redietz

Before retiring in 2017, I spent 31 years developing AI and GIS systems for the Department of Defense. Prior to that I was a lab tech in a wastewater treatment plant for the better part of a decade.

I'm left handed but tie as if I'm right handed (easier to follow tutorials.) So don't forget us freaks when you tally. Same here, and it's fairly common from what I've observed. The ratio of people who tie left handed to those who tie right is going to be much smaller than the number of left handers vs right handers.

I suspect that there are people who have a pretty good idea, like the folks at Wapsi or Umpqua, for example, but who are unlikely to share their market research. It's not an unknowable number.

What he said! If need think I might need weight, it's time to switch to a streamer.

I started in 1964, when I was 12. I'd broken right hand playing baseball and couldn't fish (I'd taken up fly fishing the year before) so my parents bought me a tying kit to keep me from moping around the house. I'm not sure how they expected me to tie with one hand in a cast, but somehow I did, learning from Helen Shaw's book that I had borrowed from the library. (I didn't use a bobbin holder for the 15 years or more, using a thumbtack in the side of my tying table to keep tension on the thread, more or less as Shaw instructed. I was tying flies for crappie, bluegills and pickerel at first, since there were no trout anyplace near me in South Jersey that a 12 year old could get to without a car. I've been tying ever since, switching to mostly trout flies once I was able to drive.

Of course, but read what you actually wrote ("fly tiers") vs. what you meant ("fly fishers"). It got me wondering how many people tie but don't fish. I think your estimate is pretty spot on.

I dare say. How many tiers don't tie their own flies? (i'll bet there are some.)

I beleive they're just video producers.

Just picked mine up from the post office. There are some really nicely thought out, usable flies in there. Thanks to all, and especially to Bob for hosting.

It appeared he was using a glass rod. Probably makes it a bit easier I like the part where the trout missed the natural the first attempt.

Not euphemistic at all; it's the name for specific species of chub. I kind of enjoy catching them. The larger ones put up a decent fight. I sometimes deliberately target them. If only they didn't crap into my hand every time I go to hook one .... I'd be happy with steeldrifter's sucker any day.

Angler's Den sell it cheap: https://www.anglersden.net/products/skunk-fur

Skunk is a good substitute. Bucktail doesn't have the same translucence.

I think you just hit the market for -- as a gift. I wouldn't buy it for myself, but it would probably make a more appreciated Christmas present for an interested child (for example) than socks and underwear.

Do you think it makes a difference in the fly needed to fish that water? As a fisherman, it's been sufficient for me to say cased caddis, I thought, but perhaps I need to look deeper. It depends on why he's trying to id them in the first place. If he's just trying to copy what he sees, he doesn't need to id them at all -- just copy. OTOH, if he's trying to figure out what insects live in that waters to guide his tying for later in the season, then it would matter. For example, if the cased caddis is indeed a grannom (I'm convinced either way) I would be up some green tails or looking up patterns for Mother's Day caddis, and doing so rather soon, since that hatch will happen in my part of the world in about two weeks. Same sort of reasoning goes for the other caddis, and the may fly.

At the coarsest level, he's definitely right, but I think the OP may have been hoping for some finer detail, like what mayfly and which caddis? and? .... and I can't tell from the quality of the photos. The first caddis case might be a grannom, but there's not enough definition in the photo. The may fly nymph might be one the swimmer sorts, but again, I can't tell.

At the coarsest level, he's definitely right, but I think the OP may have been hoping for some finer detail, like what mayfly and which caddis?

Silk is even more transparent w/o CP.

I fish wets about 80% of the time. The ones I fish most frequently include a lot the Partridge & Orange, March Brown Flymph, Pheasant Tail Soft Hackle, Waterhen Bloa, Grouse & Herl, Tup's Spider, Greenwell's Spider, Light Spanish Needle, Leadwing Coachman, Dark Watchet, Dark Hendrickson wet, Light Cahill wet, Lil' Dorothy and a sulfur wet.

I prefer sub-titled tying videos. That way I can turn the sound off and not have to listen to the horrible music most videos seem to insist on. In fact, I prefer reading to listening most of the time.

I'm not sure I believe anything I ever read in a Herter's catalog. I prefer metal tinsel. It adds a bit of weight and doesn't come unwrapped if you lose your grip on it while winding it on. However, Lagartun's works just fine; no need for vintage.

The flies have flown. (At least I assume they'll go by air.)

Pink Flymph would seem to cover it.

I'm not sure about that. They do eat actual stink bugs. From flytire's link above ... "They first feed on fallen boxelder seeds and later move to the female boxelder trees or maple trees where they eat newly developing leaves. Occasionally, boxelder bugs will feed on the fruits of plum and apple trees." They don't seem to be carnivorous (insectivores?), in any of the research I've found. I meant fish eat actual stink bugs. There was one guy, I think on this forum, who was feeding them to the sunfish in his pond every day.

I'm not sure about that. They do eat actual stink bugs.