Recent comments

Ole (and Hans),

I

Ole (and Hans),

I haven't caught hundreds of fish on this pattern, and neither has Kasper, the originator, but in spite of this I am quite certain about the fact that "nibbles" and missed strikes are not due to the length of the fly and the placement of the hook, but caused by the way that some fish don't strike the flies, but rather tests it or merely touches it.

This is of course a pure theory on my behalf because I only have some loosely formed ideas about how the fish actually behave when they follow a fly and open their mouths over it. From my fishing for trout and other species, my guess is that a fish, which really wants to swallow a food item, does not hesitate or nibble or taste - it swims forward at a fast pace, opens its mouth widely, sucking in the food, and often turns away after that. This I have seen on videos showing fish taking dry flies on the surface, saltwater fish taking streamers and bass and pike striking lures.

If the fish does this with any fly, long or short, it will hook itself.

Think of some of the flies used for other fish: sand eel imitations for striped bass, long streamers for pike not to mention the long, green string flies used for barracuda. These flies can be up to 20-30 centimeters long (almost a foot!) and still the fish manage to get hooked.

I have caught very small fish on the Epoxy Miracle and they were very well hooked indeed. Look at the picture in the article. This has happened to me several times. So I believe that larger fish will have no troubles at all swallowing this relatively small fly and getting hooked on the hook.

Martin

Dear Martin,

tied

Dear Martin,

tied also some of the epoxy flies as mentioned in this article. Two questions came up:

A) Due to the length of the hairwing/tail the hook is located in the first half to quarter of the fly. I think you fished this nice fly already a couple of times. Did you ever experienced due to the length of the tail/wing a higher rate of "ineffective" attacks?

B) Do you put on first the eyes or first the epoxy?

Happy new year,
Ole

I like the compositi

I like the composition of this picture, but I hope the catcher would'nt have to carry that grate around with him!!

This is one of the b

This is one of the best "leader" articles I have ever read. Beautiful and comprehensive. Well done and my compliments. I plan to share it with my fishing buddy. Thanks

I had never thought

I had never thought of gar as a sport fish, iv'e only ever seen them used as aquarium fillers.

fine wallpapers

fine wallpapers

FF@ got crazy after

FF@ got crazy after 1995--too many people and posts. You can still search through the posts by year at http://jdunns.dyndns.org/flyfishq.html in case you're looking for more bad, bad flyfishing haiku. In case you forgot, it was in 1995. =)

My favorite, it's haunted me for years:
'bacco spit dribbles
Whilst clutching his netted prey
It's a brown trout now.
--Chris Knight

Very informative

the information on this page is very informative to me as a beginer at trying to make a fishing rod for myself thank you very much

Brian Larson is corr

Brian Larson is correct, gortex-type/breathable materials find it very hard to work when they are soaked. However, breathables do work better than neoprene in the extreme cold. Why? Because the "technical-clothing" paradigm relies on layers whereas neoprene wearers rarely employ this tactic. Using baggy beathables with a set of silk/cotton draws, a thermal liner and loosed fitting underwear makes for unbeatable insulation against the cold - and you don't get damp (as you do in neoprene) because the layers wick the moisture away from your skin - and that is the secret to day-long wading in the cold.
I do, however, believe that at the end of the day it comes down to personal choice - and my choice is breathables - ALL YEAR ROUND!

Unless you are in ve

Unless you are in very hot water, the condensation point of the vapor will be less than the temperature of the water. The vapor will condense as it cools, once condensed it can not travel through the membrane. Ther may be some minor thing happening under the conditions, which occure most of the time that keep the vapor from escaping, but I don't know of them. I also must sweat way more than most becasue I have never had dry cloths inside my waders regardless of what type I use. In warm weather I can usually ring water out of my socks. Tightness of the waders will also make a big difference. With the right cloths while xcountry skiing I have steped into a stream while crossing and never gotten uncomprotabe during the balance of the trip even though the inside was soaked and the outside became frozen. I have also collected a half inch of ice crystals between the shell on the outside and the last inside garment.

Mike,

1994 and 19

Mike,

1994 and 1996, huh? A lot of water has run under the bridge since then. I was into ff@ too back then. Haven't been on the list for ages and sometimes wonder how it's doing. Probably much the same I guess.

