KayTs Flies

Everyone thanks for the information. I appreciate all of your input. Peterjay, it is a keel hook. number two mustad. The person who asked for a squid pattern wanted it, how do i put it lightly, Heavy Duty. To say the least I think its a sturdy fly. Thanks again for all your input. I dont have much to go on as far as saltwater baits go so im stuck googling a pic and trying my best to recreate it on the vise. Good luck everyone and Tight Lines.

Thanks for the advice guys. I appreciate your words of encouragement. I will try to track some of the "old salts" down and see what they think. I personally have only been saltwater fishing 2-3 times but I received a request for something to use on the flats and I accepted the challenge. The finished product is shown. Needless to say, the person who issued the challenge was very impressed. I was just wondering what you all thought. Thanks again and Tight Lines.

Personally, I like using craft fur after I got the hange of it. Ive made a few simple "streamers" in various patterns. What do you all think?

Ive been playing around on the vice again when I have the time. I got a request for some saltwater flies that I had no idea where to go with. Ive never fished saltwater or anything like that so Im going off of research from books magazines and the internet. If anyone has any ideas on improvement please let me know. Thank you for your input. Brian

First off I want to thank everyone for all their advice. I greatly appreciate it. Second, My question to you all is, would an airbrush setup be a useful tool. Im not looking at the cost due to the fact that over time i will get my use out of it and my wife will be needing one anyway for her taxidermy mounts. In respect to fly tying would it be a useful tool to look into getting? I used one when i was younger for models and things of that sort but those days are long since gone. Thank you for all your help......again. Brian

Those look great! You have an excellent command of colors. Thanks brandon. Those are my trial runs to see what needs improvement. I usually do a couple then post them on here for the experts to review and give me feedback on. That way i dont screw up a dozen or so by skipping a simple step that could be the difference between a good fly, and a great fly.

Frank, thanks for the tip. I do have a few hacksaw blades laying around from the wifes taxidermy stuff. Im pretty sure she wont miss one. As far as sprays, i havent had much luck with them. The only thing I have to paint through is an old piece of screen that was salvaged from my front door after the dog wanted a new window to look through. Do you think that will work? Am i holding the screen right to the popper or what. How would you do it? I can find some other material im sure but im just getting started with poppers and dont wanna give up on them right after i started. Thanks again for the tips. I appreciate all the info you all have given thus far.

for additional inspiration on colors just GOOGLE "bass lures" thanks for the tip flytire. I appreciate it. Ive noticed that on here you give awesome advice and constructive critizism. I thank you for sharing your knowledge with everyone.

stippled popper, i understand what youre talking about and with the wapsi bodies i have no problem with that because they have a grove on the bottom that slides right over top of the kink. as for the cork bodies, i tried using kinked hooks and ended up ruining a couple of corks tring to get them onto the hook kink. i dont have the tools available to make that groove evenly on a cork body then fill it in later. as for the hook riding as low as possible, thank you. i actually tried a few hook positions out because i have a small fishtank i test how the flies sit in the water. Youre absolutely right sir. the lower the hook, the better it sits and pops. this pic was one of the first ones ive done and since have adjusted the hooks, so the body rides higher in the water. thank you for your advice. i appreciate it.

Poppers is looking good. I make from foam and from cork. I have customer that demand cork and I like them too. I have found that the first thing you do to cork is to fill in any voids you have with a good putty. I use a latex base wood filler from Wallmart. You then seal the cork. I use a sealer for acrylic paints also from WMart. Two coats of sealer and then two coats of white acrylic paint for your base coat. Then your color coats and eyes and decorations. I keep small spray cans of spray to put on some detail...like spraying a little color through a piece of screen wire or table napkin...then two coats of epoxy on the turner.....I like em done this way. Tee Nootsie, Thanks for the advice. I didnt fill in any of the imperfections in the cork on this first one. Im glad i only made one. I will certainly follow your plan because im pretty sure it will come out looking better. You also solved the wapsi body issue i was thinking about. After i sealed in the hook on the wapsi it still had a void in the bottom. I can just fill that in to make the body appear to be seamless. Thanks again for all your advice. I appreciate it. Glad that you make the fly. Here is a bad picture of what mine look like following the pattern I told to you. The picture is not one that is good T has camera problems...but you can see what I do. thats not a bad picture. i can see what youre talking about so its a good picture. Those look awesome. Mine a bigger than that though. Is there a reason yours are small or is it just that size of the pattern youre using? Thanks again for all your help

