robow7

I can't thank you enough for the information and hope to put it to good use.

Does someone out there have these in hand where they could weigh a single matchstick strip and tell me what they weigh ?   Thank you for your input.

23 hours ago, DFoster said:

Yup, for me it's that time of the winter.  I love tying but I start looking for something else fly fishing related to do.  When I pull some line of a reel just to hear the click I know it's getting bad.  Clean and lube the vise, lube the reels, clean and treat the fly lines, tying leaders, organize the boxes and packs (again).... Is spring ever going to get here?  

We're to get our first snow of the season today, 1-2 ft. of the white stuff, so I'll being doing the same over the next couple days.

Over the years, I have tied the collar in several different configurations, some larger and more full than others (like above) and it will affect how much it floats and dives to some degree.  One thing for sure, don't allow your tail material to become too heavy or long as it will reduce the "shake and bake" motion of the head.  ymmv

Always enjoy tying up a few divers.  Under the right conditions, the smallies will hammer them.

I definitely agree with what was stated above, to actually get your hands on and try as many vises as possible, and often times, one vise might "just speak to you more than the others".  That's how I came to own the vise I have used for 25 years, but back then fly fishing shows were much more common and vise manufacturers often had a booth that would allow you to play with their vise.  It's a shame it's more difficult to do that these days.  

3 hours ago, Current Angler said:

I wrote a review on my Regal Medallion Series last year. While I've only had mine for a couple years, I've heard of tyers using them for decades without any signs of aging.

Guess I would qualify as one of those tyers

I fly fish 90% of the time but will resort to spinning gear when jigging deep for walleye and such.  

14 hours ago, SBPatt said:

Korn’s Spruce Moth (variation)

 

 

I Like !

Although I too, tie a lot of my bass flies on Gamy B10S, those old Mustad 3366 can be made super sharp in a matter of a few seconds with a mere couple swipes with an appropriate file.

It's caught up with some vise manufacturers as well.  For years a Peak rotary vise was $149, then it went up last year to 155 and now stands at 185, for the exact same vise with no real improvements that I can see.

I once got a hold of a pack of hooks that were quite brittle and broke easily by just looking at them wrong.  They were fine for small panfish but I sure wouldn't have trusted them for anything else, and yes, they were a cheap No-name brand that was given to me at a group fly tie gathering.

And we always release the large males as they help to keep the gill population down and keep the sizes up.

Love big gills, this one and his similar sized buddies came on size 4 XL smallmouth poppers.

You know a generation ago, you would see a ton of both dries and nymphs tied on size 12 hooks.  It was almost a standard.  I'm not sure when it happened but over time, many of the patterns came to be tied in 14 and 16's.  The old timers I knew, never had a problem catching fish with those size 12's and in fact often tied a size 14 fly on a size 12 hook if they thought it was needed.  Anyway, best of luck and get well.

Yes, sorry for the confusion but I did not own a tvr, mine was a Spartan and it had no grooves

I had a friend who owned the Cobra but I don't remember the mirror.  He liked it a lot and we thought it was odd that this "far out futuristic" design was from the same manufacturer as the classic old school vise. (We assumed it was from the same Thompson) 

The Vossler, was that designed so you could tie two flies at once ? 

DFoster, yea, my HMH didn't have any grooves  cut into the jaws.  Obviously a different jaw design entirely.

Is this an HMH thing as to the inability to easily hold larger hooks ?  A long long time ago, I purchased an HMH vise that was an early Spartan or a similar model and it was great until you got up to size 2 and larger.  As I tie a lot of larger flies for bass and pike, it just didn't work for me and I sold it , but not before contacting HMH.  They claimed they were addressing the situation but I didn't hang around long enough to find out if it was corrected.

So theoretically, if one can cast more efficiently without a fly reel attached to the rod itself, does that give rise to create a reel as light as possible if it is to remain mounted on a rod ?

8 hours ago, skeet3t said:

Just make sure it's new kitty litter.😺

Yea, but I bet whatever flies you tied from that deer tail would be excellent for Crap pie

But yes Mike, please let us know how they turn out.

Rich, other than your blue, have you had any success with orange mops ?  Those seem to be readily available around here along with the chartreuse but other colors not so much.  

Mike, I've never heard of the "kitty litter" treatment before.  Does it work well?  We have more than our share of kitties so we have plenty available in this household.

8 hours ago, Mark Knapp said:

Put some salt on there. It will preserve better and it keep the bugs off.

Yep, I generally rub Borax into the flesh and completely cover that area with more of the same.  After a couple weeks, I'll shake it all off and if not dry enough, I'll repeat the process again.  After that it gets cleaned really well in a bucket of Oxyclean and maybe just a touch of bleach (don't use too much or will destroy the fibers).  It then gets dried and will be ready to use unless I want to dye any or all of it.

Now I fully realize that none of you fine tyers out there would ever stoop so low as to actually use a mop fly but...... maybe you have a friend or a pitiful brother in law that uses mop flies on a regular basis, and that being said, have they ever mentioned that they feel a certain color or colors were more effective than others.  Now of course this information is not for myself but rather a "friend", errr, yea that's right, a friend was just curious as to what colors might be most effective since he has only used two colors and found that the bright chartreuse really out fished his white ones. 

Thanks again for helping out my friend : )