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One of my favorite materials to use is Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift yarn. It’s got really nice translucency when it’s wet, plus really buggy variegated colors. Best colors I’ve used are the Autumn and Buttercup. Mostly use them for Killer Bugs and Killer Buggers, which seem to work well everywhere I fish. It’s fairly durable, cheap, and a skein is basically a lifetime supply of any given color. Autumn   Autumn, buttercup, and some blue color I forget the name of offhand. 
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Sep 25, 2019 14:47
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 23:44 |
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Gooch181 posted:Forgive my double post, but I have breaking news! That will absolutely catch fish. As a general rule, the fuglier the fly, the more fish like it. Try putting your hook in the vise so the shank is level may help you keep stuff in place while you’re tying. You’re off to a good start, keep at it! There’s nothing like catching that first fish on a fly you tied yourself. Ghostnuke posted:Alright, I poked around a bit today and here's what I've got at the moment. I'm guessing y'all don't want bigass wing feathers, so most of the current floof looks like one of these two: Those would both make very nice soft hackles. Also, if you take primary flight feathers and split the quill, the shorter bits from the leading edge are biots, and they’re used for all kinds of things, like legs on Prince nymphs and wrapped for nymph bodies. Also can use matched fibers from primaries for making wings and some fancy salmon flies, but I’ve never used them.
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Sep 26, 2019 21:53
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A Pack of Kobolds posted:
I started fly fishing with tenkara, so I never really tried matching the hatch. The whole “One Fly” thing is really kinda marketing bullshittery from TenkaraUSA; it’s a real thing, but not how most people fish, usually it’s just people that have been doing it for years and try it for a season or two to challenge themselves. Even then, it’s not really just one fly, it’s one pattern, which they’ll fish in a variety of sizes. My personal take on matching is based on Bob Wyatt’s What Trout Want. Basically, fish don’t care what the fly is, because they’ll hit anything that’s in the water under the right conditions. Far more important is the presentation of the fly, basically where in the water column it’s riding. For really strong hatches, like one that makes you say “Holy poo poo that’s a lot of mayflies I’m inhaling”, he feels there is a certain reflexive trigger brought on to encourage trout to take best advantage of an abundant food source, and that reflex will make them ignore flies that are too different from the ongoing hatch. In those conditions, which are pretty rare, his take is that you do need to match the size and roughly the color of whatever the hatch is, but the pattern is irrelevant. Basically, if it’s about the right size and color (light vs dark, not like the exact Pantone number matching colors), then trout will hit it, as long as it’s in the right spot. It’s a great book, and I highly recommend picking it up, he’s got tying instructions and illustrations for all the flies he uses. Basically CDC and elk for everything, tied in a couple sizes, and in a couple forms (emergers, drys, wetflies, heavy wets).
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Sep 30, 2019 16:23
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Double posting ‘cause I’m tying flies this week. Stocked up on some of my favorite patterns to tie, big tailed Killer Buggers and my micro version of the Muddy Buddy.  Modified my usual pattern for KB’s, I got some SemperFli Straggle Legs last week and wanted to try it out. Basically makes a mock-egg-sucking-leech pattern out of it, I guess? I love killer buggers, and probably fish them more than any other fly, I tie them from size 16 up to size 8 or 10 or so. Mostly keep ‘em around the size 10-12. With a bead for deeper fishing, with a glass bead to lighten them up for subsurface. I like the big tails, I make them from 2 soft hackles of whatever I have laying around (peacock body feathers are my favorite), matched for size and tied in one on each side of the shank. It gives it a parachute effect that slows down the sink rate, as well as keeping more of a vertical profile in the water. Think more like a minnow’s tail and less like a tadpole. Anyway, just about everything will eat them, just about any time of year.  MiniMuddyBuddy. Muddy Buddy’s are usually a decently big streamer-y thing, like size 4 streamer hooks or so. The spun deer head gives them a good gurgle when they’re stripped through the water, and apparently displaces more water than a normal head, which supposedly triggers more attention in low visibility. I tie up a mini version to use on tenkara rods, and for bluegill and trout. Squirrel zonker tail, some flash, then 3 or 4 wraps of the zonker on the shaft, with chenille in front, a couple rubber legs, then spun deer hair for the head. The real version uses a cone instead of a bead for weight, but I wanted to use my long shank jig hooks, so this run of them have beads. I vary the color of everything when I’m tying bigger ones, but I only have the one color of micro squirrel zonkers right now.  Same fly prior to trimming. Using spun deer hair is a hoot, but it’s messy as hell and kinda intimidating at first. Once I practiced a few times, it’s fun, and there’s something extremely satisfying about trimming it down to a nice tight head, especially with a razor blade or Xacto knife. Most important thing is to make sure you pack the hell out of it as you go, and to realize that deer hair and bucktail, while looking quite similar, are NOT the same thing.
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Oct 1, 2019 17:25
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I would for sure be down with a traveling box, heck I even have some spare boxes I can contribute to get things started.
