DFoster

Nice fish on a classic river!

Thanks all! I hope those memories will last a lifetime with the little man- Besides I've got to leave all my fishing and tying stuff to someone!

This spill over is a wonderful place for anyone to learn to fly fish but especially children. There is a steep drop off at the shore edge and you only need to be able to cast out 10' or so to reach the deep water where the fish hold. It's a forgiving location with few things to snag on and room for a reasonable back cast. The pool is loaded with nice blue gills who don't care much if your drift isn't perfect. Friday I was able to take my 7 year old grandson out for little while. As you can see in the video his casting needs a little work but he's only 7 and better technique will come in time. The hook set was a bit of a problem with lots of strikes coming with a little too much slack line out. Also with the 5' 3" rod he was using you can't take up much of it when lifting on the strike. Learning these basics is just part of it and he did his best to follow a few pointers. I'm proud to say he was able to land 9 fish on his own in a little under an hour. Another and perhaps more important teachable moment occurred when he sunk a #14 foam hopper in his calf almost to the hook bend of the barbless hook. I quickly popped it out and while I put a band aid on him we had the "This is why we use barbless hooks and ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS wear sunglasses when we fly fish" discussion. A small band aid from the first aid kit is far better than the pain inherent with removing barbed hooks. There was no crying but I still asked him if he wanted to stop and head home. He looked at me like I was crazy and said sternly "I want to keep fishing"! I couldn't have been more proud.😊 IMG_0734.MOV

Yup- I have a can just like that. I don’t know about the other brands, but it certainly works well with Sally Hansen’s.

The shipping system hasn't been the same since covid. My daughter and son in law ordered a new standing freezer from a box store. It had some minor cosmetic damaged when it was delivered so they called to get an exchange. Our daughter told them that no one would not be home for the delivery but that the damaged freezer was in their unlocked garage and to just exchange it. When she got home she found that they had delivered to them someone's complete kitchen including a dishwasher, a stove and a refrigerator. Yet the damaged freezer still remained. More phone calls eventually resulted in the pick up of the kitchen appliances followed with a delivery of a new undamaged freezer but they still left the damaged freezer. After a few months my son in law sold it cash, considering that as a fee for putting up with stupid people.

I'm not familiar with the LL but a great fly rod is something to use an cherish. Good for you Gene!

I use 3 head lockers depending on what I'm doing. SHHAN is great stuff and it's what I use on most of my flies. If the pattern calls for U.V. resin somewhere on the body I will also use it on the head. I also prefer U.V. for gloss heads like those on winged wets. Bees wax on the thread prior to the whip finish works well if I want a dull head.

Thanks Mark- The Ausable Bomber was a "go to" brook trout fly of a friend who is now passed.

Small but wild-

FLAME THROWER- VARIANT HOOK: #6 UP EYE THREAD: #140 RED TAIL: YELLOW AND RED BUCK TAIL TAG: GOLD OVAL TINSEL- RED FLOSS ABDOMEN/BODY: LIFE CYCLE CADDIS DUBBING ORANGE RIB: GOLD OVAL TINSEL HACKLE: ORANGE AND RED HEN WING: NATURAL BUCK TAIL CHEEKS: JUNGLE COCK HEAD: S.H. HARD AS NAILS

AUSABLE BOMBER HOOK: #14 2XL DRY THREAD: FIRE ORANGE #140 TAIL: MUSKRAT GUARD HAIR ABDOMEN/BODY: AUSTRAILIAN OPPOSSUM HACKLE: BROWN AND GRIZZLY WING: CALF BODY HAIR HEAD: HARD AS NAILS

If you intend to fish with your flies you will be amazed at how little the fish care about premium materials. When I started I caught some really nice trout on some really poorly tied flies some of which I tied from feathers that my grandson collected from their chickens or from under the bird feeder. The dogs in our family had undercoats that made reasonable dubbing. After all using what was at hand is how this craft got started in the first place. Expensive materials have their place but save the pricey stuff for after you get some time at the vise. Good luck and enjoy!

According to Eric Austin the PMD No Hackle Dun is "the most difficult fly to tie correctly, bar none." I can't say I've ever tied one so I don't know. His video is below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3Hpt4kMt4o

Nice fish Guys!

Guys It's amazing to me that after 20 years of fly fishing and watching hundreds of you tube videos of others fly fishing that was the first time I saw this technique of wrapping shot.

Wow Mark - Looks like fun!

Great looking fish Steve!

Speaking of shot, I was watching "Trout Bitten" on you tube. He gives a great tip regarding the problem of shot slipping on the leader. After placing the tippet in the slot wrap the tippet around the slot once before very lightly clamping. I've been doing this, the shot can't move and you really only need to squeeze it on with the lightest force so it's easy to remove. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td6HHVXSmVs

Great looking fish Steve!

All this brought back a memory of when I went to see George Carlin in the 1980's. Part of his act that night was defining what a sport was. I remember he said something like "Activities and hobbies are fine but don't call them sports. If it can't cause injury or make you bleed it's not a sport". "And golf isn't a sport, you know why? Because there's no potential for violence, auto racing- now that's a sport"! I always think of fly fishing as more of an art or a craft but apparently it's a "sport". 😆 Trouttramp those Gordons look great!

What a blessing Grandchildren are! Your a lucky man Darrell!

Guys- magnets are your friend, so are barbless hooks. My tying desk is located in a corner of my wife's home office with the agreement that I keep it neat, clean and that every single hook is accounted for. She spends 8-10 hours most days in the office with our pups for company so losing a hook can't happen ever. To that end I have a extension handle mechanics magnet which is very powerful and I have never not recovered a dropped hook. Directly under the jaws of my vise I have a magnetic mechanics small parts tray. If I plan on tying 4 flies, then 4 hooks and only 4 hooks are placed in the tray. It also has a very strong magnet and does a great job of catching hooks or flies that get away from me when placing or removing them from the vise. Still this Saturday I had a #14 caddis emerger buried in my middle finger right up to the bend- Yipe! I was fishing a 2 fly rig, with a #18 nymph on the point and the emerger 18" above on the dropper. I caught a decent sized fall fish on the dropper, unhooked it and dropped it back into the river. On it's way down it hit the nymph and the weight of the fish pulled the emerger straight down and right into my finger. Fortunately these days I strictly fish barbless. 15 years ago I probably would have ended up in the ER as this one went in really deep, well past the barb. There some wincing involved but I was able to pull it out and continue fishing.

STONE FLY NYMPH HOOK: #10 2XL NYMPH THREAD: BLACK 6/0 UNDER BODY: .20 WIRE TAIL: TURKEY BIOTS ABDOMEN/BODY: UTC VINYL RIB- OLIVE WING CASE: TURKEY BIOTS THORAX: 50/50 MIX OF BROWN AND OLIVE DUBBING LEGS: GOOSE BIOTS

Our rivers are still high and flowing fast from last weeks rain. I had use large shot to get the flies down and ended up losing quite a few to the bottom #16 Ray Charles nymph and a #16 Olive CDC bead head were the producers-