Kirk Dietrich

Piker, thanks for the nod but I only have the mylar tubing tutorials. I've been wanting to do one on a mono/wire framed one but haven't gotten around to it. I think if UV Resin spoon were googled, one would find some videos on making them like that. Also, maybe google prism tape spoon flies and another good one is fake fingernail spoon flies. Kirk

If you have a passion for the art/sport, you will find a way to continue. Try tying your flies on tubes and you can use the same hook on all of your flies. Just being facetious. Kirk

I like the hand crank method best after having tried both, you have much more control. You are correct in the density and that is the most difficult part but it comes with practice. I typically put the materials down on the wire until the board is mostly blocked out when looking through the materials but for stuff in bunches like Congo, EP and Faux Fox, I have gotten it down to a snip the size of the bunch equally spread out is what I like. I have marks on my twister board to measure my length, which is typically and inch and a half. If you're using your brush to wrap around the hook shank, the variable density isn't that big an issue. If you're using the brush as a tail or wing as I often do, its more important to get a even consistency through out the length. To get a tight twist on the fibers with a minimum core size, I find I need to twist, tease, twist, teast, etc. The first one is usually the most challenging as the wire isn't going to be twisted very tight so when you tease, there is more chance of fibers being pulled out so I don't usually fully tease out. The second go round, I tease out more and the tighter the twists, the more assertive I can be with pulling out trapped fibers. Also, when the wire is twisting nicely and you can see it, you can stop when doing it by hand and just hit the fibers than are beginning to wrap down around the core and pluck them out with your dog brush before they get bound down to the core again.

Riffle, I think we posted at the same time. So, you are saying same here to the original post? Kirk

I tie them in with the skirt.

Once you get it to your house, maybe you can buy a friend a few beers to help you, you can keep it at your vacation home and buy a little cart to roll it across the street to launch it. Kirk

I think Cabela's has a trailer. You could also always get one of those small trailers from Harbor for carrying stuff like lawnmowers and whatever and make a cradle of sorts or runners attached to that. Just type in Canoe Trailer in your search engine and there are a bunch of images of premanufactured models available from stores and some homemade jobs like I mentioned above where you can put your equipment in the box part of the trailer and the canoe sits on top of a cradle that rises from the bed above the short side rails. Kirk

You can add peacock herls as a topping or in the wing of any streamer. Here's a pic of an Edson Tiger version I tie based on the Clouser Deep Minnow style. It has a peacock herl body. LTbrasseye.JPG It has accounted for some nice bass and trout. Kirk- those are some amazing minnows you make! I was going to say the same thing Joel. Peacock herl used to be the standard as streamer wing topping to add the dark back common to most baitfish. Thanks, I've got some wtih your name on them. Kirk

Ditz, even though I put up a specific few, I'm kind of like you. I think alot has to do with the water conditions and the type of structure you're fishing in addition to what you think the fish may be interested in. Us fly tiers usually have more flies and patterns than we'll ever need in a lifetime that really complicates things. Reminds me of a statement a good tying friend of mine told me once, I laughed my ass off and have neve forgotten it. He said, "Kirk, the fish wouldn't eat anything, at one point I opened my box held a syonce over the box and waited for guidance from beyond and even that didn't work!" It was a lot funnier when he said it twenty years ago. Kirk

Amen to that! Joe Schmuecker (last name spelling is wrong) of WAPSI invented lead dumbell eyes. Prior to that Bead Chain eyes were used even before the famous Charlie patterns. I believe Joe was melting lead or tin into the bead chain eyes for extra weight before he molded the lead barbells and if he wasn't melting into bead chain others were. Kirk Favorite topwater minnow patterns. Favorite subsurface pattern or similar including the Muddler mentioned above. Favorite bottom minnow pattern.

Phish, Interesting. You know one thing about expensive paints on poppers? They last a long time! So, the expense isn't really that bad. I spend more for my airbrush paints but they last forever. No voids in wine/champagne corks makes sense otherwise air would get inside and wine would get out. I have a nail in my bench and use a pliers to hold and bend the wire around the nail; I filed the head off the nail so I can slip the wire on/off easier. A tool made for the task would be nice though. Kirk

Stippled, send me one pencil popper, two bass bugs and three bream bugs and you'll be absolved. You never know what people use these days, I was just asking. Kirk

Nice little minnow. Is it a sinker or floater? Kirk

Ron, are you using Elmer's Wood Sealer or Filler? I didn't know Elmer's made a wood sealer. I have some wood sealer from Minwax but never used it to fill voids, I may have to try it. For voids in the cork and even the hook slot on other types of heads, I use Elmer's water based Wood Filler, the off-white/yellowish one. It may be for indoors use but it is smoother than the one that is stainable and has fibers in it. The yellowish one may be indoors but you're coating with paint and epoxy so, its not an issue. Kirk

