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Fly Tying

Mark Knapp

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Posts posted by Mark Knapp


  1. I have an occasion where I need sinking grasshoppers to get down to some deep water sunfish. I found a couple of patterns on the internet that looked completely fine but I wanted something a little different.

    Here's what I came up with. These are neutrally buoyant so that they can be sucked in easily by feeding fish. I tied them on straight hooks and jig hooks to present them both vertically and horizontally.

    Havasu grasshopper.jpg

    Here's the bug I wanted to imitate.

    The first step, make the extended bodies.

    20240301_152330.jpg

    I used a needle in a cordless drill with clear silicone sealant, light tan or white, fine dubbing, tan tying thread and dry fly hackle for the organic look of the bodies.

    20240301_153325.jpg

    Apply clear silicone sealant to the needle.

    20240301_153354.jpg

    Then light tan or white, ultra fine dubbing is wrapped around the needle by running the drill slowly.

    20240301_154116.jpg

    Then smooth it all out with a wet finger while you spin it on the needle.

    20240301_152256.jpg

    Next pick out some dry fly hackle the color and size you need to get the effect you want. To imitate the hoppers at lake Havasu, I needed something grey/tan and reticulated. I chose about a size 12/14 Cree hackle. It worked perfectly.

    20240301_153132.jpg

    Next, I cut sections of the hackle the same length as the dubbing on the needle and stuck them to the dubbing. I used three or four pieces to go all around the dubbing body.

    20240303_111836.jpg

    Light tan 6/0, 70 denier thread was used to secure the hackle down. It was wrapped in a segmented fashion. You may use whatever color suits your purpose. Whip finish at the pointy end of the needle. Using a wet finger on the spinning body, smooth the whole thing out and remove with a Brassie or similar hair packer. After removal, the body can be stretched back out to original length and by rolling between wet palms the body can be smoothed out.

    20240301_153219.jpg

    They should look like this. This one is laying on the needle for a picture. The fuzzy ends are trimmed off after drying

    20240302_025616.jpg

    I usually make a bunch at a time and leave them over night to dry. I'll sort them and use the best ones for extended bodies and the rest for thoraxes and heads. Each one is good for two bodies or two head/thoraxes.

    Building the fly

    20240303_114513.jpg

    The bodies are cut in half and using the cordless drill.....

    20240303_105841.jpg

    or the dubbing needle, pierce the body through the center of the cut end and out the side about 1/3 of the way back. The cordless drill method being, by far, the easiest. This makes running the hook through much easier. I usually do all of the body pieces at once.

    20240302_025633.jpg

    I thread all of them on the hooks I want to use.

    20240303_110137.jpg

    Like these, or jig hooks...

    20240303_111342.jpg

    like these.

    20240302_025832.jpg

    They should be, in my opinion, tilted down in the back like a real hopper. More of the under wing will show if they are tilted down.The bodies are tied on and glued with something like Zap-a-Gap....

    20240303_110841.jpg

    or this stuff.

    20240303_112503.jpg

    The head/thorax body pieces are cut in half and "V" notches are cut into them with a cautery, so that they can be folded into a squared "J" shape.

    20240303_112618.jpg

    A groove is burned into the bottom of the long half of the head/thorax, with the cautery.

    20240303_113615.jpg

    The assembly is tied and glued on the hook with the groove in the body straddling the hook like so......

    20240303_143453.jpg

    or like this.

    20240303_113805.jpg

    A dubbing noodle is formed around the thread and applied like this. I like them loose and fuzzy but experiment and see what you like.

    20240302_030438.jpg

    Here's a tight one.

    20240303_113930.jpg

    The underwing is tied in. Pheasant tippet or wood duck flank feathers imitate hopper underwing well and add flash to the fly.

    20240303_115121.jpg

    Wood duck flank under wing.

    20240303_115527.jpg

    I like to match the underwing color with the body dubbing to add color and flash like this,

    20240303_124948.jpg

    or these.....

    20240303_132932.jpg20240303_145052.jpg

    20240302_031045.jpg

    20240304_151104.jpg

    An example on a jig hook.

    20240303_115702.jpg

    Mottled turkey is used to imitate the hoppers outer wing that I want to match.

    20240303_115947.jpg

    The outer wing is tied on with the lower third of the body exposed. The front is trimmed just in front of the forward wraps of thread and the back is trimmed just behind the underwing with scissors.

    20240303_125235.jpg

    The back wraps of the outer wing are made at the point between the extended body and the thorax.

    20240303_121923.jpg

    Feathers for the legs are selected. Ringneck pheasant chest feathers...

