Charlie P. (NY)

It's a product that Peak makes. Fits any 3/8" stand. I made a 2" high roll of cardboard to stiffen it. Handy as all get out and placed perfectly to catch all the trimmings. It's sold on Amazon or from dealers that carry Peak vices - but note that BOTH of the reviewers on Amazon are incorrect. DO NOT try and snap it onto the shaft. You have to remove the shaft and slide the bracket on initially. Thereafter you can pull the "prongs" out to remove it from the bracket to empty it. If it gets a little loose, pull the wire loop apart to open the loop up and then squeeze the prongs together to reposition into the bracket.

Usually I have in mind how I am going to fish before I leave the vehicle so it's not a huge issue. But it would be agony to have a hatch pop up when all you have loaded is sinking nymph line. But if you have a pocket in your waders . . . For bass fishing I have a single strap pack - I believe called a "sling pack" - that has the strap out of the center of the top and the lower end clips to either side. I find if I wear it on my left side with the strap over my neck and right shoulder and keep a water bottle on the low side the weight and balance keeps it out of the way behind my back. I see these from $20 to $120 - mine is more on the $20 end. Enough room I carry a Cliff's Bugger Barn, soft wallet for nymphs and streamers and a whole spare loaded reel for my bass rod. Fits nicely behind my seat in the kayak, too. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N4HUIP6/ref=sspa_dk_detail_10?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B01N4HUIP6

Nice work...alot going on there. What beads did you use? Thanky - 3/32" black tungsten from Feather-Craft

I have had great results with Fly-Tite. It can be thinned with denatured alcohol - but goes years without needing any thinning in a squeeze bottle or needle jar. Though I am getting fond of the Loon UV cements.

My regular trout pack is a small Orvis over-the-shoulder model that holds two fly boxes, a leader wallet, and some oddments. Discontinued, of course. It's about the size of one vest lower pocket. Lower left in the image below (if I can get it to work). Just perfect for the little Brookie streams and branches I trout fish. The only problem is that if I want to switch spools I have to go back to the SUV unless I thought to put the spare spool in a jacket pocket.

This. Or slices from a dummy credit card (I get six a week in the mail) UV cemented to a bulldog clamp jaws.

Here's my current "fly trap" as I set ip up temporarily. Like Brigadoon it vanishes at nightfall.

I have a modest fishing library and, being an apprentice old fart, would MUCH rather read a book than try and interweb a pattern of technique. I like books! Some of my best "scores" have been at library book sales. Getting a McClane's New Standard Encyclopedia or a Bates Streamers and Bucktails for $1 is like landing an 18" brown.

A trio of Zack's Bloodgeyser nymphs. Toying with various amounts of Fly Fur as a loose dub behind the collar.

Here's my Tenkara neck pack. Thats all I carry when going minimalist. In the "accessory" pocket are a spare leader and a copy of my fishing and driver's license in a zip-loc bag (for wet wading). Also not shown is a "test tube" of San Juan worms I carry. I keep this in the SUV with a Tenkara Ito rod.

I am no real help but I am watching thread with great interest because I am in the same situation. Hoping to get more involved in tying after 15 years of hiatus and the kitchen table just isn't cutting it. I have a Gander Mt. folding camp table I use now in the living room and a "modular" materials storage system that allows semi-fast deployment from a closet . . . but I'd like to get a little more focused.

Bucktail streamers as a whole have not worked for me (including Thunder Creek patterns). With one "sort of" exception: Clouser patterns for smallmouth and other warmwater fish. I'm really surprised to see how many have no luck with woolly buggers. Obviously it has to do with the preference of the local fish. Locally we have hellgrammites, madtoms (2" black bullhead species hug rocks), tadpoles/polliwogs and leeches that I've always figured the Woolly Bugger suggested. You can't fish them too deep or too slow . . . as long as you move them a bit or just let them drift downstream in the current. I use them from size 2 to 12 - and I think the 12 suggests the dragonfly larva we have everywhere hereabouts. San Juan worms work well anyhere chironomid larva are hiding in the slow pools with leaf litter on the bottom, or in lakes. I tie mine with a bead and keep them around 1-1/4" long. They are also killer in high-water when the banks are eroding and a unweighted one drifted high-stick can save a day. Trout don't take them like a bass takes a rubber worm and I think the ends get sampled and released without twitching the indicator or line. Killer with a Tenkara pole or short-line Czech style.

To pick out dubbing (or remove underhair from deer & elk) I use a bronze rifle bore brush cemented in a wine cork.

Not as much as you would think. In fact, there is variation between brands of fly lines that can overlap two line sizes compared with their competitors. SilverCreek gave good information regarding loading the rod - but the other factor is that the size of the line is matched (somewhat) to the size of the fly. The line is what accomplished the final delivery. You want to be able to turn over a fly at the end of the cast in a smooth loop and a heavy fly needs a larger line and leader team. A six weight line should be able to handle* a streamer on a size four hook, while a five weight line (all else being equal) would be likely topping out with size six hook. Not carved in stone, but when you get to the margins it makes presentation more difficult. The five weight might be easier to present a size 24 dry delicately vs, the six weight outfit. * And by "handle" I mean not collapse in a heap at the end of the cast.

You just made my whole day. ;-)

I don't know. I think "pimped" should be gold Cactus or Estaz chenille at least. ;-) Nicely done video.

1968 Rambler/AMC Rebel Station wagon. No digital image. Mine was the same brown as the image below. What a babe magnet. Might have worked, though. The hottie I dated when I drove it in college has been my wife and best friend for 39 years!

