Mark Knapp

Where is it?

I'm still tying for a future trip to Arizona for some trophy sunfish. The guide I hired said "Tie something up that looks like baby crayfish, about an inch long, orange and green. I Googled Lake Havasu crayfish to see what they look like down there. Here's what I came up with. Here's a herd of them. Hook- Size 10 jig hook Thread- 6/0 olive unithread Claws- ring-neck pheasant breast feathers died olive green Weight- 30ga. lead wire or comp. Legs- Chinese neck hackle, grizzly died orange Body dubbing- half orange, half olive fluff from bottom of hackle feathers, blended Eyes- melted yellow 40 lb. monofilament Shell back- olive green grizzly hen hackle. The last time I showed some crayfish similar to these a few people asked for and SBS so I did one up this time around. You can find it in the SBS sub-forum Here.

Well said, bud.

Perhaps if I had some Grandchildren of the opposite sex I could impress them with my fly tying. My wife is becoming more and more difficult to impress. Now whenever I show her a fly that I am particularly proud of she just kind of glances up and says "That's nice dear" with not even that much faked sincerity. You're probably right, I don't know any enthusiastic female fly fishers.

Now that I've watched the video, I agree with most of what you said. As Poop said, fly tying need not be expensive. It can be if you want it to be. Agree with you about catching fish on a fly you created.

I haven't watched the video yet, but I will. My answer is always of course it's worth it. People tie for many reasons, not just to save money. It's almost like asking "Is reading a book worth it." I tie to; Unwind and relax, have time to myself To make things I've never seen anyone else make, to get flies that are not otherwise obtainable to me. In some cases I save money. To let the creative side of my brain out To astound my friends and impress members of the opposite sex. It's worth it for all of these reasons except the last one. That one never works. Now I'll watch the video.

And to you my friend. And everyone else here.

Great idea.

I whole bunch of really nice Royal Coachman variants. Nice work everyone.

OK, it must be public knowledge now.

It's another beauty.

I wonder if the patent has run out on the bent arm design.

Norm, the optics are excellent, great job on all of them. The eyes are really good. What's the hook size?

They are as good as any I've tied with. I'm not as much of a hook aficionado as some of the guys here so some of the subtleties my be lost on me. I don't see the smooshed wire end on the eye that you see on some hooks.

You are right sir.

Nice.

Thanks guys, it took me six years to catch the tiger.

Beautiful

Yep, it's from Alaska waters. We have 36 different species of rock fish in Alaska waters and many of them are very beautiful. You can see some of them, if you like at my blog. Here, http://akflytyer.blogspot.com/ I also, got video of the tiger rockfish biting my fly. Here The first fish biting the fly is a ling cod. Then you see some black rockfish, quilback rockfish, coppers and China Rockfish.

My first (and only) tiger rockfish on a fly. My first halibut on a fly.

I might be more like him than I care to admit. I wouldn't pretend to compare to him when it comes to fishing or tying, just the other stuff.

Yes, I do, and I am honored. I'm quite sure he spent a lot more time making the fly than I did making the alteration to his vise. George is a good dude.

Wow, really nice fish. Great trip.

I was going to say Muddler Minnows but Val beat me to it.

This falls under the heading of "I have one of these and you don't so neener, neener, neener " George sent me this when he sent his vise for altering. As you can see, it holds a prominent place in my fly tying room with some other special stuff. Thank you George. I'm pretty sure there's not going to be very many other people that will need their HMH altered but, I will work for feathers. Just putting that out there.