niveker

7 minutes ago, DarrellP said:

Can someone with good camera skills photograph the set and post it?

I'll post some photos when received, and let you guys be the judge of my photo skills. 

14 minutes ago, SilverCreek said:

 

I disagree about what kind of terrestrials will wise trout the most often.

Terrestrial insects have not evolved to live on the water. They land on the water by accident. Therefore, all real terrestrials will eventually sink. This includes crickets, hoppers, ants, etc.

Trout will take drowned terrestrials and a partially sunken terrestrial with legs in the water is an indication of a helpless insect. The hopper below is what trout want to see.

 

Not to hi-jack OP's thread, but I tend to agree with this theory, and maybe go even further.  For a while now I have been cutting the dry hackle short (Oh, the horror!) or even leaving it off, for some of my hair wing dries, especially the larger ones, to make them sit lower on the water - think of the haystack style fly.  .  As often as not, it makes a difference, but not always.  On the subject of hoppers, I have been lately messing around with tying Gartside's Pheasant Hopper, which basically uses deer hair legs and tail as 'out-riggers' to allow the fly to sit in the surface.  He also recommends adding split shot to make it sink. 

36 minutes ago, TIER said:

8wt, fast action, 9 foot reddington crosswater.

Very nice, Tier, be sure to post photos of the inaugural fish.     

 Nicely done, Landon. 

I'm not much of a video watcher when it comes to fly tying, I prefer to read a SBS picture tutorial.  I think most videos are far too long, and I like to jump back and forth between steps, so a SBS is much more convenient than jumping back and forth in a video.  Yours, however, solved both those issues, nice and quick, with written portions as needed.  Good job.  

I agree with petelangevin and in addition, I think you should start each video with a screenshot of the completed fly.  I always like to see what the tyer will produce, before I invest time in watching him do it.  (I did not go through all of your videos, so perhaps you do that in some of them.)

I'll also add that in reading your posts on this forum, you seem like a very intelligent, respectful, helpful, and accomplished young guy.  Keep up the good work.  

24 minutes ago, mikechell said:

Details?  What weight, make, etc.

Love the color!

Ditto!

Nice ties, Philly. Those 'squid' flies look like they would work well on crappie on our local lake. 

15 hours ago, DarrellP said:

In the mail!  I went ahead and sent flies to Bob Nelson, who withdrew due to his wife's illness.  If you had room in your envelopes, i put in some woven cords from Flatrock Native.  Outstanding flies,  gentlemen.

Thanks for the update, DarrellP. Looking forward to getting them. 

There's a very lucky swapper somewhere out there. Very nice work all 'round, Mark  

14 hours ago, vicente said:

Was finally able to get my new 10ft 6wt from Steve out on the water for a bit today, caught 4 decent sized bass and this fatty pan fish.

You certainly know how to christen a rod, Vicente. Nice fish pictures. 

12 hours ago, pickin6ofem said:

As far as the terrestrial due date I'm happy to push back to June 14th if that would give you the time needed and get off the fence

Pickin'

Thank you, Pickin', I appreciate the offer, but I'm going to have to sit this one out.  It looks like your swap is filling up, so that's good.  But I do look forward to contributing to one of your future 'favorite' swaps.  

First woolly mammoth hair, now monster fish. 

Great job Mark, and happy birthday old boy.  

4 minutes ago, feathers5 said:

They look great. You really do a great job.

Agreed.  Simple, clever, and effective Capt.  

Yes, a big thanks to those who take the time to host. 

16 hours ago, pickin6ofem said:

I agree thanks to all who host!! 

I have noticed a lot less people are swapping any thoughts as to why? 

Pickin’ 

I can't speak to other's reasons, or to long term, but this time of year for me, tying time goes down as fishing time goes up. That said, I do enjoy the swaps and I'm on the fence with your terrestrial swap, trying to come up with a pattern I'm comfortable tying for others and can complete in the time frame given. 

21 hours ago, Capt Bob LeMay said:

Here's a tip I had to learn the hard way... Whenever you come up with something new or maybe just a bit different... Tie up more than one and leave the best one on your bench - don't fish it... If the pattern works you'll then have a "master" to make another one (or a hundred of them if you're tying for shops...).  As a commercial tyer I learned the great value of having master patterns that I carefully retained over the years... That way I could always make another (and get dimensions, materials, and colors to match exactly - even if a second order came ten years later....).

With a master pattern there on the bench in front of you, the tying process not only becomes easier - but much quicker as well since each it's a simple matter to trim materials to the exact dimensions with that master to compare to... All these years later I actually have boxes of master patterns.

 

Pure frustration when something you tied up casually - works so well that you want a bunch of them - but you're only tying from memory... Been down that road myself on more than one occasion... 

This is great advice, Capt, especially for a new tier.  When I first started, I never did that, and would lose a producing fly and have no record of it and not remember what pattern it was. So I started taking a photo of each new pattern I tied on, then of course I would forget the name of the pattern and recipe. So I started a spreadsheet with pattern names, recipes, and photos of the flies I tied. Having a 'hard copy' is an even better idea. 

BTW, great flies everybody, keep them coming. 

