redietz

Correct. And Charlaine, who administers the site had her house destroyed in the California forest fires last year, and hasn't been very active. The site is just about dead; only one or two posts per week. It's a shame.

I believe it's still the largest chapter in the country.

There is a time when it's not fishing season?

Very nice. I like that it includes the whole neck and back of head. There are some very nice, smaller feathers there and I've gotten some from distributors like Nature Spirit that are chopped off at the shoulders.

I believe that all of the suggested substitutes are legal here.

I highly recommend this for both pheasant tail and for peacock herl. Don't give up on the hackle pliers. The kind I've found that works best for this particular use is the kind with a rubber pad on one jaw and a brass plate on the other. (Google "non skid hackle pliers.) If for some reason they're still slipping, a bit of dubbing wax will fix that. Give the fibers a couple of twists before wrapping (not so tight as to break the fibers, but tight enough that they stay together. You're far less likely to break the fibers that way if you graze the hook point.

Yep. I've caught on a bare hook before as well. None of those ways are really my first choice, though.

In fact, I caught several the other day on a grouse and peacock on which all the feather barbules had worn off. Just the peacock worked.

The P&O is about the only fly I fish for most spinner falls anymore. Spinners sink eventually. The Partridge and Herl is an excellent egg laying stone fly; as well as a beetle. If I wanted to fish a nymph rather than a cripple, I'd fish a nymph.

The general rule is that less than half the hook length is too short and more than one and a half times the hook length is too long. If you look at my avatar, it's a Orange Partridge (aka Partridge and Orange) from North Country Flies, one of the two defining books on the subject. Pritt could have drawn to any length he wanted, since it's painting, not a photo. That's the length he considered ideal. There is modern fad toward shorter hackles, which I find inexplicable, if you consider that the hackle represents wings, not legs. The fly in Dallasblues' photo is just about right. And that fly will do especially well around this time of year where I live.

It's available. It's just called Morus silk now (and costs more than when it was called Pearsall's.) Morus Silk Thread The colors are the same numbers as Pearsall's. 6a is the traditional color for a Partridge and Orange.

Silk thread is the traditional body, not floss.

Turle loops are one case (and I still use the knot from time to time, it's not just for skating or maybe you meant a riffle hitch) where shape matters, but there are a few others. If you're to tie a Thunder Creek style streamer, or if you're going to be pushing a hook eye through a popper body, you need a straight eye. And jig style nymphs need a jig hook. Loop eyes on salmon irons add weight. Other than those few exceptions, I agree. It doesn't matter except for aesthetics.

There's a whole ten page long thread on it over there, mostly negative. Sunray fly lines

Reminds me that I haven't fished the Little Lehigh in a few of years. I need to go.

I think most Christmas tree nowadays is mylar. I particularly like the red stuff. I've used it for years.

Ultimately, they all swim to the surface. The White Fly (Ephoron leukon) is strictly a burrower until that time. I'm not sure about Eastern Green Drake, but I don't see many nymph imitations.

And burrowers.

I agree. I tie most of my soft hackles on either standard wire or light wire hooks. I usually want them either in the film, or no more than a few inches deep. On those rare occasions (usually in winter) when I want them any deeper, I'll either switch to a poly leader, add shot or put a weighted fly on point.

I disagree about the thorax. The pheasant tail is best at imitating skinny nymphs. To each his own, though.

That I haven't heard anything about. I did see on another forum, though, that they hadn't ordered any new line from the maker, and were up in the air about whether to continue to sell it. It would be a shame if they stopped.

You're already showing improvement from the first to the second! (And both will catch fish.) In addition to Silver's comments, one thing that stands out to me is the wire rib. A few comments about it: 1) The rib will better protect the pheasant tail if you counter-rib it -- i.e. wrap it in the opposite direction from everything else on the fly. Actually, looking again at the pictures, it looks like you may have counter-wrapped the body, which works just as well. 2) If you have finer wire, use it. 3) Try to keep the rib wraps evenly spaced and parallel to each other. One help with spacing is to plan on doing an odd number of wraps, and make the the middle wrap in the middle of the fly. In other words, if you plan on making five wraps, make sure the third is in the middle of the body. (Five is the traditional number of rib wraps on wet flies, and it's for that very reason.) If the middle wrap ends up anywhere other than the middle of the body, unwind and start over. And don't be afraid to make the wraps tight. You might want to work your way into tying this pattern a bit at time. Maybe tie a few pheasant tail soft hackles -- leave out the bead, thorax and and wing case. When you're happy with those, tie a couple more with a thorax, but still no bead or wing case. Then do a few more with the wing case. All those can be on a standard length hook. When you add in the bead, use a longer shank hook (like 2x long.) Alternatively, you can work your way from larger hook sizes to smaller: start with a size 12 and work down. I notice you list your favorite species as smallmouth. I've actually caught some sizeable smallies on size 16 pheasant tails while I was trout fishing.

Better hurry. My understanding is that they're thinking about stopping selling lines.

If you read the links I posted above you'll find: 1) Nayat is Icelandic sheep. (The are dozens of similar links where you can find the same info.) 2) Icelandic sheep have two distinct types of fiber, called tog and gel. The former is coarser and longer than the latter. Nayat is tog and I assume that Hareline's product is gel.

It's Icelandic sheep. Nayat Icelandic Sheep