notenuftoys

I bought some Polish quills recently and tonight started experimenting. I first added Loon flow, but it seemed to just soak in and didn't give the look I wanted. So I added Loon thin, but ended up with this: Not sure how noticeable it is, but I had a hard time getting the thin resin to smooth out. Is this normal? What's the recommended resin "density" for coating these quills?

When I started tying I bought a Turbo dubbing spinner. I really like it but if I could change anything it would be shorten the handle by about an inch. It's nice and heavy, has three different heads. It also doesn't cost an arm and a leg like too many other tools currently on the market.

Um, that doesn't sound right. ;-) I'm not working on much right now. Tying desk looks like a tornado went through it, so that should get cleaned up before anything else happens. By the way, anyone heard of or used Moonlit hooks? I stumbled across them this morning and thinking of ordering a few packs to try out.

I had a few dollars in my pocket so I paid Orvis a visit. I don't go there much for fly tying stuff, seeing as I already have most of what my local shop stocks. But I decided to pick up some barred marabou, originally thinking of using it for wooly buggers. Then this idea popped in my head. Why not use this as a tail for a minnow instead of the usual rabbit strip? I like how it turned out. Barred marabou tail, wooly bugger marabou hackle-wrapped with polar chenille, sili legs and laser dub head.

I've had success using rust colored zebras. And I always use a tungsten bead. A zebra midge is my go-to fly on any water I fish. Sometimes I'll tie an unweighted fly behind it and let the zebra bounce off the bottom.

Take a gander through this thread. Lots of options for ordering materials online. I'm a big fan of J Stockard also. Edit: This is actually the thread I was thinking about. http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=76528&hl=online

Gotta love soft hackles. Tonight I was just playing around with some patterns, all on Firehole 633 hooks.

What exactly is the point of two tone beads? It's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure about the application. I'm definitely interested in the colored UV, depending on price. I just ordered some Nature's Spirit grizzly turkey biots. I'm real interested to see if they give the color variation when wrapped that I'm expecting. Hopefully I'll get them before Thanksgiving, but whenever I get them I'll post an update here.

A number of years ago I started using Evernote to track patterns I tied or (mostly) patterns I found other places and wanted to tie. Right now I have 681 patterns in Evernote. Some I've tied, some I'll tie someday. I include a link to the website where I found the pattern (which admittedly sometimes doesn't work after a few years), a picture and the materials. I don't tie commercially but still have a small fly shop worth of flies. I tried to keep an inventory of both materials and flies in Evernote, but gave up. There was just too much to track.

Yep! I was out at a pond a couple years back and saw a small bass cruising by the bank. It was obviously guarding it's bed. I threw a different color wooly buggers by it, and watched it follow the buggers but never commit. Then I saw a single fly in my box, a wooly bugger type fly that had 4 black rubber legs for tail instead of marabou. What the heck, let's try this. Bam! That bass didn't hesitate. It saw the fly and pounced on it right away. This made me a believer in using rubber legs on bass flies. I have no idea what the bass thought it was, but previous to that fly I had thrown virtually every other streamer I could think of. Now that fly is a staple in my box.

Take a look at Whiting Brahma hen capes as a potential substitute. Brahmas are available in different colors, but grizzly is very similar to partridge.

I've never really thought about this. Not sure I have a favorite, although I do love good hen hackle for wet flies.

Same. They seem to work better than anything else. It's on my "To buy" list for one of these days.

Our first real cold of the winter (trust me, for Texas it's cold!) and I get thinking midges. Well, and I finally ordered some new curved nymph hooks. Here's from a productive weekend. A total of about 3 dozen over 3 days. First, some olive Rojo midges: Next up are some Bettie midges: And finally, some Deep Blue Poison Tungs:

I've made some dubbing equivalent to Senyo Laser Dub, and it worked out very nice. It was hard to tell the difference. I just cut the yarn to the length I wanted, then used the wire dog brushes to pull all the the fibers apart. Added some ice dub and done. However, I drove myself insane trying to find the right colors. After white, olive and some other mottled brown my brain started to melt. I'd have to look at home at the exact yarn I used, but to get a decent color selection different brands of yarn have to be used. Different brands mean slight differences in how the feel, flow in the water, look with another brand, etc. I'm not really OCD, but the whole endeavor drove me nuts. I realized I would end up with so many different rolls of yarn that it financially wasn't worth it. Maybe for a production tyer, but for the small-ish quantity I tie each year I'm happy with the white and olive. That'll make a ton of blue gill Low Fat Minnows and Bunny Bluegills.

Over time I've settled on using different types of thread for different flies, simply because I've determined some work better than others. I've never seen any other reference to this or a rule. For soft hackles, I love UTC 70 denier mostly because I can flatten the thread to build very smooth heads. For nymphs/midges, I usually use UNI 8/0 to minimize bulk. And for streamers and bass flies, it's UTC 140, Danville 3/0 or any other heavier thread I have laying around.

Tied up a set of size 16 CDC Palomino Caddis. Nice and simple flies to tie.

Just playing around over the past week and I've come up with these. A simple soft hackle using a Firehole 633 #12 with wine wire, Fly Tyer Tungeon peacock black dubbing and a Conranch JV Hen hackle. I wish I bought a bunch more JV hens before Conrad retired. I bought some fl. orange biots for no good reason, then came up with this. I call it the tungsten Triple B. Biot tail, body and legs.

Oh that's nice! What size hook to you use for this?

It's been a couple months since anything meaningful came off my vice. I've had this largemouth bass fly idea bouncing around in my head for some time, so I finally sketched it out and tied one up. I used a 20mm shank for the rear with just some hackle and flash. The front is a B10S with bucktail and laser dub. I wanted a very light tail to get as much movement as possible and I didn't feel a rear hook was needed for largemouth bass since they can just suck in the fly. And a rear hook runs the risk of hooking too deep down the throat and injuring the fish. I haven't even tested it in my pool yet, much less fished it. But here it is...

This is a great write up, deaddrifter. Thanks for taking the time. Several years ago when I was vice shopping, I took a long hard look at the Dyna King. I had been tying on my buddy's Renzetti Traveler, so that's what I was used to. I really wanted to like the Dyna King because it is built like a tank, but the ease of adjustment kept me sold on the Renzetti. At any sitting I could tie a few size 20 midges and a couple size 4 bass flies, and the quick adjustment on the thumb screw made this very easy. I struggled with the adjustment collar on the Dyna King. Maybe someday when cash is burning a hole in my pocket I'll take another look at the Dyna King again. I do admire their products.

Very nice, Tom!

Another vote for Dr. Slick 4" razor scissors. I finally bought a pair a little over a year ago and just haven't looked back. I hold them on my middle finger when I tie and can quickly insert my thumb to cut something. They just feel more comfortable to me than anything else I've tried.

My ode to the lowly minnow we've probably all stuck on a hook at some point in our life. I'll give this a try on the local bass population.

I'm pretty sure between Veevus, Semperfli, UTC, MFC, Danville, silk thread, Sulky thread, UNI, etc. that number isn't too far off. ;-)