Al Beatty

Hi Group, There are many great feathers on duck (for example). We like mallard or teal flank feathers for wings on Calliebatis duns tied either as a post or as a looped Wonder Wing. Take care & ...

Hi Group, Based on a couple of years working at Whiting Farms as their Marketing Director, Al learned the difference between Cree and Dark Barred Ginger was the shape of the black "parts" of the feather. If the black part was a bar/chevron reaching the edge of the feather and a certain percent of those feathers had that black marking then that pelt/cape was considered a Cree. If the black part was diamond shaped rather than a complete bar/chevron then it was considered a Barred Ginger. We soon learned we could easily change a Barred Ginger feather into a fake Cree by using a black felt-tip marker to extend the diamonds to the edges of the feather making it look like a bar/chevron. On the hook, it was impossible to see the difference. Take care & ...

Hi Group, If you tie with a rotary vise it's hard to beat a Norvise Automatic Bobbin. Take care & ...

Hi group, We have found a size 12 Sparkle Pupa tied on a scud type hook to work really well on the carp in the Snake River south of our home in Boise, ID. Take care & ...

Hi Michael, Good job! It is very well done! Take care & ...

Hi Michael, That is a beautiful fly. Good job! Take care & ...

Hi Terje, That's a beautiful shot. Good job! Take care & ...

Hi Guys, The best macro camera every built (in our humble opinion) was the Nikon 995 like the one in the eBay link below. We have two of them and still used them whenever the photos are intended for display on the Internet only. The 3MP sensor is the only limitation but again, if you are only displaying on websites, etc. then it is great. By the way, the on-camera flash is all the light you need for fly photography unless you want to light the background separate from the subject (fly). http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nikon-COOLPIX-995-3-2-MP-Digital-Camera-With-Nikon-Fisheye-Lens-and-Much-More-/272420765862?hash=item3f6d8b00a6:g:zdwAAOSwbsBXkPGk We have a macro photo studio (corner of Al's office) with two cameras permanently mounted on tripods waiting for the next shot. One of them is a Nikon 995 with an AC power supply so we can just leave it on without draining the battery while shooting a fly series. The other tripod/camera (Nikon D5300 with a number of flash units) is for product, catalog and magazine photography. For field & event work, we use the Nikon D7000, D750 and the D300 with a bunch of flash units. If web work is your goal, then give the old 995 a try! Take care & ...

Hi Guys, We tied the Fluttering Caddis (and others) for Gary's company for a number of years using the R200 style tied up-side-down. It isn't perfect but works fine for fishing flies. Take care & ...

Any brands you can recommend Hi again papa, The brand we use is called Loctite Super Glue Brush-on. It comes in a .18FL oz bottle and we get it at WalMart in the paint section. Take care & ...

Hi Group, We happened to find the best mono for eyes hanging on the back of our RV. It is the black, mono stranded mud guards some people put on their RV or tractor trailer. Those black fibers make the best mono eyes of anything we've ever used. Take care & ...

We often use a 50/50 mix of bleach and water to burn the little hooks off the feather fibers so they remain separated. Just swish the feather through the bleach/water mixture 2 or 3 times, then stop the process in pure water. Place the wet feather on a towel to soak up the extra water before tying it on the hook. Be careful to not over do the process; there is a fine line between "just right" and "disaster." Take care & ...

Hi papa, It sounds like you had a bit of a train wreck with the glue; stuff like that will happen. You might consider a bottle of the brush on crazy glue. Gretchen & I have used it for a number of years with only a few "accidents." We like to cut about half of the brush fibers off as soon as we purchase a bottle of the glue to reduce the amount of glue we apply to the ???. Take care & ...

Hi McFlyLures, That fly looks great! Good job! Take care & . . .

Hi Group, Around our tying area, you'll get different comments regarding magnifiers. Gretchen loves hers and uses them every time she ties flies. I hate the darned things and for years refused to use them. Unfortunately, my eyes are starting to like them a lot but I still hate them! <G> Oh well, isn't getting older fun! Take care & ...

Wow! For that price, it should tie flies for you! Just joking but it is an interesting looking vise BUT not interesting enough to spend that kind of money. Take care & ...

Wow! That looks really. Good job on the eyes! Take care & ...

Hi Will, Another person in this section was asking about "catfish on dry flies." This could be the answer to his question. <G> No caption offered but we'll sure be interested to see what everyone comes up with. Take care & ....

Hi Jay Wirth, You've already gotten correct answers as the original Wulff patterns were tied with bucktail. Most of today's commercial Wulff-style flies are tied with deer body hair. Gretchen and I have tied thousands of dozen of them for fly shops and other customers and we prefer the hair from a white tail deer that is located along the back bone or top of the rump area of the animal. If you can get access to a full hide then you need a strip cut out along the backbone area that is about a foot wide (6" on either side of the backbone). If you are looking at packages of hair in the fly shop USUALLY hair with light gray base ends is better for spinning and hair with dark gray bases is good for wings and tails. Take care & ...

Hi Jacktown, We often catch a wide range of fish from the Snake River a few miles south of Boise, Idaho. Most of the fish in that part of the river are smallmouth but we often catch crappie, trout, carp and yes, a few catfish. My last one was on an Adams parachute but more often than not we catch them on subsurface crayfish patterns. Take care & ...

They look good. If you find the waste material in the head area objectionable you can use a cauterizing tool or a heated bodkin to remove them prior to applying head cement or a whip-finish. Take care & ....

Hi YosemiteSam, We echo the vote for poly yarn fibers for dry flies or another fairly easy dry-fly option is to use fibers from a turkey flat feather. On wet flies we've not found a good sythetic substitute for calf tail hair other than another animal's hair fibers like Canadian goat or bleached elk. In some cases Antron fibers work fairly well. Take care & ...

Hi Michael, It is a killer and in smaller sizes is a great ant imitation. We like the elk hair version but both versions mentioned work well. Take care & ...

Hi flyman2, We have to "ditto" the answers already posted plus the following has been really good in our area to imitate small crayfish: Hook: Size 6 to 10 Thread: Orange (or black) Rib: Fine copper wire Tail: Burnt orange marabou (or Chickabou on smaller sizes) Body: Mottled black and orange chenille Hackle: Black or grizzly died burnt orange Head: Thread Weight: Optional dumb bell eyes, tied on top and at the end of the shank (causes the fly to travel in the water with the hook point up) Take care & ...

You've already gotten the dryer sheet tip but also Static Guard works great as well (available in the laundry-detergent area in your local super market). It also is a "must-have" product when tying flies with just about any animal hair like elk, deer, moose, etc. Take care & ...