Snowblind

It is a tough call. Would you rather your best customers (I am just a good one, not a best one!) come in and find that you have NO feathers on the shelf? At least on the West Coast my local shop cannot get replacements to keep the shelves stocked. How much additional loss of sales will you have when said customer can't buy what he wants for tying? I dunno... I am just asking the question. Maybe a more business savvy person could explain what the trade off would be.

Was in the shop recently, they are totally wiped out on hackles. A hair dresser came in looking to buy some as well, but there were none left. Why? Someone got the great idea of tying them into their hair and now it is a crazy. Oh, so sad to see high grade hackles go to a salon! Are you all seeing the same issue where you are? Granted I live in California... but still, the waste! (the dresser said online the feathers cost up to $10 for 5 saddle feathers. good god, talk about a rip off!) (excuse the typo in the subject... I need more coffee!)

I ended up in Welches, OR, under the shadow of Mount Hood. Absolutely beautiful area, and I noticed the Salmon River was right on edge of the place we were staying, a timeshare on the local golf course. Grabbed the 4 weight, the boots and waders, and the tying kit. Got a guide, had a good time that morning, catching some nice 8 to 10 inch fish. Local bug preferred by guide: a Yellow Stim. Great! I should have everything I need for that! Got back to the condo, got out the kit... and remembered I had split the kit into two parts, and forgot one part! So... lets see. No stimulator. All I have is 2 packs of hooks that got missed, a pack of 16 103RBLs and some big old scud hooks. Adams and Elk Hair Caddis coming up! (had to buy a pair of scissors, gee darn, I wanted a new pair of Slicks anyway...) No elk hair, but a Comparadun, that will work... Went out that night, no luck on the Adams, so I figured I would try the EHC, as a late evening Caddis hatch started. The fish went wild! In the next 1.5 hours, I landed 3 dozen fish or so, most in the 6-8 inch size, some smaller, some up to 10 inch. heck, they were so eager that if you put that fly right under the branches of the oak tree on the other side, it rarely made it to the surface before it was struck! Fish jumping right out to meet the fly! At one point, every single drift drew a swift strike. every. single. drift. If I ever experience that again, I will consider myself blessed. Spent the next 4 nights fishing my weaselly black guts out using nothing but those green bodied, comparadun winged EHC's All wild rainbows, had to strike fast or they would puke out those fly's on you in a heartbeat and they never gave up, not even when they were in the hand and you were pulling out the hook. It was fun, fast and very technical fishing. I made more progress on my line management and targeting skills than I do most seasons. Had to place that fly tight under the tree, right on the foam seam, and get that mend in fast if you wanted something larger than a 6 incher. Not to give away anyone's favorite small river, but if you are in the area... worth a stop and getting the line wet! There are so many deep pools and fast runs to fish, I think I could spend a lifetime learning that river. P.S. also hooked into a few very nice, very large steelheads that were held over in the river. No way to control them on a 7'6" 4 weight, they ran for cover or the rapids to break me off every time, so a second larger rod might be worth the while if you find a pod. P.S.S. One pool, about 30 x 50 feet, inaccessable from the shore, boiled with hatch activity. There must have been more than a dozen splashy eats at any time, it looked like whitecaps. This Thread is Useless With Out Pics! So here they are, taken from the crappy phone camera, because I forgot the battery to the nice camera. The honey hole by the Golf Course. Couple of the honey's:

When that happy day comes to buy the vise of your dreams that old one still has lots of uses: 1. Showing your friend how to tie. 2. Holding a fly while it dries 3. Holding a "sample" fly that you are trying to match. 4. A spare if the the "nice" vice breaks or needs a part. 5. A travel vise. Spare tools have the same functions.

A/S/L? :bugeyes:

After that it is just a standard dead drift. Be ready for the strike! subsurface strikes are already in progress and it is like indicator fishing, hit it fast or the fish is gone.

+1 Yup. My favorite gill technique. -D What is so weird is that fishing just one will get ignored. Run the Ant, no hits. Swing the midge, no hits. The two together? 40/60 hit rate Ant/Midge. Just... what are the Trout THINKING?!

Thanks for the advise guys. I find hat the fly floats but under the surface film so that none of it is visible when fishing it. Can you recommend a way to get it to float higher? That striped foam sounds like a great idea. Two ideas: Tie in and loop over the foam a CDC feather of the right color. The buoyancy added by the CDC helps it keep from being swamped as easily. If you don't want to use CDC, liberal application of a fly floatant is another solution. Dry fly dubbing under the main part foam "hump" will help, so would spun CDC under that area. Add a foam "post" in a contrasting color to make sure you can see the beetle even if it is somewhat submerged. You can even do a hackle on the post for stability. Unsinkable Ants and Beetles are a good thing to have, placing a small dropper nymph or a small softhackle midge behind it is a deadly combination. The Ant/Beetle acts as an "indicator".

Any recommendations on a book that covers CDC and it's uses? My local shop does not carry CDC flies and rarely has CDC in stock, so they are unable to make any recommendations. I bought some while on a trip and tied a few "paraloop" types and felt they performed better than other materials and did not need the constant "fly sauce" application.

Parachute adams --+ Hopper ==^=+ _ / ASCII art flies! Oh the Humanity!

They are size 64 beadhead midges. Here are my soft hackle ones: ,,, and with a dropper, they are killer: ; ; ;

Cichlids are great fighters... And they will bite on anything. Even gravel if you throw it in the tank. Not sure they are a good test come to think of it... Oh lets see... a tip... The fuzz at the base of your deer/moose hair patches makes really good matching dubbing!

Ok, I landed a big score on materials today and had to share, since the wife just rolled her eyes. Picked up 2 #1 Metz capes for $70. A brown and a barred ginger. Unused, a local professional tyer was unloading some extra stock. They are a more than few years old, but properly stored in mothballed sealed containers. Can't wait to tie a few with them! Ok... I am done now... back to your regularly scheduled Saturday Honey-do list...

The local fly shop ties a fly for stockers. It is just a lead wrap in the center and peacock hurl to give it a footballish shape from one end to the other. Over wrap a strand of copper wire to protect the hurl and you are set. Sometimes a brown hackle tied to the rear of the fly, that's it. Looks just like a feed pellet as it descends. Oh, and smelly jelly helps. =) I put this on my 6 year old son's spinner rig under a bobber so I don't have to re-bait his hook all the time. Takes quite a beating sometimes. =)

Each pair lovingly polished by buxom grass fed Swiss maids! (often the explanation why Campagnolo Record bike parts are so expensive, especially the ball bearings!)