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Fly Tying

Dave G.

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Everything posted by Dave G.

  1. That vice is fine. And keep the fly, fish it as an emerger in the film you might catch the biggest fish in the pool, seriously. Meanwhile look up some videos on hair stacking. For years I used a cut off drinking straw for that till I got an official hair stacker. Caught many salmon in Maine on elk hair Caddis, never too a class. I ties according to what I see on the water. Sometimes you literally need to beat your elk hair caddis up because the neat one wouldn't buy you a fish much less catch one. There are days like that on the water.
  2. You can't go by the comparison of a glass of water vs fishing. You're luck, very lucky if you get a 15 second drift in a stream. Ten minutes is unthinkable. No ten seconds, maybe 12 or so and the fly is back in the air getting the water false casted off and then sat back down again. The water surface tension is weird in a glass anyway. Those flies should do fine,certainly at least for a few drifts before they get soaked.
  3. Love that particular blue against the black.
  4. Looks like the rod I learned fly fish on. Caught my first brookie on that rod, with level line and auto reel.
  5. I see designated pumpkin seed ( sunfish) rod written all over that. Around here they get plump too.
  6. Ya but it's nice to see a classic now and then and so well done, to be used in a classic setting ( salmon fishing,nothing is quite like it) !
  7. If there ever was a dedicated "fall brookie rod" that's it. Beautiful build Steve !
  8. I've used orange sewing thread. Builds mighty fast though lol !
  9. I'd be tempted to start spey casting and end up busting the thing in two lol. But that's nice combo and a beautiful rod in my book, personal issues aside !
  10. You wouldn't believe what my best fishing late season black stone fly pattern is if I told you. But it has palmered dark grizzly hen hackle, it's ribbed with wire has a shortish marabou tail and a bead head on it. Sometimes I lose the the idea of the wing cases and I almost think it fishes better. Honestly it's not much different from a woolly bugger . The body wrap is peacock herl or black marabou. It's not about building models of insects,those usually fail but lots of moving materials that entice fish. The soft hen is a key element and when mine runs out I'll be hard pressed to find another with more to the dark bars than white. I bought it for 5 bucks in a grab box in a fly shop, maybe 20 years ago, sold as rejects but it's perfect for this need. Fish dive on this thing when it hits the water sometimes. My wife and avid fishing partner now passed on, one time banged a 24" land locked salmon before the fly sunk, literally, just off the side of the boat too.We had anchored in a run with a hole to the rear of the boat, she toss her line over the side figuring to let it drift back, when the fly hit the water this fish jumped it and ran down river. The advantage of the boat won, pulled anchor and just backed down through the hole to where the fish settled down with less line pressure in calmer water on it and she successfully boated that fish. I tie the same thing but in full fledged woolly buggers too, she loved them always dredging them deep with sinking line. She was quite the fisher lady from a boat, not so great on foot but from a boat always getting the big one it seemed. She had me tie those two patterns for her as stocking stuffers at Christmas lol ! Those and a certain little Muddler I tied for her that she clobbered brook trout with from a canoe. She kept right up with me with her little 7ft RP 4 wt.
  11. Ya that's a nice combo right there.
  12. Dave G.

