Kingfisher

Ha HA! Another poor bugger hits the big three-O; mine was two weeks ago. Welcome to the club man!

Well, I also bought a ton of that Congo Hair from Fly Tyer's Dungeon, and honestly wasn't sure what I was going to do with it at first... that is, until I sat down an hour ago and started messing around with it. I'm still tying a golden shiner imitation, but this one is made with all Congo Hair, a little flashabou accent, and one red marabou feather. This stuff actually welds together if you treat it with liquid cyanoacrylate; you can see the smoke pluming out and the result is a nice firm "meld" of material that will help prevent fouling if applied strategically. The best thing about this stuff is that I ordered a dozen colors, many of them just a tinge different than others, and this has enabled me to layer four colors that nearly blend together in the light. So I suppose my submission for this swap will be a "Congo Shiner", 6-7" long.

Good article, Will; very succinct.

I'm tying my baitfish pattern to emulate bluefish fry. They will have red eyes.

UT - You're in. Jerry - That's a good idea re: paying for shipping re: PayPal. Welshtyer, if you're willing to send me a couple of pounds in the package or paying for shipping with PayPal, I don't see why there should be any problems.

BG - Thanks for the kind words. Nope, haven't had any trouble with short strikes yet, but give it time. I've been tying these on long-shank freshwater hooks as of late so that's likely the reason that the pattern has been taking its' fare share. I haven't used a lot of synthetics because I find it easier to blend colors with bucktail.

QUOTE (steeldrifter @ Oct 30 2004, 04:26 PM) anyone else notice the FTF hat hes got on?! WHERE ARE OURS?!!! Actually, that was one of the first things I noticed...

Charlie - That's great, I'll add you to the list. Welshtyer - I'm not opposed to anyone from the UK joining, but I'm not sure of the shipping regulations or costs, either. Can someone tell me if there are regulations involved with sending flies tied with feathers across the Atlantic? The other thing to think about is the cost of postage and how we would handle that.

STEELERS

QUOTE (Jayhawk Jeff @ Oct 29 2004, 02:10 AM) ... You are not buying your friends. Perhaps it depends on the school and the fraternity, but in my experience I disagree in certain instances.

Have a look at this... http://home.mountaincable.net/~pcharles/st...s/strmr-07.html

Charlie, you're not signed up for the feather-wing streamer swap?

Holy crap; that's a lot of snow. I recall the snow being deep when I was a kid living in Utah for a few years, but of course I was only 4' tall at the time so waste-deep was relative. I wish it were that easy to keep my homebrew cold here in the city!

I'm up for this one; January is a good time for me, as well.

I was pretty turned off by the whole frat idea when I went to college, and not pledging is a decision I've never once regretted. Many of my friends and roommates were in fraternities, and the stuff they put those guys through during pledging was simply unacceptable as far as I was concerned. Having to pay dues every semester to stay in the fraternity seemed the equivalent of buying your friends in many cases. I keep in contact with quite a few people from my school to this day, and feel that the common bond we shared in our program was enough (as opposed to the bonding principles in the fraternities I knew about). Honestly, I was also biased against them during the last two years of school because I was a resident assistant and had to put up with their BS after hours. Not that I knew what was going on inside the frat house or if the comeraderie was indeed stimulating young minds to pursue their studies, but I never saw anything that made me think that I was missing out on something. All that being said, though, letting your son make his own decisions at this stage in his life is very important, as you well know. All I can think to say on that subject is just tell him that you have faith in his ability to make the right decisions should he ever get in a jam, and that you'll be there when he needs you to be. These are the words I wish I would have heard from my dad, but no matter, I learned quickly. Good luck!

An acorn, I can see, but a size-32 midge on the water at distance, no way. A hook that small in a gold finish would be great to inlay on a rod.

Set a yearly spending limit on fly tying materials and don't exceed it!!!

Wow! They do look good; just the thing for the stripers up here!

Okay, that's kind of what I figured. We haven't had bad weather down here in NY; I was surprised to hear of the wind you guys are experiencing up there.

Onshore - Great report. What, if I may ask, is a "tin feather"? I haven't heard of that one before...

QUOTE (WYKnot @ Oct 27 2004, 08:11 AM) ...I am a proud member of the 20/20 club and working hard to make the 22/22 mark next year. With the expansion of tiny hooks into the size 32 range....bring it on! How can you even see a fly of that size on the surface film floating 20+ feet away?!? You must have the eyes of an eagle!

Who knows, I may find myself down in that area during the week! If so, I'll be fishing from shore, as I'm not in possession of a boat just yet.

try easynews. It's a news list that costs about $10 each month, which gets you 10GB worth of downloads.

Sound thinking, Charlie, I must say. I, too, like to get some fruit in my system, though mine comes from the juices of the lemon, the lime, and the blue agave. A preparation of this sort goes well with the veggies and protein in my fajitas. I'm starting to drool...

Nope, not bored, but the open fishing season in this area is essentially at a close so I'll have plenty of time to do some tying. Besides that, the weather is supposed to get pretty nasty pretty soon; supposedly this Winter is going to be a particularly nasty one in the NE. I actually have another idea about a Thanksgiving swap in which every pattern must employ... you guessed it... turkey!