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Fly Tying

ratfacedmcdougal

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About ratfacedmcdougal

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    Advanced Member
  • Birthday 06/18/1966

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  • Location
    woodland mills, TN
  1. I used to tie commercially for the hook and hackle company located in pennsylvania and I order a lot through them though certainly not exclusively.He's been around forever (at least 15 years) Here is their site...www.hookhack.com/ Their prices are awesome, the selection of materials is great and the owner is really good about getting the material you need when you tell him what your trying to accomplish with it. I use Stockard's, Cabelas, Mcfeathers and others as well. But you often have to shop around...especially when it comes to capes which often sell out during the trout season or you need a specific material one shop carries but another doesn't. The key to online shopping is to get to know the owner of the place, make sure he's knowledgeble and honest because you have to depened on their eyes and knowledge in selecting quality materials or materials suited to what you want to try to accomplish.
  2. Chase Creek apparently added his comment while I was writing mine. He gives great advice. And he's right, when you get right down to it.... all a vice does is hold the hook so you can work on the fly with both hands. The key is some caq handle greater size ranges of hooks, some are easier to open/close/adjust the jaws, not important if your tying a few flies but very important if your tying dozens. And some hold a hook more firmly than others. Use several, then pick one that your comfortable with.
  3. I have had several vices, what i'm using now is the HMH standard and the Regal. The regal is great, squeeze the lever which opens the jaws and insert hook.... no adjustments to make because the regal jaws always remain closed and under tension. The downside (and what happened to me) was I was tying a small #18 fly and didnt seat the hook well in the jaws. The jaws "squeezed" the hook out which pinged across the room which caused the jaws to snap shut and chip a piece off the jaw... still useable but not what it was. I just got the HMH and havent had a chance to use it a lot but like what it's done so far. And yeah, haven't tried one, but i've heard a lot of good things about the Dynaking.
  4. Fish, like lizards, alligators, snakes, and frogs have simple brains lacking in frontal lobal area. As well being cold blooded their brains don't function as quickly as mammals in processing actions.Their brains lean more toward the simpler stem and base which doesn't allow for a lot of planning ability. It's not the strokeing but brain position which causes the trance. When a cold blooded animal has it's brain set at an upward angle, such as an alligator or lizard upside down or in the case of a fish, laying at the angle most banks have it causes the same effect as the wrestleing hold called the sleeper causes on humans. The brain is overloaded with blood createing the trance like sleeping state. Basic motor skills eventually kick in (usually) which prevents death of the animal from asphyxiation of the brain. Does this load of bull sound pretty good? I tried to make it sound as official as possible :hyst:
  5. Wow, there is someone out there that really exsists that would do something like that? I thought they had imprisoned all of those in the states of Alabama, Georgia and in the more mountainous regions here in Tennessee. That is definitely not a man who thinks a plan through is it? It's probably a good thing for him that breathing is involuntary and not requireing concious thought :hyst: He's lucky he wasn't disembowled.
  6. Hi Jacar, Glad you joined and i'm sure any here will be glad to help. We have some really great people here and many very knowledgeble ones. Some of them are world class tyers so any questions you have about tying i'm sure can be answered by someone.Welcome aboard and looking forward to hearing more from you. Carl
  7. That looks a lot better than my first fly Logy!! My first fly was so ugly when I threw it out it came back and hit me in the eye... the &^%%$ fish had thrown it back! Its common for beginners to have tail feather rotate at first. Try what's called a "loose loop". Holding the feathers on top of the hook shank with your one hand bring your first loop of thread around but dont pull it tight, instead keep it loose and lightly pull it straight down instead of trying to wrap, this will secure the feathers on top. The second wind you can wind as normal.
  8. Everyone gave good advice, as already mentioned the first thing is to figure out what type of flies you want to tie. Over the years i've managed to own a zoo of animals .... everything from colobus monkey fur to taragopan and ocelot plus hundreds of others. Stuff gained over the years to tie some off the wall fly or the other. Pick any material you can think of and at some point some fool has tried to tie a fly with it. I would suggest a good pattern book to start, it will give you ideas as well as teach tying techniques,then pick about a dozen good flies you know you'll definitely use and want and get the materials for those to start. Most likely, you pick any one dozen and there are dozens of others that can be tied using those same materials. And once you learn some basic techniques don't think you cant venture out on your own and invent your own flies. Most of my fun comes from whipping something up in my imagination then tying it and catching fish with it. Sometimes fish are very selective and you have to match the hatch exactly....then again i've caught them on orange peels and beer tabs :hyst: Also, your local shop may offer a deal on a "material kit", it never hurts to ask, let them know if they help you now by giving a deal on a starter batch you'll be a long time returning customer. And often you can purchase scrap materials like from taxidermists or furriers, hunters are also a good source for cheap stuff. Ahem.... I bet youll even find yourself looking twice at fresh road kill as a possibility. I have known some un named people to actually back up for a second look followed by a quick look around a fast opening car door and a quick swoop followed by a huge smile.... not that I would ever do such a thing... i'm just saying..... You will be eyeing the pet cat or dog, your neighbors animals won't be safe nor will relatives hair clippings :hyst: Stick around long enough..... you'll find yourself in the sewing section of walmart looking over the latest yarns and beads with the other old women, you'll be haunting the silks and rayons, floss and sewing threads in your bid to find new stuff.. .. welcome to the :devil: of fly tying
  9. In a few weeks? I haven't fished Colorado but i've sold flies there. I would say at that time of year most of the hatches are gone but hoppers, beetles, and ants should be good.
  10. Needlenose pliers and patience...but it's worth it
  11. Hi Pat, Great, the next time there is an opening could you or someone give me a few days notice and an address to send the flies to?
  12. AWESOME CATCH!! And I mean for ANYONE! I think you've got a life long fishing buddy there :headbang: :headbang: I would be grinning from ear to ear too if I were her
  13. Hi everyone, If there's still an opening I would like to join in on this if it's ok. I do have a suggestion, what if everyone involved mentioned what state they were in or what type of fishing they did? That way everyone would have an idea of what could be used and needed? As for me, i'm from Tennessee, but the west side of the state.. no trout. But I fish with everything for everything... as long as my rod's bending im content
  14. Yeah, and after all of that your flies look like poo.... you bait fisherman :j_k: :hyst:
  15. If you have a pattern book (or access to one) you can pick out the flies you want to tie in there and it will give you the hook types and sizes most commonly used for that fly. This might help you make a choice also. But as Spook said the Mustad site has tons of info on hook types and what they are used for.
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