Al Beatty

Hi group, With Christmas in our rear-view mirrors don't forget to check out tree decoration "stuff" like the many shades of tinsel. Take care & ...

Hi Rocco, There are two methods of touch dubbing - noodle & LaFontaine. Both require a good sticky wax be evenly applied to the thread. Next take the clump of finely chopped Touch Dubbing and touch it to the tacky thread allowing the wax to grab as much dubbing as it can hold. For the LaFontaine method: DONOT twist the dubbing to the thread just wrap the covered thread around the hook to form the body. Don't worry, the dubbing will stay on the hook just fine. For the noodle mehtod: Twist the dubbing covered thread (one direction only) forming a fine strand of yarn with a thread core. Wrap it around the hook to form a body. The LaFontaine forms a loose, buggy body while the noodle method forms a body with a more traditional appearance. Also, the noodle method works really well with longer fiber natural dubbing like muskrat, hare's ear, mink, rabbit, etc. Take care & ...

Hi Chris, Please contact us via e-maill ([email protected]). We have a contact who can do this type of contract work. Take care & ...

Hi sbr, We use Nikon cameras for our fly pictures similar to this one that's listed on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nikon-micro-Nikkor-55mm-f-3-5-AI-manual-focus-prime-macro-lens-nice-clean-usable-/151510905729?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item2346c0f381 It is manual focus and what's needed if you want to get really great macro fly shots or stack focus shots. These old manual lenses are not expensive but are really sharp for shooting flies. We use a 90mm Tamron auto focus for our field macro lens. The manual Nikon lens stays on one camera on a tripod in the studio with a macro rail like the one listed below: http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-way-Macro-Shot-Focusing-Focus-Rail-Slider-for-CANON-NIKON-SONY-Camera-D-SLR-/251265629708?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a80993e0c This focus rail is not expensive but sure helps keep the fly shots in the middle of the frame. Take care & ...

Hi eide, That is a well done Blue Charm. All parts are great but we must ask about the wing. The wing fiber tips seem to be stacked so they are shorter on the bottom of the wing than on the top so the fibers "line up" with the curve of the tail. OR are we just imagining that those fibers line up with the tail curve? Take care & ...

Hi Group, Old Danville or other manufacturer thread boxes work fairly well. We have a lot of them at the end of each tying season and find they work fairly well to send flies. They are really easy to glue strips of foam in so flies don't move around in the box while shipping. If you don't have these boxes you might check with you local fly shop. Many shops just throw the boxes away after they are emptied. Take care & ...

Excellent still and video photography. GREAT job! Take care & ...

I kind of think like you do and really prefer to use all natural or some natural mixed with synthetic (like a foam beetle with a peacock body) then Gretchen reminded me that one of our better bone fish patterns (original Crazy Charlie) was tied all with synthetics. So I hear where you're coming from but only partly agree. The most important thing about fly tying (I think) is enjoying it. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Take care & ...

Hi group, We put the flies in small, cardboard boxes (we buy them by the 100 pack) then place the flies/boxes in a Priority Flat Rate box (small, medium or large) for shipment to the customer. Take care & ...

He was one of our best friend for more than 30 years. We'll certainly miss him and our many conversations. We send our love and prayers to him family. Take care & ...

How-to or where-to tips are often a good way to start. These can be short or long based on the editor's needs but be sure to find out what he/she needs. An editor (us included) will "pass on" a article that is too long for the space he/she has to work with. Also, short tips on "stuff" often are easy for an editor to "work in" at the last minute when an advertiser doesn't come through and the editor needs to fill the space. A quick tip often can slide right in to it. Good luck. Take care & ...

Hi group, Here in Idaho we have great carp fishing on the Snake River just south of Boise. Our three go-to patterns for them are a Sparkle Pupa (usually bright green on the body), Elk Hair Caddis and Hare's Ear Nymph. Take care & ...

Hi Randy, I should have said "one pass of wraps" instead of one wrap. The number of turns behind and in front of the wing changes based on the size of the fly. Usually a sparsely dressed hackle on a size #14 dry fly has 2 turns behind the wing and 3 (or 4) in front depending on the fly being a standard dry or a thorax tied dry fly (on a thorax dry the wings are a bit further back on the hook shank). We tie sparsely wrap hackle so the space between each turn is a little bigger (wider) than the width of the hackle stem being wrapped. I hope this answer doesn't confuse worse than I did in the first place. Take care & ...

That is an awesome vise and we really the added suggestion by mikechell about the jaw inserts. Both are great ideas. Take care & ...

