rstaight

When I'm finished with a fly I put it on a fly patch. It doesn't go back in the box till I get home. As far as the vise. When we had a local fly shop they sold Renzetti and Dyna King. A lot of tyers I know have one of those 2 brands. Since I didn't want what everyone else had, have always been that way somewhat. I purchased a Griffin Mongoose, I love the damn thing. However I do not use it for dries, but I use it for most everything else.

Sounds like a defective bobbin. But if it is a burr or knick in the tube, one trick I was told was to tie a deer hair popper using the same bobbin with kevlar thread. It will knock off the imperfections in the tube.

I have hackle gages that I purchased when I started tying. Turned out to more of a hassle than a help for me. As Crackaig said, everything you need for proportion is in the hook. When I am going to tie more than a few flies in a session I will tie 3 to get my techniques squared away. Then those 3 flies either have the materials stripped of the hooks or they go in my fly box as cripples. If I tie more than 3 they are for someone else.

We fish smallies a lot here in Indiana and a good 6wt is all you really need. There are a lot of guys who do use a 7wt or 8wt. Setup pretty basic. The TFO rods are a good mid range choice. For the reel, what is your preference. Line is simply a floating weight forward. If you need to get a little deeper use a longer leader. My bass setups are 5, 7, and 9 weight St. Croix Avid. The 9wt is for largemouth, pike, and saltwater. These are the previous generation rods before they screwed up the blank. The reel I have on these are the Orvis Rocky Mountain cartridge reel. Thought I may want to change lines between float and sink tip. Never have. You mentioned that you will never cast over 60'. True, at least in our neck of the woods we won't cast much over 20' or 30'. But the ability to cast 60' is nice in heavy wind.

One of the guys in my fly fishing club preps his own skins. I doubt he has ever purchased natural materials. He gave me some starling one year. Said he looked out his den window and saw a flock in the yard. Grabbed his 410 shot gun, slowly slid the window open and .......... He would skin the critter and stretch the pelt across a board using nails. Cover it with borax and let it set a few days. Dump off the borax and repeat. How many times he did this depended on if the borax was dry when he dumped it off. Another gentleman hit 3 or 4 Guinea in the road. He stopped and picked them up. He skinned them and used the borax method to dry them. That is some of the nicest Guinea I have gotten my hands on.

A Thunder Creek is a simple minnow pattern using 2 colors if bucktail.

Fantastic, what else is there to say.

Here are the links to Hatches Magazine jig building instructions. This is the one I use. www.hatchesmagazine.com/page/may2006/185 www.hatchesmagazine.com/page/may2006/187 ​

Nice tie, I will have some of these for my next trout trip. They look awesome, when I'm hooking browns all my buddies will know is it's a nymph. Then when we are packing up the car to come home I'll give them each one. In a different color of course.

Steve, I worked at Omni Forge as a CNC programming engineer and die shop supervisor until I was "downsized" in December of 08. Depending on how old you are you may remember it as Remington Forge or refer to the plant as "the rope factory". There is not a lot in Remington, a wire spool factory and I think Monsanto. Can't remember the other, haven't been through there since 09. Wildcat Creek and the Tippecanoe River are excellent for smallmouth. As well as Sugar Creek going through Crawfordsville. We had a gentleman speak at a club meeting from the Nature Conservancy and he stated that the Tippecanoe was the 7th most diverse river in the Eastern U.S.

Been thinking about replacing my felt soled boots. Just a matter of time before they are outlawed in the areas I fish. A broken lace never kept me off the water. I have had laces break, just tie it back together with a square knot and everything works fine until you can get new laces. Still some good info, will have to give the BOA systems a look see.

Most people I have fished with seem to have either the odd numbers or even. They go 3, 5, 7 not 4, 5, 6. Me I have everything form 2 through 9 and multiples of some. What do I use the most? When trout fishing in Wisconsin it's my 6ft, 4wt bamboo. When I'm fishing the Gulf Coast of Florida it's my 9ft 9wt. When fishing around home, it's that 8ft Gander Mountain 4wt I mentioned earlier in this thread.

