redietz

You're right that there are far worse possibilities than appendicitis. Get well soon.

Bleach will work, as will washing in salt water.

The clinch knot is easier to seat correctly if you pull the running line (not the tag end.) If you can get the improved to seat correctly (a fairly big if) it may be a stronger knot. FWIW, I've never had a clinch knot fail in over 60 years of using it. I have had an "improved" clinch knot fail.

I'm in with a Patriot.

The first fly labeled with my name isn't mine. (The second one is.)

Picked up mine from the post office today. Well done, every one.

May I suggest (with the approval of others in swap) that when you find them, it might be better to donate them to a TU chapter or something similar, to be auctioned off. No reason you should have to pay for all that postage. Things happen. Thanks for hosting.

It's actually available in some garden supply store as a deterrent to rabbits and such. Coyote urine is also available as a deer deterrent. Both are for sale at my local hardware store. Neither ever worked for me. No subvarias are truly pink. The females are mostly olive and the males are reddish. I don't use Flick's version, either, but I do use Steenrod's version, which uses muskrat, so it's similar to an Adams. I do find Flick's Red Quill to be useful, though.

No goat involved. It's from a ram.

I can't say that I've found anything more valuable than a cheap camera, but if you add up the cost of all the forceps that I've found, you might be talking real money.

I tie with muskrat frequently, but I've only ever needed to buy one pelt. Not a high turnover.

I'd guess that any color that works for a mop fly would work. The flies are not dissimilar. OTOH, it can't very well be called a Green Weenie if it's not green, can it?

Edmonds & Lee substituted mole for water rat in every fly that appeared in both (and that Pritt called for water rat.) I think The Wind in the Willows had something to do with that; water rats had become beloved and moles were still seen as vermin. The water "rat" is actually a vole, as is the muskrat on this side of the Atlantic. The latter makes an acceptable sub for the former if you don't have mole handy.

I tie and fish this fly frequently. It does well for me year round in spring creeks, in spite of the lack of iron blue duns, or even blue quills. I've theorized that it gets taken for a cress bug.

Rotunda is no longer recognized as a species. All supposed examples were shown to be either small invarias or large dorotheas. The change was made in 2003.