Bruce Derington

Yep, I pretty much agree with Steelie. The dubbing loop is very effective when tying in thorax's and different types of collars. And again, as Steelie stated , on smaller flies (dry flies) and some abdomens( on nymphs) simply dubbing on thread produces the results I'm looking for .

Try Jeff Freeman at freemansflytying.com He has some great Cree and other materials at VERY competitive prices He may not have it posted on line but he does have it

Nice job Billy, HOPEFULLY you released those fish

We as fly tiers don't feel the threat of out sourcing but I can tell you there are alot of foreign flies comming in and quite a large amount from Kenia. The Ebay stores are cleaninng up! They pay as little as 1.50-2.00 a dozen I know more and more non-tyers are buying these flies and in defense of 3rd world tiers, many are Quality flies.American tyers can,t compete with those crazy prices , nor should they. I say buy American :headbang: The commercial tyers I know have all the work they can handle, But I can see where this may change based on the cheaper flies being made available. The weird thing about the out sourcing is the bigger fly suppliers and fly shops are getting rich through buying low and not passing their savings on to the consumer p.s. I have a couple of sites I check on and you can buy a dozen flies for 7.00

I'm in --1 of each :headbang:

Your skill level with deer hair is good and these will probably fish fine, but the only way to know for sure is to cast them and see how they work in the water. Some of my flies look good but don't fish well, keep up the good work Regards Bruce

Arkfisher. I'm stacking on the hook all the way to the end. Its bent down and the hook eye removed

I use a product that is exactly the same as frogs fanny. Its called Feather-Dri by Bohning Company, Its used to dry the fletch feather on arrows, found at Cabelas andBass Pros and most nice archery pro shops. It weighs 9 grams and cost 7.99, this bottle is 5 times bigger than frogs fanny

No tube here, the fly uses 2 Carrie Stevens hooks 10XL joined by 17lb. bite tippet. The front half's eyelet was snipped off and bent 20 degrees. You can't see it but there is room for a split shot on the tip so the fly tracks properly

Hers a different kind of Rapala, articulated as well!

Very nice tye Flygirl, looks like a great pattern Regards Bruce

Very nice job, looks like it will catch fish ! Keep your eyes peeled for a upcomming Virtual class on deer hair techniques Bruce

Krylon clear

Lets get a virtual class going, its free! Arkfisher is right, the best way to QUICKLY learn would be sitting with someone, so you can not only ask questions BUT he can coach you as you go or if you start getting yourself in trouble. And Arkfisher is correct in commenting about the deerhair swap, there were some questionable flies in that swap! So if we can get some interest we can revisit a virtual class and do something simple like fly attached Regards Bruce

Bryan, Nice looking fly, white is a favorite color of mine. Watch out about the distance between deer hair hook point. If there isn't much of a gap you'll get no hookups. Normally with deer hair the starting point is at the hook point that way there will be plenty of room to hook the fish

Maddog, As far as the twisted feathers you can soak them im warm water with a couple of drops of woolite(hour or so, even over night) then lay them out on news paper or paper toweling, they may straighten out. Here in Mich. we have a big fly show on the 10th of march and theres a vender who normally brings alot of Mallard. In the past he would sell 1 ounce( which fills a gallon size zip lock bag) Price is around $10. Believe me thats enough to tie a life time supply of Zoo Cougars, If your interested I can look intro getting you an ounce Bruce

Ceramic or jewel for sure. Length may or may not be an issue, this depends on whether you have a pedestal or C-clamp vise. With pedestal vises, the height from jaws to table top is sometimes pretty short so when forming dubbing loops or for that matter just adding dubbing to your thread you might want a shorter stem. I've tried them all and the ceramic insert with the shorter length is my preference Regards Bruce

Tofingerz, heres my two cents worth. Try starting your spinning futher forward by begining just in front of the hook point. Also trim belly a little closer to the hook BUT be careful not to hit a thread wrap :wallbash: These are very nice for the first couple that youv'e ever done regards Bruce

If you want an egg that is going to get down fast and really produce I strongly recommend tying one like Day 5 has shown you. A big problem with egg flies is most are over dressed and the sink rate is terrible. Dan Walker (known as the Egg Man) ties "nukes by simply dubbing a small amount of egg yarn for nucleus, about the size of a BB, in a hot color, then he ties in a small amt. in front of the nuke so the excess is pointing out in front of hook(with a distribution wrap) Once it is secure he pulls back the yarn facing forward so it now whisps back and ties it down, looks just like Day 5"s sample then you can trim to length

These look great to me. We fish the big ones in Lake St. Clair here in Mich. and we do quite well with them. They look well balanced and will produce fish. Nice deer hair work Regards Bruce

Steve, when whip finishing you should start at the back of the head and progress to the front. as far as head cement, some use Sally Hansens hard as nails, comes in many colors, I use black 1st. then a clear coat, but regular head cement is fine ( 3 or more coats)This will give the head a very smooth and shiny look Regards Bruce

Glad you found our site, its a great place to learn new patterns and meet alot of great tyers. Welcome :headbang: Bruce We also have virtual fly tying and a class is starting @ 8pm, go to virtual flytying , find the link and jump in

Paul, he will be tying at our MFFC show , march 10th and 11th. You can see it done again. Hope to see you there

Zarabonda is right on when he tells you to wet the feathers B4 wrapping your ribbing forward, this makes it much easier to seperate for the ribbing

Any thread that can be flattened by counter spinning it. Typically UTC or any other gel spun poly