Losthackle

The simplest start: DE 12 hooks medium guage Black tying thread (sewing cotton is fine) 2nd or 3rd grade dark red/brown/furnace cock cape with plenty of black spadey hackles. Beeswax (candle) Clear nail varnish First fly (black spider style): well waxed black thread body; soft black cock hackle Add peacock herl and fine copper wire stripped from electric cord to list for the second fly: the Black and Peacock Spider http://www.theflyfishingforum.com/flyfishing/fly_tying/3026-black_and_peacock.html Add Black marabou and true red wool to the list for the third fly: A red and black woolly bugger You can now use the red wool and the furnace cock hackles to make Red Tags. Add wools and furs to the list and tie basic mayfly nymphs. And you are on your way....

I won't get in to the strip versus cut argument, except to say that I've done both. (and I have lost count of the number of times I have removed the barbs from the wrong side, cut through the stem or torn the stem to pieces) Endorse phg's explanation for removing the barbs on one side And I tie in by the tip. Here's a good instructional http://www.intheriffle.com/fishing-videos/fly-tying-tips-tricks/stripped-partridge-soft-hackle/ although I would take fewer turns of hackle than he does. Somewhere recently (and I'm sorry I can't find the site again), I read about an alternative method, not involving winding the hackle, which on a trial of once seems to work. Cut off the tip of the feather forming a V, tie feather down loosely over the butt, pull feather back through the loop, wind thread around barbs to distribute them evenly around the shank.

Not sure what your wife would be wanting, but if I was looking for somewhere low key and relaxing and friendly, I would check out Kiribati.An acquaintance of mine spoke highly of the experience there. Here's a couple of links:- the fishing http://www.fishabout.com/article/Fishing_Report_The_Villages_by_Roger_Flynn and generally http://www.kiribatitourism.gov.ki/ if it doesn't work for you this time, you can always add it to your bucket list (on mine.)

I've just learnt that there are some crab feeding trout in our local estuary. I've never tied a crab fly before, so I am open to suggestions as to flies. I've noticed that some crabs are tied with the claws to the side, some to the rear and some to the front. Is there some logic to this? For instance, the sideways tie for a moving crab; to the rear (with weight at the eye) for a static, threatened crab; to the front for ??? Any and all advice welcome.

Not wanting to interfere with anyone's entrepreneurial spirit, but it is also available free in other formats at https://archive.org/search.php?query=fly-fisher%27s%20entomology%20AND%20mediatype%3Atexts and in hard copy at CochyBondhu books (not free, of course) http://www.anglebooks.com/search.php?jssCart=d3bb61d726e395e275e677a330eee616

I have used a piece of hard plastic (from a pantone pen) and sections of an old car aerial sharpened around the edges to cut foam discs and cylinders, including some from old flip-flops. Is that the sort of thing you mean?

Forgot to mention: the third rank would depend on where I was fishing. If I was going to the Lakes I would have a three fly English rig (carrot on the top dropper, one of the soft hackles on the middle dropper and a daddy long legs on the point); I would also have a set of midge emerger patterns. If I was fishing our meadow streams, I would have a variety of mayfly nymph patterns, emergers, red spinner and black spinner. This is all for regular trout fishing. It would be completely different for sea runners (sea run brown trout), estuary or saltwater fishing, of course.

This question got me thinking long and hard, partly because I re-cast the question along the lines of what one fly would you not be without. And it's a toss-up (in no particular order):- Black and peacock spider (#12, fat peacock herl body and long soft black hackle) Red and Black Woolly Bugger (#8 Long shank, unweighted) (Black marabou tail, copper wire rib, black cock hackle palmered, carmine red wool) And in the second rank:- softhackles (#14 black and starling; gray and partridge; orange and partridge); a shrimp type Czech nymph (#8 grub hook plastic green back over hare's ear, copper rib, bead head); a small sedge/caddis dry (# 14 deer hair tip wings, light tan fur or sub, mottled ginger-brown cock hackle); #14 Adams Hope that helps.

Cross threading: great thread on Spider softhackles here http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=76094

Also, I endorse what Old Hat had to say and don't forget to collect game feathers whenever you can. There's always wild duck feathers around our municipal ponds, for example.

Thread cross linking (also note references to online versions of some of the classics): http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=75889&hl= Oddly enough, the "spider" pattern that got me interested in softhackles in all their glorious variety isn't strictly a spider pattern ...The Black and Peacock Spider (plump peacock herl body and black hen hackle). It represents snails and beetles and still remains one of my "Go to" flies. Really interesting contributions on this thread. Thanks for the great read.

SilverCreek I do wish I had read your article before I ever bought wading boots. I thought the lack of a heel was to improve traction on the river bottom. Oh foolish me. When the time comes to consign my current boots to the the furnace (assuming I don't get there first), I will bear your piece in mind. Very good, sir, and thank you

Congratulations and welcome to the obsession... here's a link to a thread about the first fish on fly, where fellow addicts confess to their first adrenalin rush: http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=75462&hl=

See also this thread http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=75634&hl= I should also add that I had no problems with casting, er, let me refine that...no new problems with casting... just the usual

Worked like a charm...great action particularly when teamed with craft fur and marabou streamers. Our local "salmon" ..(.Arripis trutta, kahawai in New Zealand) loved them...but then again they aren't too discriminating! Have yet to try them on the trout.