utyer

You don't need to soak em too long, about five minutes in warm water should be enough. I usually salt full skins with uniodized salt on the skin side, then place them skin side down on newspaper. You can use a hair dryer if you want. If your drying loose feathers, then just spread them out on news paper. Blot them with paper towels, and let them air dry. When your feathers are fully dry, put them in a zip lock bag. Some people will freeze their home killed feathers and hides after washing, and some will microwave them to kill any eggs of lice, flees ect. I put all mine in a microwave for 2 15 second shots. After that a couple of moth balls in the bag and their ready to store and use.

Bob fly, I don't think to many places carry merganzer flank. Its a beautiful feather, but the duck is a fish eater and not commonly hunted. The only time I ever was able to get any was from duck hunters who shot them by mistake. I too would like to get more.

You have this down very well. Shorter hackle, smaller head, and still a slim body its a very good tie. Worthy of your swap mates.

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Yes, fish like that. Don't worry that it doesn't look like much. The soft hackle gives the fly a lot of movement in the water, and that seems to be the trigger. They work in all kings of colors. Not to worry about not using silk, Keep the body slim, and just a small ball of fur for the thorax. You can work on getting the head a little smaller. Tie some up with yellow thread, and peacock herl for the thorax. Also tie some up with just a tiny bit of fur dubbed on the thread. You want the thread the show throught the dubbing, so just wax the thread and touch the dubbing along it then wrap. You still want the fly to be very slim.

All proportions are based on the hook. The hook shank (straight part from eye to start of bend,) and the gap (distance from shank to point.) Tail length = shank lenght. Wing = shank lenght. Hackle = 1.5 times gap distance. Body would fill the shank from start of bend to just behind the eye. Leave one eye width for the head. Just lay the tail material along the hook from eye to measure. Hold near the eye, when you have the tip of the tail even with the hook barb hold the tailing there and tie in over the point of the barb. Just a few fibers of the feather are needed for the tail. On small hooks 16 and down 3 or 4 fibers are enough. It looks like your using mallard or woodduck flank for your tail and hackle. This feather is not really suited for winding hackle on most patterns. Try partridge, or hen neck for the hackle on nymphs. Tying a wooly bugger, or wooly worm would be a good place to start. The body is usually wool or chenille, and the hackle is a saddle (back) feather from a rooster. The hackle is tied in by the tip and wound forward in an open spiral over the body. about 5 to 7 turns. These flies are tied on 3 or 4 ex long hooks. Tail on a wooly bugger would be marabou (color matching the body.) Again it is as long as the hook shank. Tail on a wooly worm is optional, but if used is usually shorter than the body. Tie in the chenille or wool next, and then tie in the hackle by the tip. Wind the thread forward to the eye, and then wind the body forward in close even turns to just behind the eye and tie off. Clip excess. Now wind the hackle (palmer style open spiral) up to the eye. Take at least one turn of hackle in front of the body. Tie off and form a neet head.

Foam will cut with too much tension on the thread. Use 3/0 thread, or flat waxed mono thread or single strand floss. These threads are thick enough that you can get more pressure without cutting through the foam. lay a thread base, and taper the end of the foam start tying the foam in about halfway back on the hook. just enough pressure to compress the foam as you wrap tightly back to the shank to the barb. Leave the foam hanging back and tie in and wrap the peacock herl. Bring the foam over the top, and tie down with three or four firm wraps. Now lift up on the end of the foam and clip off while pulling on the foam. This will leave a smaller head. Whip finish just under the head. If you want rubber legs, tie them in where you tie the foam back in at the head.

Nice set of flies, and great pictures. Better than a box of jelly (rope) donuts.

Very nicely done.

Again, I'll will recommend the Brooks Stonefly pattern. The body is black wool or synthetic yarn, the front 1/3 of the body is palmered with three turns of brown and grizzley hackle (wound together.) The tails can be two rubber legs, or two biots. Ribbing can be wire, or black buttonhole thread, or monofiliment. Tie these on a 3 or 4 sl hook weight with lead free wire. Bead head was not part of the origional pattern but can be added. Start by wrapping the weight up the shank, attach the thread, and overwrap the lead free wire. Then tie in two rubber legs for tails. If you use biots, start by tying in the yarn, and make one turn at the rear of the hook. Tie this one turndown and leave the yarn hanging. Tie one biot on each side of the hook, the one turn of the body will keep them seperated. Now tie in the rib material, and wind the body 2/3 up the hook and tie down. Wrap the ribbing, and clip off. Tie in the two hackles by the butts (the larger legs on a stone fly are the rear legs.) Finish wrapping the body to the eye and tie off and clip the excess yarn. Now take both hackles and wind them as one in three open turns to the eye. Tie off and finish the head. I don't bother with antennie usually, but fine rubber legs work fine. This pattern will work fine the fast water where big stoneflies are usually found. Tie with brown yarn for the brown stoneflies.

