navigator37

They call the 10.5mm DX a 'fun' lens. It is fun, but I can get very serious in shooting with it as it has great creative possibilities. All these shots were taken with the subject about 2-5 inches from the glass. The shot of the barrel, about a foot away. In the shot, the object will look farther away. You have to be careful doing this so as not to scratch the front of the lens. Last ones. Haven't tried other fisheyes but I like this one.

Glad you liked the pics. Had a crappy day at work so decided to get out of town with the camera and use the fisheye. The scenery wasn't the best but I did what I could and got creative with the lens. The first three shots show a 180 degree wide angle scenery shot. I wanted to show you the effect of pointing the lens level which shows almost no distortion, then upwards which creates a small earth appearance. Then pointing the lens downwards to create a dish like effect. Here ya go.

My 10.5mm DX is not a true fisheye lens where you see a circular picture. This one is more of a super wide angle fisheye that sees at 180 degrees. You can shoot from about 2 inches away from a subject so you have to be careful not to scratch the lens. you can't put a protective filter on the front of these. Love the lens though. Maybe I'll put up some more shots with it to show what kinds of things it can do.

Shot these with my D300 and my 70-300VR lens, 10.5mm fisheye and my 35mmf1.8 A little of this and that from holidays and everywhere else. Some shots were up to 10 mgb so I had to reduce the size and quality for uploading.

Thanks Smallie. A big muddler is fun to play around with for pike.

A new addition to the fly pattern database has been submitted by navigator36: Jumbo Pike Muddler

A new addition to the fly pattern database has been submitted by navigator36: Humpy Muddler

Yeah this one floats really well. You can also fish it as a diving caddis to simulate egg laying by pulling it along hard enough. It comes right back up to the surface quick without getting waterlogged.

Great fly! Gotta tie me some of those in brown.

Awesome work!

This fly is pretty good for fast water or skated across stillwater as well. Here are a few shots from other angles.

A new addition to the fly pattern database has been submitted by navigator36: Split Foam Caddis

Their online ordering is down. Shame. I guess you would have to call the closest place to make an order. They say they have 15 locations in the U.S. Northwest. The search engine for the site is in the upper right side of the link.

Glimmer thread is great. It's a lot stronger than other threads too. The only place I get it now is at Wholesale Sports. Go to the search engine and punch in the word ' glimmer' instead of looking through the whole site. http://ca.wholesalesports.com/storefront/

Incredible works of art!

Hi all. I've tied many deer hair divers for pike in my time but recently thought about doing some poppers up for pike. When I used hardware for pike long ago, I saw many times what a big pike can do to the balsa wood on a rapala with his teeth. My question is how durable are varnished foam poppers for pike? Considering the popper head slides on or from underneath and is glued, would a good size pike destroy a popper body or loosen it with a good hit? Any tricks for durability? I'm planning on making some bigger pencil poppers and various others.

The hooking ability of this style hook is supposed to be pretty good. For chironimids, i just stay away from standard curved down eye hooks most of the time. Especially in smaller sizes. It's either straight eye or this mayfly style hook I guess.

Good to hear. Maybe I'll find myself sticking with them. Thanks for the info Rp3. Another similar hook make is the Daiichi 1220's. Got some of those coming in soon.

Tying a few of these up to try out this year. Instead of a standard curved hook, I'm using a Daiichi 1230 mayfly style hook. I don't know if this will give the imitation an unnatural look in the water to the trout, but the hooking power of this hook style should be better than a lot of others in small sizes. I'm using size 16's. What do you think about this style of hook bend for a chironimid imitation? Does it look natural?

I agree about the Mustad Signature C52S BLN hooks. They're wicked.

The Premo deer strips are awesome in quality. Never regretted buying them.

A new addition to the fly pattern database has been submitted by navigator36: Angel Fly

It's pretty new. It's a unibobber. A lot smaller than a thingamabobber. Punch unibobber up on the net and you will see.

A new addition to the fly pattern database has been submitted by navigator36: The Bubble Caddis

Tying yesterday and I was using Loon water based head cement to finish a fly off. There was a drop hanging on the head of the fly, so I casually flicked the fly on the vise. The light wire hook flicked back and sent a few droplets into my right eye. I instantly thought, " Oh crap! " what kind of damage will this do. As I ran to the washroom to wash my eye out, I noticed the mild stinging was gone with the blinking of my eye. I washed my eye out anyways with no ill effects. I found that aside from there being no noxious odor from this stuff, getting it in the eye was relatively harmless as well. There were no lingering effects from it at all. Other cements would prove different. Good and safe stuff to use.