milkman

Keep an open mind at garage sales, look on the tables you would normally pass. I bought a 6-foot red feather boa for 25c. A lifetime supply.

Sorry, a little late here, but I just ran across this. Some months back I bought a pack of dished sequins at Wally World, super cheap as usual. They were red, had a gently concaved shape, and as I recall, several sizes in the pack, all small enough for flies. Almost weightless of course like typical sequins. I thought it was crazy at the time, but what the heck, fish like vibrations, and I figured they would provide that just like the lip on a crank bait. My plan was to slip one onto the bare hook right up to the eye with the dished side forward, then tie the fly behind it. It might get a little inconvenient working behind the disc, especially tying off, but probably worth the effort. I can't conveniently locate the package to photograph. Just picture a typical sequin, except dished.

Well, I see my mistake has been punching little cylinders out of the flip-flop and making poppers. I didn't realize I was supposed to use the whole thing to make the fly.

I was given the book for Christmas by a beloved niece who is an editor for a major magazine. She knew I was a voracious reader and interested in tying and, without reading it herself, surmised this might be a good fit. I found the book to have virtually zero about the tying of flies. But I found it to be absolutely fascinating. The first half anyway. They should have stopped there, but then there was this dull wild goose chase (no pun intended) where he tried to count the feathers and skins still around. Dull, deadly boring, and the book sort of just wound down. It was interesting that the museum had no clue what they had. If he had left some in each drawer the theft might have never been noticed. But someone eventually wanted to look in a drawer, and an empty drawer with a label is some sort of clue. My late wife was in charge of accessions for a museum, and there was a major paper trail for everything that come in or went out, they knew what they had and where it all was at all times. He sold birds, skins, feathers, some with museum packing in the eyes and museum labels attached. Buyers had to know, but apparently didn't care since they had money and a source. He beat the rap with apparently no remorse, not the best outcome for my taste, but that didn't detract from the interesting narrative. It's not about fly tying. It seems to be well written. I learned a lot about a subject I knew nothing about, which is plenty of justification for reading the variety of things I read. I consider my time well spent. I can't pick up an owl feather out of my own woods, but I understand the logic. If sale and/or possession are allowed, there will be birds killed.

I've been admiring the potato chip bag lately for the very shiny silver interior with a variety of outer colors. A dollar will buy you a square foot or so at Dollar General, and as a bonus you get all those free munchies inside.

Back before autocad I spent a lot of time (mechanical design) bent over a drawing board, and I'd get bad upper back pains between the shoulder blades. My late wife was doing some shoulder therapy and commented about this to the therapist. Therapist asked if my jaws popped. Yes, a condition I've had sorta forever. From 50 miles away and with just this brief exchange with my wife, she solved my problem. I was holding my head forward. I started paying attention and sure 'nuf, I kept my head pulled back to some normal position and I never got back pains again. Started again a few years ago after losing the wife. Cooking and cleaning up the kitchen means bending a bit for me, and I fall into the old pattern of head forward with the old results. Pain drives me away until I get my back straightened out for a while in my recliner, but no problem if I pay attention. Hope there's something in this that helps a little.

Call me old-fashioned (I am), but when I find something I want to ever see again, I make a hard copy. Not just flies, any kind of information. I have Wallyworld print photos of images (my printer and computer are not too terribly compatible), I copy and paste text and print it out. Comes from a lifetime of storing information before the computer took over our lives. Probably too much hassle for most folks, but it's sorta handy to be able to put a photo above the vise and tie somewhere besides at the computer. I'm still at the "monkey see/monkey do" stage, and visuals are helpful.

Thanks Mike. Good to know it's not my inability to click on a link. Basically great site, I can deal with the glitches. Thanks to the administrator for keeping this site alive.

When I find a fly I like in a forum that says it is in the database, I am unable to access it. I click on the link and it takes me to the main menu. I got to the database and try to search by keyword and I am sent to the main menu. Most recently I tried searching by tyers name and the fly was not there. What am I doing wrong? Thanks.

I like that. A permanent reminder of what's underneath.

