MTtyer

Blasphamy!

Back in the day, before the nice dry fly hackle that we have today, some tyers did indeed use whatever crappy hen hackle they could get and trim it to size after it was tied.

Looks amateurish....catches fish.

To answer your question regading a parachute...you usually need to go up a size anyway (or at least you do here in the West) so trimming would probably be counter-productive.

On the royal wulff, or any other standard dry, trimming a "V" out at the bottom to help the fly sit on the water correctly is probably all that's needed.

No need to trim bugger hackle.

My opinion only...

Mileage may vary.

I've sold a few hundred furled leaders in both UNI-thread and monofilament in the last 6 months or so and get a lot of feedback regarding different floatants...what works and what doesn't.

The general consensus is:

-for UNI-thread leaders...use Water Shed and let the leader dry for a day or two. You may still have to recoat with fly floatant during fishing but it's a good start

-for monofilament leaders...any fly floatant will do. I've tried treating monofilament before furling and honestly don't see that it lasts any longer than just putting floatant on it right before fishing.

As a leader (any leader) is in the water it picks up debris, becomes heavy, and starts to sink. You have to wipe it clean and recoat when this happens. It doesn't matter what floatant that you originally used.

I second the motion to check out Jim Williams website. I learned a lot from there when first starting out. Probably anything that you think of doing with furled leaders, someone else allready has and you can probably find the results there.

A word of caution to those who use SA flylines with AST technology. Fly floatant, fly line cleaner, etc. will cause whatever part of the flyline that comes in contact with it to become no better than cheap line. Have you ever felt a car steering wheel that has had Armour All put on it. Greasy....you can't clean the crap off and it picks up dirt and oil out of your hands. Armour All is silicone based...so is most fly floatant. Bottom line = don't reel your leader up on your spool if you use Ultra or Mastery Series flylines.

I pretty much use a Duncan loop as my "main knot". The only time that I don't use it is for really small dry flies. It tends to not let them float upright.

I use it for streamers, larger dry flies, all nymphs, etc., etc....

There is a little bit of a learning curve to tying it well. If you are getting "squiggles" in your tippet right in front of the knot, you may want to increase the salivation factor.

If you just "gotta" tie wings on a fly that look nice and you don't want to de-tip good hackle, you may consider a set of wing burners. They are easy to make and you can use "unusable" hackle for them.

Welcome Jody,

Great bunch of folks here.

Best wishes to you and your family. Keeping a upbeat, positive attitude really can help others when they are down like that.

Bead chain is hollow and light so, my guess is, that it won't make any difference....worth trying it out to see though.

No wonder the fish spook when I get close.

It looks great...as long as the bead chain eyes don't get in the way preventing hookups and it doesn't ride upside down.

This is great news...can't wait to see it. Best of luck, guys.

I quit using Dave's Flexament for that very same reason. It's a great product but starts not being so great after being thinned a few times. Wapsi sells a product called Flex-Seal that seems to be the same thing but doesn't have that quick evaporation problem. I've got a bottle now that is probably six months old and is still just fine.

Hello and welcome,

You'll like it here. Lots of great folks with plenty of good information and help.

Using light scud hooks instead of standard will help with the fat midge problem as well. A problem with zebra midges, and a lot of midge patterns, is that the are just too fat. Seine up a few real midges and you'll realize the thickness of the insect that you are trying to represent. Many times, the thickness of the hook is about right.

Welcome,

You'll like it here.

Pflueger Trion, Orvis Battenkill mid-arbor, Reddington (whatever) = same reel...comes out of the same factory and they put different names (and sometimes handles) on it.

When I worked for a sporting goods store, Loomis was one of the companies that was very picky about not discounting any of their products unless they were closeout and they granted permission. They would pull their product from your store in a heartbeat.

However, I see Loomis Venture (Adventure) series reels on ebay all the time selling for under the retail $100.00. (I'm selling a spare spool to a Venture 7 right now, so I've been watching) I don't know how these guys pull it off. If they aren't Loomis-approved dealers, then how do they get their product? :dunno:

Here's wishing your uncle a quick recovery James. Prayers are with you and your family.

Sweeeet. Very nice bug.

We're glad to have you aboard Markus...you'll enjoy it here.

Excellent first shot:

Tip #1 ... When tying in marabou, get it wet. It is much easier to tie in and judge lengths

Tip #2 ... Palmering hackle (oh, someone already covered that)

Companies like Loomis, for instance, set the price that you MUST sell the product at. You aren't allowed to discount or sell it for more unless they discontinue a product and give you permission to. So the markup depends on how many of their product that you are willing to buy to recieve discounts from them.

Looks good Day5,

I need to work on mine. My wife says that my picture looks like I'm hungover.

Nice fish Jack,

We're glad you're here. There's allways someone that will be happy to answer any questions that you have.

Welcome,

You'll like it and probably spend way too much time here like the rest of us.

Very nice....that's always a pain. I've even put painters' masking tape around the skirt on the initial clump to make it easier/faster to trim. I like your way better, though.