utyer

I have been fortunate enough in my time to have lived near some great tailwater fisheries. The Green River, the Madison, the Snake all three forks are tailwaters. These are large rivers some almost 100 miles long. They each present many different kinds of water to fish, and many different kinds of fishing challenges both in the nature of the hatches, and other kinds of forage and in the changing seasons. Yes, I fish many kinds of fish, in both warm water, and cold water, but I keep returning to the large western rivers year after year.

Andy, I will be doing the Lord Iris, Preston Jennings pattern. Utyer, aka Charlee

Sounds like a great chance to dust off the long hooks. I'll jump in too. I will determine a pattern this weekend.

I have been doing some with both red and grey squirrel tail, and they look fine as far as the wing. There is a lot more brown in both these tails, but as far as tying they create pretty much the same look in the flies. As soon as I can get the floss better, I'll post a few pictures. Wait til you start trying to track down some of the rest of this stuff.

Well, I've been a Steeler fan since the seventies, and I'll pick em this year too.

Yup, and I wrap my thread the "wrong" way too.

Looks nice, but you put everything on the wrong side. I just don't know how anyone can tie with the vise pointing the wrong way like that.

No way, no how am I gonna get into this. There are just too many great tyers on this site to single out favorites. Lets just say if your NOT listed here, your inspirational to me in some way or another.

Its been said before, if they catch fish, then their fine. If your looking for improvements, i see some areas where you can do some thing differently that will help the flies. First of all, what size hook, they all look like they are on the same style, and size. For your nymphs (especially the bead heads,) get a 1 or 2 xl hook for these. What size thread are you using? Many of your ties, are a little thick in the body, and the heads are a little ragged, and larger than need be. Smaller thread would help out with many of your bodies, and heads. Size 6/0 is plenty big enough for most flies down to size 14, switch to 8/0 for smaller flies. As you become more adept with the finer thread, go even smaller on small flies. Your dubbed bodies are thick and show very little taper from back to front. Finer thread, and a lot less dubbing on the thread. You should tie 12 of the same nymph, and each time, reduce the amount of dubbing until you start to see the thread through the dubbing after it is wound. I see a rib in the elk hair caddis, not sure why, you don't need one, and it will make the fly heavier than it should be. If you want to reinforce the hackle, use the finest copper wire you can find. 38 AWG is good for this. The wing is a little long on this one, and it doesn't look like body hair. This wing should be a little more forward, and the butts should end just over the eye. Wrap under the butts and finish before you cut them. Pull the butts up and make one cut, then use your finger nail to stand the butt up a little. The Royal Wulff should have a hair tail, use moose body just like the on the humpy, but use the same amount as you have on the Wulff. The wing here can be a little taller. Use about 1/3 the moose body on the humpy tail, and wrap the deer hair back right over the tail tie in. The thread shouldn't show behind the hump. Six to 10 fibers is plenty for most sizes. The wing here is just a little too long, in judging the size of the body/wing hair, use a length of hair just slightly shorter than 2x the shank length about 1.75 is good. Clean out the under fur, even up the tips in a hair stacker, and tie it in right on top of the tail tie in point. Once the underbody is wrapped to the 2/3 point, pull the wing/hump over and wrap in front to stand it upright. Dividing the wing is optional, Tie in the hackles (2) and wrap 2 to 3 turns in back of and in front of wing. Overall, your hackle work looks pretty good, your dubbed bodies can all be much thinner. The parachutes seem to have something under the quill or biot in the body, you don't really need this, make these thinner. You need to keep your thread wraps to a minimum, 5 wraps is enough to hold almost anything in place. Wing bases are one exception, as you cut your wing butts off, taper the cut, take the thread under and to the front of the wing, and make several wraps tight against the wing while holding the wing vertical. When it stays upright, return under and make a sooth firm single layer wrap of thread back to where you tie in the tail. The butts of the tail should be tapered and blended into the wing butts. Again using the finest thread you can will keep the build up to a minimum, and keep your bodies thinner. General proportions: Tails = hook lenght from eye to rear of bend. Wing = body lenght. Hackle = 1.5 the hook gap. Hope this helps.

Nice return to an old classic popper. As Fred said this is pretty much a forgotten way to do poppers. I remember the frist ones I ever saw were my dads, and he simply lashed them to the top of the hook, and varnished them. Then he would wind a hackle at the back, and sometimes even strap on a few other feathers along the back. Cut some of the heads at an angle, before you make the next ones, and you can make a nice diving popper.

Go to the top of th page and click the link to J Stockard. They should have everything you need. Of course figuring out just what you need may be a different question.

Ok, then, different thing entirely. Then the "good price" must mean inexpensive. In that case, your advise is correct. The "pads" would make fine hackle for bass bugs and saltwater flies. As for dry flys, see my first post, these pads would not be much use for traditional size dry flies.

I'm not sure I know what you mean by a "pad." A lot of rooster hackle is sold on the skin, and the may be referred to as a patch by some suppliers. Namy of these skin patches are stapled to a cardboard sheet for packaging. The neck hackle would be from the head and neck of the rooster. The saddle patch (a very common way of referring to the whole back of the rooster,) is from the area on the back of the rooster. Again this is simply a skin patch with all the feathers attached. "Hackle" is a term that referrs either to the individual feather, or the whole skin patch. These neck and saddle patches while they are expensive, are the only way to get the full range of feather sizes. To use these feathers, simply pluck one of two from the neck patch.

