Crackleback

I posted a picture of them in the August Flies From the Vice thread if anyone is interested

Divers for a swap Before trimming After

Well, they're all tied but I suppose you guys want me to trim them too. Go ahead and PM me your address. I should have these trimmed down into divers sometime this week.

I'll join. I'm actually stacking up some divers for add's "As long as it floats" swap right now so I'll have to finish them up first. Hopefully we can get a decent number to join. There's plenty of people that post pictures of hair work on here but unfortunately almost none of them do swaps. Here's some of my bugs to help spark interest.

You're 100% right I'd want to throw big stuff for browns. Tying these Cracklebacks might have been the first time all year I took the big game jaws out of my vise. I decided on them because you can fish them so many different ways. Dead drift it dry. Next cast pull it under and drift it wet. Strip it in at the end of your drifts. Put on a poly leader and strip it in a little deeper. Put on a sinking line and strip it even deeper. You could bust out the bobbers and split shot and fish it as a nymph. A bead head version is actually fairly popular around here. Definitely gave me a chuckle the first time I saw a tungsten bead strapped to the front of a dry fly. -Mike

I'm in. I'll stack up some hair bugs. -Mike

I'll join -Mike

Finally got mine mailed out this morning.

Still the same address as last swap?

In

I'm always down for some streamers.

Quarter

[ Hopefully this works. I've never done a video. Here's how to tie my swap fly in brown trout colors. My actual swap flies were a different coloration. The video isn't that great but should help if anyone wants to tie one of their own. -Mike

1/0 Diver My Hambone streamer. I shot a SBS for this the other day just need to edit it.

I got my flies today. Holy smokes these are cool. I should be able to fish them sometime this month. We have a lake with muskies here. The only boats allowed are rowboats you rent there which they usually start renting out sometime in March although I've seen them not start until April. The rattle head is really just as easy as a regular body tubing head. After you fold over the tubing slide in a rattle, finish tying in the tubing and that's it. You'll have the rattle sealed inside the tubing.

The brown one has a laser dub head

The extra with the deer hair head is Andreas Andersson's Sid. The black one is craft fur reverse tied over polar chenille in back then hollow tied bucktail up front with reverse craft fur over that. That last fly is really just Mike Schmidt's Junkyard Dog with the marabou underbody replaced with polar chenille and schlappen twisted up together. -Mike

Thanks guys. I've been tying this fly since the end of summer and it's been real productive. To answer the question about the tubing it is kind of a pain to use at first. I ended up wasting around half of my first pack before I started to get a hang of it. You need to use really strong thread on this stuff. Surprisingly though I've found GSP to be awful for tying it down. GSP is slick and so is the tubing. No matter how tight I had it tied down some times it would slip out when I went to fold it back. I've been using danville's flat waxed and it works a lot better. I like the tubing because you can get a big profile without using a ton of material. I use it a bunch on my really big flies(musky stuff/White River stuff) and on a few of my smaller trout streamers, mostly my swap fly(the Hambone) and a sculpin I'm still working on.

Got them in the mail today. I ran out of pink tubing so two of them have chartreuse heads. The big ones have five sections so I guess that makes them quadruple articulated. 4/0 Partridge Predator in the back, shank, shank, 6/0 Predator and then another shank. I didn't like having the head on the front hook as it looked like it would get in the way of the hook gap so I put it on one of the shortest big game shanks. My single hook fly is on a Partridge Predator 6/0.

In the mail

Can I get your new address? I'm ready to ship.

Address please. I'm done tying, just need to get the eyes on them and I'll get them in the mail.

I'm going to sit out this year. I've been in the entire five years the swap club has been running and could use a break from it. -Mike

Here's a couple of streamers. The olive/black one is about 5 inches and the rust/tan/yellow is around 6.

Here's what I'm tying. It's a pattern of my own. I'll probably do a white/yellow version for the swap.