    20240304_053802.jpg

    Guinea foal and Argus Pheasant feathers make great legs

    20240302_031325.jpg

    About eight leg fibers in bunches of four each are tied in a crisscross fashion under the thorax. Here I tried tying the legs on before the outer wing to see if it would be easier. It didn't matter much.

    20240303_123643.jpg

    Here Argus Pheasant tail feather fibers were used for the big kickers that make hoppers hoppers. Rink neck Pheasant was used for the front four legs.

    20240303_135831.jpg

    Here, Wood Duck flank feathers were used for the four front legs and Argus Pheasant was used for the kickers.

    20240302_034817.jpg

    On his one, Ringneck Pheasant tail feather fibers were used for the kickers and Silver Pheasant tail fibers were used for the four front legs.

    20240304_220702.jpg

    One on a jig hook.

    20240304_220924.jpg

    20240304_221052.jpg

    These will be seen from all the way around, so here they are, viewed from all the way around. The are coated with head cement, in an attempt to make them more durable. I will report back after I get back from my trip.

     


  2. The last day of fishing in the "Big House". Alas, all good things must come to an end, we pulled it today.

    The ice is starting to go away, and I have some hunting to do on Kodiak with a friend so we pulled the fish house for the winter.

    Before we did that, we had a pretty good day of fishing.

    20240325_162839.jpg

    Two of my buds with the fish we kept. A mixed bag of rainbows, kings, char and a burbot. A Birch lake grand slam.

    IMG_20240326_143540.jpg

    My biggest char of this year, a 23 incher.

    IMG_20240326_143550.jpg

    We each fished a hole with a baited jig on a bobber and a hole with no bobber and just a jig. On this day the baited jigs with bobbers did the best but on some days, unbaited jigs and jigging does better.

    IMG_20240326_143620.jpg

    Along with my nice char, Dave caught his first burbot. Everyone had fun and another fishing season in the "Big House" comes to an end.

     

     

     


  3. My Cousin and her boy friend invited me out on a fly-in fishing trip to a remote lake in the Tanana River flats for some pike fishing through the ice.

    We immediately started catching fish as soon as we got to the lake.

    20240323_131646.jpg

    This one was the first one we caught, a 33 inch 10 pounder.

    20240323_131712.jpg

    We set tip-ups in half the holes, this one just got bit.

    IMG_20240326_144226.jpg

    We fished the rest with jigging poles.

    20240323_132147.jpg

    This is a cool tip-up. Lights start blinking when you get a bite.

    20240323_133129.jpg

    The crew, and the fleet.

    20240323_135531.jpg

    This is the average size of the fish we caught.

    20240323_155458.jpg

    My Cuz. and I. We Kept these five out of the 16 the three of us caught.

    20240323_173700.jpg

    On the way home, the airplane started acting up. The mixture wouldn't lean out. It was necessary to land in Nenana.

    IMG_20240326_144213.jpg

    The guys pulled the carburetor off and found that the bumpy ice surface on the lake had jarred the carburetor float and broke a hinge tab. We kind of expect a little bit of trouble every time we go out but we seldom expect airplane trouble. We always expect a good time even with a little bit of trouble.


  4. 20 hours ago, mikechell said:

    Guess I'm the odd man out here.  An old man who loves the science fiction-y stuff on new cars.  Getting close to the complete self driving cars I read about in sci-fi novels of my youth.  I'd love to get an extra hour's sleep on my daily 4:00am drive to work.  I drove a few of the lane following vehicles during my travels and they're great.  Not so good if you're heavy on the accelerator pedal ... but fantastic if you're in no hurry, which I rarely am.  A little irritating when you get behind something REALLY slow because it'll follow at the required distance, but otherwise, almost self driving on long highways.

    I like the fobs, too.  Wife's car is proximity fob, and set to shut the car off if the fob is more than 30 feet from the car.  She, literally, cannot be carjacked.  If she gets out and someone else drives off, they'll get 30 feet, and the car will shut off.

    I'm ready for it.  Give me a car I can sleep in while it takes me to work, or to a distant fishing hole.  Give me an implanted interface, so I can access the internet without typing on this keyboard.  Hell, give me a cyborg body that will let me live forever and see all the other fantastic things the future may still bring.

    If you out live us all, who's going to change your batteries?


  5. 5 hours ago, Steeldrifter said:

    Funny you posted this now, because just yesterday a buddy & I were just talking about these things. We went fishing locally for a couple hrs yesterday and he had his wife's car which is never drives. It's a new Honda (Civic I think? cant recall). But he was showing me how he doesn't like that it has a FOB and not a key to start, which I agree, I wouldn't like not having an actual key to start a car.

