hairwing

You gotta know your ABC's....of angling that is. http://exhibits.mannlib.cornell.edu/rainbowsplungepools/subpages/introduction.html Don't be afraid if you stumble over a few letters, I did, you might learn something. Click on each one of the letters at the bottom of the page.

Very easy knot for beginners and solid fly fishing knots that have been around for a long time, a surgeons loop (water knot) in the butt end of the leader and a sheet bend connection with the fly line (some refer to the sheet bend knot as a Castwell knot). To make a surgeons loop double the mono and simply tie a knot in the loop...that's it. The sheet bend or Castwell knot is basicly a handshake or loop to loop knot that just gets the tag end of the fly line tucked and trimmed. A url....http://www.flyanglersonline.com/begin/knots/castwell.php. Around the leader loop with the fly line, over itself and back down the loop. Hard ? I think the problem with most line hangups at the tip guide is operator error....if the rod is held up at a 90 degree angle to the line, I don't care what you got, the connection has a hard time getting over the guide edge in this case because it has to make a transition. There has to be a dip of the rod to allow the connection to pass through. Vis. versa to allow the connection to go back out the tip. The best position to get the knot through the guide is a low rod. For what it's worth I use a whipped loop in the fly line and a leader with a perfection loop at the butt, but check out the pic for the easy-peasy surgeon loop and sheet bend. The knot on the right is a simple surgeons knot and sheet bend with the tags clipped. The knot on the right is a perfection loop in the leader and the connection is the sheet bend or Castwell knot with the tag ends left untrimmed. You can grab both sides of this connection and pull to your hearts content ...it will not break ! Another connection is the tippet and for noobs I'd vote for a tippet ring and a clinch knot.

Nice flies BD. I seem to recall you giving some thought to giving up the hobby in one of your responses to another thread. I hope not !

One of the challenges for me when I was a young tyer (before genetic hackle) was trying to match hackle up with the really small hooks and flies I needed on my local river. Vince Marinaro was a guy that headed me in the right direction by suggesting the Starling neck hackle for tying dry fly midges. Bingo ! The starling worked for me. The young dead bird in the image is a Starling. A very young one, a fledgling, prolly just got out of the nest. The feathers have not developed to the coloration of the adult bird. Many only think of the Starling as wet fly material, which it is very useful for, many also don't realize it's good for the dry fly too. Here's a #24 "male black gnat" I did a while back for example........ PS....I ain't afraid of the feather cops. The bird is unprotected and like Marinaro, I consider it a great sustainable resource for fly tyers.

Are you looking for an Autopsy ?

Shivering and scared witless I'm packing my gear and headed for the hills. I hate to cut and run but I can't afford the lawyering. I'll make it...thanks for the heads up. I can only hope I have the same expression on my face as the bird when I go. You might think that the the poor fellow never knew what hit him. Hope he enjoys his-self in la-la land. btw...bird never sung a note, I don't think it's a song bird. ;--D.

The bird made the ultimate mistake. I heard the thud against the house. The rookie was still warm. With all due respect I'll process the bird and give it another go as fly tying material.

Hope you like this one, I flipped the cam lever on my vise to take a pic and the fly disappeared in my lap, not to be seen again until I made a 15 min. search with my 3 "D" battery Maglite flashlight and found it in the crease of my pants. The fly is a Walmart special....paint brush bristles and some Red Heart camo yarn. Happy 4th.

I have always found the best herl that I like, fat and robust, right below the eye, getting about 10-12 herls either side of the rachis (stem). A while back I bought a 50 pack of eyes from ebay (china), some of the eyes were better than any I've bought at my local fly shop. I paid less than 10 bucks. The eyes came 5 to a pack in a nice plastic resealable bag. The purchase was a test run for me and thinking back I should have bought 100 pcs. I wouldn't rate all the eyes I got as prime but I was surprised that the majority were what I was looking for. 100 pcs. will set you back < $15 bucks. Look for free shipping. What you will get is the top 10 to 12 inches of the eye, and that was fine by me. The rest of the herl on those feathers gets sold as strung herl and I have bags of strung herl which I bought over the years and simply don't use. ie.... http://www.ebay.com/itm/100pcs-lots-Real-Natural-Peacock-Tail-Eyes-Feathers-8-12-Inches-about-23-30cm-/350870034690?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item51b17bd902 $13.15 gonna hurt ya ?

A Streamer........

Thanks guys .... So what's everybody think of George's hat ? Pretty cool if I do say so myself.

Fisherboy.... I could only wish to have tied flies like you do when I was your age ! Carry on.

...but tied a mean fly.http://www.flyfishinghistory.com/marryat.htm The Little Marryat :

The "Quack Coachman" has it's place in fly pattern history, however, the fly would have disappeared from lack of use had not Dan Bailey put Lee's take into his fly catalog. I don't recall Lee Wulff ever claiming ownership of the fly but obviously Lee liked the fly and it became one of his favorites. .....as in...."offer them strawberries and cream". Lee did tie the fly differently than the "Quack"....the "Royal Wulff" as tied by him is his fly. The Coachman and Royal coachman go back a long ways and who hasn't made a tweek here and there to the pattern ? Lee Wullf and Dan Bailey made the fly, not Quackenbush.

