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Fly Tying

Philly

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Everything posted by Philly

  1. My best wild brookie about 14 inches, not caught on fly rod though. Caught it many years ago in a brook that ran between two mountains where my sister had her first Vermont house in Plymouth Union. I'm not sure if anybody had ever fished the area before. An old road ran below her house and I followed it up the mountain till I hit the brook where it was a couple of feet wide and a few inches deep. Being young and stupid at the time, I decided to wade down the brook to the bottom. When I reached the bottom I hit a small gorge about 20 feet deep with a a water fall. After making my way carefully around the gorge and down to the brook. I fished the pool below the falls and caught the brookie. I released it. Of course, then I realized I had to walk a mile or so back up the mountain to my sister's place. The best I did with a fly rod in that same pool was 9" Most of the brook I've caught were in the 5 to 8 inch range, though I've caught a bunch in the 3-4 inch range.
  2. Second batch. "Traditional Popper" I don't fish them that much. Figured I'd bring some with me. Small Crease flies. Poppers Sneaky Pete style
  3. Finishing up my flies for Canada. Some Zonkers. Perch are one of the main prey fish on the lake. Juvenile smallmouth and rock bass are also on the menu. And of course, minnows
  4. They're in the lake I'm going to. They have a plastic mount in the lodge of a 7 1/2 pound one that was caught when a crew was filming a TV show on the lake. I'm still looking for that spot.
  5. Good fish. They're not rare around here. The state stocks them in the lakes around here. They're even in the Schuylkill River which flows through Philly before it empties into the Delaware.
  6. We definitely, don't have them like that around here. I actually know where I could catch 5 to 6 lb ones. I've been going to a lodge in NE Ontario since 1986 on Lady Evelyn Lake. I knew there were lakes on the mainland that had rainbows. Made an aborted attempt to fish one the first year, long story there. I was watching the New Flyfisher on WFN and the host announced that they were at Red Pine Lodge(not the lodge I go to) on Lady Evelyn Lake and in this episode he would be fishing for pike and brook trout. They had to hike into the lake, I couldn't do that these days. If I had only known 20 some years ago. He caught several brookies in the 4 to 5 lb range and one that was 6 lbs. I'll just have to settle for a 5 lb smallie.
  7. I was taught to wrap clockwise, so that's how I tie in materials. Like Mike, sometimes I find myself wrapping counter-clockwise when tying in dumbbell eyes. I'll just make a counter-clockwise wrap back over the eyes and change directions and continue to wrap clockwise.
  8. I tried tying legs on my nymphs when I first started tying but just ended up getting frustrated. I started tying soft hackle nymphs. I use mainly starling for the hackle. I did tie some CDC nymphs. This is one I tied 22 years ago. I did catch a few trout with it. Since I came from a spin fishing background, where I fished a lot of top waters, I moved toward dry fly fishing, and that's pretty much what I do these days when I fish for trout these days.
  9. I don't tie Perdigon flies, but I do want to have a clean body color when I'm tying my soft hackles. I've used white thread, but it usually takes a couple layers to keep the hook shank from showing through. I've taken to using metallic threads silver, gold and pearl as the base thread before wrapping the floss. They'll highlight the colors and add a bit of sparkle/flash to the fly. I coat the bodies with thin UV resin to increase their durability. Color preservative can be thinned. It will dry quicker, and rather than just applying it to the head area, apply it to the whole body. As already mentioned use a brighter color red. Super glue. I use that for my heads on smaller flies. The only problem I've had with it is when I've used yellow thread. For some reason, and I not sure why it bleeds red. It might be the brand I'm using though I've used a couple of different brands. It's an interesting effect, and can be useful. As far as jigs and Clousers, especially if I'm doing two or three color ones, I've been using clear polyester thread when I tie them. It's not as bulky as regular tying thread, and lets the material color show through.
  10. Just finished up some of my flies for my Canadian trip. These are some crayfish patterns. The smallmouth were all over them last year when I was able to do some fly fishing. This is what one looks like in a plastic container of water. These some top waters, basically my two go to panfish flies sized up for bass. I can also fish them subsurface off either an intermediate or sinking line.