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Oct 1, 2019 20:50
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A Pack of Kobolds posted:You're a mensch! This is probably what's going to make me take out my fly rod and practice with it. I picked up a Moonlit glass 5wt recently, my first regular fly rod, and holy poo poo is that a different skill set from tenkara. Still working on casting and line management. I can cast fairly consistently in the yard at home, but put some water in front of me and I suddenly have 2 left hands. Still a work in progress. Here’s some flies from this morning. Home from work with a stomach bug today so I’m tying in a phenergan haze.  Starting on some teeny bugs for the winter box. Dubbing nymphs today, couple are made with straggle legs, the rest are dubbing mixes. Size 16 Fasna wide gape jig hooks from CompetitiveAngler.com. Great place to buy from btw.
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Oct 2, 2019 16:05
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A Pack of Kobolds posted:Many years ago I would fly fish on the Owyhee River with my dad. I remember being able to get the casting rhythm down pretty well and I caught some brown trout on a fly. Dad would point out the holes and after a while I could put them on target. A memory recent enough to remember, but long ago enough to feel beyond rusty. I’ll try and crank something out when I get home this evening.
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Oct 3, 2019 21:22
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Gooch181 posted:What do ye fly tyers think of the UV hardened clearcoat stuff? I saw it used in a video and it looks pretty neat, but the pricetag at the shop made me think twice about picking some up. Personally, I love the stuff. I use Solarez Bone Dry as head cement, and to coat bodies on nymphs. It’s durable, dries tack-free and stays clear. The parent company of Solarez apparently invented the stuff in the first place, for use in dental fillings and topcoats for boats. It’s also usually cheaper than the other brands. I’ve used Loon, and it was OK, but I found it turned cloudy after a while and sometimes didn’t dry all the way, which leaves a tacky gooey residue. That may have been due to the curing light I was using. Different brands need different wavelengths of UV to cure properly. A good quality light makes a big difference, but you don’t have to spend like $50 on one, just make sure you get one that’s made with one of the cree-type bigger LEDs and not one with a bunch of old fashioned small bulb type LEDs. Any and all will cure in the sun very quickly. Supposedly the fingernail drying lamps on amazon work very well, and are nice if you’re making a lot of flies. They’re made like a little cave and you just toss the flies in there. Gulff came out with a bunch of colored resins not long ago, and they look amaaaazing for making a lot of flies, especially saltwater crabs and shrimp. Check out @gulffflyfishing on Instagram for some super cool ideas on how to use them. The Gulff resins are a little pricey, but they have colors nobody else does. Solarez just came out with a colored resin line, and they’re quite a bit cheaper. I’ve only used some off-brand colored resin and I wasn’t impressed with it. Color was strong, but it’s super thick and hard to work with. I plan on picking up some of the Gulff and Solarez ones eventually, but yeah, that price tag kinda holds me back every time. There’s a couple different kinds overall. Thin/hard is used to make a tough shell coating without a lot of volume. Thick/hard is good for building up bodies for sculpted flies or more volume. Then there’s flex resins, which dry to where they’re not tacky, but remain flexible. They’re best for flies that are going to get a lot of flex or movement, but I haven’t really played with them yet. There’s also a flexier version that’s made for wader repair, dries almost instantly in the sun. Handy stuff to have around, and Loon sells like little ketchup packets of it to carry on stream with you.
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Oct 8, 2019 13:56
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A Pack of Kobolds posted:Hey thread, what's crackin? Life has been too hosed up to think about tacklecraft for a while, but I'm back and loving the flies with goon-sourced birb feathers. Anybody have any more to post? A Peak Rotary is a great option, too. I had one for several years, until my wife got me my beautiful, beautiful Regal vise for my birthday this year. Solid quality vise, lots of options for add-ons and stuff, and optional midge jaws. They’re a solid vise for about $150. The non-rotary is about $95. Danvise is supposed to be good quality vises for the money, at about $110, but I don’t have any first-hand experience with them.
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Nov 18, 2019 18:15
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A Pack of Kobolds posted:I'm primarily a book learner, but I should spend some time on YouTube. I'm sure that I've mentioned this in other threads, but there is so much content on YouTube and so much of it is bad to mediocre. Also I loving hate the HEY GUYS DON'T FORGET TO MASH THAT LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE BUTTON!!!!! persona that is like half a step away from wacky morning zoo DJ. If you have any channel recommendations I'd definitely give them a watch though. Davie McPhail is the best.  Delightful Scottish brogue, some history and information about the fly he’s tying, and nothing else.
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Jan 8, 2020 20:46
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 23:44 |
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Brand kinda matters, depends on how often you’re going to use them. If it’s just for rare or occasional wading, get some Cabela’s store brand waders when they’re on sale. That’s what I did, and I’ve had them for a couple years, but I rarely ever use them, and just wet-wade most of the year. If you’re gonna be using them a lot, and by that I mean regularly at all, so like if you’re planning on wearing them more than once or twice a year, it’s worth investing in a pair with a warranty, like Simms or Patagonia. Biggest thing is getting some breathable ones, and also making sure you wear a wading belt with them.
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Mar 9, 2020 19:51
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