RagingBull

I have a st croix imperial 9ft 5wt that i have caught everything from trout to bass to steelhead on and i love it. Its a very good all around rod that will hold up. It might cost a bit more than the others you had there but like anything else in life you get what you pay for. Tight lines

Must be nice. it was about -9 when i left for work this morning with a nice crunchy 8" of ice and snow on the ground.

i tied up a decent inventory of my main patterns about 2 months ago, basically after the steelhead streams froze over. now im just browsing the pattern database here and youtube looking for new patterns that i want to try out. been on a minnow imitation kick so far this week. some come out decent and some dont but either way it doesnt seem to be helping this itch that i seem to be infected with that can only be cured with wet line.

I agree. Turkey is one of the few things that i dont hunt however last spring my one buddy got a nice tom and hooked me up with both wings. he kept the fan for his wall so i didnt get any of the tail feathers but i have enough of the wing feathers to last me for a good couple or 10 years lol.

looks good

That is so true

thanks for the info

well as the old saying goes...... wish in one hand and $%*# in the other, then see which hand fills up first..... Just messin with ya but if you find someone that is handing out pheasant skins, id take one too lol. One can never have too many tying materials

I mainly got into fly tying for steelhead flies which mainly consisted of egg patterns. Im now getting into trout fly fishing and im starting to use more feathers in my patterns. While at a local fly shop the other day i was looking around and came across some "premium hackle". I was quite shocked when i saw the price tag of $70 for a clump of feathers. My question is, what makes these feathers "premium" and although i cant see dumping that kind of money on a clump of feathers are they worth considering?

You took the words right out of my mouth. lol Anyways congrats man. What streamer pattern did he order? if you dont mind my asking.

I feel your pain with the crowds. Opening weekend here for trout, there can be some serious "combat fishing" when trying to find, fish, and keep a hole. However its still not as bad as erie steelhead fishing. most of the time when your up there your fishing in a shot glass because there are so many guys. Anyways the flies look good and hope you have a good time on your trip. Tight lines

jsflyfishing.com Anglersworkshop.com jannsnetcraft.com whitewaterflies.com and of course cabelas and basspro have a somewhat decent selection and can find sales pretty frequently

I agree, Pretty much every time i place an order through cabelas or bass pro i look at their hook section to see if anything is on sale. One can never have too many hooks. Tight Lines

looks good

I agree i also rarely use the rotary to actually tie materials on but it is nice to be able to spin the hook to put materials on the side or bottom or to make it easier to cut stray fibers that you dont want sticking out. To answer the original post i was in your same situation about a year ago. I went with the griffin spyder odessy vise. In my opinion it is a pretty good rotary vise and it was a pretty reasonable price ($85-$90) My only complaint with it is it took some time to get used to the angle the vise has. It comes straight out from the post then drops straight down and then is angled at about 45 degrees back up. When tying material on the back of small hooks it felt like my fingers were "cramped" but after using it for a while i got used to it.

thanks for the info. will have to give it a try next fall when i get some fresh deer hides

My thoughts exactly. really all a travel bag is for is moving your materials from one place to another. why spend a fortune on a fancy box or bag when you can do it for a fraction of the price and still get the task accomplished.

a good and fairly cheap method that i have used for years is get a soft tackle bag. One that will hold 3 or 4 3600 series plano boxes. the one that i had would hold 4 boxes which i used a razor to take all of the deviders out of 2 of them for my larger materials of hair and feathers and kept 1 for all of my smaller cards of materials and beads and hooks and such and one for tools, thread and misc. items. it worked great for me and i had about $30 wrapped up in it. Since then my materials list has grown and i now use a fairly good sized plastic tool box. I still use the 3600 series boxes just now i have room for more of them. also cabelas makes a 2 different style 3 ring binders. one which was designed for fishing and one for fly tying. the one for fly tying looks ok but its about $10 more expensive than the one designed as a sort of fishing binder. plus the fishing one has 2 more sleeves in it but it doesnt have the spool sleeve. here is a link to the fishing binder from cabelas http://www.cabelas.com/product/Fishing/Tac...%3Bcat104620680 and here is the link for the fly tying binder also from cabelas http://www.cabelas.com/product/Fishing/Fly...%3Bcat103890780 hope this helps. Tight lines

I use a pretty decent sized hard plastic tool box. it has a couple compartments in the lid for spools and tools and i use 3600 series plano boxes to keep things organized and secure. It seems to work pretty good.

about the only time that i will spend the extra money on a premium hook is my steelhead flies. other than that its the cheaper the better.

thanks

That and some deer hair and a variety of flashabou. Also (and i know that they are not streamers) but sucker spawns and crystal meths are very easy to tie up and can be very effective. All you need for them is some angora yarn for the sucker spawns and sparkle braid for the crystal meth's. Keep those reels screaming

What is the difference between sparkle braid and diamond braid? (if there is one) I have been using sparkle braid for a couple years now tying crystal meth flys for erie steelhead and i have come across a couple patterns that i would like to tie up that call for diamond braid. The pictures that i have been able to find on online flyshops it looks alot like sparkle braid but they dont zoom in close enough that i can say for sure.

Thanks for the info

Hello, Im still relativly new to fly tying and i have a question about the different styles of bobbins available. I have a couple of the cheap stainless bobbins that cabelas offeres and i was looking to purchase a couple more and i was wondering what exactly does one gain by going with the ceramic tube models over the cheaper stainless bobbins?