I have found flat "diamond" braid from time to time, but the color selection was limited. 10 yard in a pack for 3.00

For the Green right now and into spring, you will want to tie some size 20 brassies, and Griffith gnats. Also try some glow bugs on a size 12 or 14 egg hook. As the weather warms up, the midges start hatching. Thats when you would use the Griffiths. Most of the winter months, you will be fishing nymphs, and eggs. As spring gets warmer (March and April,) you will find size 18 BWO (Blue Wing Olives) tie some light olive parachutes, cripples, and emerger for these. The griffiths will still be effective throught out March. Cicadas, Chernlbyl ants, hoppers, wulffs (gray, tan, and royal,) and other larger attractor drys are used in the summer months. As the weather cools down in the fall you switch back to the BWOs, and the Griffiths by November. The best fishing is in October, November, December, then in Feburary, March and April. Thats before and after the drift boat hatch. Ashley Creek, and Whiterocks Creek both flow south out of the Uintas not too far West of Vernal. Smaller drys like Elk Hair Caddis, and Adams, do pretty well here. There are small lakes in the Uintas, that hold fish, not too large, and a small peacock wooly worm with an orange tail is a fairly productive pattern as is a timberline emerger in the evenings. Great way to beat the summer heat is to head up into the Mountians and fish the cool evening rises on a high mountian lake. Pelican Lake just west and south, was a great bluegill and bass fishery in the 80s, check with the locals about its status now. Been a while since I fished there. Brown Damsel fly nymphs and peacock wooly buggers were the only wets needed. Red Fleet is another lake not too far from Vernal with bluegills (moved there from Pelican.) Foam spiders were the only dry needed for the gills. In the spring, late May head over to Strawberry for some ice out trout fishing. Strawberry is about 70 miles West of Vernal on Rt 40. It has plenty of trout in the 3 to 6 pound range, and many larger. Mostly fly fished from Kickboats or float tubes, with buggers, and leach patterns. Strawberry is good in the spring Ice out to July when it starts getting hot, and then again in the late fall right up til ice over. That should give you a few ideas.

I learned how to swim when I was 4 or 5. Learned to fish soon thereafter. As I started fly fishing, I found my self neck deep more times than I can count. I was a pretty bold wader, but most of the time, I wasn't wearing waders. Still I have fallen into cold waters in December, and November. I always carry extra clothes now, and a towel. Last time I fell in was last fall. I should be more cautious, and I should wear a vest. I know of too many people who have drowned who could swim, and just got into impossible situations. I do wear a vest in a boat, but not while wading.

Looks like a caddis pupa to me. Size 20 would make a damsel unlikely. The quills are the emergant wings, the pattern is pretty standard, but the mono eyes on a fly that small seem like a little too much.

The dan vise has many fans here, and is an excellent value priced vise. As a starter vise, it makes a good choice. It was highly rated by the Fly Fish Ohio website: follow the link to read it. http://www.flyfishohio.com/Vise%20Review%2...ica_danvise.htm I have not used one, but more because I haven't bought a vise in more than 20 years, and there were none then.

Very good first effort, and it will catch fish. Now try for half as much in the tail. Use a super fine dubbing (your dubbing looks like its a little course.) Move your wing back a little, and see if you can find a more pronounced feather for the wing. Hackle with 2 turns of each color behind the wing, and 2 or 3 turns in front of the wing. Proportions. Tail: full length of hook to bend. Hackle 1.5 times hook gap. Wing: length of hook to the beginning of bend, or equall to the body length. That should make your wing just slightly taller than the hackle. Some great modifications of this pattern: Use moose body hair for the tail, keep it sparce, and white calf for the wing (Hair Wing Adams.) Use olive dubbing for the body, and tan.

What model # are they? I can use some that large in certian models.

Another in a long list of great flies you have posted. Also a pattern that can be adjusted as needed to mimic other mayfly species. Great work very real, and very fishable.

The wing primaries make good "biot" bodys for flies both nymphs, and dry flies. Combined with a tiny amout of foam as an under body, they will float. Turkey tail slips, are used as wings on some hopper and cricket patterns. I use most of my turkey for wet flies and nymphs. The turkey is a large bird with a lot of different feathers. When you say you have a hugh supply, does that mean complete skins, or complete tails, or complete wings in pairs, or just a pile of left over feathers? There are ways to use a lot of the turkey feathers, but you will find most of the uses are on flys that sink. Be absolutely sure your feathers are clean, and pest free (have they been fumigated?) I wouldn't put game feathers in with my other material until I had made sure there are not critters (bugs) living in these feathers. When ever I get feathers from game birds, I wash them in dish washing soap, rince well and then dry. After they are dry, I freeze for several days, then I microwave in small batches. Each batch gets two or three 15 second shots in the microwave. Then they are stored in ziplock bags with moth crystals away from my other materials. After a month or 2 I examine for any sign of insect activity. Only then will I move this material in with my other material storage. After you can personally confirm that your feathers are vermin free, you could offer to trade some of your huge supply. At that point, you will need to show good pictures of just what you have.

MOST of the flys sold in fly shops are tied by women, and there are many many women and girls who are among the best tyers in the world. This is one sport where they can and do kick butt.

I spent countless days on the Green, during every month of the year, and I know the patterns well. I sent you a few dozen (I think it was 12 dz.) flies last year, and you will have a gross from me this year. I'll do everything from griffiths to cicadias. and stimulators. I'll be sure to include some Royal Wulffs, they were my mothers favoite fly on the Green. I'd better get tying.

You did the drawing and the fly too? Truly fits the description of ART. You should be able to sell this kind of display. You should do several, and take them to the local shops for display. Place a small price sticker on each, and offer the shop a commission on any that sell. Local librarys sometimes will display local artists and crafts people. You could show these with a display of fly tying books.