  11. Neither. They're made out of foam, either soft foam popper bodies or foam cylinders trimmed and sanded to shape. Lips are made from plastic cut and shaped. Colors are permanent markers. Can't remember what I coated them with, maybe Flexement or Liquid Fusion. They're based on lures I have in my dark side tackle box. Mine are basically floater/divers. I never tried to do a suspending lure imitation. If I wanted to have them suspend, I fished them off an intermediate or sinking line. They would dive when stripped and float back up and suspend depending on the length of the leader. I fish my crease flies like that along with some of my spider patterns.
  12. I've played around with making flures/lures that can be cast with a fly rod. These are some of the divers that I made up. I fished them for a while and caught fish on them, mainly bass and panfish. I would not fish them in the local FFO areas. They've been gathering dust for a few years now. I figured if I was going to imitate lures get them as close as possible.
  13. I was going to suggest a heavier tippet, but niveker beat me to it. I have that problem sometimes with my foam flies, I use 3 mm foam for the body. A quick strip, as already mentioned, will usually right it. I can't tell what type of hook you're using. One solution might be to use a heavier hook. Rather than a dry fly hook, use a streamer hook. Another solution, might be to lower the wings. Rather than tying the wings on top of the foam, tie them to the shank. Having a hook ride up right isn't a bad thing if you're trying to go weedless, or fishing for bass, but not so much for bluegills. I have one frog pattern that rides hook point up, but I use an Ahrex Predator Swim Bait hook, basically a worm hook, and the bulk of hook sits below the foam and acts as keel and off-sets the weight of the foam. It's a bass fly, size 2, though I've had bluegill try to grab it.
  14. I've had that problem. My initial venture into using UV resin was with CCG UV resin. I brought the flashlight after several years it died on me. I 've tried to revive it but no luck so far. I have three other lights, one is a Solarez, the others I picked up at Harbor Freight and Lowe's plus a plug in lamp I picked up at Michael's. The flashlights run on AAA batteries. I have to change them fairly regularly, but I buy the AAA batteries bulk at BJ's.
  15. When I tie traditional soft hackles for trout, I use floss. Basically, I wrap the shank with white thread then the floss over it. Since the floss becomes translucent when wet or if coated with a thin UV resin(for durability) I get the true color of the floss. If I'm feeling non-traditional I may wrap the shank in pearl thread, silver or gold and to add a bit of sparkle to the fly. If I'm tying larger soft hackles for panfish or bass(size 6 and size 4) I have a lot of other options for the body. Some bass soft hackles
  16. Ya'll are making me hungry. The place where I buy my fish makes a decent New England Clam Chowder, so do a couple of restaurants down da shore. Getting a good clam chowder down here is like trying to get a good Philly Cheese Steak in Boston. I prefer the New England style over the Manhattan style and never heard of Rhode Island Clam chowder but it sounds interesting. When I was a kid the local VFW always ran a New England style bake a couple of times each summer, I remember them fondly. Closest thing we have around here would be a crab boil. Buy or catch a bushel of crabs, toss them in a large pot of about 3 inches of boiling water season heavily with Old Bay Seasoning(hot) and flakes of crushed red pepper cook till they turn red. Dump them on a sheet of brown paper or newspaper hand out nut crackers and bibs, and a platter of fresh steamed corn and melted butter and go to town.
  17. It's pretty much the same in PA, plus alcohol is prohibited on land and water at all state parks and at most U.S. Army Corps of Engineer projects. I know when I first started going to the lodge in NE Ontario you would see guys going out for the day with a couple of six packs. Maybe they weren't enforcing the law back then, but now don't want to be caught with an open can of beer or any empty cans in the boat.
  18. Nice looking fly, Silver. I think we have Hexes here SE PA, at least I haven't heard of them. The only time I've run into them have been on my trips to NE Ontario and it's always been the case of you should have been here last week. Apparently, the smallmouth and walleye went nuts on them and would take small top water bugs or poppers after dark. I did run into a hatch off of Lake Nippissing the night before I arrived at the lodge when I was staying at a motel near the lake. It was impressive. The closest thing we have in size is the Eastern Green Drake which is normally tied on a size 8 2xl hook. I think the pattern would work well for the Green Drake hatch.
