Charlie P. (NY)

Depends on the pattern. I used to tie Trico spinners with wings but no hackle down to 24. Classic dries - I seldom tie anymore but will wing them down to 18 for a BWO - but those are hackle tips and relatively forgiving. I seldom tie below 14 for quill wing patterns except for the 16 light Cahill.

Without seeing the image - one candidate is the black horsefly. We had a sailboat on Seneca Lake and these @#*&%! would find us in the middle of the lake. If you didn't feel it land on your back you would soon feel like someone drove a staple between your shoulder blades. They can be over an inch long. Green horseflies are smaller but more sneaky.

Howdy do! New to the forum but a long time fly tyer and fisherman. Bought my first fly tying vice from Dick Stack in the early 70's when "Dick's" was a single store on the same block as my junior high school and mostly fishing tackle and live bait! Have the good fortune to live between the Chenango and Susquehanna Rivers, near the Tioughnioga and Otselic Rivers and a short trip to the Catskills. Married my college sweetheart in 1980 and we live on a small hobby farm; though we sold off the flock of Shetland Sheep we still keep chickens. Enjoy traditional bowhunting, sailing, kayaking, snowshoeing, generally getting outdoors. (Go by "Stumpkiller" on several unrelated forums). I have been primarily a warmwater fly fisherman in the past few decades (wrote a six page article published in Warmwater Fly Fishing magazine back when it existed). Have great fun pestering smallmouth from a kayak at a local lakes and the rivers. Am currently the business manager of a municipal wastewater treatment facility and spend my days making sure the Susquehanna River stays safe and healthy - for people AND fish. Charlie P. Port Crane, NY

My locals seem to favor an elk hair caddis dry and a Zack's Blood Geyser nymph. And a #12 black Woolly Bugger is where it is at some days. I'd been told that Brookie flies needed to have red in them as well. Not sure I believe it but it's up to them, not me. ;-) The Blood Geyser is certainly all about red!

TJM beat me with Tom Nixon. Big, ugly, rubber legged bass fly (Calcasieu Pig Boat) that would make the dry sherry trout fly-fishermen wretch. So I'll contribute H.G. Tapply and the spun deer hair surface bug. And also a call out to Mary Orvis Marbury for Favorite Flies and their Histories (1892) to document the early years. I also don't see Harry Murray yet. His Hellgramite and Strymph are my lead-off Chenango and Susquehanna River flies. There's something about ostrich fiber tails and smallmouth.

Yes to both: I fish a Tenkara USA Ito rod and tie my own. Mostly I keep it in the car as a always-ready rig.