Hi Prosopium w. You are very right. I just looked on the website and there is no weight in the body. I was looking at an old draft of the handbook I printed out and not at the file on the website. Somehow there was a change from the paper copy I've had over the last several months. Sorry for the misstatement. I went back to check and there is no weight on the video pattern either - my mistake. I must admit I don't put weight on all of my buggers. I mark them by using thread on the head that is the same color as the body for the unweighted Buggers and black on the head of the weighted Buggers. On the black buggers I place a couple turns of copper wire at the end of the head to tell which is weighted and which is not. Fly photography was a real problem for us for years until Jim Schollmeyer took us under his wing and put us through a "course on fly photography." His advise was most helpful. For the record: Our part of the Awards program is shooting the videos of the flies in the program and the following evaluation process of each pattern we tied. The downloadable e-book PDF was a group effort. Take care & ...

Hi joseland, The Benchside Reference is an excellent book; we use ours often. Do not feel bad about asking questions on this forum. We are fairly certain that is one of the reasons it was developed. Take care & ...

Hi Randy, You've already gotten some great answers so we'll only add this: When tying a lot of flies with spun gel thread you can really dull your scissors when cutting the thread. Save you scissors and cut the thread with a single-edge razor blade. They are much less expensive than new scissors or paying someone to sharpen them for you. Take care & ...

Hi joseland, mikechell provided the best answer in his post above from the "old English expression." Over the years we've had to deal with similar requests from customers and have developed the following hackle applications to standardize the "look" of the flies we tie. Our definition may work for you as well. Here it is assuming the use of long saddle hackle (which we use on about 90% of our dry flies): 1. Sparse application - one pass from the body forward to the hook eye with small spaces between each turn. 2. Standard application - one pass from the body forward to the hook eye with the turns touching each other. 3. Full application - tie the feather on the hook at the EYE then wrap back to the body then forward again to the eye where the hackle is tied off. Keep all turns snug to each other. Wiggle the second pass to avoid mashing the hackle fibers. 4. Super full application - tie the feather on the hook at the body, wrap forward to the eye then back to the body then forward again to the eye. This 3-pass application is a real pain in the backside to apply without mashing the fibers. Wrap and wiggle carefully. Thankfully we only have two customers who request this heavy application. TIP: If your dry fly hackle fibers sometimes have a tendency to go helter-skelter then we find putting a layer of dubbing under the hackle application helpful. In so doing often those errand fibers will stand up like you want them to do. Take care & ...

Hi wbrule, Rockworm gave you excellent suggestions. All are spot on!. Another you might consider (a LaFontaine suggestion) is the whitish, thin closed-cell foam usually packaged around electronic items (computers, key boards, etc.). It is semi stretchy and can be colored with a felt-tip marker then coated with Aqua Flex or Clear Cure Goo. It is especially good to use on emergers because it does have a minimal amount of natural floatation. If you want to reduce the floatation just flatten our the foam sheet with a clothes iron (be careful how hot you make the iron so it doesn't melt the foam to the bottom; that's a real possibility, we know! AND it really messes up a perfectly good iron!). Take care & ....

Hi group, You might consider trying Georgio Benecchi's or Gordon Griffin's 14/0 thread from Italy & the UK. Both have distributors here in the US including J Stockard, Front Range Anglers or Blue Quill Angler just to name three that came up on a Google search. Take care & ...

Hi Group, Another place to get interesting thread (and other items) is a Brother or Bernina sewing store. Over the years we've found several interesting items including fuzzy yarn (now on the fly tying market by both Uni and Danville) that we encouraged Danville to dye and provide to on fly tying spools (at the Bernina store it only came in 1000 ft spools). Take care & ...

Hi Prosopium w. No problem with your comments. The only exception we would take is the bugger did have weight on the body and we agree that tying the soft-hackle in by the tip is the method we personally prefer. Your comments lead us to believe you must be a pro photographer. That sounds interesting. Thanks for your two cents. Take care & ...

Hi Will, Yes, the fibers needed are those opposite of the biot side of the feather stem. Tip: When wrapping the fibers stroke them so they remain even (smoother body) after EVERY turn around the hook. If you don't you'll quickly see a fiber or two that is not as tight as its neighbor. Take care & ...

One other source of hooks I noticed is here on this site: Will has Green Caddis Outfitter hooks in a variety of length that you might check out. Take care & ...

Hi Will, The fibers from just about any wing quill works just fine. When Gretchen & I tied the flies in the video we used gray fibers from an "unknown bird" probably a domestic goose but we weren't sure. You really need the length of the goose wing fibers for larger flies like the size we tied on the video. We often use gray chicken wing feather fibers or shoulder feather fibers for the bodies on smaller Gray Goose patterns. Let me know if you can't find goose wing quills in you area; I'll send you a short section to tie your flies with. My email address is [email protected]. Take care & ...