Just my opinion.... T. Gordon is given the nod for father of the dry fly in the States. His flies were versions of flies by the English angler FM Halford with whom he corresponded. Roy Steenrod was befriended by Gordon and learned of Gordon's technique. After Gordon's death Steenrod took over tying for Gordon's customers and the flies he was tying. Steenrods flies I think, became the building block for the Catskill Style fly. You can google Steenrods flies and have a look for comparison. Roy Steenrod was different than Gordon in that he was more than willing to pass on his tying techniques to all comers. Gordon was secretive, protecting his style from others who would copy it and steal his business. I don't know where the Turle knot space behind the eye came into vogue but it definitely has a foothold on describing the style. All the early resident commercial Catskill fly tyers were looking for something of an edge to make their flies stand out and sell. I suspect the Turle knot space was a marketing ploy. Lee Wulff was an innovator and not so likely to follow contemporary style. "Different" was in his blood. His first Wullf's were imitations for hatches in the Catskills and the style was brought west with Dan Bailey who fished with Lee in the Catskills. Dan Bailey could make any fly renowned through his fly shop in Trout Country and the rest is history. Bear in mind that Lee was imitating the same hatches that the Quill Gordon's and Hendrickson's, et al were simulating and worked just as good.

I'm not very academically orientated and not well studied or educated but I've accumulate tidbits of info here and there of fly fishing and store it in the place wherever it goes in the brain. When someone is very knowledgeable and talks at a level above what most would comprehend or when I listen to somebody that really has no idea about what they are talking about somehow I can dig into that brain storage and get "the gist". The "gist" serves me well enough. I get it. One way or another according to my thinking. Hell,...I have no clue what Davie McPhail's saying have the time ,but I get the "gist". I understand.

One thing I personally do is to find the specific gravity of synthetic materials and use it to an advantage tying flies I want to float and flies I want to sink. An example would be Fly-Rite dubbing, advertised as having a Sp G lighter than water, a good thing for dry flies. I found that Nylon was a great sinker, and it's my favorite for Streamers. A steamer tied with nylon will go "ploop" right below the surface. That's an advantage when fishing streams. Floating streamers never worked really good for me as I had to give the fly several yanks to get it under the water to get it "fishing". Values for Sp G are either side of 1 (the weight of water). So less than 1 makes a good floating material, more than 1 makes a good material for flies you want to sink. If you google "the specific gravity of Acrylic" you will find it is between 1.14-1.19....heavier than water. That makes a sinker to me. Fly tying/fly fishing is a puzzle. Keep workin' the puzzle !

My favorite classic pattern, the "Green Highlander". You're headed in the right direction. Well done ! One of these days I am going to have to buckle up and give the pattern a go. hw

I really liked the fly so I gave it a go. Of course with a little twist............

Right and left herls ? Read this........http://www.peninsulaflyfishers.org/page-878836

I'll offer you this one. They say that most underwater nymphs are 3/8 " long and are somewhat brown and mottled in color. Here you go... Hook...mustad #12 94840 Thread...I used white Danville 6/0 and dabbed the head with a brown marker. Tail ...a few fibers of woodduck flank Body...Wapsi Antron dubbing #106..."Golden Tan" (use something brown). Tie one light , medium and dark and you are set. Body is ribbed with fine gold wire. Legs...not really necessary, but what you see is chocolate brown mottled hen. Wing case.. a slip of pheasant tail feather

Crane Fly larva. They can really get big, I've seen two inchers on my local stream. Fish love them !

Altered AP dun... I split the tails 90 degrees with a butt bump. Hand plucked the polypro synthetic wing using both grey and white fibers and gave the wing a more natural shape. I like this wing for purely eye appealing aspics .

A sample of mine just to give you ideas: I have 20 of the red topped plastic shoe style boxes. 15 sterilite pencil boxes, I bought these "end of the season" at Wally's for 10 cents a piece. They are great for my tying tools , thread and I can also pack all the materials into one pencil box for tying one fly. It's handy if you have some favorites...right there in the box ready to go ! I have 300, sz. 20DR yellow snap top plastic vials. Endless uses, hooks, dubbing, etc. ....and 50 2 oz. food dispensers with the snapping lids. You can find these in the local supermarket in the paper plate isle. I also have an assortment of plastic zip-loc bags and will be hunting for a replacement in the style of the "slider storage bags". I find the regular zip-locs harder to reseal with repeated use. ...all of which gets packed in and out of 72 qt. storage boxes as needed.

Over the years I've read about using Albolene. Does it really work? Have you used it much? Just wondering because I just may invest in some. ....been using Albolene for almost 40 years now and have never considered using anything else. I still have the original 12 oz. jar and it's got quite a few more dry fly seasons left in it for refills. About 18 years ago I took stock of my fishing tackle and thought " you know I better get some more Albolene just in case" with this added supply I now have enough to fish well into the days I'll spend on the "happy fishing grounds" in yonder. Have you heard of "Gink"?.....same stuff. Gink is repackaged Albolene !