I have been in the shop, and mail ordered from them for years. Excellent place.

Fly tying was "passed down" to me in the form of an old set of tools, and a Herters catalog. I found an old copy of the Wise Fishermans Encyclopedia. There were some segments on fly tying and fly patterns. I didn't get much in the way of instruction from anyone, I just started tying to copy what I saw in the Herters catalog. Most of the material I started with was (I found out later) for tying shad darts. I would tie a red tail wrap a purple floss body, and wind a yellow hackle. Real gaudy flies, but at least I learned how to get the material on the hooks, and gradually, my attempts started to look more and more like what I was seeing in the catalog, and the encyclopedia. I never used any of these things on trout, but I must have tossed some at a few perch and bass in my younger days. We camped on Indian Lake (upstate New York) every summer. When I first started to fly fish for trout, it was after we moved to Salt Lake City in 1957. One lesson, I remember getting from my dad was how to make a floatant out of parafin wax and naptha or some such solvent. I do remember not catching too many fish in those days, but we did flail the water to a froth. As kids we follow along where our parents lead. During my teenage years, I drifted into other sports ( swimming, golf and skiing.) We didn't camp or fish much at all. Finally in 1966 I went up to Jackson Hole to be a float guide on the Snake river. I didn't even bring a rod. My boss and long time friend Wayne Casto took me out to some beaver ponds one afternoon, and showed me how to use a fly cast behind a bubble on his spinning outfit. Twenty five fish and 5 hours later, it was dark, and I was hooked. I sent back home for a fly fishing outfit. It arrived with a level enamelled line, some old fiberglass rod, and a gladding click pawl reel. A few lessons from Wayne and I was able to get the line out 20 or 30 feet. Carmichaels fly shop in Moose was our source for flys. In those days flys were 50 cents, and 55 cents for hairwings. It was an outrageous expence then. All summer, we floated all morning and fished every afternoon and evening. That winter, I dug out the old tools again and found out the materials had all been destroyed. I started on a search around town for fly-tying supplies. There were just a few places that carried fly tying materials, but I was able to piece together enough to get started again. By that next summer, I had a box of materials, and several boxes of flies ready. They were still crude flies, but they were mine. The next summer in Jackson I fished every place with my flies, and they worked. I never looked back. For my birthday that summer, I got a copy of Flies. It was my first real book on fly tying and I still have it, and about 150 more. Finnally I started to learn a little of the history and tradition this sport held. I had started in the West where English and Eastern traditions had little impact. Innovation was more the game out there. I remember it took me a few months to figure out how to get the wings on a Humpy right. I had never seen a hair stacker, never even heard of one. Leonard doesn't even mention Deer Hair for winging. My first hair stacker was a made from a rod ferrule. Once I learned how to even up the hair tips and get the wings right, I never looked back. I haven't purchased a fly since. By the way that second summer, flys were up to 60 cents, and hair wings were 65 cents. I was able to sell all I wanted to my rafting partners, and clients on the foats. I have been tying flies, selling flies, and fishing flies ever since. I have read many books on fly tying and fishing, and one thing I see over and over again in the "tradition" of the sport is CHANGE. New materials, new hooks, new tools new vices new patterns it never stops. There was a time when fishing a sunken fly on some waters was forbidden. Fishing was allowed only to actively feeding visable fish. Fishing was allowed only form the banks. Now we fly fish while wading, from drift boats, bass boats, float tubes, and kick boats. We fish with flies made of every conseviable material both natural and synthetic. I have tied with anything I could find that looked usefull. It doesn't matter to me what the fly is tied with as long as the fish like it. We have many different reasons for tying, and there all good.