Poppers is looking good. I make from foam and from cork. I have customer that demand cork and I like them too. I have found that the first thing you do to cork is to fill in any voids you have with a good putty. I use a latex base wood filler from Wallmart. You then seal the cork. I use a sealer for acrylic paints also from WMart. Two coats of sealer and then two coats of white acrylic paint for your base coat. Then your color coats and eyes and decorations. I keep small spray cans of spray to put on some detail...like spraying a little color through a piece of screen wire or table napkin...then two coats of epoxy on the turner.....I like em done this way. Tee Nootsie, Thanks for the advice. I didnt fill in any of the imperfections in the cork on this first one. Im glad i only made one. I will certainly follow your plan because im pretty sure it will come out looking better. You also solved the wapsi body issue i was thinking about. After i sealed in the hook on the wapsi it still had a void in the bottom. I can just fill that in to make the body appear to be seamless. Thanks again for all your advice. I appreciate it.

I started doing poppers a few weeks ago and got tired of the solid colors quickly so i switched up and started going wild with it. Anyone have any suggestions on how to make em better. One is just a plane ol cork popper and the other is wapsi pencil style. I wanted to see the difference between cork and foam as far as painting goes. all suggestions and critiques are welcome. Mind you they arent finished yet, but i will take suggestions on that too.

Im doing some traditional popper heads from cork. I have the wapsi foam ones but eventually i will test the difference between the two on the water. Anyways, im having a thoughtblock on a tail. can anyone give me any ideas? how would you finish this one out. any info would be great and feel free to comment on the head itself, any ways to make it better? thanks to all.

thanks flytire. i appreciate the info. Ive seen alot of your post and consider you to be a wealth of knowledge. im new to this stuff so i have to rely on what i know and what i learn from pro's like yourself. thanks again

Wife just gave me a whole heap of seed beads in different colours. I'll have to take a look at using some for this. seed beads? can ya post a pic of some. i may call em something different but im interested none the less. Thanks Piker20

Im new to the fly tying world but am keeping my eyes and ears open to new things and i wanted to pass this along to everyone. I dont know how "new" this is but i had one of those thoughts that i acted on. Some people debate on the need for eyes on crayfish or shrinp patterns. For me i think its a must, to try and get to the real thing as possible considering thats what we are trying to mimic. So here goes. I took very fine bristles of a synthetic brush i bought for a dollar at the local store. Cut some of the bristles off of it. Dipped individual bristles in shhan (sally hansen, hard as nails), to form a tear drop at the end of each one. I then let them hang for about 15-20 minutes to let them harden and then dipped them in red acrylic model paint. again letting them dry for about 15-20 minutes. I havent used these in a pattern yet but im going to soon. Ive seen the same type of thing in fly shops for outrageous amounts so i tried my own. If anyone has any input please feel free to reply. Im just passing some info along cause it doesnt do the rest of the world of fishing any good if i keep it to myself. Tight lines everyone.

riffleriversteelheadslayer, are you saying it needs to go from tight at the bend to somewhat of a thicker body at the head (taper style)? if that be the case would more underwraping provide that taper or is there a trick thats so easy i can see it? thank you very much for your advice. right it is supose to go from real thin at the hook bend (tail) to larger at the peacock part (thorax) this is done with the thread you are tying with by tappering the wraps got it. thanks brother. i appreciate it.

riffleriversteelheadslayer, are you saying it needs to go from tight at the bend to somewhat of a thicker body at the head (taper style)? if that be the case would more underwraping provide that taper or is there a trick thats so easy i can see it? thank you very much for your advice.

