Kirk Dietrich

Norm, Here are pics of mine. I don't use the motor cause it twisted that end to quick. I'm trying to find the pdf file of the plans for that first small turner that I never did make with the screw. Kirk The giving end with spring. The set end originally meant to be the only turning side. Overall pic showing a tray I made. This machine is approx 16" long.

flytire, The brush maker I have has a spring, not sure about the many others but the first brush maker I saw plans for years ago had a screw on one side screwed down into the base not far from the twisting hook so the wire was attached to that hook, brought down to the other hook, looped around it and back to the tie in hook where it was looped around and not tied off but instead brought down under the screw head with a washer and a spring to push the washer down on the wire; as the other end was twisted, wire went up into the twists from under the spring loaded washer. Now, with the one I have, the hook attached to the metal dowel with the spring has approximately an inch or a little more of travel before it becomes tight. When I twist the brush, the spring compresses a full inch, maybe an inch and a half, and I continue twisting usually as you said until it pops. However, if the spring wasn't there to compress that inch, I believe the wire would pop before the entire brush was twisted up evenly. Some of this could depend on how long the machine is too. The shorter machine twists the entire brush at a pretty consistent and even rate and likely, when it pops, is twisted tight enough. On the longer machine which I have, if I turn only one end, it gets pretty tight while the other end with the spring still has some pretty loose twists. What I have done is to put a little wheel on the spring end dowel so I can twist that end as well, with both ends twisting, the middle is last to twist but with the cushion provided by the spring, the middle is tight enough before the wire pops from one of the ends. Kirk

Stilljerkin, if one end of your brush making jig has a spring on the rod hook or a way to feed one end of wire into the twisting brush, it should not break. Any wire if twisted enough will break, which is why most dubbing twister machines have one end that "gives". If both ends are set stationary and you start twisting, it won't be long before one of the wires snaps.

Henry, I'm with flytire. Also, if you could next find a thick formulat for building baitfish heads, that would be really great. Kirk

Mike, maybe one day during the week. Just taking lunch and a breather from digging fence post holes, getting ready for round 2, setting them in concrete and then off to family get together and tomorrow more fence posts. There should be instructional videos on furling on Youtube. The tail here is just furled silicone legs and the body is loop dubbed rabbit. The stinger hook is just a down eye nymph hook snelled with 10lb test and tied on the shank and doubled back to lock. Piker, fish will certainly surprise you as to what they like, I've had to many "killer" looking flies come off my vise only to be ignored by the judge and seeming failures off the vise that they tore up.

Philly, silicone legs. Specifically, the round Silicone Micro Mini from Cascade Crest Tools. I used 8 strands for this fly.

Piker, oddly enough, the tail doesn't really waggle much without the stinger as I originally tied it. I haven't fished this one with the stinger but the weight of the little hook may actually give it some wiggle...many of the rubber/plastic stick/jerk baits that baitcaster/spinfishers use are not very wiggly and they catch a bunch of fish. Not sure what a stick looking organism is in the water but I was getting hits on almost every cast with the prototype.

Tied up one of these last week on a #6 offset worm hook and it worked better than expected catching a few small bass and a number of bream and tons of nips. I modified slightly and used a 3306 #6 for the front hook and snelled a size #12 down eye nymph hook as a stinger to get more of the tail nipping bream. It's 2.5" long and casts easily with my 4wt, a larger bass is bound to eat this sooner or later.

Tide, I talked to Lefty to see if he had any from back then. He said the only two he had, he donated to a museum; he said they were never really popular...

I recall the smaller one ditz and have one with the rubber skirt all melted. Guess some of old farts aren't as old as some of the other old farts...

Tide, in the book Tying Bugs and Flies for Bass by A.D. Livingston there is a section on Designing and Making Bug Bodies where he has a page of sketches of different bug designs. One of them is the spouter but he doesn't give credit to Brooks, he just states that it spouts water; he does have a photo of a Spouter made by Bill Gallasch. Lefty told me that Brooks didn't like tying flies much and worked with Bill on making flies to his specs after which Gallasch supplied Joe and Lefty with flies for fishing. So, I'd imagine if you could get one made by Gallasch, it would be a good sample. The photo doesn't show the spouter face to well due to it being a white head but as you said, it does have feather tail and hackle skirt.

Tide, funny you mention the Spouter Bug, just the other day, my bug aficiando friend was telling me about that bug. Would certainly like to have one of those in hand.

