Recent comments

Alternatives to Nymph Skin

Bodies look great and lots of options for variants. In case you don't have any of the original strips, Hareline now offers a product via US retailers called Kiley's Nymph Skins which seems identical to the original Virtual Nymph product. Or you can cut various industrial protective gloves into thin strips and use as substitutes for the commercial products. A US tier, Safet Nikocevic, has been demonstating how to do this for many years at the International Fly Tying Symposium in New Jersey.

This black night fly is called Kragefluen. Dressed for Karup Å

Original, body hackle is a white and a brown hackle cut very short and black squirrel wing, but a few variants have been made and this is one of them with a short grizzly hackle over peacock herl and wing with Arctic fox.
It has caught many seatrout in the 80s and 90s
You can see variants in the book "Along the Karup River" (Langs Karup Å).

Update?

Any update here. Looking to fish anywhere I can. Will be bringing a 5 and 8wt.

Fishing with a fly

Markiç,

Explaining flyfishing is going to be a long story … luckily some people have done a great job here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly_fishing

Martin

fly tying

excellent video on fly tying

Great site, but what does flyfishing mean?

The site seems like a fun place, and congrats on 28 years of being on the web!
The only problem is that I dont even know what flyfishing is.
Cheers I guess...

Eggs

I recall reading about someone casting bullets from hot melt gun (for shooting mice inside their home), on the cast boolits discussion board site. So you could probably cast round fishing weights as well. Which could then be placed on hooks to make salmon/trout egg 'flies'. At worst you might need to slice them open to slip the hook in and then glue them back together or heat the cut and press them back together, around the hook shaft.

PossibleTiers

Looks like something Ulf hagstrom or Chris Sandford would tie.

Furled leader tips

Kristjan,

When I make furled leaders using mono I use very thin mono and usually end it in a loop. To this loop I attach a piece of mono and I then attach the tippet to that.

It's true that the tip of the furled leader is fairly thick when using mono - when ending with four strands it's of course four times the thickness of the line you furl. So the trick is to keep it thin, but even with a 0.10 mm line you will still end up with a 0.40 mm tips as you also mention, and will need a further "step" down.

I typically fish a 0.20 or 0.25 mm tippet in my fishing, so a piece of 0.30mm of about 30-50 cm will suffice to give a proper taper. I also use this piece as a "wear piece" that I can cut down when changing tippet, and exchange completely when it becomes too short.

For thinner tippets - like for stream fishing - I use furled leaders made from tying thread, in which case the tip is much thinner, and this problem rarely occurs.

I hope this helps

Martin

Furled leaders, tip question

Hello, First let me say I love your website! It is a constant source of information for me.

So, my question is about tapered furled leaders, more so with tip diameter. If I look at the table of butt section diameters, at the end of this article, I can get the butt sections in the appropriate diameter, for example ca. .55mm for 5 wt.
But using the same material, my tip diameter is about .40mm which seems a bit much to tie on 0.14mm tippet.

No matter what diameter mono I use the leader tip always seems too large for tippet. The only solution I found until now is to do a two part furled leader, where I first furl 4 strands and then marry the 4 strands furled mono to the actual furled leader via loop to loop. The taper comes out to 22-18-14-10-6-4, when using the formula from this site.

Is the large jump in diameter ok, am I just being overpedantic? Should I tie tapers before tippet or is there any other trick to get a good taper from the tip of the furled leader to tippet?

Thanks for Video

GDay Martin. Surprised to se my video here, very cool. Last place I would have expected to be given the participants and audience. Anyway, glad you found it interesting enough to warrant posting. Take care.

The Water’s Violin

Thank you Kate. I am not sure what part of Bartok’s violin piece inspired me. Thank you for your comments. They are helpful and encouraging. If you get a chance read Simon’s Daughter. It is the 2021 Robert Traver Fly- Fishing Writing Award Story in the Spring 2022, The American Fly Fisher, which is the Journal of the American Museum of Fly Fishing. If you can’t find a copy of the journal I can send it as an attachment to you if you send me your e-mail. Mine is jedtfeffer@aol.com. Thanks again Kate. By the way Karl Eric Leitzel created the photos, not me. Cheers, Jed

Trevor Morgan lines

I still want the lines. I’m having trouble posting. I hope this works.

Trevor Morgan lines

Yes I am interested if you have them. Especially the 7 wt. single hand line. I’d probably be interested in others though too.

The Water’s Violin

Great job on comparing fly casting to the bowing of a violin. You are referring to a slow movement of one of the Hungarian, or Romanian folk dances??
Yes, casting horizontally might meet the bowing motion. Your poem is wonderful, it describes a day on a stream very well. Casting a fly can be poetry in motion; it is a peaceful thought provoking activity.
It is nice to have the thought interrupted by a hungry fish. Then we go back to the unfinished poem. Your photographic and poetic abilities are a special gift, please continue to pursue them. You chose wisely to select Karl Eric Leitzel’s watercolor painting to accompany your poem.
Thank you very much for sharing with us.

hi

Hi Uncle Garret

Another tier with similar flies

Nick Thomas, who has been contributing a lot to this web site recently, has several similar flies. Check out his youtube channel and we site.

Javelin lines

I do beleievec I have a couple NOS of these in 5,6 & 7 # if still looking!

thank you

thank you for your videos it is so nice to be able to learn new tricks and ways to tie flys the information you give is priceless thank you for your time and effort

Foam Cricket

How did it Fish? One of the best fishing trips I ever had took place down in the Louisiana bayou near New Iberia with my uncle. We went to a bait shop and he filled up two cricket baskets with live black and brown crickets. Needless to say, we each caught more fish than I have ever caught in a 24 hr period. I recently tied a cricket pattern, deer hair cricket, and am eager to try it out. Tight Lines!

New Maine Fly For Me.

Ted Patlen Nice to see you still tying those wonderful flies you always have!!! Ted as you know I went to school at Unity College in Maine for many years for Environmental Sciences Wildlife. I have many friends from those days in Conservation Law, Fisheries, Wildlife Biology, Outdoor Recreation, Environmental Policy, Forestry, etc. We use to get together frequently in the Catskills New York each year to fish, explore, have a few, etc. I always had a list of High school, College friends, and the crew from Ramsey Outdoors to invite on our get togethers. I always enjoyed tying flies with you and the rest from there, I learned so much as a young beginner fly tier. This fly you tied here is new to me, (I know it shouldn't be) I learned about it from an episode of Maine Cabin Masters. So I had to Look it up, nice to see you tied it for this tutorial. I will try to tie some and use it in Rangeley, Maine next time I'm up there. I go visit friends up there as often as I can. Last year my Turkey Hunting/Fishing Trip got cancelled due to the Covid Outbreak. I am hoping this year will be better. I guess we all hope for that.

From your friend Scott Perry Hope to see you soon!!! Its been too long - DECADES!!!

A classic Klinkhammer

I'm sorry ... Klinkhammer variant, with floating vest ... go to Wikipedia and see what is written about the Adams dry fly ... and the way it looks the parachute variant. Please don't touch the centenarian Adams, you're challenging me. I have nothing personal with anyone.

Betters’ Flies

Marvelous collection of flies. His flies have done quite well on another West Branch also, the West Branch of the Penobscot River in Maine. I didn’t know about focusing on the hair between the toes. Thanks for posting this

Betters’ Flies

Marvelous collection of flies. His flies have done quite well on another West Branch also, the West Branch of the Penobscot River in Maine. I didn’t know about focusing on the hair between the toes. Thanks for posting this