switch10

Awesome photo! Looks like a perfect match to me, great job!

I've been experimenting with different body materials lately. Here's a pheasant tail inspired nymph with gills on the sides of the segmented body.

There ya go bud, at least you're right about something!! You could spray WD-40 down your throat for all I care, hell it'd probably do you some good! But seriously, just because you have an opinion doesn't mean you have to constantly voice it. Especially since you have never tried using WD-40 on a fly yourself so you cannot vouch for it's use to waterproof a fly. That's what this topic is about after all.... Waterproofing flies.

Here's my take on Charlie Craven's baby boy hopper tied on an oversized (#12) TMC 2499SPBL hook. Step by step tying instructions can be found here: http://mytroutfly.blogspot.com/2013/07/baby-boy-hopper.html

That is an awesome pack, and truly customizable! Thanks for sharing! Not going to lie, after seeing this I have been looking at leatherworking kits myself....

The straight ones are bucktail, and the curly ones are calf tail.

What about fisheries that are miles from the nearest road or parking lot? It's not a good idea to use wd-40 no matter the situation. Go buy some floatant.

Wow, I completely disagree. That's like throwing trash out of your window because in the end it equates to a "fart in a cat-5 hurricane". Why wouldn't you do everything you can to help keep the environment clean? Why would you defend something that hurts the environment, especially when there are better products to use to help keep your flies floating?

Been fishing late afternoon lately because of the heat. It's not too often we get to fish with big attractor dry flies around here, but that's what they want right now. Humpy's, Coachman's, etc. Here's an especially photogenic Royal Wulff variation.

If there is any more confusion as to what I am talking about, here is a video showing the use of half hitches to control your thread while wrapping materials via rotating the vise. He uses them many times, and even mentions that using the half hitch is standard procedure.

Thank you!

so how about sharing with the fly tying community how you finally solved the problem so we ALL can be supposedly talking about the same thing I've mentioned the solution that I finally came to in several of my posts. Sorry you missed it... Piker20 and phg were on the same page. Go back and read their solutions, they worked perfectly for me. I completely agree. This is getting ridiculous. People are shooting down ideas that they obviously don't even understand! I'm always open to new ideas, and constantly evolving different methods to do things easier/faster/cheaper. That's what keeps fly tying interesting for me. I thought this would be an interesting topic for people to talk about, I guess it wasn't. We can continue our in depth conversations about what clothes to wear while fishing, and what flies are the best I guess.. It seems like everyone is comfortable with those topics.

Very beautiful rod, thanks for sharing! That'll make an awesome backpacking rod! Is there much of a difference in rod flex between the snake and the single foot guides? I would imagine double the thread wraps has some effect, but is it noticeable?

i tie for myself and speed tying is not a factor. i guess you must be looking to tie commercially there are some good rotary tying dvd's on the market that might make a good investment in your tying library https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1G1TSNACENUS400&q=rotary+fly+tying+dvd&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=z_zSUYD4Mff94APp54GgBA&biw=1301&bih=638&sei=-fzSUb6TO9CP0QGTnoCoCQ I don't tie commercially, I just try to spend my time as efficiently as possible. I have a half hitch tool, but picking up an extra tool to tie a simple knot, especially when that knot is not needed at all, is a waste of time. I can definitely tell you that unnecessarily starting over from scratch is a massive waste of time, and materials. My way works fine for me, thank you. Thanks for recommending the book by the way, I've really enjoyed it so far. Most of the methods he talks about in the book I am either using already, or I have tried in the past, but I did pick up a few new things to try (I really like his idea of color coding flies with different amounts of weight tied in). He has some pretty unique fly patterns in the book as well. Sigh.. I guess I'll say it one last time, I am not concerned with bulk from half hitches. Jim Cramer is. Send him an email or something if it bothers you. I have my own reasons for wanting to replace the half hitch in this ONE application (which I've done). I agree with everything flytire has said too! It's especially easy to agree since we were talking about two different things the whole time! Anyway, problem solved.

Double tungsten bead depth charge birds nest. I started using these last year this time when the water was high, because they do such a great job getting down. I tied some up this morning, and took them to the river this afternoon and killed it! I almost forgot that the fish love em too! I wrote up step by step instructions for this fly on my blog found here: http://mytroutfly.blogspot.com/2013/07/depth-charge-birds-nest.html

I really like the look of extended bodies tied with deer hair. Very nice work!

