BassMouth87

Usually do a hot tap water soak with some mild soap for 45 minutes or so, then rinse the materials and into the dye bath.

Now that I think about it the vinegar does not play a part in the skin falling apart, I ran out and this batch was done without any vinegar.

Very possible...could always switch to citric acid to see if that makes a difference.

Natural Sports in Kitchener right now has a whole slew of mustad hooks on sale ranging is sizes 20-26 from what I saw, almost half off. Looks like they are old and just trying to clear the shelves. Can think of a few other smaller fly shops that offer smaller hooks pretty regularly.

Hmmm food coloring might be a good idea as well...Have been slicing small sections of pelts and dying in small batches...the kool aid is very limiting but gives some nice vivid colors. The acid dyes are fairly cheap, its the import fee's and shipping from the U.S to Canada that kills me every time. The order I have my eyes on is $60USD for the actual dye, works out to $108 after shipping taxes and duties is applies though.

Some of the SD blue arctic fox created with Kool-aid...you can see on the last picture what I am talking about with the skin breaking and separating...the fur is only being held on because of the dense under fur...if I moved it around to much or tried to brush it I can guarantee it would all fall apart at this moment.

I have played around with dying my own furs in the past and had moderate success using kool aid and vinegar. This weekend I tried using some fabric dyes that were supposed to be similar to rit and found the results were garbage. The jet black dye turned the white arctic fox I was dying grey...a cool baitfish color but not the black I was after for winging steelhead flies. I noticed on this batch that I have had some issues with the skin ripping and breaking apart causing the hair to separate from the skin in places. It does this on the red fox pelt I have and the arctic fox, both are very well skilled and dried, looks like they used sawdust, and no fat is left on the pelt in the majority of places. I have a coyote pelt and another red fox pelt that have more fat left on the hide leaving a thicker leather that holds together better when dyed in hot baths and handled. My question is does anyone have any ways to dye these more fragile pelts without causing the skin to rip apart and mess up the fur? Has anyone come across this problem before? I want to have another angle before I go and purchase acid dyes to get the job done properly, a friend and myself have a $100 acid dye order planned that will be split in half, 2oz's of 11 different colors to play with.

Wowzers...way above my current price range...lol Looks like a great product though.

Interesting...what was the damage all said and done, shipping, duties, taxes etc?

I appreciate all the feed back, you guys have given me LOTS to think about. The waters I fish are windy and strong current 90% of the time so float tubes are pretty much out of the question and a pontoon does not really fit to well in an apartment...looks like I will be waiting until my situation changes and perhaps getting a nice fishing kayak or something along those lines years down the road.

Looks wicked, did you use congo hair or ep?

The need for a jig, special lure making pliers and finding the proper gauge wire is a bit of a turn off for me personally, all the wire I have seen or purchased to play with has not impressed me at all.

Those look amazing, I am sure they will slay the gills an crappie! Ill take a dozen;-)

Here is a minnow pattern that I am working on at the moment using these shanks for the articulated sections. This pattern worked wonders for me last summer on cold front bass. I am in the process of making a step by step tying video for this pattern.

Here is a tutorial I did for making hair pin waddington style shanks for intruder and articulated flies.

The video is embeded in the original post, but can be found here as well: " "

These pins are an absolute pain to find in Canada or the U.S, they may be available and I just do not know the right people. I would try beauty supply stores and hair dressers first, worst case scenario you can find and order them off ebay, but they usually do not ship out of the UK: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/500-Straight-Wire-Brown-Hair-Pins-/251468881027?pt=UK_Health_Beauty_Hair_Care_Brushes_Combs_PP&hash=item3a8cb69c83 I had a friend order me in 1500 pins and re-ship them to me personally, but I wonder if you looked hard enough if you could find them locally or at least stateside.

I made a video last night to show a friend how to prepare hair pin intruder shanks and figured I would share it here with everyone. This is a cheap effective way to make waddington style shanks for intruders, hobo speys, articulated flies etc. At 6 cents per shank it is very cheap and great for those who tie commercially, loose a lot of flies, or like to play around with designs a lot. These also work well for articulated flies and game changer style minnows.

Hey folks, Iv got a few questions to ask the community about inflatable float tubes and pontoon boats. I really enjoy wading rivers but I come across many lakes and ponds that I would LOVE to fish from a float tube or smaller pontoon. My only experience with inflatables comes from a "4" man 9 foot inflatable boat I purchased two summers ago at Bass Pro that ended up leaking straight out of the box and was promptly returned. I am looking for a quality float tube or pontoon, preferable one that has a seat up out of the water. The following points are important to me: -Small foot print when disassembled, portable (Living in an apartment so need something that folds into a pack or could be stored in a large tote) -Easy to inflate either with manual pump or electric batter operated pump. -Rated for upto 300lbs -$400-600 range -Preferable able to purchase from within Canada, I know I will likely have to end up ordering from out of country though. I am curious how many anglers use float tubes or pontoons to fish still water and ponds? If there are any tips, advice, or insight into this form of transportation for fishing that you guys could offer I would greatly appreciate it. The thought of being able to gently coast up to a weedline on a pond and start slaying crappie and bluegills is very appealing to me, lots of the ponds and lakes I fish offer very little area to fish from shore and being able to get mobile on the water I am sure will be worth the investment.

Pheasant Rump and blue eared pheasant come to mind.

Black King

GCO in my opinion is unreliable and not worth the trouble of waiting for shipping, I have given them the benefit of the doubt many times and after recommending them to a friend who waited 4 months for his fly boxes without any responses to his messages and questions they will never get another stitch of my business. That aside I the Anvil scissors are nice and a fair price, around $20 give or take per pair. The Dr. Slick razor point scissors while expensive at $32 or so per pair are amazing and can easily be sharpened by yourself or a professional. If you go with sharp scissors I recommend keeping the tubing that usually comes with them on the tips, otherwise the first time you drop them like I did they will duff the tips and break the very fine point off. Some people use cheap scissors and just replace them as needed, others buy quality stuff and resharpen as needed...personal preference.

http://fanaticaltying.blogspot.ca/2014/01/sbs-bead-head-mirage-back-scud.html Easy to tie little scud pattern that works wonders with trout and bluegill.

Try telling your girlfriend whom you live with that you spent $200 on a grade A jungle cock cape. Now that makes for an interesting conversation lol.

I gave away around 700 flies this year to a few kids and adults getting into fly fishing to help them out. These are all flies I tied last year that I am not proud of this year as my skill level increases, I figure it gets them out fishing with flies that will work, and gives me a reason to keep spending time behind the vise improving flies.