smalltownfisherman, thank you very much. i was hoping i could get some corrective criticism. lol. i find it hard sometimes when dealing with dubbing to keep all the little fibers where they are suppose to be so i sometimes tend to over wrap a bug like that. This is one of my favorite sunfish patterns that work pretty good for me so it gets used and abused on a regular summer basis. my intent was the more wraps = durability = fish longer. apparently my calculations are incorrect though. i was looking at one of my books i picked up about jackson hole wyoming and the writer commented that flies should be fast to tie, easy to tie and most of all durable. is there any suggestions you have for less wraps but retaining durability or should i do a trial and error test to try and find the happy medium between abuse and wraps? thanks again for all your help and suggestions. i appreciate it.

Looking good. I especially like the brown nymphs with the rubber legs. What did you use for the body material so the legs come out of the body like that? bhansensfd, that is regular old 2mm craft foam. on theses i used the sticky backing but it works as well if you use regular. the silly legs were pulled through the body with a needle on one of the last steps of tying. i threaded them through with a larger size needle in a * pattern then cut them to the same lenght a lil sealant on the underside to keep em from moving and it was done. im glad you like em. according to my wife the bream/perch/sunfish/slabs depending on where youre from and what you call em, love the lil flies. thanks again.

hello everyone. im new to the fly fishing world but not to fishing. i just started tying about a month ago and havent turned out anything impressive. i would like the professionals/subject matter experts opinions on some of my ties so far. am i on the right track or did i get derailed from the get go? just from the few days ive been cruizing this sight, ive learned so much and am eager to try new things and listen to what people have to tell me. so be honest, even if brutal is honest. thanks in advance to everyone who takes the time to educate me in the ways of the vice. much appreciated. brian

granted im new to fly tying and even more new to fly fishing but respect is respect. whether youre going after trout on a hatch, cats at night, bass in the morning. rudeness is everywhere. ive been fishing and hunting far as long as i can remember, and i cant count how many times ive taken a brown bag lunch to the shoreline with me as a kid and after the bag was empty, filled it back up with my own trash and whatever else i could find that was already laying around the riverside. i do it even more in my boat. ive used my net to catch just as many floating bottles as i have fish. as for respecting others, i find it a good practice to give them their space. if that means i have to walk a mile and not fish where i wanted to and have to pull ticks and stuff off myself then so be it. sometimes the fishing is alot better in a secluded area. due to the army ive been all over the world and ive tried to fish everywhere ive been and lets just put it this way, its not just happening in the good ole u s of a. its worldwide. the only thing i can do is try and be respectful, do my part in helping mother nature and maybe, just maybe learn something new in the process. by the by thank you all for having me, this forum is amazing.

Thanks rick. im usually my worst critic when things come off of the vice so its nice to hear that someone likes what im doing. Im all about constructive criticism because that the way people learn and grow. its just that i dont have much input for people because im just starting out like alot of them are so i keep my mouth shut and my eyes and ears open and listen to the subject matter experts. thanks again i appreciate it.

im glad you brought it up because i was thinking it. i wasnt sure just starting out if i should stick strictly with name brand supplies or try my own. if the picture comes up its my version of a rough stonefly that was tied with common materials all found at wally world. between the craft section the fishing section and believe it or not the earing section, i was surprised what kinda stuff flowed out of my hands and into the vice. this pattern was one of my first attempts and it is crued, but it does produce good panfish and small bass to the point of the fly being destroyed. point here is ive found like alot of others that you cant let big name brand stores limit your imagination. good luck and thank you to everyone on here for your advice. im learning alot.

thank you to all that replied to this thread. after reading your responses and doing a lil homework i finally figured it out. i was getting hung up on the word "resin" apparently there are some recipes out there that call for a "resin" sealant but a clear coat of hard head from jsflyfishing did the trick. i havent tested this theory yet, but im gonna need thin resins for an undercoat and thick resins to get full "body" to heads and things of that nature when making minow flies and stuff like that. again thank you for all your words of wisdom. i appreciate it.