Yard sales and garage sales are common in NE Okla, Thursday to Saturday or Sunday, estate sales preferred but not as common. I run my errands on Thursday or Friday A.M. (~50 mile round trip to town, different route going and coming) to beat the weekend shopping crowd. I sure hit pay dirt last weekend at one of those sales where they were just trying to get rid of stuff. Spent $3 (three dollars) and got 61 new unopened spools 200 or 225 yard acrylic punch embroidery yarn, plus 104 spools mostly less than half used, plus a new spool each of gold, silver and pearlescent thread. Every color under the sun, full range of crawdadish hues, and dupes are in white, black and red. Someone had tried the hobby and wanted out. I conservatively estimate over 23,000 yards. I realize this won't solve all my thread problems, but it will sure entertain me for the rest of my life tying warm water flies to donate to the waters. Sure, I hit a lot of sales not worth the stop, but occasionally I make up for it. One problem at that sale, they didn't leave me much room to negotiate on price.

Interesting point. I was looking for "the scrape", without considering the characteristics of the underwater sound. Bass might sort the metal sound into some category other than crawfishy.

Soft, flexible, textured, crawdad color. What's not to like? A friend gave me a bag of these finger cots as a joke (which I shouldn't have to explain).

I'd say my question was fairly well answered. And based on what has always worked, they'd probably eat a crawdad fly tied sideways. And yes, whatever way, the hook point must be up. I never thought about the problem of probable twist with the rudders forward, Mike. Thanks, and thanks to all. I'll tie them backward. I understand they make a scraping sound as they crawl on rocks, and bass home in on that. I was wondering how to add something to scrape, maybe little wire whiskers. Saw a fly somewhere (here?) with 4 beadchain pairs beneath, plastic I think. Don't recall the explanation, too big and too dark to be in berry, but I saw an answer. Multiple metal beadchain would provide the scrape sound and eliminate the need for lead. I'm sort of guessing I need a little strip of foam topside to assure which way is up. Maybe foam body which will also keep the beads from wrapping and getting too high relative to hook shank. Experimenting will answer all, as usual. Probably overkill, they eat crawdads any ol' way, but aint it fun thinking we're outwitting them.

Crawdads move slowly headfirst unless spooked, and then they dart backward very quickly. As I understand the research, bass prefer to suck in an undisturbed crawdad. Less effort expended due to no chase needed and no effort expended to turn the prey around to swallow. So why does every crawdad fly version I see have the hook point at the head end and pull the crawdad backward? We're supposed to fish them slowly, and crawdads don't creep backward. Yes, it looks a bit awkward with the point exposed back there instead of sort of lost in the area of the antennae and claws. But virtually every other imitation has the hook blatantly exposed, so it shouldn't be a deciding factor here. Also, research has shown that bass prefer smaller claws, yet most crawdad flys seem to make a big feature of the claws. Sure, it looks more crawdaddish to us, but who are we trying to please here, us or the fish?

Why didn't I think of that??? I'm still looking for my deckle edge cutter in my older stored darkroom stuff. For you youngsters, photos used to come back from the processor with a nifty uneven edge, like the photos granny had stored in her shoebox. Only darkroom users would know about the tool. You get a notched and bulged cut that would be useful for all kinds of bugs etc. My 1st attempt at attaching a picture. Sorry if it doesn't work.

The hay was baled and on the ground. You had a hook to grab the other end and young muscles to heave it onto the wagon. For reasons which I still don't understand, the wagons were never less than chest high, and you were tossing the second layer head high. The really fun part was the dust and itch in the summer heat. Any other job sounds good after that.

