appalachian angler (tn.)

Try the hair from right between the ears on the mask. I believe PHG was on the mark in his suggested method. Like he said, the dubbing you pick from the clump will work well for the body of the fly. I tie the underfur+gaurd hairs in a dubbing loop and wrap the whole fly body. Another nice option for tails to compliment a darker hair is bronze mallard. give it a try! AA

Ah...the soft hackle. Yes I wouldn't hit the trout stream without them! Simple to tie, cheap on materials, and downright killer in the water. One thing I will highly recomend though, buy the whole skin (ie. partrige, starling, grouse) as opposed to a bag of feathers. The bags are full of mostly fluff and take forever to cull out. A good partrige skin will cost you 20-25$ but will yield hundreds of usable feathers. Another option is to buy hen necks or saddles. Either will do and the finer textured barbs will need 2/1 wraps over game bird feathers. You can even use chinese or indian rooster capes (the necks are too stiff). I fish them mostly with a down and across the current swing and vary the strip/twitch though the slower spots like seems. I will high stick them into deeper pools and runs when fishing at the head. There are so many subtle thing you can do with these style of flies that can and will produce strikes..sometimes very violent and abrupt! The best thing you can do when fishing softies is to mend often and keep you slack taken up! You will find that your best hook-ups are when your tip is just barely in the water and pionted directly at the fish striking at that moment. Tight lines!!! AA

Where do you fish Olaf? If you can obtain a local Hatch chart, study on the colors of those bugs in the area you fish most often. Then select the colors of hackle that suit those of the bugs you wish to imitate. If you don't plan to tie huge numbers of flys, you can purchase 1/2 capes or Whiting 100's packs of the colors you will need. My must have list would be (and I say this will cover most of the species in North america) Natural medium Dun, Grizzly, Brown, Medium ginger, Cream, Natural Black(which can be a substitute for "dark dun"). I like the natural colors because Dyes tend to make the feathers more brittle. Those are the colors I need in hackle capes at a Minimum. I purchased them one at a time over a period of a few years and bought the best I could afford. As for saddles, I am less fussy and willl buy dyed ones. I like saddles for palmering hackles, streamers and on occassion for hackles on caddis and stonefly imitations. The Whiting 100's are from saddles and are good enough for most dry fly recipes, however I prefer cape feathers for Catskill style traditional mayfly patterns. These are merely suggestions from my own personnel experience and preferences. Take your time and buy wisely. If possible, purchase your feathers at the local fly shop so you can inspect the color and overall quality before you pay for them! Good tying to you, AA

I forgot to add that I put a dubbing looped ball of mixed rabbit hair in to form a small thorax and to flare the collar alittle. AA

Nice midge! I would fish it in the film ungreased! AA

Great looking fly! Nice use of marabou to make the pectoral fins and to fill in the head! Just wondering how many tufts of boo...one on each side :dunno: AA

Thanks for the feed back everyone! I'll try the craft store next chance I get. AA

I know alot of tyers mention the use of a "fixative" to treat wing feathers for the preparation of slips to be used for wet fly wings, hopper wings, stonefly wing cases, etc.. I have heard or read mention of various hairsprays and the like for treating feathers. What are some recomendations for such products? How best to apply and how much? Drying time? Hoping to make wings that not only look better but hold up to fishing stresses as well Thanks, AA

Nice soft hackles! I tie a very similar fly to the yellow pt one you have( and use the yellow pt but omit the herl thorax). It works great during the emergence phase of a good sulphur hatch! AA

I Noticed alot of tyers use this product. I have a bottle too: Clear 4400-66. I have noticed that there are several different types of Sallys' in the Clear. Different name for the additives I guess...like retinol? Is there any difference? If so, which is the best in their product line? AA

I think it matters depending on the pattern. IE. Clousers. I prefer the down eye ( acutally inverted and "up") because I believe the swim in a way truer to the natual than with a straight eye. AA

I caught a big smallie one time (a legitamite bite) on a clouser. The fish had a big deep diving plug in its mouth by the tail-end treble hook. The lure was still tied to some 20# mono which gave him about 15' of running room. The rest of that mono was all bird-nested up and snagged on some bottom brush. I got another fisherman with his heavy duty catfish rig to tie on a big treble hook and he got a hold of the snagged line and then we both landed the smallie! AA

Well, you know how they rotate every so often. This one comes up with the little paragraphs under the pictures as they change. AA

What is up with the Peta Link entitled "why eating salmon can be hazardous to your health" right next to J Stockard sponser Header. It rotates in and out with the other little adds at the top of the page. Click on it and you are at "FIshing hurts.com" part of the PETA campaign. How the hell did thaey get in??? I know I am not the only one who noticed this. C'mon Will, we can't let this slide AA

I find myself tying/fishing soft hackle flies more and more recently. You may add me to the list. AA

Steve, Nice looking fly! A simpler pattern to tie would be a Lefty's deciever on a size 2 4xl streamer hook. Just do some pink on the sides, light olive on the top, and the normal white for the rest. You could even add dots with a marker and eyes if you like. I just feel that the deciever, tweaked alittle, would make such a good fingerling trout profiled fly! The bonus is that it pushes water well too...a big plus if you go stalking those browns at night. AA

What do you fish now? If you have been used to the 8'6" length, I would stick with it. If you have the chance to cast these rods, do so. For just alittle more money I would buy a Winston...If I were buying one blind. If you are wanting alittle faster action, go with the 8'6". The same rod in 9' will be slightly slower and a wee bit heavier. Just my 2 cts. AA

I use a clothespin(heavy wire spring) like a hackle plier for twisting and wrapping peacock herl ropes for fly bodies. If the edges are alittle rough, you can sand them with an emory board. The smooth, slightly rounded clamping ends don't cut into the herl. I lay all of the herls side by side, tight and flat in the clamps before spinning the rope. Works great! AA

Nice tye Fred! that one might be the ticket on tailwaters here in Tn AA

Just curious what you used for the tail? Nice fly! AA

Body? dubbing rope inclucing snips of deer hair? Whatever it is, the fly should definately get the bite! Very cool indeed AA

I like to tie mine on 1X hook shanks and don't go as far back on the shank with the bottom wraps. I like your use of white thread to match the bottom hair. I often use white for the whole fly. The darker colored to layer of hair comes through the white after applying hard-as-nails to the head wraps. I also like to fill in the head area under the barbells by doubling back the bottom layer of hair. This gives a fuller looknig head, while keeing the body fairly sparse. Your fly looks great, but try using the shorter shanked hooks while keeping the hair wing length the same. This allows for more a waving action on those quick jerk type strips AA

I just saved a ton of money by switching my car insurance to...ahhhh, nevermind AA

I do the "craft store thing" too being as generally cheap as I am...but, for chennile esp. I will say that the fly shop stuff is supeior. Much of the other chenille may have a cotton core (weaker and can rot) and seems to lack the luster of that which you find in fly shops. The fly shop chennile also has stiffer fibers, so when you wrap it on the hook, you can actually get a sort-of palmered effect. If you want a material that will sink better though, then the craft store variety is your best bet. Probably the item I go for most at the craft store is beads. The only thing they lack is the counter drilled hole. I have bought feathers too, but the quality can be pretty marginnal. Always worth the look though! AA

try a light coating of tacky wax on one or both strands of thread prior to spining the tool. AA