    Survey

    Totally depends on the operation at hand.
  13. I have the Spartan is a bit smaller and do my main tying on it, works fine. I tie mostly from size 6- 8 down to 18. #4 works fine. Then I have the HMH tube fly vise as well that I enjoy. But that big brass wheel on it does not act like a flywheel as on some other vises on the market. When I travel I still use my old India made vise and HMH tube fly adapter if I want tubes. I like to tie my grey and my green ghosts on tubes. Traditional tie otherwise with feathers, Jungle cock eyes and such and the fly separates off the hook sliding up the leader when the fish strikes bringing considerable more longevity to the tie with toothy salmon.
  14. Looks good, clear photos, lots of them. Websites are always a work in progress or they go stagnant.
  15. Awesome ! Never thought of purple, my wife would have loved that combo.
  16. 60f water temp is still quite fishable, the biggest problem was your flow rate and human occupation lol ( what fish were there got pounded with every fly under the sun), salmon love running water. Higher water makes it a little faster and the salmon come up from Indian pond in higher faster water but retreat back down in slower lower water and of course warmer. And the pools will hold fish for a bit with more water. When the waters low you tend to catch mostly dinks, the river doesn't hold the bigger fish well in low water.. It's just the nature of things up there. Of course there is always the chance for the odd ball. I drifted a #16 black caddis one time in lowish water in Aug, I was just checking the drift of the fly in kneed deep water and a set of lips poked out and grabbed, it was a 20" salmon in warmer water than you had. So it does happen. That's why we call it fishing I guess.
  17. Hope you said hi to Scott and Allison for me lol. I've been traveling up there for more than 30 years. The water is very low this year and the Moose river is even worse. Normal flows in the East Outlet for June would be nearly double what you had which holds the bigger fish for a while and makes down river fishing more realistic ( kind of bony down there at 1100 cfs. I'm gonna say you did well considering the circumstances.
  18. You had that big rainbow the other night, pretty well hit the peak right there. So if you go then will go with good memories.
  19. After a front like that goes through I generally expect fishing to be screwed up for a day or two after. But eventually they turn back on. I've seen it go the other way too but that's more rare. They more likely go nuts on the approaching front eating everything you throw at them, soon as the front hits it's like there was never a fish in the place. Just sayin. So you at least probably did good going to the motel in all regards. We will see what Sunday brings for you, hopefully a few more stellar trout in the next few days though.
  20. There is always one hallmark moment or day or night on these trips, that night might be yours . And if it keeps on comin then all the better ! That one rainbow on the dry would have satisfied me for the entire trip if I got nothing else. We got some football rainbows around here in one particular pond that turn on in the fall chironamid season out around Oct. That fish reminds me of some of those.
  21. I've been on trips like that, my 4th finger on my right hand would basically seize up and I knew I needed a day off from the heavy casting. Like you, rest in the day, maybe go get an ice cream someplace even if it meant driving 25 miles each way lol ! Then later just work a single pool in the evening with short light casts drifting the eddy line with a stimulator or something. A couple of times I got fooled with some 21" or so salmon on a short 7 ft 4 wt. Ya know, it's quiet, it's still and it's great just being there fish or not, knee deep in water casting over the run into the pool and a head pokes out and grabs your fly, ain't nothing like it. If you don't break your rod down wading out of there the bats come along just after sunset and slap your rod tip. And the pool I'm thinking of was a river wade to get to, maybe a 1/4 mile or so.
  22. One year in Maine where I go the biologists tagged some big trout to gtry and find out what their travel plans were like lol, with tracking devices that is. One brook trout was 5lb. That fish went in and out of the Moose river 5 times during the summer months and mostly lived in the depths of Moosehead Lake in the warmest weather. Basically the only thing that stays in the river in the mid summer is some young salmon, they season over for a couple of years then they migrate as well. there are a few resident salmon that hang out right at the dam in the deeper part of the pool there, as smelt and deep cool water run through the turbine there. Some small mouth have started entering the river these days, that whole area was free of bass back in the day but some got planted illegally and it's taken 30 years for them to multiply and take root. Same with the Kennebec river. Anyway, enough of my story ! Looks like you got it going on out there Steve, enjoy the rest of your trip even if you've had to kind of engineer a plan to be in certain spots at various parts of a 24 hour period. It's all good when you're out fishing.
  23. Hah ! My eyes changed from one season to the next back around 1992-1994 or so. The good news is considering the time passed my eyes aren't too much worse, though I do need magnifiers to tie flies now.. Just drug store +2.25 or there abouts. Nice little smallie. I haven't been out this year, I don't have a lot of steam to get going in the aftermath of my wife passing back in Dec. Normally I take my boat or wade sometimes too at a 4 mile pond here where this time of year the hexes should be hatching at night. I often get the remnant of the hatch at first light or otherwise early morning. That's something to think on too Steve if you get those hexes out your way, it seems every fish in the pond is up on those things and some are huge fish too.
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