Charlie P. (NY)

I'm certainly not at a level of experience to critique, or a design engineer, but there are features I like and look for. Pedestal with heavy base. Ability to adjust for squareness & tension. Hook grip and head movement. Rotary should go back to top-dead-center repeatedly and easily. A truly plumb vice wouldn't need that but a middling one like I can justify can be made MUCH nicer if it can be squared up/centered/aligned - hex wrenches & set screws fine as it's a once & done feature. Too many thumb screws become material tanglers. Multiple jaws. No one jaw can do 28 to 4/0 (although I've only tried & tied 24 to 2/0 so far). Rotary feature. Low glare or gloss finish.

May well be just that. Certainly having the ability to build your own should make it ideal to your needs. And for the most part they would be pretty universal. They are basically just clamps. Looking forward to following the build.

Very nice. One bit of advice I was given years ago for early season is "go deep". But lately it's more sink initially and then lift. What is the tail fiber in your second one? It looks iridescent in the image. Great macro images as well.

Me as well. I don't watch football or basketball either. 'Course, the first five years we were married 1980-1985 we had a 9" diagonal Hitachi B&W TV. Not much for sports. Our "big" TV is 19" and we have a 13" in the kitchen for morning news. But I have a 21" iMac monitor! When I was a kid I'd listen to the baseball games on the radio (I could get NY and Chicago) as I did my homework. That was better IMHO. TV games never appealed to me. I'd MUCH rather attend a high school or AA game than watch the pros. The crowd and aura add so much.

Wow! New to me!

For a bazillion years there were Mustad 3906B for wet flies, 9672 for nymphs and Mustad 94833 for dry flies. All any of the local stores carried, I'm liking the Gamakatsu and Tiemco (TMC) hooks lately. Still use the Mustad 9672 for woolly buggers and large nymphs/streamers, but when they run out it will be TMC. The TMC 200R ties up into a nice nymph shape, and works for foam hoppers as well. As far as sizes: Dries on 14 & 16 (have at least one pattern on a 10 for drakes /March browns) Nymphs on 6 to 18 Streamers on 2 to 12 Hoppers 8 to 12 There is a crossover in the Nymphs/Streamers for some patterns in how they are fished.

The body is just more mayflyish than a real mayfly!

Probably anything calling for muskrat or otter would work with mink. I find the Rosborogh Casual Dress a VERY versatile nymph for trout, panfish and bass. Just a fuzzy blob with a darker head - but all the fur gives it action in the water. I have even tied this one with hair from a silver Maine Coon Cat. ;-) And he would sit on the gunnel of our sailboat and watch me use it! https://news.orvis.com/fly-fishing/video-tie-casual-dress Rosborogh Muskrat is similar but with a beard and no tail. https://news.orvis.com/fly-fishing/video-tie-muskrat-nymph

Gotcha. Looks great. Never thought to try that for a dry fly (I assume it stays in the surface film). I was envisioning all kinds of diabolical ways to spread the fibers while you cooked the resin.

I chase smallmouths in rivers, reservoirs and lakes (deep Finger Lakes), usually from a kayak, and most of my flies are on the small side - 1" to 3". On the rivers a crayfish or madtom mimic is great, as is a white "chub" type streamer. Worse ways to spend a day than working upstream for a picnic lunch and then drifting downstream and casting through riffles and under sweeper trees. The lakes can be a bit tougher. In the Finger Lakes you can be 60 ft offshore in 100 ft of water. But the northern ends shallow out and have great weed beds. When the smallmouth are holding suspended in 20 to 30 ft of water it can either be total frustration or a banner day. Cheating helps! (see depthfinder below) ;-) Again a 3" weighted white minnow is good medicine. The lake in the image is a 1200 acre reservoir on the Otselic River (Whitney Point Lake). Some good large and smallmouth waters; but it's mostly known for crappie and walleye. I cast 1" foam hoppers or spiders towards the shore and have a lot of fun with little bass. Some years back I measured a 44-1/2" tiger muskie, dead, floating belly up. Now THERE would have been a fly rod battle!

The only "trick" on those is I put a tail of angel hair on first and then the "lower" tail is Fly Fur (assuming eyes down and barb up in use). The angel hair is sparkly but (IMHO) too thin in the water. The fly fir is a bit boyant, MUCH cheaper, and adds some bulk to match the chenille (Estaz). I do rootbeer tail and chenille, copper eyes, and a olive "undertail" for a crayfish suggestive pattern. Make some black ones about 3" long on size 2 Mustad 9672 (or a similar 2X heavy hook). Killer in river riffles.

Clever tie. VERY nicely done. Squashed and then UV cement?

Well that's different and interesting. What is the wing fiber?

First fish I ever caught was a yellow perch on a bare shiny gold hook. Surprised my parents (we were at a friend's cottage and was tiny). Heck, it was even a cane pole so it might count as "fly fishing". I'm not sure what is chartreuse, sparkly and has red eyes in nature, but smallmouth seem to like them!

That sounds like a Charlie Craven Haymaker (which is a BH Woolly Bugger with rubber legs). One of my favorites. Deadly on trout in the smaller sizes, too. Instructions at the end of the below newsletter. http://lectu.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/2016Fall.pdf

Today I tied a variation on the Ed Shenk streamer - with all synthetic materials. Angel hair over Fly Fur for the tail and Estaz Pearl chenille with barbell eyes. My fly tied equivalent of a Mr. Twister jig for smallmouth. Tomorrow black and Root Bear.

Beautiful work! Those stonefly are terriffic!

I do not mind subtitles at all. I enjoy documentaries from other countries and I'm a lazy American who only speaks English. :-(

Charlie I like your setup--that looks like a nice cozy tying area. Question for you-- I see you have the Peak tying lamp, as I do, but I can't see how it's attached to your vise in that photo. Or is it attached right to the table? Thanks. THE ADMIRAL is pleased that it collapses and slides into the closet beside the front door. Happy wife - happy life. ;-) I have a second 3/8" x 4" post in the rear left corner of the vice base. The lamp is clamped to that. I just ordered an Aventik tool caddy/holder and plan on adding another post to the front hole for that. I continue to be pleased with the Peak. This is the first "true" rotary vice I have owned and it sure makes tying most flies better and easier. Here's a slightly different angle that shows it better.

The transient life for me. Here today, gone later that day (or THE ADMIRAL brings the 16" guns to bear).

Three items from my "repurposed" gear. A Susan Bates #2 Crochet hook, a 0.264" bronze brush (I hunt deer with a ..260 Rem for lovers of esoteric calibers) and a pin. The first I kissed the opposite end of the crochet hook with a 3/32" drill and flared it a bit with a Dremel to make a half-hitch tool. The hook itself is my favorite dubbing loop spinner. The brush is set in a length of dowel for a dubbing brush, as is the pin, my bodkin. Advantage of a bronze brush over Nylon is that you can clean the fuzz with a cigarette lighter.

Bead heads and points? Only the really bad-ass Master Diver stoneflys.

St. Patrick would be overjoyed to see that. It would be worth setting down a Guinness to pick that rod up. Éirinn go Brách

Heck. If I was his nephew he'd have to get a food taster to check for poison. Beautiful rod.

Try a hopper & dropper. Put a nymph on 3 ft of 5x tied to the hook bend of a size 10 hopper. The hopper works like an indicator. . . and sometimes a good size fish takes the hopper!