Lordy I hate to rain any more on your parade, but you have no idea of the pitfalls around the edges of sales income. In Oklahoma we have sales tax, state, county, and city. State tax was a constant, but the others all had their individual tax rates. There are over 700 sales tax jurisdictions in Oklahoma, mostly overlapping. I ran a small mail order sideline. The point of sale was defined as the point of delivery, so sales tax had to be calculated based on the buyer's location. States are really uptight about sales tax, so there's precious little hiding if you advertise. Unfortunately, tax jurisdictions are political divisions totally unrelated to zip codes, which are a postal function. So you have no clue what tax jurisdictions are involved when you have only an address. Example, Chelsea is a small town at the corner of 3 counties and has only one zip code for the town and rural delivery. So a buyer might be in or out of town limits and in any one of 3 counties - a lot of possible sales tax combinations, and you have to report the tax collected for each jurisdiction separately. And you have no clue without driving there and seeing their actual location and somehow bucking that against the geopolitical tax boundaries, which of course are not marked by the roadside. Result, it was absolutely impossible to legally sell by mail to in-state buyers. Hopefully something has changed, but I doubt it, I was never able to get anyone interested in increasing sales tax collections by making in-state sales possible. So every ad said no sales in Oklahoma. I could sell in other states due to not having a physical presence there, so no sales tax was due. States are working on that now, so the nightmare groweth. I wouldn't want to talk anyone out of entrepreneurship. But prepare for a nightmare in all kinds of ways you can't imagine now that get more complex every year, and they don't notify you about things like that. So have an accountant to keep you out of trouble. Yeah, I paid my dues at child labor too. Mowed yards all summer with a reel-type mower, all we had back in '49, for the princely sum of 50 cents per. Jerked sodas and swept drug store floors around '53 at 15. Probably two generations now don't know what a soda jerk is. I firmly believe everyone should buck hay at least one summer. After that you'll really appreciate any other job you get. All that aside, I'm proud of you for hustling with your nose out of the smart phone. You'll do well. Best wishes.

Nylon cold flows under pressure, I wasn't able to find anything like delrin washers, and spinning reel drag washers are all too small, so I used a purchased spring for tension. Thus running my total cost sky high up to a couple of bucks or so. However, you need to call your banker before running to the hardware store to buy brass fittings. I've got brass from my habit of always buying spares when doing any plumbing job over these many years, but for some reason I thought of wood first. I like both examples displayed here better. Wood doesn't have good slip/stick characteristics, and getting free enough spin I wound up with a tad of wobble. I like your nylon ferrules, great for alignment bushings, and I've got extra bolt length that required a spacer, so I can add things. My ferrules are all brass so I'll trot down to the hardware store for some nylon and see how they fit my bolt. Thus running my cost radically higher. Some folks like tinkering more than other folks, so some think we're crazy for such projects. But fly tying itself raises hands-on tinkering to a whole nuther level, so maybe this isn't so far-fetched for this hobby.

Whew! I had to see what kind of fish y'all were seeking where you would use a fly representing an adult crane. I have this rule, I don't hunt anything that hunts back, and I was imagining a fish big enough to swallow an adult crane. What a relief to find it's only my ignorance of something apparently called a crane fly.

Another thing... Inflation. It's a good thing we don't have any inflation. No telling how fast prices would be going up on everything.

Wow! I love natural materials, and this is simply beautiful. There's something pleasant about using natural materials for relaxing times. I've pretty well sold off the more exotic parts of my late wife's skull collection and am more or less down to common items of no particular value, i.e. no reason to feel guilty about depriving the world of a collectible specimen. So you've got me thinking about something like a skull base with one horn mounting the clamp. I'm going to put some thought into this. Thanks for sharing this jewel.

Fatman - thanks. I recently geared up with a brand X Dremel for no reason other than I always wanted one. Now I see a use for it. I've thought a lot about a strip of foam along the top of the shank instead of building up a body with dubbing or chenille. Why not help the flotation this way instead of using body materials that soak up water and then depend on surface tension. (Still, voice of no experience). It's easy to think this way in warmwater country where matching the hatch is not particularly an issue.

Searching foam bodies here reminded me of a box of stuff I stored. Curiosity looking at the scraps from a little plumbing repair got me to trying this to get a round foam popper body with a scoop front. Lowe's will sell you a 6-foot stick of this pipe insulation for 97 cents, today's price, and that should be a two lifetime supply. Get the small size shown (1/2 ") for the tight curve. The punch I used is .357 caliber and requires no sharpening. After punching the first one I realized removing the primer would make it a lot easier to extract the popper body. Line up a little off center as shown and you get the offset scoop. You can see from my sophisticated high tech die that I only punched three, enough to convince me that this is a piece of cake, maximum effect for minimum effort and virtually zero cost. I would probably try to also locate a .45 caliber punch someday. I bought more poppers on dozen cards than I'll use in a long, long time, one of those super deals where you know if you ever buy another popper you're making a big mistake today. So I haven't tried tying any of these. But I'm guessing the body is ready, no more work needed, just tie legs on near the back to pull the body down to a taper.

To Lash Larue, every problem looked like it need to be solved with a whip. With a half century or so of mechanical design behind me, everything looks like it needs to be gadgeted in one way or another, although without machine shop backup it mostly happens in my barn now.