Futzer

Sorry Ray, It was a hoax. Cheers, Jeff.

Hi Bob, Cabelas sells Whiting, so get the good stuff, their selection is a little iffy. Cheers, Jeff.

I'll fish with you J. Cheers, Jeff.

I just can't get over the mental picture of shaving a camel. Cheers, Futzer.

Blend Jeremy blend, you may find a cheap coffee grinder at second hand stores. take about 40% orange, 35 % yellow and 5 % sparkley gray. Cheers, Futzer.

Not bad Dustin, you may have a future in this Cheers, Jeff

Futica, Puse ( I did not spell eaither of them right did I!?) and 1974 pea green Matt, I am surprized that you did not request Avacado and Mauve. Cheers, Jeff

Very Good Safety tip. Cheers, Jeff.

Smallie, then better, take some pain meds, and go fish, I am nearly a doctor, so enjoy, cheers, futzer.

Smallie, yes, teeth pulled, root canals, etc. but I am 48, you are pretty young for this, brush very well Sorry for the pain, Cheers, Jeff.

Sorry Lykos, but we just need to make sure it is "you" or the national security level will go up, Cheers, Jeff. lol

Considering all the photos you take Will, I am ok with only one submission per category. Strictly up to you though. It might be fun if you named a very specific pattern to tie as a category, just to see a bunch of interpretations on it and it might refine tying skills. Lastly, let Oldhat write a judges consideration, to help with the voting. Cheers, Jeff.

Hi Dronlee, Paul is a master realistic Stonefly tyer, and Fred a master realistic everything else tyer, they are great mentors too. The top lit thorax photos are very good, and it is splitting hairs with any criticism. I do my stone legs with .021" coated stainless wire, for the trochanter, coxa, femur and tibia, and mono for the rest of the leg ond foot. I coat it with 14/0 sheer thread, using a hackle clipped for the femur spikes, and ostrich for the lower leg. Mine are not as good as Paul's, but I am working on it. As for the wing pads, I use a thin stiff plastic sheet like Virtual Nymph brand plates, I drew them by hand in large format, just the outline and veins and scanned into my computer and used paint shop pro to reduce and inkjet print to the clear sheets made for injet printing. The vein is printed on the sheet side closest to the fly and my coloration is on the other side away from the fly, mostly using sharpies. Keep posting, Cheers, Jeff.

Mike, those are very good. I use plastic bead chain for my damsel eyes, if you look at a real one, you will see how large the eyes are in proportion. As for your mayfly I would use a little longer hackle, just so it sits upright on the drift. When I burn mono eyes, light one side, pay attention to how much material melts to get the right size, quickly invert the mono as you blow it out, this give you an even eye ball. Then cut the mono the length that burned plus the distance you want between the two. Grab the part you want unmelted with a hemostat or tweezer and burn the other eye, the metal will stop the flame, as it does invert that eye down. Minimizes the guess work. Very good work though. And Rocky, you are just a savant!!!! Thanks for the great photos guys. Cheers, Jeff.

Thank you for what you do, Phil. I tie some charlies down to a size 10 and very lightly dressed on all sizes. They are not particularly choosy about the fly, but a bad cast will send them rocketing to deep water. so practice throwing a minimum of 50 feet with a gentle landing. I do mine in tan, white, light blue, pink and light grey. Also if you need any materials, I would be happy share anything I have. And I am better stocked than most shops. Just pm me an addy, will the military mail let you send hooks? Cheers, Jeff, aka Futzer.

Hi Bob, When I work with CDC, I put a piece of double stick tape on a thin piece of wood and tack the base of each feather to the tape. I can assembly line tie that way. I do the same with many other feathers. Also if the CDC is unruly, I use a spray bottle and give the cdc a very light spritz. Happy pool tying, Cheers, Jeff.

Hello Dronlee, Excellent effort, hand segmented feather legs like that are very difficult, yours are well proportioned and even. Some use coated stainless steel leader material and cover them with thread, ostrich herl, clipped hackle etc. They shape easily. I tend to like the way you have presented them, IMO. The only criticism I have is to top light the fly more, so we can see the thorax better. Well done, keep up the fine work. Cheers, Jeff.

Beautiful Salmon flies, Though one barbule of the golden phesant tippet is out of place, Rocky Cheers, Jeff.

Gooper, You can't do any better than with RRSteelies advice, post some patterns, we will all help with suggestions. Cheers, Futzer.

Jeff... 10,000 plus beads!!! I panic when I drop 2 or 3. I'm such a newbie... Mike Trust me Mike, I buy in bulk, so it is less than most think. I just use alot of space in the dungeon. Cheers, Jeff.

Paul, I am sad that the time you got to spend fly-fishing was as bad as you described. I am as passionate as you are for my streams. We stick together! Family! One group not afraid to speak openly. No worries, is there anything we can do to help with the mess? Letters to DNR? Did someone vandalize your tires illegally in the name of an over zealous cause? We are the only people to sanely change the perception of caring intelligently for the fishing/natural environment. Cheers, Jeff

What Ridleyffo did was an honorable thing, what Arkansas Mike wrote was honest and not disrespectful. In my humble opinion both are great contributors to the forum. The Rat thing RiffleRSHS... I just don't get it. It is the same extremist action that PETA takes and not the smart way a fly fisherman should take in the situation. You tie killer flies, I just don't understand. The only miss-step in this conversation is the use of the generalization term of Redneck. Lets avoid that, we are fly fishers/tyers one and all. Jeff.

Great procedure Salty, but it only worked one time at my house, now I am sequestered to the dungeon. As for the shop vac method, at one time I kept all my beads in a large segregated container. When I say large think somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 plus beads of all sizes, I turned my chair and caught the edge of the box, open at the time of course and launched 90% of them onto a dark gray shag carpet. Necessity is the mother of invention. Cheers, Jeff. Yes I had a bead experience and then went to the craft story and bought a bunch of the bead boxes they have that are locking and and take 2 directional motions to open each compartment. You need to move more often then then you can avoid the creation of a dungeon, I just take over spare bedrooms! Yessir, I learned my lesson with the bead box, I am locked and loaded so to speak. I am very happy in the dungeon, I have 600 Sq feet of tying freedom in a space that I can choose to have some messy-ness. Thanks, Cheers, Jeff.

Thanks for the clarification RiffleRiverSteelheadSlayer, I had not looked at the rules since December as for the Itsy Bitsy category and forgotten the qualification of 20 or smaller. My fault! Thank you. Let me pose this then, can we call it "micro patterns", since Itsy Bitsy is such a Disney like name. And how about we make it size 24 or smaller, 20s are just so big anymore. Cheers, Futzer, aka Jeff.

Hi Mickalo, UNI makes oval French tinsel, available from J Stockard, or Feather-craft; and the finest is Lagartun French oval tinsel from FeathersMC. http://feathersmc.com/products/Fine%20Oval. As for fishing flies, wire will work great and is very durable, use a very flexible kind. Cheers, Futzer.