BrookTroutAngler

I LOVE to fish for bluegill. The lake I go to is about 1.5 hours away and the closet quality bluegill water- but it's worth it. We fish it with a float tube. Come April when they spawn, and throughout the spring and fall, they just go nuts to take a fly. An average day is 150 bluegill if you hit it right. I've used spiders, poppers, small and even larger wets, all sorts of nymphs, but in the end my favorite combo is a bluegill candy hopper trailed by a fbhe or a lightning bug. Topwater takes are explosive, and if they aren't in the mood for that, the nymph will slay em'. There are some little bluegill in that area, but 8" bluegill are not uncommon and my largest was a bit over 9". They are crazy fun to catch on my custom 7'3" TFO Finesse 2wt. Can't wait for April!

Funny someone with 100% feed back and almost 10,000 sales needs to take a picture from someone else rather than take their own. I suspect it is because if you do a Google image search for draper hook yours is the first result. And because you take nice photos.

BVK for me. Love my 9' 5wt to death.

No,No, I SWEAR!!! My fly line was just tangled up in its mouth. Said tarpon was angry about being caught by some small stream trout guy and tried to eat his two weight line in an act of vengeance!

The staff and administration here at the sprawling TSMT Tournament complex on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay wish to thank BrookTroutAngler for his willingness to rat out a fellow FTF member and destroy his own reputation in the process. It certainly cannot escape notice that the aforementioned squealer lives in the barren desert wastes of the American Southwest, where brook trout are only slightly more common than roaming packs of Tyrannosaurus Rex. As is the usual practice when dealing with fishermen, the source of the accusation is being carefully considered. OMG ROFL!!!!!! I am sorry for ruining the ludicrousy of this thread for a moment, but that was the best laugh I can remember having from an internet post. Thanks guys! And I will henceforth take into consideration my tarnished reputation when posting and strive to overcome the stigma that BrookTroutAngler is a little tarpon snitch. By the way, I see no mention of my being banned from the contest, and assuming that this is a mistake, shall immediately capitalize on it, and announce my entry into the contest. (two minutes later) I win! I just caught this monster tarpon in the alleyway behind my house! And if anyone wishes to contest this entry, they will have to go through my attorney: Bubba Smith, esq., bouncer, ex-felon, beer addict, wrestling champion, attorney-at-law. Or you will have to wait until he is inebriated and steal his car keys.

Parachute dries are great imitators and great to fish with! They land nicely, are very visible, and float well. You are off to a great start. A couple of tips if you want them, proportions on dries come with practice. Tie in your parachute material at the 75% point (aproximately) on the hook. Three quarters of the way past the bend is a good rule of thumb for where the parachute should be. Tails should be about a shank length long, sometimes longer, again, consistency will come with practice. I think your first tail is moose hair or some other natural hair. By stacking the material and tying it in leaving the uncut tips pointing away from the shank as your tail, you will have better floatation and aesthetics. By this I mead stack the uncut tips point first and tie them in with the butts toward the hook eye. One thing on dubbed bodies: less is more! No need to bulk up a body. We are going for a nice, thin, tapered body. Using a fine dubbing like fine&dry (superfine is even finer and easier to dub with) will help you to make these bodies slim. Lick your fingers and apply a bit of moisture to the thread before dubbing. Make certain your pinches are small. Start with the amount of dubbing you think you will need and cut that amount in half, at least. You can always add more, while taking some away can be a pain. Again, your flies look great. Just a couple of tips I have found helpful myself.

In a shocking turn of events, I have discovered that Ben's tarpon submission is fradulent, and is in fact an obscure internet picture, found on an obscure internet website, an extremely obscure internet source says. http://thebattousai.wordpress.com/2011/12/29/lawyers-and-catfish/

Sur3-shot, why does it say you are banned and prevent me from viewing your profile, yet you can post?

During the mid-1980s dairy farmers decided there was too much cheap milk at the supermarket. So the government bought and slaughtered 1.6 million cows. How come the government never does anything like this with lawyers?- P.J. O'Rourke Q: How many lawyer jokes are there? A: Only three. The rest are true stories.

Nice looking poppers. Worth the wait.

Well the first one is a calf tail. I could guess on the other ones but I might be wrong. Calf tail is used on upright wings for wulff style flies and can be used in a bunch of other patterns.

Hey now, I see no specific mention of alcohol. Simply "drinking" and "six packs." Piker20 was just implying that all that caffeine and sugar found in sodas is bad for detecting subtle strikes, and I'm certain the reference to six packs was six packs of soda. Even if someone mentioned beer, you can't just assume they aren't talking about root beer.

Not a lot of topwater action this time of year for bass here in AZ.

Wow riff, that is a beautiful fly. Can't really find a flaw with it. Body is nice and smooth, rib spacing is even, hackle and wings are spot on, and the head is finished nice and glossy. Kudos. I can't tie anything that nice.

You had a good start then, but you are phenomenal now.

Uh, if you ever decide that you have an addiction, and want to unload some of those vises and attend fly tyers annoynmous, just send me a pm and I will give you an adress where I can make certain that they are *properly* disposed of.

Wow, bet that takes some skill to do.

The hooks are yours Flyman416. Will ship them on monday if that's ok.

Inspired by fly tire and piker20, I have something to give away. I was given a gerneous grab bag by fly tire and want to pay the favor forward, so I have a package of Daiichi 2546 stainless steel saltwater hooks in 2/0 to give away. There is 12 in a package and the package is unused. I don't have a lot of extra materials, but I rarely tie on anything so big, so the first person to SEND ME A PRIVATE MESSAGE with their address gets the hooks.

Sorry mine were a day late riff. They were just a tiny bit rushed and I ran out of matching tan thread. From what I've seen so far from this beginners swap the flies tied are anything but beginner in quality.

Funniest post I have ever seen on this forum. Sounds like a cool contest to those participating, but I don't live near any tarpon and thank god because I can only imagine having to buy a tarpon-safe fly reel. Too much $$$$$.

Tiemco 100, but with this talk of the daiichis I will have to try them as I usually forget to crimp barbs at the fly tying bench.

Sur3-shot, what do you mean by saying that the silver one barely works? If the jaws don't grip hooks with enough tension to keep them from slipping, you can loosen or tighten the hold that the jaws have simply by turning the head of the vise one way or the other.

I have a silver one simlar to the one you do. It is a cheapy that was given to me. I also currently am tying on a Regal. The Regal has midge jaws so big stuff like salmonfly hooks above size 6 won't fit. The Regal is an awesome vise for the dry flies nymphs and midges I tie, but the Sunrise does its job and does it well when I feel like tying big size 2 or bigger bass flies, and also when I occasionally take a stab at the classic salmonfly. The sunrise has a lot of adjustment to it and can hold big hooks and smaller hooks, but the jaws just arent fine enough for adding tails to small dries and tying midges. I use the Regal when I can but the sunrise has never failed me and is a fine vise. If you ever want an inexspensive but higher quality rotary vise, the Griffin Odyssey Spider Vise is great for the money (around $80) and I know several experienced tyers who swear by the danvise.

We need a yeah what he said icon. Great post.