have no choice on my way out of town but to pass a few small spring creeks which are overlooked- A young guy, maybe 18 or 19 and because it is 2020 I gotta say even though it is totally irrelevant, ethnically not the same as me, getting on his bike, carrying a fishing rod and wearing a vest- I asked if he had any luck, stopped, talked for probably half an hour about fish and fishing and local areas, just two guys, chance meeting, great conversation, faith restored that there are good people out there.