Recent comments

Could it be that the world of modern art has finally reached the world of fly tying? These flies would hardly fall in the category of impressionist. The quality is certainly the most distressing trait, for while they might catch a fish (singular), it would have to be done quickly before they came apart.

Cheers,
MiLo

Without a tungsten bead, the fly will be much lighter, in fast water, you might not get the fly down to the feeding depth.
As for gold beads, the flash can act as an attractor. Getting the fish's attention.
For fish that gets a lot of fishing pressure, a black bead might be better. The fish might get use to the gold flash. The fly don't have so much bling and looks more natural.

I tie and use Copper Joes in red, black, green and copper. I have found them to be as effecive as the much harder to tie Copper John. The Joe is a great nymph pattern on the Rio Penasco in Southeastern New Mexico.

Is there an advantage of a gold tungsten bead over a black tungsten bead or no bead at all?

Hi Jocelyn Le Blanc
Nice article and no doubt your blessed with phantastic waters!!!!
cheerio Heiko

the split antron is aa great technique. Thanks a lot..

I have had many wonderful evenings fishing for lake rainbow trout using squirrel tail blue dun wets and catching fish after fish as people just shook their heads wondering what "magic fly" I was using. These patterns are very much overlooked these days I think.. and the photography is pure 'eye candy." wonderful plates. thanks.. I was looking for Wickhams Fancy and there it was..

My wading jacket has those side pockets for warming your hands. I put tippets/splitshots/small trash in there. You hardly notice them when you put your hands in, if you empty them often enough. So when you go past a trash can, hand into pocket and out and you are green. This is also the fastest way to dispense little trash that comes while fishing.

When I'm near my backbag, I put the trash that comes during visiting the bag (food wrappers etc.) in there.. So whenever I make trash, I'm either next to the backbag or my pocket. I must admit that my pockets and backbag is filled with trash sometimes, but atleast they are clean trash.

Also I don't understand why there is not a rant about lead. Nowadays it is easy and cheap to replace weights (splitshots, under body etc.) with lead-free materials that doesn't harm the nature as much.

I like both picture and fly. it looks great.

Hi Wayne,

The smallest size I have tied the fly is 14, I just have not seen smaller sizes of the real insects in our rivers.
For example, if you look at the picture with the real caddis larva and the two flies in my hand, the size of the hook for the flies there is # 8.
And yes, I use much thinner yarn for the smaller flies, may be one half to one third part of this I had showed, it depends on the size of the fly.

Best regards

Rado

Have you ever gone to a smaller size hook like an 18 or 20 and if so, do you recommend maybe spliting the antron in half so that the fly isn't so fat?

Sweet! We have a bit of that down this way too. And I can say it is good practice for saltwater redfish.

Gareth,
I'm sure we are going to have a lot of great fishing places when all fishermen understand that they don't have to "eat the ball" to succeed fishing.
Thanks,

Miguel,
I thought a lot about that, and finally I decide to write the word "libere" instead of "suelte" in the spanish version. I like it most because the whole action of releasing a fish speaks about an act of freedom: The fisherman is free to decide to let the fish live, and the fish is free again to live, feed and spawn. On the other hand, the logo is being part of some conservation campaigns on places where "catch and release" is absolutely unknown, like local communities near some rivers of the Amazon basin or some places at the pacific coast of South America, directed to people who are learning about that principle for the first time, and a sticker of the logo on a boat talking about freedom could make them forget that they are, in some way, "throwing their lunch to the water" (For some people of the third world, fishing is still a valid way to get all the protein they eat, no matter if they are killing the last fish of the river...)

Best,

I got this spinning block at the Fly tying celebration last week. I love it but I have too get used to not using so much dubbing at one time. If you do a lot of dubbing this is the tool to have...

I would like to get in touch with the photographer and subject in this image - To get their permission to use this image for a printed advert. Please contact me as soon as possible.

I found the adhesive backed lead in a walomart in the craft section

Hello,

This is really an outstanding exposé about tube flies.

Could you please tell me where we can get tube lining to attach cones on? I have problems finding some.

Many thanks

christophe