When I started tying flies as a kid, I didn't use a bobbin either, for years. But again, that's irrelevant. This topic is meant to be a brainstorming session for anyone looking to find a replacement for a half hitch when wrapping materials with a true rotary vise only!!! I am not looking to replace the half hitch in any other application, nor am I concerned about bulk from using half hitches alone, as I've mentioned many times. I am not looking to improve the quality of my flies by switching methods, I am trying to improve my speed, which I did. When there is room for improvement in any aspect, I'll try what ever methods I can think of to improve. That's part of the fun for me. OK, back on topic. Here are a few other advantages to skipping the half hitch I've found: 1. When tying a half hitch with my finger, often times the rough parts of my finger shred the thread. 2. If you tie down a material, and then wrap forward and tie a half hitch in preparation for wrapping the material, and that material breaks, you can either re-tie in the material over the top of the tied down broken material (which on some patterns would build bulk to the point where I would be worried about it), or spend time trying to pick out half hitch.

Isn't the internet great?

Um, what? WD-40 is most definitely not fish oil. Looks like you could benefit from a little research yourself! Taken straight from the official WD40 website: What a Fish story! Myth: WD-40 contains fish oil. Fact: Consumers have told us over the years that they have caught some of the biggest fish ever after protecting their fish hooks and lures withWD-40. We believe this legend came from folks assuming that the product must contain fish oil since it appears to attract fish. Sorry Charlie®, it just ain’t so. WD-40 Company has taken steps to respect and conserve the environment, and encourages its users to do the same. While WD-40can be used to help protect fishing equipment from rust and corrosion, WD-40 Company does not recommend using WD-40 to attract fish.

Very nice looking fly hairwing! What a coincidence, today I tied the only "wet fly" pattern that I fish with as well. Western coachman.

Just wrap it the normal way. In my opinion a dubbing loop on a fly like that is overkill. If you want to use the dubbing loop anyway though, just strip the fibers from the stem of the CDC. It also helps to put a little wax on the thread that's making up your dubbing loop.

I was tying western coachmans because you need to wrap two different materials to make the body. I was there for able to test 2 different half hitch replacement methods per fly to see which ones worked and which ones didn't. I'm definitely not worried about bulk, this was just an experiment that I decided to use the western coachman for. I could have been tying size #20 pheasant tail nymphs, or size #22 zebra midges just the same, I just happen to need coachmans. I am looking for replacements for the half hitch when wrapping materials with a true rotary vise only. Of course there are still applications where a half hitch is the best option, i.e. Spinning deer hair, tinsel body on a streamer, etc. Pretty sure I've figured it out now though, as piker20 says above you can lay the thread over the hook eye and it stays good enough. I think for upturned eyes I will try putting the thread in the opening between the hook eye and hook shank.

I agree entirely. One half hitch is basically just one full extra thread wrap. It doesn't add much bulk at all. I can tie a one handed half hitch in less than a few seconds, so time isn't much of a factor for me either. What I do really dislike about half hitches is when I'm in a hurry I'll sometimes pull the wire ribbing out, or break one of my pieces of peacock herl. I could just double back and re tie in my material, but that does add bulk. In situations like this, I usually just grab my Bodkin and try to untie the half hitch to start over. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it takes too much time. I have been experimenting this morning with a few different ideas. I tied up some western coachman's which require 2 materials (peacock herl and a wire rib) be wrapped via the rotary function of my vise. I tried using a very small piece of tape. First I wrapped my thread all the way to the eye of the hook, pulled the thread over the top of the eye, and put my bobbin in the bobbin holder. Then I would tape right over the eye of the hook, holding the thread in place. This method as expected, is way more trouble than its worth. I did however stumble across a very simple method that so far has worked perfectly! Instead of using tape I wrap to the eye just like before only this time I lock the thread in place with the actual eye of the hook. I slip it in the small opening of the hook eye and it stayed perfectly in place while I wrapped my materials. When you need to tie off the material being wrapped, just unwrap the few wraps of thread, tie off the material, and you're done!

In Jim Cramer's new book "How to Become a Thinking Fly Tier", he argues against the use of half hitches mid-fly because it builds unnecessary bulk, and takes extra time. While I agree that it does absolutely nothing to improve a flies durability, while wrapping material via a true rotary vise how do you stop your thread from wrapping/unwrapping without a half hitch in your tying thread? Jim says he uses a non true rotary vise a majority of the time (Regal), so maybe he hasn't really thought this issue through. It did get me thinking that there might be a better way to use a true rotary vise to wrap materials without the use of half hitches to control the tying thread. I had a few thoughts, I doubt they'd work, but maybe it will give some of you ideas: 1. Some stronger tape like duct tape, or electrical tape which could be removed after the material has been wrapped. I'm sure the residue from the tape could make this a messy process though. 2. A small rubber band, like the ones that are used on braces, slipped over the hook eye to hold your tying thread in place. This is a long shot, and might take more time than it's worth. Does anyone have any ideas for a replacement for half hitches when tying with a true rotary vise?

I brought my GoPro with me last weekend to try to catch some of the action! My battery died after the first day, but I got a few shots. Enjoy! I landed most of these fish on dry flies. There was a little sedge fly hatch, so I was using EHC and simulators mostly. A lot of little ones from the creek this day, but it was still really fun!