    Then when were were packing gear in the trunk and closed the trunk, it kept popping back open and would not stay closed. Finally figured out for some reason it was where he paid his FOB, it was too close to the trunk and it wouldn't stay shut because they car "thought" the FOB was being locked in the trunk. Personally I don't want a car "thinking" for me lol. Another thing I didn't like about it was it shuts off every single time you stop. I don't see how that is supposed to be a good thing. To me that is just added wear & tear on the starter/ignition system of a car.

    I dunno, maybe I'm getting old, but give me an old Chevy Blazer with a key and vent windows and am/fm radio and I'm happy.

    I'm glad you guys are fishing. I was out yesterday with my Nephew, teaching him to trap beavers. We had to cut through 30 inches of ice to find water.


  6. On 3/7/2024 at 3:03 AM, DFoster said:

    I sent the photo Norm posted to him and said that many custom knife makers in the U.S and Canada use antlers to make their handles.  I'm guessing that was a custom order for someone. A craftsman with that skill set could replace the handles on a set of tying tools and replicate the photo.  There must be people right in the U.K. who can do this type of work- google search should get him where he needs to be 

    You are correct sir, you did exactly right IMO


  7. 9 hours ago, DFoster said:

    If you're ok with it I'll tell him to reach out to you here.  He was looking for pricing, including shipping to the U.K.

    Well, I'm not looking for work right now. I'm not going to be taking in new stuff for a while. No Please. Thanks though, I probl'y should not have mentioned it.


  8. 15 hours ago, Poopdeck said:

    Just killing time and getting some practice in.

    Hook - 14

    Thread - Black 12/0 Veevus

    Tail - Moose body hair

    Body - Moose main, one dark one light hit with a lime green sharpie

    Wing - Mallard flank

    Hackle - Med ginger

     

     

    Those are beautiful.


  9. 3 hours ago, Heff2 said:

    Can’t wait for the SBS! Also, what is this I read about 3lb sunfish? Must be awesome on the fly rod.  Not gonna get that through a 6” hole in the ice, lol.  
     

     

    The world record where I am going is a 6.3 pound sunfish 17.5 inches long. My biggest so for is 3 pounds on conventional gear. Lots of fun.


  10. Yes Virginia, grass hoppers do sink, I think.

    The problems are:

    The fish are deep (25 to 30 feet down) and the target species does not rise to a fly. I have to get flies down to them.

    I will be away from my fly tying vise so I have to be ready with every fly I will need for a month and a half of fishing before I go.

    These sunfish are very unusual, they are more than four times bigger than usual and they eat strange stuff. No one has been very successful catching these fish on a fly so, lots of experimentation will be needed.

    It's a long way from home and there are not many/any fly shops at that location. I need to be well prepared.

    So far, we don't know of any standard fly patterns that works consistently for these fish, in this habitat.

    And there's not many people doing this.

    The good news is;

    I like this kind of thing, it's really challenging catching three to five pound sunfish.

    There are lots of real grasshoppers like this in the area, lots everywhere, like an invasion.

    I have lots of time.

    I have lots of materials at home.

    And there's not a lot of people doing this sort of thing so I should not have to watch for people in my back cast.

    One of the solutions, I think;

    Imitate one of the most common bug infestations in the area. Match the hatch.

    Havasu grasshopper.jpg

    I looked on line for sinking grasshopper/locust patterns for ideas. I found two, they were fine but I wanted to develop and tie my own pattern.

    Here's what I came up with.

    20240303_123643.jpg

    I tied them with different colored under-wings and bellies......

    20240303_135831.jpg

    I experimented with different legs...

    20240304_220702.jpg

    I tied some on straight hooks, and curved hooks, for fishing horizontally , and some on jig hooks for fishing more vertically.

    20240304_053919.jpg

    I tied a bunch of each variety.

    20240304_220924.jpg

    These all sink, I'm not sure if real grass hoppers really sink but I'm not the first one that ever tied sinking hoppers, and I'm pretty sure some do. I know for sure that if you put a real hopper on a hook and sunk it, fish would eat it. And I know the fish I want to catch, at 25 to 30 feet down, are not coming up to meet floaters so I have to bring these down to them.

    20240304_221052.jpg

    These are supposed to be cripples so I let some of the fillings show. I think the colors (hot spots) will be more attractive to sun fish too.

    Hopefully, these will work, we will see.

    I'm writing up an SBS for these, and will post it in the SBS section when it is done, for people that are interested.

     

     


  11. 5 hours ago, Heff2 said:

    Great collection,  looking forward to panfish myself.  
     

    I quite like the grasshopper at the end, is it a Knapp original? 

    As far as I can tell, it's an original. I'm sure someone has tied something like it but this one is all mine.

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