salmobytes

RE> the Roy Christie parachute. Lazier tiers can wind the feather around both legs of the nylon loop and then feed the tip of the hackle into the loop prior to pulling out the nylon. At this point it looks the same bit it's not as durable as Christie's method But a sewing needle with a drop of fabric cement fixes the durability issue. I'm not saying it's better. Just another way. And perhaps more easier.

...it's an old fly and not from my vise. But it's a good pic no? Forgotten flies are still good. Thin wispy and sparse sinks faster too.

.....tried a black background. I see a future in this

Good Little Marryat. Ok. Good tying video too. Maybe I'll learn how to do that someday.

Ah. Me learn something

Yes the photography is so good it almost takes away from the otherwise good-as-it-gets flies. The wet fly above is very cool. I like the clear shiny resin coating on the quill body, and the loop woven hair hackle. What puzzles me is how he did the photograph. The fly seems to resting on white foam board with a black and green background far enough back to be out of focus. So far so good. But if that is white foam board the shank the of the hook is fixed somehow at a roughly 60 degree angle to horizontal. In suspended animation somehow. Very cool.

Does anybody know what fly this is? I'm not good with classic dry fly names. The one in front is unused. The one behind has the barb bent down with a bit of something organic dried onto the hook. And the wings are a bit ragged, as if they were once chewed.

A Bunyan Bug. Norman Means (aka Paul Bunyan, locally in Montana, not sure which town) made these. I think he died in the late 1940s so this is an old bug. This was the fly they used in A River Runs Through It, when whatshisname caught the big fish and went swimming for it. This one a 46 exposure stack. My focusing rail is set to 1mm increments and this translated to 46. I probably could have set it to 2mm increments, and then it would have been 23 exposures. I was lazy. Cell phones do a surprisingly good job, if you hold them close and steady. But this is a bit beyond what a phone can do. A regular dslr with a macro lens would only have about 1/10th this length in focus.

This one is a 56 exposure focus stack--of a Terrible Troth--tied by Al Troth

From a 30 year old fly box. I don't know the fly names. These are both #18 itty bitties. Both flies have been fished with. Getting this close to flies this small--and all still in focus isn't easy. This is a 6 exposure focus stack. Focus stacking is tricky and difficult now. In another three or four years it will likely be a new point and click menu item for new cameras.

Good stuff. I make Pott Flies that way, using a dubbing loop instead of Pott's complex weaving technique. Adding a bit of dubbing into the loop first is a good idea. I also wet the legs of the thread loop first, with fabric cement, which ends up holding the fibers a bit better, and also makes it possible to twist the loop less tightly.

I like Kimo's fly holder above. I like the fly and the photograph too. The fly holder looks like a sewing needle with the top of the eye ground off. Interesting.

Mr Natural.....with a Snow Shoe Rabbit Right Hackle underneath

I think I have everything he ever wrote, including a small collection of pamphlets he wrote and several audio tapes he recorded. The expensive book The Master Fly Weaver (I got it used before the price went through the roof) is fun to have and more comprehensive (many more illustrations) but the "Art of Weaving Hair Hackle Flies" has most of the weaving nitty gritty. The best place to see George Grant's work is the highway rest stop and city information/tourism center just North of the Interstate, in the middle of Butte. They have several long banks of nicely-lighted display cases. Theirs is the largest single collection of Grant flies. They have other stuff too. That place is within walking distance of the Butte KOA campground. We stayed at the KOA for three days this summer, for the Butte Folk Festival. Finding the GGrant flies there too was an added bonus. The audio tapes can be listened to at: https://www.youtube.com/user/pittendrigh Here are a few more fly photos: https://montana-riverboats.com/?robopage=Flies/George-Grant

Got it. OK. I remember my cousin Jon caught a huge rainbow on a #10 mosquito once, which I thought was absurd. Until years later I realized names are meaningless.

This is an old f ly probably never fished judging by the neatly married wings, even though there is some rust on the hook. Fly boxes sometimes get wet. This came from a fly box that hasn't been opened since the early 1990s. It's a handsome fly but I'm not good at classic flies (if indeed this is a classic). I don't know it's name but would like to. Maybe (maybe) it's a Black Gnat, even though it's tied on a size #14 hook. Does anybody know this fly's name?