The green background makes it hard to see colors, but my first thought was BWO, but at that size I would agree with blue quill. 

Thanks all, it's great having a small lake right down the street when time is short. Those gills are always willing when the weather gets warmer. 

On 5/2/2020 at 9:15 PM, petelangevin said:

Nice fish,  and wet and cold describes our spring perfectly.  

Yeah, Pete. It's been pretty nasty, and now that we've gotten decent weather the last few days, I've been doing nothing but catch up on yard work. So all I have is a few minutes in the evening to throw some bugs in the lake right down the street. Hopefully I'll  be able to hit the rivers soon for some trout fishing

15 hours ago, Jacks Grampa said:

Nice bug and pretty fish. Crappie is the one freshwater fish I sometimes keep.

I know they are real good eating, Gramps, but I seldom keep anything I catch, maybe 2 or 3 a year, usually trout.  When I fish with my  brother-in-law, whos from the Pennsylvania woods, he nearly has a coronary when I throw a crappie back, LOL. 

I was able to get some shore fishing in down at the lake this evening for an hour or so. The spring weather here in New England has been cool and wet, with on and off showers the last two days. The sunfish were hungry though, and it's always a treat to catch a crappie on the fly from the shore. All caught on a size 10 olive sparrow, the picture of the fly wet doesn't do it justice, it has some great action in the water from the marabou.

5 minutes ago, TSMcDougald said:

 

LOL, perfect. Wish all my mistakes turned out looking that good.   

1 hour ago, TSMcDougald said:

Adams, Gray Wulff and Gnat hackle stackers

Nice looking flies, TS. 

I prefer that style over a parachute, but only maybe 1 in 10 of my stacked hackles look that good.  

29 minutes ago, flytire said:

The Belle Watling

Nice tie, as always, Norm. 

Thats a great name for the fly.  

Having never heard nor seen that fly pattern, I did a quick search and came upon this description of the fly at an old LJ DeCuir website (I think) through the University of Kentucky.  I thought it was an amusing description of a fly pattern, and I love a good fly tale, so I copy and paste it here: 

The Belle Watling

This phlaming phlorescent phloosey, the hottest thing to come out of the South since Sherman's March to the Sea, began life as a staid and stolid New England maiden. Years of puritanical privation, however, festered under her stiff, starched skirts. Decades of diligent down and across dunking as the former Parmachene Belle finally found fruition in the balmy breezes of Dixie and emerging from her encased enclosure she enthusiastically embraced her new nomenclature now known as The Belle Watling! Some say she's a serpent and siren, but she has ripped the restraints of retrograde respectability reveling in her recently repressed but now fervent and unfettered freedom. Scatter boys, she's hot cargo!

Slipping her stiffly starched strictures she first presented her passionate percolating possibilities on the Clinch River in East Tennessee. This seemingly mild mannered tailwater meanders through secret sites in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (The Atomic City) releasing radioactive rainbows and bruising bionic browns. Fish that glow in the dark were fuming at fogeyish flies and fairly floundered on the Belle's fluid, fluttering and flaming feathers.

Her second succulent success came at SEC-I on that simmering section of stream below Moomaw Dam in Virginia where the previous purveyors of illegal lighting turned landowners were locked in legal flagellation with intrepid trespassers upon their traditional territories. The waters fairly boiled with controversy and into this churning caldron clambered The Belle to come forth as champion catcher of colossal char-like critters.

With the trout types trembling timidly at her toes she trecked on to weave her wiles in yet wider worlds. Bluegill, smallmouth and hunkering hawgs hung on her hotly highlighted hems. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: The Flaming Flash, The Phlourescent Phenomena, The Fabulous Floozy: THE BELLE WATLING

FISHING THE FLY:

The Belle Watling (named after Rhett Butler's favorite madam) is best fished with a little action to get the Krystal Flash moving. She likes to wiggle her hips. In moving water she can be fished like a wet fly, but often your hits will come at the end of the swing as you start a slow retrieve back. In slow or still water your best bet is usually a slow, erratic retrieve. Initially designed for trout she has also proved deadly on a variety of other fish. Bluegills and smallmouth love her and big lunker hawgs go wild when she swivels her hips. She has a wide variety of flashy costumes that she can change into as the conditions require. Just vary the color of the floss body as you desire.

Beautiful work, Bryon.  The speckling on that one net handle is a perfect touch.  

1 hour ago, petelangevin said:

Along the same line,  the sparrow.

The sparrow is one of my favorite style of flies to tie and to fish.  

When tying, I try not to get hung up on which type of bird to use or what specific bird's feather a recipe calls for, but rather concentrate on the qualities (stiff, soft, length, markings/pattern) required of the feather.  It simplifies things, in my way of thinking, and I get more mileage out of the materials I have on hand.  This applies to any material in fly tying, IMHO, not just feathers.  

If you browse the Jack Gartside site mentioned above by petelangevin, and read Jack's musings on the nearly limitless uses of a pheasant's skin, you'll see what I mean.    

 I've never heard it described as a 'grayling fly', but I used to have pretty good luck with a Zug Bug when I was 'way up North'.  Pretty simple to tie and relatively common materials.  

LOL.  They really are pretty little things.