Fishing Denmark still criss-crosses GFF and traces can be found everywhere.

And we're glad to have you back! :-)

Martin

Hi Martin

I used

Hi Martin

I used to get flyfish@ back in 1994 when things were new and people were just starting to get into the whole web browsing thing. In 1996, I was living in Germany and I used to spend hours looking at Fishing Denmark. I'm glad I found you again. =)

Cheers
--Mike

Worth a visit on your own

Tony,

Boca Paila may be worth a visit on your own. It's a limited size area, but does look really appealing. Check out Life is good and Christian's site for some inspiration.

Martin

Dear Martin,

Like

Dear Martin,

Liked your article with all the nice pictures a lot, it gave me some drive and motivation to put out the vise again to fill up some patterns which are low in stock.

Discovered your site first while I was doing some research in regard of a blank for a rod building job. In general I like the globalflyfisher website and pass by at least every one or two months to check what's new.

My personal world of fishing has two hot spots, one is Northern America with a lot of good suppliers and manufacturers of fishing equipment and some good sites in regard of rod building. The other is the Scandinavian area where I prefer to go fishing, also with some good manufacturers of equipment as well. So what makes the difference between your site in regard of the content and other sites is that it is not a pure regional site like some others, on top it represents exactly the areas which are of my personal interest in this regard.

This just as a small feedback from the internet.

RGDS,
Ole
Hamburg/Germany

Brian,

You may be

Brian,

You may be right in your considerations regarding breathability and its limitations. I have no scientific evidence to prove the opposite. But I have fished in the winter as long as I remember and I have worn the right clothes under my neoprenes. My empiric findings were:
- My waders were always moist on the inside after a day's fishing (wet, actually)
- My clothes were damp, particularly over the knees
- I froze
I have worn 5 mm Orvis and Bare neoprenes - the latter being regarded top notch by most people I know.

Being out on extremely cold days doesn't make me more moist. It might be because I sweat less. On sunny summer days sweat runs off me in litres and my breathable waders are again moist on the inside. My (again empiric) experience tells me that the colder it is the dryer I am.

And regarding the breathability under water. What would hinder the vapor in "fusing" with the outside water? Not being a physicist I can't explain or fully understand the molocular details in this process.

No matter what: I freeze less than ever and so does most of my fishing buddies. And none of us ever wear neoprenes anymore. And yes: we do fish in the winter!

Martin

The breathable myth

The breathable myth is that breathable waders and jackets always breath. They can not breath if they are wet on the outside such as when you are in the water or when it is raining and the outside of the jacket is soaking wet. They also don't breath when it is colder outside than what the condensation point of the sweat vapor is. The vapor will condense as soon as it reaches this temperature inside the wader. I think that you are staying warmer, not because of the waders, but because of the choice of cloths you are making inside the waders. Wicking materials next to the skin and good insulators outside that. You would be just as warn if not warmer in neoprenes.

Excellent article

Excellent article, and an excellent step-by-step.

Great for guys like me who don't tie too many dry flies!

qulity flies!!!

qulity flies!!!

This helps me out al

This helps me out alot. I been trying to take good pictures of my flies and post them up on a forum that I belong to

Thanks.

Yes indeed

Yes indeed, I have fished with Phillip Rolles. In fact after trying other guides in other areas I would never think of fishing the Bahamas without Phillip. He has your back coveded every second... on shore and on water... as far as a teacher, there's none better.... eldondo

I was very impressed

I was very impressed with the detail on the buzzer fly it was not only the tying but the clear way on how to fish it.All i have to do, is try this out in pratice thank you very much .I shall report back.

I find the Lagathu's

I find the Lagathu's Shrimp very realistic and would like to know how to tie it. Can you please email me directions, or direct me to the site that offers detailed tying instructions. Thank, you Al

Great story

Great story. Do you think it would be worth the effort to fish right out of the town of Boca Paila on ones own? It seems like a boat and guide is necessary to get to the better flats.

Bill,

Please noti

Bill,

Please notice that the prices are for the blanks only. The finished rods are probably in the range you mention.

Martin