Aqueous1025

Yeah, congrats to the winners. Thank you smalliehunter, it was fun. I will have to make sure to have something to post to the december one. :-)

I got a new fly tying bench for X-mas yesturday. I like it because it is on wheels. I think it will cover me pretty good for awhile. I got a decent sized sterilite drawer deal from Walmart as well for the closet to store the big stuff and overflow. Check it out and tell me what you think. I posted it in the Bench database. :-)

Thank you guys very much, very helpful stuff. I really like the video series, so nice to see it done, now I will know what I am not doing right by comparison LOL. I found the GSP thread on J Stockards site, what size would be good there was 50 75 100 and 200. One reviewer said the 200 was really thick?? Again thank you very much for the help :-)

Ok, I am going to try spinning again to try and get a hang of it this time around. I have a couple of questions though I see mule deer hair, deer belly hair, and spinning deer hair as choices listed for spinning in J Stockards web site. Is there certain advantages or properties to these three different hairs for spinning?? The other thing I have a question about are the spun flies I saw in the Hatches 2011 issue. How do you control the hair when spinning to come up with all the neat patterns I saw?? I was particularly impressed with the one that looked like a freshwater figure eight pufferfish, I think they called it a frog though. Circles within cirles of colors, sorry it just baffles my mind. I figured I would ask, I am going to order all three types of hair to play with for awhile to see if I can get the hang of it all. I would appreciate any help or comments that would get me going in the right direction. I figure the more knowledge I can get the better this will go :-) Thank you

I am imagining that repositioning the hook is another one of those way to simple things that get overlooked or over thought, LOL. Now I know....

I am so glad to find out that I am not the only one who finds anything sharp the hurtful way LOL. The only reason I don't like the finger method is because I constantly wind up with the hook burried into one of my fingers. Thank you all for the advice. I'll give them all a good go and check the edges of my hackle guards for a smooth edge too. The hackle guards are a good idea if they worked...... I figured I would ask, you never know when you might just be missing the point of something completely. Sometimes I find the easiest of things are just to easy and wind up over thinking them or missing the point completely.

I was using the FAO site when I was first looking at purchasing tools and bought a set of terra hackle guards in my initial purchase, they looked like the ones in the FAO site picture. I have tried to use them a few times and every time I do they cut the thread or thin it like a razor blade dragged across the thread to the point that it breaks with almost no tension. I have been using the finger triangle method since. I was wondering though if anyone else has had this problem? Is there a certain way to use them so this doesn't happen? Is there a way to fix these so they work? I looked around and they all seemed to be made in India leading me to believe that same company or not they are all identical made by the same group of people? Does anyone know if there are better ones out there and where to buy them from? Thank you

Thank you guys so much I will look into making some, I might even try out using my airbrush and paint booth for modelling stuff. That is a really cool idea, I downloaded the article for future reference. I wouldn't have even thought of doing that until I read that article.

I am not quite there yet, but I bought some Guinea to use instead of Jungle Cock as sugested by Skip in his book for the Black Ghost. Jungle Cock is way expensive from the only places I saw it for sale and the immitations were always rated not very good. So I understand that you are supposed to cut it out of a Guinea feather but was wondering if anyone could elaborate on this and maybe show me a couple of pictures as to how one goes about doing this. I would appreciate this very much and any info on obtaining Jungle Cock that is not so expensive or immitations that work really good might be helpful as well. Thank you

Sry I think I need to dig out a better camera.

WOW, those are some nice flies. Mine are not as pretty but I was working on these 14 and 18 Hares Ear Nymphs.

Thank you guys. I will twist the H2O more the next time I tie one of those Icy Hots. I did noticed that the body was rough, but wasnt sure what to do to get a better look. I appreciate the comments they will help a lot. The hook keeper I made from a piece of Rainbow Poplar (and a cow magnet), the picture doesnt show it well but there are some red and purple streaks in it as well. It was a free sample piece I got when I ordered some Ultimate Ambrosia Maple Wood for a tool caddy I am almost finished making. I am kinda fond of woodworking (except all the sanding LOL) and when I bought tools I really liked the Wasatch tools and bought a set and wood base to mount my vise too. The Wasatch guys got me with there pretty birch tool box in the 27 piece set (I am kinda a sucker for that kind of stuff). I wanted to order a wood base Regal vise but he said they dont sale those any more, so I got the wood base and bought the Regal stem, swivel, and SS head from J Stockard. I was pretty much keeping myself busy putting stuff together while I waited to get enough materials to start tying, even made a few additions to the vise. I tied some more caddis till I got them looking exactly like his picture in the book. Im gonna move on to the White and Grizzly Wolly Bugger next. I am really enjoying this again a lot and hope to catch some fish on my flies this time around since I never fished with them last time I was tying.

