Al Beatty

That fly is beautiful. Good job! Take care & ...

It's a great pattern based on the number of customers we've had requesting them. TIP: Try some of the other mop colors like black, brown, yellow, etc. We've had good luck with them as well. Take care & ...

Hi group, We remember Ralph showing this style of tie about 20 years ago at a show in San Mateo, CA. It's not particularly hard to tie and so effective on the water. Take care & ...

We are in the scissor or tweezer edge camp. Never could master the finger fold method to get fast enough to stop using the scissor edge technique. Take care & ...

We have a couple of those and as I remember we added the base as an add-on years after originally purchasing them. I think we got the bases from Griffin Enterprises in Kalispell, MT. Regarding old Thompson vises: We also have one Gretchen's father bought back in the early 60s. It's an old Thompson B with the red twist handle for tightening the jaws. Take care & ...

Hi group, A number of years ago we bought 4 Cordura cases at Cabela's (I think). Each case has 5 18-compartment boxes that measure about 10" wide by 12" long. We probably carry more flies than we need but ....! We keep flies separated into groups using a case-per-group arrangement - dries, wets, streamers, nymphs and warmwater. We use those boxes to "fill" our in-the-vest boxes. Take care & ...

Hi Hayemaker, You've gotten good suggestions to this point. Also, Christmas tree tinsel makes for fun tinsel and you can remove the bladder from "boxed wine" and cut it into silver mylar type strips. Please drink the wine first. <G> Take care & ...

Hi Scott, Good looking fly and step-by-step instructions. Take care & ...

Hi Husky9000, We've echo what Mike suggests. We maintain 2 travel kits for each of us. One is stored in a travel "shaving" kit and kept in our RV. The other is the one(s) we travel to show with and is stored in a rolling airline bag sized to fit in an airline overhead compartment. We use that rolling bag to travel across town to tie with friends or to fly to ??? to a show/demo/class, etc. Take care & ...

Hi guys, You've already had good suggestions regarding price. The cape is a Whiting dark barred ginger cape. Take care & ...

Hi Ken, Thanks for the plug. We've been using the "little boxes" for a number of years to protect flies we ship. As I remember we bought about 5,000 of them of about $.05 per unit. Another way to ship flies is by taping them inside a Small Priority Flat Rate SPFR) mailing box. The way to do it: Before folding the box, Scotch tape short mono loops inside the box with one loop per fly hook. Run a 6-8" section of mono through the hook eye then snag the hook on the mono loop. Pull the mono in the hook eye tight and tape it to the box to hold the fly in place. If the flies are not too large, you can "suspend" a couple dozen flies in a SPFR mailing box. Take care & ...

Hi group, We have not listed them on our website but recently "found them" and bought a couple dozen for our own use. We still have several in their original package (unused) for $12.00 plus $1.65 SH if anyone interested. If not, no problem as we bought them to use ourselves and will find a use for them near term. Take care & ...

Hi Jpm5107 Let us know how it works out. Take care & ...

Hi Ron, We use 4 methods most of which have been covered by other members here. The eraser and fingernail methods have been covered pretty well here. The bleach method requires close attention as mention by Heavynets but we suggest using a mixture of 50% bleach and 50% water. If you elect to speed that process up by adding more bleach keep a very close eye AND when about 90% of the herl fibers are gone, stop the process by rinsing with water. The last method does the best job and that is wax/paraffin. Melt the paraffin and dip the butt end of the herls in the melted liquid and set them aside to dry. One strip of the thumbnail will remove the fibers from the stem along with the paraffin. Take care & ...

Hi Jpm5107, You've gotten some good information from the other members. We'll only offer what has worked for us. We usually wrap one hackle at a time IF we are applying a standard application (around the hook). If that is a mix of colors like Grizzly with Brown on a standard Adams then we make sure to wrap at least one turn less of Brown (on larger flies, two turns front and back) in the back and in front of the wings. We wrap the brown first and tie it off SHORT of the hook eye. Then when we follow with the Grizzly it is the one we wrap all the way to the hook eye. In so doing, you are only trying to hide one hackle tie off at the eye rather than two. Also, many of our customers want a Grizzly/Brown Mix to appear even in color (the same percentage of wraps) which really requires the tier to put LESS turns of Brown than they do of Grizzly because the darker Brown color will overpower the Grizzly making the fly look like it has too many turns of Brown. When wrapping a parachute application we wrap both at once and tie them off at the post rather than at the hook eye. Take care & ...

Hi Dave, We are with you. Years ago we learned to tie left handed and backward so we could easily reach across a table to demonstrate different functions during fly-tying classes. That said, we never did learn to do a whip-finish (tool or hand) from across a table. Good luck with teaching Andrew and post a picture of one of his first flies. Take care & ...

That is a cool fly. Good job! Take care & ...

Love it!! Take care & ...

Hi group, The comments about adjusting the bobbin arms are spot on. Also, many bobbins have micro burrs in the barrel ends. We use a short (2-inch) section of #10 copper wire (insulation removed) to make a "reaming tool" to use in a Dremel Tool to clean out those burrs. The reaming tool is just a piece of wire sharpened on one end using a belt sander. Take care & ...

Hi Group, Al has been a commercial tier for 60+ years and Gretchen a few years less (she doesn't want to give away her age <G>). Take care & ...

I'm with Capt. Bob, consistency is the biggest problem. I learned a lot about that during the years I (we) spent at Whiting Farms. Without giving away trade secrets two things are important - well-cleaned materials (washing) AND a good acid dye. The good acid stuff comes in pound + containers with names like Lowenstein on the side. If you are using Rit or equivalent then you may find variance from one batch to the next. Take care & ...

You can also make some good brushes out of toothpicks and stacked deer or elk hair. Just "gently" anchor the toothpick in your vise, tie thread on the small end, clip hair from the hide, clean out underfur-short fibers, stack the hair and tie it to the toothpick. Whip-finish and trim as needed. Takes only about a minute per brush. Take care & ...

Hi Dave, From my website - Bleaching materials is really quite simple and inexpensive using this formula -- one part hydrogen peroxide to two parts non-sudsing ammonia -- be sure the ammonia is "non-sudsing." The best hydrogen peroxide is the type you purchase at a beauty supply house (it's a 20% solution). The hydrogen peroxide you purchase at the drug store is only a 3% solution -- it will work but much slower, like days to bleach a piece of hair rather than hours with the 20% solution. If you want a fast bleach and are not concerned with expense then use the regular hair bleaching foam available at most beauty supply houses or drug stores -- the same stuff people use to bleach their hair. CAUTION: Do not use this foam with out a protective glove of some type. They are usually supplied with the bleaching kit.

Looking Good! Take care & ...

Hi flyty1, All suggestions in this thread are good. If you want something really simple we'll share a trick Dave Whitlock shared with us several years ago. Once the jig (or fly) is ready to "tie off" just put a drop of super glue on about an inch of the thread close to the last wraps on the hook and take 2 or 3 more turns around the hook. Allow the glue to dry for about 30 seconds, then trim the thread from the hook. Take care & ...