I have been buying mylar tubing for decades. I have also seen it with cotton string as the stuffing. I usually don't buy that if I can find the other packing. Not at all sure what the stuff I use really is, I just know I can still find it more often than not. My local shop had a bunch on sale mostly from Orvis it all was stuffed with synthetic Z-lon type material. When the braided tubing is on sale for 88 cents, I can't pass up buying it just for the insides. I don't really use all the tubing just the stuffing.

A real fish getter that one. Good tie for anyplace where there are smaill light minnows. Tie some up with a grizzley hackle, that gives a kind of barred effect like a small bait fisn. That will work on crappie, and bass.

Do you have any braided mylar tubing? The stuff most of that tubing is packed with is very similar to z-lon, and it is free with the tubing. I have it in white, pink, gray and yellow. Works just fine as a z-lon sub.

Addy please, I am finally done.

As for wrapping wire for brassy nymphs, just wrap the wire on the hook, no need to taper a body. Midges are pretty tiny, and the hooks are thicker that most of the real bodies. I use a 38 gauge wire for 18 and smaller, and a double or tripple strand of the same wire for larger copper body nymphs. I twist the strands together like a dubbing brush with no fur. Makes a slightly thicker body. By the time I am up to size 12, I switch to other gauges. I get most of my copper from old wiring so I don't really know the gauges. I only work on a taper on size 14 and larger.

Something to think about: When your fishing small creeks, you won't have much line out past the rod tip. The small portion of fly line that you do have past the tip guide, will not really be enough to fully load the rod. It takes the full 30' of line past the rod tip to load the rod. You should try using a 5 weight line. That way a shorter lenght of line will equal the grain weight of a 4 line, and proper load your rod for those short roll casts. As to brands, I have used many different brands, and find most to be pretty similar. Cortland, 444-555 are good, Scientific Angler lines are good, as are Rio, Wulff, and Jim Teeny lines. Price may be a factor. Not sure if your near one, but Sportsmans Warehouse has a many different brand lines on sale right now. If you have a local shop your comfortable with, go with their recomendation.

One of my favoite midge patters is the brassy. Just wrap fine copper wire around the hook, and add a little peacock herl at the head. Or simply use heavy thread (like 3/0.) You can tie with a contrasting color, leave a long tag hanging off the back to make a rib. coat the whole thread body with head cement. For a real challange, try some dubbed bodies. These should end up no thicker than that tubing. As for colors, copper wire, red wire, orange, black and green. There are some that are a blueish green.

I have quite a few offset hooks in my colleciton, and I have used many of them for eggs, caddis, and streamers. Haven't had any problems. I sometimes straighten out the offset on the long shank hooks when I put it in the vise. You right about the diamond file for sharpening your "dull" hooks. Many bait hooks are on a little heavier wire than extra fine dry fly hooks, but streamers and other sinking patterns will be no problem. I find that I have to sharpen most of the standard mustad hooks, The only hook out of the box that I sharpen. Most of the others work ok. Gamakatsu hooks are some of the sharpest hooks I have ever found. Not too easy to find in anything but salt water styles in most shops over here. At least in my area of the country.

I see no problem with using "bait" hooks for flies. If they suit the purpose, tie away. I have used many different style "bait" hooks for tying various flies. There only bait hooks if you hang bait on them.

What HT said, it all of us who should be thanking you. Glad to have helped out with this project, and gald to see it continues.

Syl Nemes in the first two books on soft hackles describes feather prep and tying them in from the butt end not the tip. I started tying soft hackles after reading The Soft Hackled Fly, so I started tying them with the hackles tied in by the butt. I don't think it would matter all that much, I now tie most of my smaller soft hackles with the hackle tied in by the tip.

You would only want to apply a tiny bit to lock the wraps holding the tail in place. Too much cement under the body, could soak through and mat up the fur. Even at the head too much cement can flow back into the hackle or thorax area, and ruin the fly. Better two applications of too little cement than too much.

Its a wooly bugger, everyone could agree that a marabou tail, chenille body, and palmer hackle wrapped around a 3 or 4 xl hook is a wooly bugger. Tail is about the same length as the body length. A size 10 4xl hook has the same length shank as a hook 4 sizes larger. So it has the same shank length as a size 2 standard hook. Tie a wooly bugger on each hook and you will have very similar flies. Same length body, and tail. Your size 10 std lenght shank would have a similar relationship to a size 18 4xl. The only difference in any of these files would be the hackle lenght. They would all be wooly buggers.