Recent comments

Comment to Ryan Houston tied Carrie Stevens' Gray

Thanks for sharing this,really enjoyed it..

stopping squirmy spin

a drop of super glue is what I use

also I found yards and yards of silicone cord in assorted diameters at a craft store (closeout)
works quite well

Wonderful pattern!

At the lake close to home,Long island, ny. the Morrish mouse is the absolute best at producing.
Fresh water. large mouth bass, pickerel, bluegill, crappie. That's so far. Haven't
tried it versus trout yet. but soon! A pattern well-worth the short time to learn spinning hair
and good thread application. Thanks for the brevity and skillz.

Things depend

Many of the hair extensions and the wig hairs suffer from the same syndrome as many commercial synthetic hairs: they felt. This doesn't go for all colors, kinds and brands, only some. You will have to test them before using them extensively. But that's also the case with what you buy in fly shops.

Regarding the rest of your advice, you are so right as we have already covered in several articles like these:
Inexpensive materials
Wash-n-Dry Dubbing

Martin

Few things

Hair extentions dont work well. When wet they clump together. I havent tried waxing them yet but after the first cast, the large fly looks and turns over very poorly. The action in the water sucks too. I used Haloween neon blue and white i found at a party shop last year.

I found that tube bodies can be found on head gear in the Halloween isle at Wal-Mart last year for $2. Each head band has i believe four 18" tubes of different colors. The tubs have flash in them and they work great for all patterns that use tube bodies. Don't bother looking for them in Flemming Island. I buy buckets full.

Eyes are commonly found in craft sections as well. Flat-back gems and bedazzle stickers work well. I use a sharpie to make the pupil black. They are easy to use and i bought a jar full for $10, and its about 500 mixed size and color. Quality sticker gems work great too.

I found that dryer lint can be used as a fine dubbing if used in a dub loop.

Coat hanger, shrink wrap and a pen ink tube work well for bobbins if you are crafty. I used all homemade tools for years including a vice i made from scrap metal stock. Nothing is more rewarding than DIY plus Fly fishing

Welcome

Gene,

Welcome to the site, and I'm glad you found some useful information. Good luck with the pike tubes! Fun to tie, fun to fish.

Martin

Nice working

Nice job

Copper wire

Justin,

The copper wire idea is highly experimental, and I have tried using it for the leaders, but it breaks very easily and also adds unwanted stiffness to the leader. I simply took a length or two of thin wire (from an electrical transformer) and laid is along the two legs before untwisting them. Then the copper wire twisted in nicely. But even though it did work, the leaders didn't last for long before the wire oxidized and as said: it was quite stiff too.

I think using a thin fluorocarbon mono for the leaders would be a better alternative to get something sinking... even though it of course sinks much more slowly than a copper wire.

Martin

you mentioned copper wire...

Somewhere at the top of this article is mentioned creating weighted leaders by adding copper wire. Where would one add that in? Is there another article elsewhere where this is described? Thanks in advance!

Tie a Woolly Bugger

Carter,

Depending on your fishing, I'd say that a Woolly Bugger is about the best and most universal fly you can tie. We even have the instructions for the perfect one! Check it out here:
http://globalflyfisher.com/patterns/the-perfect-woolly

If you want a dry fly that works in many situations, look at the CDC&Elk. It's a great all round fly and easy to tie:
http://globalflyfisher.com/patterns/cdcelk

Martin

Comment to Davie McPhail

Hi Davie, I love the way you tie. Your streamers look awesome. I´ve been tying since 14 and I am 40 now. You can check out my profile at streamerlist.com if you like. Good luck with your tying. Petr Haisman from Czech

Gary LaFontaine

Gary LaFonatine spent an entire season fishing nothing but Muddler Minnows; in every size and variation. Apparently he caught about the same number of trout as he would have using the usual variety of flies. A real testimony to the fish catching abilities of this pattern.

Some of them

Quinn,

The butt can be removed or changed to a different style or size on some of the switch rods, but it depends on the brand and model.

Martin

Totally awesome

Great story Korrie! Reminds me a lot of rain non-stop rain I experienced in Alaska during the summer. Your descriptions of the moments of sun are spot on and I couldn't help to laugh at your South African wit. You must be related to Trevor Noah?

Can you twist off the butt end?

Hi, I was wondering if you could twist the butt end off a switch rod? thanks

Quinn

Do not book with this company/person!

Do not book with Arnar Tomas/Icelandic Flytours.
We booked him to drive us to Arnarvatnsheidi, buy licenses, give us info on the fishing and pick us up.

Someone else (a friend of his friend) drove us out, we never saw the licenses and he never showed up to pick us up. He left us stranded in "the middle of nowhere"! He never gave an explanation and has ignored all other attempts from us to contact him during the last 5 weeks.

fly tying thread using denier

In the glossary, denier is listed as a category of fly tying thread. Your text states the following..."It is not an indication of thickness or strength?
My question is this. Why is denier even considered a category to be considered regarding fly tying thread if it is not an indication of thickness or strength?

What size hook do you use?

Thanks for posting this video, very instructive. What size hook do you use for fishing this fly on the Poudre?

Fishing with a fly

Sebastian,

This debate comes up ever so often. The article about bubble float fishing that I republished recently has a lengthy comment track about the same subject - http://globalflyfisher.com/fish-better/fishing-a-bubble

Whenever people talk about Czech nymphing, ceramic nymphs, Perdigon nymphs and even just fishing with a weighted fly, someone will dispute that it's "real" fly fishing.

I usually stay out of the debate. Where does the boundary go? You have to cast the fly with a line? Well, there's no casting in Tenkara or Czech nymphing.
How far to you have to cast? Is a roll cast a "real" cast? Or dapping?
Is a massive, solid saltwater baitfish fly tied with foam and epoxy a fly?
Is a red hook that looks like a blood worm a fly and are you really fly fishing when you fish that?
Is it fly fishing when you troll a large NE streamer behind a boat?

I'm not going to be the judge of all these cases. My personal opinion is that fly fishing is a very wide array of fishing types, and certainly not only when you cast a light fly overhead using a classic fly line.

But the debate is not going to end there, I'm sure.

Martin

Is tenkara fly fishing?

With all respect for the tenkara enthousiasts, I wonder if you can call it fly fishing. It is done with a fly and it really is fishing, but it is as much fly fishing as fishing with a spinning rod and a buldo with some flies attached to it. Would you call playing golf so, if you are only putting and only play on the greens? In my opinion making a well placed cast to the other side of the river with a fly rod, is unquestionable part of fly fishing as well.

Comment to #356 - Lion Streamer

How do you dye jungle cock?

Casual Dress

This has been my primary pattern in Western PA for over 50 years
changes I have made as follows:
#10 streamer hook with 10 to 12 wraps of .015 lead
recently I have tied smaller versions using MINK and # 8 using BEAVER
same pattern but with a different look / color in the water.
thanks for posting by far my favorite fly pattern.

Comment to #98-2013 - Alaska Mary Ann tied by Kevi

For me ...... this pattern has a "too" long of a head on it, but the pattern that I had used as a reference indeed had a really long head tied by a inuit Indian many moons ago and according to what our Host Darrel Mc. had told me, that was how the original pattern had been tied. How ever one chooses to tie it.... it sure is a good searching pattern for many species of fish lookin' for a quick meal.

Missing the point

You can not do Rais in boiling water. Yes the heat shrink tubing may shrink, but the soul purpose is to MELT the outter plastic coating of the fly line.