We're all different. What I like most about fly tying is creativity and invention. I appreciate and admire well-tied traditional patterns and even tiie them. Occasionally. But not often. What I like is new. I work hard at it. I don't expect everybody to be that way. That's just me. Interestingly.............try as I might some of the best ideas happen by accident. I make a lot of dubbing loops, for dry fly hackles and for wet fly fuzz balls. If you twist any dubbing loop long enough the fibers snag adjacent fibers and quickly turn into a yarn-like tube suitable for a body material but not in anyway suitable for a hackle. If you don't twist the dubbing loop enough the fibers are not securely held, and then the fly is all too likely to unravel in use. Catch 22. A while back it occurred to me I could twist only a little, so the fibers stayed splayed out somewhat like a hackle feather, and then wind that down onto a shank wetted with water based fabric cement. Holy moley. It worked. I was making some fuzz head sculpins last night--that way, for the 100th time--when I realized I might not have to twist the dubbing loop at all. Just comb out the fibers and place them between two strands of a thread loop, where both strands are pre-wetted with fabric cement. Wet the shank too. Now wind the loop without ever twisting it. At all. Now it's easy to pull the last rotation's fibers back while you wind the next so the resulting fibers all stick neatly straight out at right angles to the shank. They stay put too because they're getting wound down onto a thin layer of fabric cement. Twisting isn't in any way required. Some fibers are nearly impossible to twist up into a traditional dubbing loop. But if you aren't twisting it doesn't matter. You can mix synthetic flashy fibers in with lamb's wool or badger guard hairs. Or what ever you want. Some techniques are tricky but worth learning because the result is so good. This technique begets a good result with less fuss rather than more. I like it. Photos will happen eventually.

Ducktail Mayfly........as a Green Drake #16 scud hook Extended abdomen: one olive dyed duck flank with tip stroked together to a point with a small quantity of fabric cement. The fabric cement is applied to the tip of the abdomen only. wings: Gray Senyo Laser Dub pulled up on either side of the shank and parachute wrapped twice, with thread. thorax: Olive Senyo Laser Dub hackle: A Zelon or carpet scraps Right Hackle basted loooosely to the bottom of the thorax with one figure eight wrap, from the eye of the hook to the base of the extended abdomen and back again. And then splayed out end to end on the bottom and groomed a tooth brush and then glued in place. Any glue will work: head cement, CA glue or fabric cement. This fly uses a #16 hook but ends up more like a size ten or twelve fly. It is, in other words, a big fly tied on a small short shank hook. So it floats like a sob. Easy to dry off too. No CDC means you can wash it off after catching a fish, snap cast it once or twice and then let if fall again, ready to start the next drift. With CDC-based flies you'd still be fussing with silica powders, rubber bands and other voodoo-based drying techniques.

Why not? Hailibut are caught on soft molded lures so why not a fly? You wouldn't use a fly rod. Not to jig the bottom in 200' feet of water. But you could use a fly.

A one feather sculpin. Hopper hook barbells and one saddle hackle. I do strip off some of the marabou fuzz at the fat part of the stem and chop it up and save it for last step. Fix the barbells with thread and CA glue. Tie the feather on with lots of marabou still up front. Now use the chopped marabou made from that same feather to touch-dub some more fuzz around the barbells. Whip finish. Sparse casts better and sinks faster. You could add some long synthetic fibers of some kind if you think it's too sparse. I like sparse streamers. More simple is more better. https://montana-riverboats.com/?robopage=Flies/Sandy-Pittendrigh/Articles/Fastsinking-Streamers.htm

Female Pale Morning Dun. Ephemerella Sometingorotheri The males are smaller and yellower, with bulging salmon-colored eyes DePuy Spring Creek, Livingston Montana. July 4, 2010

Three hours exposure at F-1024? No it's a 40 exposure focus stack. Made in a light tent. These bugs are about 3/8" or 1cm long

I use dacron backing for the snell because it has the most flex. Improved clinch to a barrel swivel. Slip a bead onto the line. Snell it to an Octopus or Drop Shot hook. Long snells are easy to make. Short snells are tricky. I'd have to make video. It isn't hard to do but it's hard to describe.

Here's an old piece I wrote in 1994 that I never succeeded in getting published. The Twinkie. It's long. Perhaps too long. Magazines tend to like short better than long these days. But there were other problems with the article. This is a good fly, if defined by hookup success and fun fishing. Fish really do bite these flies multiple times. And hang on and chew. https://montana-riverboats.com/?robopage=Flies/Sandy-Pittendrigh/Articles/Twinkie.htm Mattress foam or memory foam slit up front and glued to a snelled hook, with hidden bead. Foam-Cure glue from Ace Hardware is fast and convenient. Aleene's Flexible Stretchable fabric cement cures to a softer, gooier consistency but takes half a day or more to cure. This one's about 2-1/2" inches or 63mm long.

Tiann Burger of Soooth Aaafreeeka made this, from a pair of needle nose. I've forgotten the terms. Heat it up cool it slowly. Grind away. Drill a hole or two. Heat it up again. Quench it fast in oil. Make it a vise. You can put a #2 salt water hook in this thing and then pull down hard with another pair of pliers. The hook bends. It doesn't come out.