Like ChugBug27 said: Wapsi makes some. I recommend the Woolly Bugger kit. Murray's Fly Shop also has specific pattern kits with good quality materials; though he leans towards bass patterns. I'd avoid the "all you need" style kits that do not cover specific patterns. Hareline has a "Beginner's Material Kit" that ties 20 specific patterns. I have not seen it but it appears well thought out and of good quality. (They also have the same with tools).

* sigh *. The Holtwood and Conowingo Dams out an end to shad fishing on the river beside where I am sitting LONG before I was born. Now there are a whole series of damns on the Susquehanna R. Supposedly they are "laddering" some up, but in pitiful numbers (62 & 43 the last two years recorded at York Haven); and I understand PA has pulled funding for Van Dyke Hatchery that supplied shad hatchlings for truck & transport. The last hope. What a pity.

Early season a cone head black Woolly Bugger; deep and slow Late season a black or olive Woolly Bugger; twitched. August - an unweighted Muddler Minnow. Trout take them as hoppers fished along the bank.

Sure. This is what I pared my tying down to so I wouldn't go broke chasing necks. For bass: 1 Murray's Hellgrammite 2 Murray's Strymph (black, cream, olive) 3 Shenk's Minnow (wtd w/barbell eyes and unweighted). Size 4 with Estaz chenille in chartreuse & ostrich tail with a few strands of Krystal Flash with red lead eyes is a favorite. 4 Morrish Hopper 5 Thunder Thighs Hopper 6 Clouser Minnow 7 Woolly Bugger (bead & cone) (black, cream/white, olive and chartreuse . . . and others) 8 Craven Haymaker 9 Casual Dress Nymph I range from size 2 to 12 - though the Closer I go as far as 3/0 on Mustad 34007. Some tied full and short are my crayfish mimics. For trout: 1 Blue Wing Olive (dry 2 Dark Hendrickson (dry) 3 Light Hendrickson dry) 4 Quill Gordon (dry) 5 Elk Hair Caddis (dry) 6 Henryville Special (dry) 7 Pale Evening Dun (dry) 8 March Brown (dry) 9 Red Quill (dry) 10 Small Morrish Hopper (dry) 11 Black Ant (dry) 12 BH Prince 13 BH Pheasant Tail 14 Gold Ribbed Hair's Ear (BH & plain) 15 Zack's Blood Geyser 16 BH Copper John 17 BH Brassie 18 Muddler Minnow 19 Woolly Bugger 20 San Juan Worm (beaded & plain) Most in 14 to 16. BWO dry down to 20, and the March Brown up to 8. The nymph mostly 12 to 16, but I do a BH Copper John down to 20 with just a pair of hackle fibers instead of biots for the tail. Some years back I came across a calendar of hatches for the mayflies in this county and I based the dries on specific hatches to cover most of what I need. You'll notice I don't use a spinner. I never really had much success with them. At need I can just clip a regular dry sparse and use floating. I also keep a few small poppers, muskrat nymphs and San Juan worms for sunfish in my SUV. There are times and places I really enjoy pestering sunnies. Always obliging.

Yes. The Regal uses a cam lever to open the jaws. The torsion of the jaw halves closes the jaws. . . tightly. No seperate spring - just the springiness of the steel. No adjustment screws needed. It has plenty enough tension to bend hooks without slippage. It was featured in an episode of "How It's Made". https://youtu.be/phnGANTSZNM I've been using a Regal for about 20 years and just added a Peak (rotary).

Schlappen will work - but any I have used seems webbier than your image (which his fine and possibly preferable for wet flies). Try saltwater and steelhead saddles. Alaska Flyfishing Goods has 3/8" Cone heads. Wear a wide brimmed hat! https://www.alaskaflyfishinggoods.com/shop/fly-tying/eyes-beads-cones/cone-heads/product/107857-dolly-llama-cones-3-8

I'll have to toss in with the Woolly Bugger crowd. I carry black in size 2 to 12 for everything from bass to brookies. Light colors fished as a streamer or dark bounced on the bottom. When all else fails, tie on a Bugger. Happily we don't have to choose. I have tended to minimize what I carry I have it down to 9 pattens for bass/panfish and 20 (dry/wet/terrestrial) for trout. I find size more important than pattern with trout dry flies. The Woolly Bugger and the Thunder Thighs Hopper are the only ones common to both. And the Bugger is definitely the most productive.

I did very similar. We used to spend about every weekend in the summers on a sailboat and I took my Regal Medallion Pedestal and I used zip-lock bags to put all the fixings for each of a couple specific patterns in a soft laptop case. The tools are in a Plano waterproof 3700. Threads, leads, wire, tinsel and floss (anything spooled) in another. I got several hundred 1" x 3" zip-lock baggies from a tackle supplier and I carry a dozen hooks of whatever I am tying in a larger "Hooks" baggie (a piece of business-card stock with the make, model and size labels each bag). I replenish those smaller bags as needed from my hook locker - which is a .50 cal Ammo Can. I have five of those in a closet that I keep my "safety stock" of materials in and replenish as used. They seal up very nice. No longer have the sailboat, but it works just as well for "setting up" to tie at home. Though I keep a Peak Base Camp pedestal for home use. (MUCH less portable than the Regal). I don't have a dedicated tying desk . . . though that is in the plans now that I am thinking about retiring and having more tying/fishing time.