I finally got in the rest of my fly tying materials the other day, a little bit that will cover everything in the Fly Tying Made Clear and Simple book. I figured that would be a good place to start from and get back into tying. I started tying some caddis last night and decided that I was really impressed with the bead article in the Hatches 2010 magazine. I figured that I would give it a try with some 6/0 beads I got from the local craft store. I also decided to give the mono eyes a try having really liked it when I was looking through the Fly Tiers Benchside Reference. The other picture is the Icy Hot from the Fly Fish Ohio web site I really liked and wanted to try out. Finnally I had been doing some wood working projects and made a nice little hook keeper and finder. My luck is if I dont find it my foot will. They are a bit rough, but I would appreciate any feed back or help on the ones I tied.

Thanks again everybody. I saw the other scissor thread mentioned and went to take a look. Couple of ideas I might have to try and play around a bit again and see how things go. Its so nice to be able to ask and see so many ideas and opinions.

Im really curious about the scissors in hand or not. I have read in more than one place that you can always tell a good or production fly tier by wether or not they put their scissors down. I also keep reading to try to keep your scissors in hand while tying. I understand the concept behind all this and try as I might it is just so cumbersome to me. Wether it was when I was originally taught to tie or somewhere along the lines, having come back to fly tying I find that I hold the bobbin with my index and thumb while cupping my other fingers around the bobbin and adjusting for thread tension with pressure to the spool. I do not see a way of doing that with scissors in hand as well as the bobbin and maybe some material too. I always put my scissors down or use them left handed. Im not a good tier or a production tier. Nor do I assume that this has anything to do with being bad good or proffessional. I am however curious to see how many people do or dont and any tips that might lead me in the other direction.

Thank you all again, very intersting stuff. Having a forum is so nice for the collection of information one can gather from it. :-)

WOW, nice to know stuff there and interesting too. I knew there would be some logic behind it, it justed escaped me. Thank you guys and any other commenters I always find the little trivial type things so interesting, you never know what you will learn.

Getting back into the fly tying hobby again my first fly was Rick's Caddis, the first pattern in the Fly Tying Made Clear and Simple book from Skip. If I remember correctly I think the first time I started tying flies it was a Zug Bug I was taught at my local fly shop.

Ive always wondered, a lot of tying lists call for blue dun hackle. When you buy hackle it is listed as natural dun which looks like a cream. I also always see light medium and dark gray died dun. Where does the blue fit into the picture?? Would be becuase some people see one of the died gray ones as more of a blue gray?? I know that this is probably quite a stupid question , but it is confusing none the less to me and I keep running round and round in my head with this trying to figure it out. Funny though as soon as someone tells me I know I'll start seeing the answer to this question in every book site and etc... LOL

Nice I just got a reply from JStockard that my order was shipped, Yeah!!! I got to give them credit for giving fly tiers the heads up and selling to them first that was really nice of them. Can't wait to get my order in I got the Hatches magazines too!!

Yeah, I got the email from them and placed an order for the intro sadle and intro cape packs. Got my fingers crossed I placed the order a half an hour or less from receipt of the email today.

Thank you for the direction. I am starting to go through all my books to bookmark whatever I can that does not need hackle. Im glad and hoping having tied before will mean a little ease jumping around so much instead of just following along with a book for me. I feel sorry for anyone who might try to tie flies for the first time since most of the instuctional books I have seem to be completely oriented in the direction of dry flies and one that require hackle with few that do not. I never did learn to spin deer hair and now is looking like a good time to learn LOL. After all I can only play with making my vise nice and organizing my new tools for so long ROFL.

HAHA thats to ritch. So I decided to start tying flies to find out I can't cause people are wearing them in their hair LOL. I always new I had bad luck in life but this takes the cake. LOL. Anyone know of some good husbandry books to get??? ROFL

Where did all the hackle go?? I have placed six orders in the last month and all of them have been rejected, denied, or I have been emailed a cancelation due to extended unavailability of product notifications?? I keep trying to place an order with reputable dealers online to no avail. Im afraid of buying from other places because they never tell you the manufacturer, grade, or other details to know if I am gonna be ripped off with some cheap pelt sold at a high grade pelt price. I was going to try to get back into fly tying but so far I seem to only be able to tie about six patterns from the book I was working from since I can not get any hackle, LOL. At least I am collecting a good set of tools and stuff I always wanted, but it would be nice to use them LOL. So far I am thinking I am gonna have to scrounge through my books and look for things to tie that does not include hackle, unfortunately that seems extremely limiting. Does anyone know when the farms usually produce their pelts for the year or how long it will be before the market turns around?? Unfortunately, I have not tied in years but getting hackle feathers I do not ever remember being a problem. I might just be stupid but I just dont seem to have any luck with places I am ordering from, LOL.

Thank you all again As for a rod I only have a cheapy walmart spinner for now, lol, I spent a bit on some good tying tools and vise plus a few materials to get me going again. I plan to buy a nice bait caster and rod as well as a good fly rod and reel when I get the chance. I am thinking you are right about being surprised though, I caught a decent sized bass just messin with a soft bait the other day. I'll definitely have to rethink the idea of buying a really light weight fly rod for around my house. Id really like something shorter than longer because of the walkways and stuff around the house though. Again thank you all for being so helpful