Welcome, Been here a short time myself.

FlaFly, No, not from Florida, live in Lafayette Indiana. Get to fish on the Gulf Coast of Florida at least once a year. Prybis, We have met, I was President of Tippecanoe Flyfishers for part of 2008 through December 2009.

Forgot to mention, that is an awesome butterfly.

There was a gentleman you has since passed that worked at a fly shop in Indianapolis IN. He would tie up little white mice on pins and give them to the wives that came into the store. My wife has hers in a promanent place in her jewlery box.

When I get the chance to fish saltwater it is normally from Clearwater to Sarasota Florida. By far the most productive fly for me is a Falsh Pilcher. Never had much luck with Apt's, Roaches, or Clousers.

I will offer my apologizes before I start, just in case, but I found this funny. When Colorado voted to allow same sex marriage they also voted to legalize marijuana. They had no choice. In the book of Leviticus it says if a man lays with another man he must be stoned.

My tying bench is 1920 era roll top desk. All the cubby holes are full of dubbing, marabou, hair patches, and hooks just to start. The drawers have buck tails, foam and various items. I also have a six drawer lingerie chest filled with nothing but feathers and bird pelts. And I'm running out of room. ' This is an addiction, when I started tying I said I would need nothing more than a large tackle box and a solid wood TV tray or the kitchen table.

A priest and a rabbi grew up in the same town together. They happen to be back home visiting at the same time and run into each other. They deicide to take a walk together and reminisce about old times. They come to a bridge over a creek and the one says to the other I used to take a leak off this bridge in my younger days. The other says, so did I. So they look at each other and whip em out. The Priest looks at the Rabbi and says "Lord that water is cold", the Rabbi replies "Deep to". ​

Some of my club members have been thinking about a fly for silver carp. They stack up like cord wood below the damn at Lake Freeman. There is a local guide now that does carp trips. Some of the guys that go on bone fish trips take a couple of weeks carp fishing to brush up.

Went out with my fishing buddies a number of years back to make some rounds of fly shops since it was mid winter and we had nothing else to do. I came home with a Gander Mountain 4 weight (when they had a good flyfishing department in our area), reel, line and backing. My wife asked "How many fishing rods do you need"? I told her I wanted a pile big enough that she couldn't tell when I added another one. Just about there.

Mike, Originally from Western Ohio in Preble county. Moved to Richmond IN when I met my wife 1980. Then in 1997 took a job in Remington IN and moved to Lafayette. Fish Wildcat creek and the Tippecanoe river when ever I can. Have always wanted to fish the Eel river in Logansport but have not had the opportunity.

I build my own furled leaders out of 140 denier tying thread for my bamboo rods. I use 2lb mono for my other rods fresh or salt. I have made them out of 4lb and 10lb but like the 2lb best. WIth the jig I use I get 22 strands in the butt section of the leader. That equals a 44lb butt section with 2lb test. The 10lb test is 220lbs. The backing would be to thick and you would be able to pull a truck with it. With 25lb test dacron backing that would be a butt section of 550lb test. If anything up north needs 550lb test, call me, I'm on the first plane out. Like anything they are a compromise, they turn over great and float well. They have some stretch that will protect your rod tip from the harshed of strikes. The stretch also protects your 7x tippet. They also have less of a tendency to get a "wind" knot. Though I have never seen the wind grab my leader and tie a knot in it. It always seems to happen behind my back. They do have a tencency to "spray" and because of wind resistance they can be a challenge to cast the distances needed for saltwater. If and when you do get a wind knot they are difficult to get out. Don't even try, just change the leader.

Those look great. I'm not the purist, I'm in favor of anything that makes tying easier. If I fished areas that I needed stonefly patterns I would use them. That would be so much easier than tying in turkey biots.