Mike, one of the masters at Billfish, Cam Sigler just passed away recently so I don't know if his site/company is still selling stuff but the pictures and products may give an industrious fellow like yourself some ideas. http://www.camsigler.com/flies.aspx Here is a link to Dan Blanton's bulletin board/forum; there are a few folks on there that fly fish for sailfish and the like, you may get some specific advice if you post a question on there. http://www.danblanton.com/bulletin.php Kirk

Great pics Mike, looks like ya'll had a blast. Kirk

If I kept my trash can between my legs, yes that would happen. I'm always dropping things and it seems it is the small things I drop the most either I drop them or they pop out of my hands or mysteriously jump off my desk. My trash can is a coffee can on top of my desk just beyond my vise, so far the mischievious materials haven't learned to pole vault. For dropped hooks, I have a telescoping magnet that mechanics use for retrieving nuts and bolts that I use to pick up hooks that always manage to find themselves on my floor. Kirk

Top notch! Good looking popper! What kind of paints did you use and implement to put the black squiggles on with? Kirk

I do something kind of in-between sizing a whole neck and picking as I go. When I have a batch of poppers or other fly that takes a splayed feather tail, I don't do dries, I'll sit and pick the feathers for that dozen or half dozen. I'll pull off three feathers for each side of the bug's tail, that's six total for each bug and take a piece of tape and wrap around the feather butts to keep those three together. I put all of the sets of three from one side of the neck in one pile or baggie and he sets of three from the other side in another pile or baggie. When I start tying, I grab a bunch from each pile that somewhat matches and tie in my splayed tail. I imagine you could do that with dries if you knew you were going to sit down and tie a batch of them. Kirk

Mike, welcome. With the glues we have today from epoxy to CA/superglue, you can use any hook you desire for gluing into the bottom of your popper. The kink shanked hooks mentioned above are very good choices but if you don't have any on hand, don't let that stop you. In fact, I only use kink shanked hooks on half or less than half of my bugs. The Mustad 34007 is a good hook and the Mustad 34011, a longer version of the 34007 is a good one for longer bugs; both are SS, which makes it good for brackish water bass and saltwater fishes. The Mustad 3366 is a good bronze hook to use too. The Gamakatsu Stinger hook, the B10s is a good wide gape hook. I even make minnow and long poppers by using SS spinnerbait wire wrapped around the shank of a regular hook to extend it. You can even glue a tube fly tube in the bottom of a popper head and thread your leader through and tie whatever hook you want. The longer shanked dry fly hooks are good for bream bugs too. You want to wrap the shank with some tying thread and tie off before gluing to give the glue something to saturate into and hold to the hook - although I'm beginning to wonder if I don't just do that out of old habit and if its even necessary with the great glues available today. Check out the links below my name for some videos on making poppers out of perch floats and the photobucket to see pictures of my balsa, cork and hard foam bugs I've done using a variety of hooks. Kirk

Only you will be able to determine that. I gave myself Tennis Elbow/Tendonitis from casting a balsa plug with a 7wt, the plug had some lead for balast. I now cast that one with an ultra light spinning rod although a 10 or 11wt would probably handle it that would be overkill for bass. I redesigned the flure to about half the size and weight and it casts fine with my 7wt. Just takes some trial and error. If you're not adding additional weight, the 10 weight should handle a big popper pretty good although it may be wind resistant and cause problems with distance. Kirk

Good looking fly and nice picture. 7wts are for girls anyway. Kirk

Thanks for sharing Troutguy.

Ben, I was going to say they look like Bonefish Bitters too. Owen, you might want to tie a couple with small lead or solid brass barbell eyes just in case the bead chain doesn't pull the deer hair head and your leader down through the grass. Kirk

Thanks Yankee. Samurai, I fish the drainage canals in Jefferson Parish. Many of the canals have cement bank protection and while they hold a lot of carp, most of those areas are inaccessible. No secrets, the carp are in all of the canals, its a matter of finding a canal with an accessible bank to fish from and parking nearby. The sections along West Napoleon Ave in Kenner/Metairie have some grass banks and out closer to the lake, the big canal along Vintage Dr does to. Also along West Esplanade, they also have a good population of Rio Grande Cichlids, bluegill and bass. Send me a PM or better, email me at [email protected] and if I'm not doing anything when you're in, I'll show you around a little. I can always put together a map for you to show you where to park. Kirk