  19. I brought a couple of pens like that a few years ago when they were a "hot" commodity in stores like Lowe's. They weren't terribly expensive and if I remember correctly, the light that was part of the pen actually did cure the UV resin or goo that was in the pen. I used them for heads and other area that were too small for a brush. After they ran out of resin, I discovered that the reservoirs in two of the pens could be refilled. I cleaned them out, and refilled them one with a thin UV resin and the other with a thicker one. The lights are long dead so I just use one of my flashlights to cure the resin. Still use them for the same purpose of the original one, though the reservoirs can be a PITA to fill at times.
  20. Looking at it I think it may be an actual jig, rather than a jig hook with a black bead on it. Hook either size 12 or 10. Weight could be 1/32 oz but jigs are made down to 1/100 oz.
  21. Looks good and it should work. It may change the action a bit but since the break isn't in the tip area, you should still have a 5 wgt. I just did something similar with a South Bend Flounder rod a woman gave me at work years ago when her son gave up fishing. When I started taking the guides off I discovered it was painted(white) so I had to carefully sand the paint off. When I took the grips and reel seat off I found the blank was surround by an aluminum "pipe" which I wasn't going to be able to cut off. So l cut the rod off at that point. Rummaged around some rod blanks a friend had found in the trash. Turned out they were blanks from Dale Clemens' old store. Found a piece that fit tightly into the rod piece and epoxied the new butt end into it. Added a cork foregrip, Pac Bay reel seat and a cork butt grip. I now have a decent medium action spinning rod which I used a couple of times when I was up in the Poconos two weeks ago.
  22. What brand: I built it 15 or so years ago. I think on a Lamiglass blank. Might be a Loomis Rod length: 9' The weight of the fly rod: 6 weight Action: slow to moderate Is it a Fly Rod Combo? If you mean can I use it as a spinning rod, yes. I build my fly rods with single foot running guides(spinning). If I plug in a a 4 or 6 inch fighting butt, I have a passable spinning rod for emergency use. What do you fish with it? Usually a WFF line, but I also have an intermediate and a sinking line for my reel which is an Orvis Battenkill IV What did it cost you? At the time $125 I use it for just about everything. I've used it for trout. I use it for panfish(Bluegill, Pumpkinseed, Redbreast, Green Sunfish)Rock Bass, Crappie, Smallmouth and Largemouth, Chain Pickerel, Pike and light saltwater fly fishing.
  23. Here's a picture of my original box of small mop fly nymphs tied back in 2018 on size 12 hooks. The green one has replaced the Green Weenie in my fly box. Green/Chartreuse has been the best producer. It's a pretty good imitation of a Green Rock worm which are pretty common here in the NE. It will also pass for a drowned/sunken green inch worm. Red/Pink was second. My best guess is they represent small aquatic worms Not far behind were Olive, Black, Tan(not in the picture) and Grey. I figure the olive, black and tan are good generic nymph imitations. The grey, small Crane Fly larvae. The orange and yellow didn't produce. As far as the shiny pieces Rich mentions. I got some, I think from him, in a mop piece swap we had a couple of years ago. No luck with the silver at all. No luck with the yellow or blue sub-surface. However, they were deadly as floating mop flies for panfish and bass. Yellow, Blue and Chartreuse are my top floating mop fly producers for panfish and bass. As far as "Green" weenie flies, green/chartreuse as number one. Red, pink, olive, black and gray, in no particular order.
  24. That looks like it's going to need more than painting.
  25. Philly

    Lock down

    It could be arthritis. My hands are definitely arthritic. Recently, I was diagnosed with, what the doctor I've been seeing for therapy for possible carpal tunnel syndrome, called "trigger finger" on my right hand. Fortunately, it's not my real trigger finger. The finger bends and locks..and I have to push it back into position. It's a bit painful but bearable and annoying. There is what appears to be a callous on the palm of my hand below the finger caused by the muscle contraction. He did give me an exercise to do that stretches the muscles which has helped. The other options, which I'm not even considering at this point, are an injection or surgery. Try the potassium and see if that works, and check if and see if you have what looks like a callus on the palms of your hands. If the potassium doesn't work, get it checked out.
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