Jokey

Tasty! J

Can't count that high J

Mike has the best idea. If I was using a desk my wife didn't care so much about I would be chopping a hole like that in it. J

Some people refer to this as Doll Hair because of its use in children's toys. Got any barbie's or other dolls that need a haircut? J

You've lost me...there's no wire in the legs. The non-lead wire for weight is wrapped on the shank behind the bead chain eyes. The legs are just furled round rubber. Gotcha. One last question....how in the heck are they not un-twisting? Thanks J

Sorry.....the furled legs are a coated wire? Really cool looking tie. J

I have a molded plastic tray on my bench (i think it's something that normally is used to sprout seedlings before planting outside) and if I have a chunk of something that looks like its a save-able size it goes into there in a spot with "similar" items. Often enough I can look in there when I am tying and grab a bit of rubber leg, a couple turns of chenille or a clump of EP fiber. Sometimes it saves me from having to go looking for something in "the pile". Can't say I really need to save this stuff considering how much I have but throwing stuff away that is perfectly use able rubs me the wrong way. J

Quite a few years ago I bought several 100 packs of their hooks. Price was really good. I did notice that some packs had what I would consider a large amount of brittle ones in it. If I recall correctly it was mostly in the scud/caddis pupa models (whatever that number is) sizes 10 through 22. I was encountering 2-3 out of every 10 hooks breaking as I tied or while I was de-barbing. Not just in the scud models but mostly. It would have bothered me more if the price wasn't so darn good. That was likely 10 years ago so maybe someone else has a more recent review for you. Cheers J

Is that a rubber leg poked through the last foam body segment? J

Would that be Indian Elephant or African Elephant lashes? The feds....er.....a friend wants to know. J

Oooooh I like that a lot. Flymen never fails to impress me. J

I can say for a fact that the majority of these increases in price are not from corporate greed. It just doesn't happen that way for regular retail. As someone who is constantly buying and searching out commodities such as natural materials for tying I can say that anyone who tried to get more than the standard 45pts of margin on anything they are selling, either to a distributor or direct to a retailer, will not last long in business. That's what you aim for....quite often you have to settle for far less than standard margins. Items are constantly comp shopped to see what others are selling for and no one wants to be seen as "gouging" anyone. That's a good way to lose your business. No manufacturer of fly tying materials can afford to have a large customer say "screw you, others are cheaper than you"....word gets around and you'd be on the pogey line in no time. Demand does play into it for some things, genetics for example, but for the most part the biggest factor is going to be market supply for natural materials. There are just too many things in play. Weather, disease, government regulation and lack of suppliers are by far the biggest things to consider. For example....a couple years ago the cost of rabbit skins went up....wayyyyy up. We saw price increases of 25-30% twice in one year. I wasn't able to get firm answers on everything as to why but from a few different sources I heard that most of the rabbit farming was being done in spain and some kind of disease took out a massive amount of the animals which drastically limited the supply. I had other companies scrambling to find rabbit skins because there are so few producers of them and hardly any of those that can handle high volumes. Stuff like that drives price through the roof. A company also cant just raise it's prices to compensate for all those increases either. You try and tell a huge customer that due to sources beyond your control you are giving them a mid season price increase on a pile of stuff and they'll tell you to hit the road. So a company raises what it can and still stay competitive and hope the consumer demand is still there. Is there some greed in fly tying....I'm sure there is. But if you think anyone out there is getting filthy rich selling fly tying materials then you are very mistaken. J

Good looking fly. Is it one single craft fur zonker or two? J

As far as I am concerned if someone starts off by saying "Rate my whatever" then it is fair game for any and all criticisms....good, bad, ugly or otherwise. Good on him for being open to that kind of possible feedback. J

Beauty. Can you let us know what type of conehead you have on that one and what you did for the coloring? Copic airbushed? J

If this is the kind of thing that Juracek is truly "bothered" by then perhaps it's time he strings up a rod and goes fishing. I would like to write off this comment as just an over-dramatic add on to an article already loaded with more than enough writer's flair. I'd like to send him a list of far better things in the world of fishing to be worried about than this. J

That's a pretty interesting one. Z-lon pulled back and melted to a point? J

Sorry but I don't buy this at all. Complex or not, 6 types of material or just pheasant tail and wire, new idea or old pattern....it doesn't matter. The fish are the ultimate deciders. Flies that don't catch fish, don't sell, don't last and are a non entity. To me this just sounds like sounds like someone who doesn't feel like moving forward as things inevitably do. The equivalent of "kids today don't know what good music is". A matter of conflicting style and opinion is all it is. J

I use pine squirrel mini zonkers on all my buggers and leeches. I like the length of the hair and I especially like how a short piece of the hide will keep the tail from twisting around the hook bend on these patterns....unlike standard marabou tails tend to do. Can't remember the last time I used marabou for the tail after trying this out. One of my favorite materials. Nice thing too is after zonkering your own hides you get a fairly good pile of squirrell dubbing afterward. J

Hard protein hair like those are tough to dye. Easy to go too far one way and get an off color or burn some of the hair. Just like squirrel tail. When you find good hare feet nowadays buy as many as you can because good ones are far and few between now and much more expensive than 5 years ago. Several major suppliers are no longer in business and that is what is driving the market today. J

I recall an article in BC Outdoors way back when that recommended the trolling guys spray their spoons with WD-40 before putting them in the water. 20 years ago or so but still....what a thing to do. J

This for sure. I had a horrible experience with a bucktail that was not properly cured and sitting around for a long time. Gave me a nasty reaction. Broke out in a nearly head to toe body rash, made breathing extremely difficult and I damn near called an ambulance. Throw that sucker in the fire and buy one that is clean. J

SolaRez with the Loon light is my preferred combination if that means anything. J

That article is spot on. As someone who does quality control for bulk flies coming in and then sold to dealers I can tell you that depending on where flies come in from (in my experience) usually dictates how good a fly I am going to look at. We work with a factory out of Sri Lanka (mentioned in the article as "A" graded flies) and very rarely have any complaints about the quality. When I do it's because of a recipe error but not because of poor tying. I have also had the opportunity to check out flies from other places mentioned in the article and I would again agree on it's assessment of the flies from those regions. MY QC for those is painstaking and time consuming as the quality is not nearly as good. J

I basically just tie everything I see in the monthly fly thread and show them to my buddies as my "new" flies.....they think I am a genius. J