redietz

Why wash a used brush? They're dirt cheap, and nobody in my house wears makeup. They work just fine out of the pack (and have lots of other uses.)

I picked mine up from the post office yesterday. Great tying, everyone. Thanks Cencalfly for hosting.

I used to fish there frequently in the early 80's. It was crowded even then. I disagree that it's particularly difficult to fish, though.

I've been told told that the manufacturer of SHHAN is aware that something like 3% of the product sold is for fly tying, not fingernails.

That's a Model A.

Been down and out myself. The flies have been done for a week, but I just out to mail them today. Tracking number: 9500 1103 4822 3098 5149 40

I sure hope this an April Fool's joke.

Never smarten up a chump or give a sucker an even break. You can't cheat an honest man.

You might look into dapping floss. It's expressly made for the purpose. The only downside is that you might have to order it from the UK where they understand what "dapping" means. (It does not mean dangling your line over the water.) Here's an example of the floss: https://www.helmsdalecompany.com/dapping-floss-50m.html

Even with poor color rendition, the apparent lack of a hind wing makes it pretty obvious.

Yes, I believe that is correct.

The model A's were chrome and the Pros were blackened. That and the slightly beefed up clamp on the Pro were the only real differences between the two models.

Glass has several advantages over graphite. It's better at fighting fish, and it's much harder to break. It's (sometimes) easier to make a delicate presentation with. And it's cheaper than split cane. Add that to the fact that many of us prefer casting glass to graphite, it's not surprising that it's made a comeback. For situations where a a rod of eight feet or shorter is appropriate, it's hard to beat glass. Modern glass isn't even all that slow. My Orvis Superfine Glass is faster than many of my graphite rod. I wouldn't want to use it in a Euro nymphing rod, but I fish both vintage and modern glass quite a bit.

I'll be doing the Bivisible.

I'm in. TBD

That was going to be my suggestion, or perhaps a Renegade.

There aren't even standards for thread or hook size. Why would you expect one for chenille?

I hope they also offer the new jaws separately. I've got one of the old ones; if it only held a hook better, it would be my go-to vise.

Rhead is definitely overlooked, although arguably he was an Englishman who happened to be living in the US. To me, he's worth remembering just for pointing out, in The Speckled Brook Trout, that the Cahill is mislabeled in MOM. Between him and Atherton, there's a good case to be made that artists make excellent observers of trout food.

Yes. His early nymphs were simply established fly patterns like a Tups Indispensable or a Greenwell's Glory that he called "nymphs" to disguise the fact that he was fishing wet flies on dry fly only waters. Or you could say that he simply recognized wet flies for what they are. He later refined his patterns to look more like actual mayfly nymphs. By that token, Americans have been fishing nymphs for a long time. We just called them wet flies. (I'll exclude the gaudy patterns from this, but think the hare's ear wet for example.) Bergman's description in Trout on how to fish wet flies (quarter up to quarter down) sounds an awful lot like nymph fishing. (And he had several patterns that he called nymphs.)

Mustads for almost everything. I at least know what I'm getting.

I was there on July 4th 1976 when she spoke at Independence Hall congratulating us on our 200th birthday. No hard feelings, apparently. In some ways, she was still our queen. If anybody spoke of "the queen", you didn't have to ask which queen. For example, Margrethe, queen of Denmark just celebrated 50 years on the the throne, but you never think of her as "the queen."

Well suited for a good cause.

Louis was simply the best. If you ever need to define the term "virtuosity" you need do no more than play the opening bars of West End Blues.

I learned from Helen Shaw's book, and tied without a bobbin holder for the first ten years or so of tying. The waste of thread was what induced me to buy a holder in the first place. In a pinch, you don't need the rubber grommet either. Just clamp a hackle pliers to the thread when you need to maintain tension.