agn54

Many of the above combos are great. I would ad electric chicken (chartreuse/pink) to the mix. Mike, I ties a lt of solid color clousers, not just in white, although that is the most common for me since it works so well in the salt. All black is a great one, but also all yellow, all chartreuse, and all pink are great

Cream, that one's a real beauty. What is that on the head?

I'm in, love this swap

Flats, try this for background music, it should appease Adam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nHXp_0UQxg On a more serious note, that is a great looking fly

For that area, personally I would go with a bay boat rather than a flats boat. Many of them have a small enough draft to get quite shallow yet can go offshore on clam days. I love all types of fishirng (inshore, offshore, from shore) an the keys offer it all so I would want the most versatile boat possible. There are reef systems just offshore and 90 foot reefs don't require a super long haul to reach. As a kid I used to fish the reefs near Carysfort light. I imagine it gets a lot more crowded nowadays but back then the only to get there was to launch at a beat up rocky boat ramp off of Card Sound road which itself was a rural 2 lane road. the bridge fishing throughout the keys is phenomenal and a bay boat can handle that as well

The biggest problem with craft store feathers is that the dyed ones are not colorfast, so if you like your dyed feathers to bleed then go for it.

The only fly I have ever fished with scent was one I had in a shopping bag with other flies and a bag of Gulp jigs. I accidentally left the gulp bag open a bit and it leaked over the one of the flies. I caught a few fish on it, but it didn't seem noticeably more effective than the other non-scented flies I used. Scents definitely work for some style of artificial but it seems to me it is for fishing them slow or drifting with the tide. I would think keeping them moving like I do with a lot of baitfish patterns would pretty much negate or at least limit the effectiveness of the scent. It may leave a scent trail but my flies, at least where I fish on the grass flats, catch fish my movement. They see it or sense it's movement overhead and hit it. Now I am sure that scented artificials can make a difference if you slow drift or sit them. I regularly fish Gulp shrimp jigs under a cork like a live shrimp. In fact, I often leave the rod in a holder to drag behind the boat as I drift and cast off the opposite end. I have caught fish doing this with other unscented jigs but not nearly as much. I agree about not needing scents on flounder. Pretty much every flounder i have eve caught has come on an artificial. Most were on bucktail jigs bounced in the sand but have caught several on spoons fished over the grass. I have caught s couple on fly by stripping it slowly along the bottom. My biggest, not a doormat but a nice keeper, came when I tangled my line around my feel after a cast. The weighted fly sank to the bottom as I got the line loose and when I stripped tight he was on, so I must have hit him in the head.

I tie lots of bendbacks, never had a problem with damage to the integrity of the hook. For those, the key is to only bend the hook until you feel it start to move, less is more. Have also bent hooks the other way (eye down so they look like the concord) for heavy bugger style flies that can sit or bounce nose first in the mud. Probably not necessary but they look cool and work

Dave, most come in packs of 25, at least the ones I bought from there did

I tie a lot of flies on mustad mosquito hooks which are slightly offset. Like Milke, I straighten them before tying. Those hooks are so light it probably doesn't matter but I do it anyway. Just put the hook in the vice and push it slightly by the eye.

I agree Mike, dronlee ties one mean fly. This looks like a great crab pattern, I really like the white underside

As to combing out yarn, I have heard a while back that EP fibers were essentially Aunt Lydia's Sparkle Yarn combed out, though I don't know if there is any truth to this but it sounds plausible that they would at least be close

I use several different types of fibers depending on what I want to tie. For me, it depends on conditions which one's I prefer. I have found that EP flies tied sparsely work best in clear water whereas Flash Blend does better in darker conditions. I think those stiffer fibers push water a bit better. if I had to choose I would probably prefer SF flash blend overall since it is a bit stiffer and you don't have to comb it out after catching a fish. Get a toothy fish like a mackerel or even a trout and they can turn an EP fly into a tangled mess so you will want to carry a comb with you. I would add that probably my favorite synthetic material for all around baitfish flies lately has been craft fur. Stuff has great movement in the water and you can get some nice baitfish shapes by tying in normal, reverse style, or in a dubbing loop if you was a fuller profile A similar material only softer is polar fiber. Its great stuff as well

I have used Goop a lot and that works well. Lately what I do is attach the eyes with Gorilla Glue or Loctite gel and then add a light coat of Silvercreek's UV resin over the eyes and head. Haven't lost one yet doing this

I need an addy when you get the chance

You can catch them around any structure including crab traps, channel markers, etc. I have only caught them on live shrimp but I know that shrimp and crab patters work very well on them. Using shrimp one way to target them is to cast up current and let your bait drift to them at the structure. You could probably fish a fly the same way, maybe twitch it only slightly as it approaches the fish. A floating line would work well if they are near the top which they often are, but an intermediate line or a sinking fly may be just as if not more effective. The ones I used to catch as a kid were always lower in the water column around channel markers. If you do get some and keep them they are delicious but you will need a good knife to clean them. Their scales are like armor

That's an awesome looking fly. Great video

I see we ended up with 9 total, so that's 8 flies to tie (so as not to get one of our own back), right?

Sweet fly Adam, I'm loving the articulated ones, especially after I have seen them swim

Absolutely brilliant flies Cream. McFly, you can find those at any drugstore in the shaving section. They are the double edged blades that go on those old style razors

Man, that's a beautiful looking vise and looks like it could withstand a grenade blast without a scratch. Those accessories sound great too, you can tie anything

A few blue crabs for the crab swap

This fly flat out works. I not only tie it as the original but have adapted the style with other materials like SF Flash Blend with really good results

Where are you fishing? If there are peacocks then there are also likely tilapia, which may be the ones splashing. I have seen schools of tilapia bust the surface a lot but won't hit a baitfish pattern since they are vegetarians. They are likely not peacocks since those things will hit anything in their path (repeatedly) when they are feeding or bedding but won't seem to touch anything when they are on the move. If they are busting at the top, try a small fire tiger colored popper

Nice work. Since it is a shrimpy seducer, I would probably add barring to the craft fur with a sharpie. Not sure it makes much of a difference, I just like the way it looks