Thank you Jack. Although Lefty lectured me on cupping the face. I tried to explain that the cup isn't cupped at the bottom so it doesn't grab water because it still has the same slant face as his with just a little lip at the top to catch the water...

FlaFly, it was an interesting experience for me. I was in my early twenties and as I stated, I was willing to do the consignment thing just to get my foot in the door and get started. Then after I met this sales rep at a conclave, he told me the names of some stores in Texas and Florida. They wanted my flies so I sold them, then I had the problem all commercial tiers want - to many orders, not enough time so, I went up on my price per the sales rep suggestion; they still ordered! Went up in price again and they still ordered; finally got two people tying for me for a couple years until one got married and landed a career job and the other had a child. I didn't pursue workers after that - was turning into to much of a business and I had a day job... I have a friend in a band, he has a day job and he just plays to cover costs of his equipment - always thought rock stars like yourself were millionaires! Kirk

I would certainly go with at least 16", some of the Whiting capes I have, the big webby feathers are curved over to fit in the bag. Make sure the space between the zippers is 16" min.

Jaydub, couldn't agree more. I'm always cutting down the width of the cardboard to make it easier to get out the bag. A two sided bag would be great for sure - a little thicker mil plastic would be good too. A lot of my Whiting bags, the top has torn off trying to get the thing unzipped.

If you find a source, I guess you could cut the bottoms off of two bags and slip one bag inside the other to have zip lock on each end...?

I did that for a time when I first got started and had no resume and the shop that did it was just testing the waters as saltwater flyfishing hadn't really caught on so they didn't know how saltwater flies would sell. After a year, no flies sold so I went east and west to Texas and Florida fly shops and couldn't hardly keep them supplied. If they already carry flies and know your flies would sell they should just buy them outright or do like your other shops and offer store credit. If they don't, they could have money problems paying bills. I did store credit as you do but under the condition that the goods I purchased were at a considerable discount - most agreed and some even gave me their wholesale price. Kirk

Call me crazy, but I thought it was pretty cool! The producer made those flies look more alive and realistic on a dry backdrop than some I've seen in water. Pretty creative; reminded me of some of David Byrne/Talking Heads old videos.

I've noticed on floating patterns that land upside down that after a strip or two they usually rite themselves. So, as for a trick to casting, there could be if you consider casting to open water on the far end of the weeds or opening in the weeds to allow you a short distance to strip the fly and rite it before it begins traveling across the weeds. The old McNally Frog Popper was tied with bucktail legs at a forty five degree angle upward to help turn the fly on its descent from the cast to the water. While being a hook point down pattern, the same philosophy could apply with the hook point up fly.

Congratulations Steve! Hang in there. Cold turkey is the way to go. When my fourth child was born, I quit cold turkey; she is now 16 but I started on cigars 4 years ago, last year, I went to cigarettes and cigars - stayed smoke free for 12 years though!

Vic, the two biggest bass I've caught on fly so far were both 4 lbers. One ate a #10 white sponge spider 20 yrs ago and the other ate a #8 foam blockhead bream bug last year. Both sipped it like a gill and made me think I had a state record bluegill until they jumped and showed themselves. Was using a 4wt and 5wt respectively. Kirk

I'm kind of a hook fanatic and am always buying hooks and often buying hooks I think I'm out of only to realize when the new hooks come that I already have a box/pack. So, I don't usually worry about saving hooks from beat up flies - besides, I usually lose the fly to a fish or a tree before it gets to beat up to fish. If it does get to beat up and scraggly to fish, I usually just keep it as a souvenier/reminder of how good the pattern was. Now, I'll tell you that on some of my flies that have epoxy coating such as spoon flies and poppers, I will touch up the epoxy coating if they get dinked or worn out. Usually after the spoon catches two to three dozen redfish, it needs a recoating of epoxy that will carry it for another two dozen fish. If you're strapped for money and the hook is in good condition like Yeti said, go ahead and save it.

I tend to not like eyes that are to large as the very large eyes will get hung up on stuff or more specifically pick up grass and acquatics. I usually use small and medium eyes and if I want more weight, I use 1/8" wide strip lead on top the hook. Lead wire would work as well too.

I use these DuoSnap connectors on the end of some of my spin fishing rods. Haven't tried them with a fly yet but should be good for large swimming flies. http://www.jannsnetcraft.com/duolock-snaps/335410.aspx