Recent comments

Sunray Shadow

@Jernau,

A classic Sunray Shadow has an even longer wing and a hook placed in the absolute front. Some Sunrays are 20-25 centimeters or 4-5 inches long! Still the "short hook, long wing" flies have worked well for ages, and personally I think the fear of "tail nibbling" is vastly exaggerated. Most fish seem to attack with vigor, swallow most of almost any fly and even go for the front of the fly as they charge.

The Sunray Shadow can be seen here: http://globalflyfisher.com/patterns/sunray-shadow
And here's a whole article about short hooks and long wings: http://globalflyfisher.com/tie-better/short-hook-long-wing

The fly in the video barely qualifies as a long winged fly in my eyes, but is very much along the lines and proportions of most of the hair winged salmon flies fished here in Scandinavia.

Martin

Hook position

The problem with this design is that the hook won’t extentend far enough. It s very likely the fish will attack from the rear and won’t get hooked. Why not just tie a weighted Sunray Shadow using the same material and colors?

After dinner mint fly

Nice fly. How does it fish?

This tube fly is great. I'm

This tube fly is great. I'm going to tye tube flies.....

Comment to #213 - Jock Scott Streamer

That´s a beauty Davie! Extremely well tied and dressed. I really admire your style of tying streamers. Petr from Czech.

Comment to Hook Reference

Hello everyone. I love Mustad L87-3665A hooks. I love to tie streamers on them, but I can´t find them in any of Czech fly shops. They just don ´t offer them, the only usable streamer hooks that I can buy are TMC 300 but I don´t like them much because of soft and flexible twire. Only some Mustad carp hooks available...:-) Can anyone help me with getting one package of L-87 3665A size 8 hooks? I can offer some beautiful Whiting pack hackles or feather samples and some samples of fluo cerise marabou for that for a change.
Thanks everyone for the help, Petr

My sister shrimp

Awesome looking pattern. I can't wait to try it. How do you fish it in stillwater?

Fly fishing

I knew that my former colleque from Fokker at Ypenburg, was able to make beautiful things with his machines, but this I have never seen. My very big compliments. And it is worth te price he can get for it. There is no alternative.

Comment on new method of presenting flys

This way of presenting flys with a spinning rod by dragging them using a float is certainly nothing new. It has been used in Newfoundland Canada for at least 50 years if not longer and is still being used to catch trout!

why.

This river can not be lost to greed and ignorance.

Red, White, & Blue

Hey Shawn,
Nice setup you have there. I noticed the red, white, and blue fish hanging on your wall and didn't know if that just shows your patriotism, of if you are in Texas, or both?
Also, what is your favorite vise and bobbin?

Thanks for sharing, Dave

Cabinet

Hi Samuel,

Looks like you have a great setup for fly tying. What is the cabinet/booth that you have set up behind your tying station? It looks like it might be used for spray painting? Also, what is your favorite vise and bobbin which you use?

Thanks for sharing, Dave

Incredible setup

Hi Jayson,
That's quite a setup you have there. I have a few questions for you, first, if you have ever been married, are you still married? Not many women would be so gracious to grant her husband the space, let alone the resources to invest so much into their sport/hobby. Also, I'm assuming this is primarily your tying space and not a museum? That is quite a collection of fly tying tools, materials, and fishing equipment that you have. I would pay money just to see it in person. And my final question is what is your favorite vise, bobbin, whip finishing tool, etc?
Thanks for sharing, Dave

Great film

What a wonderful film about steelhead! Full of love for the nature and wild steelhead! Really great people! I wish, I would meet more people like them at the water.... A fantastic film, a must to see! Thank's a lot!

Great looking fly. I'm going

Great looking fly. I'm going to use it for Bull Trout, Pike and Walleye

synthetics and baitfish flies

To avoid roll over of synthetics, I tie in a few long strands of deer tail hair at the end of the shank.

Discussion "what is not fly

Discussion "what is not fly fishing" is as old as fly fishing itself :-). I live in Poland now, where this method very popular, but called "Polish nymphing", which is the same in my opinion. Also it's popular in Slovakia where I'm fishing quite often, maybe they call it "Slovak nymphing"? :-) I learned interesting technique from Slovak guide on river Vah, which is combination of Czech/Polish nymphing and wet fly swing. In this method 3 flies are used. Anchor fly is heavier nymph, used for weight, middle fly is very light nymph, and top fly is a wet fly, usually spider pattern. Cast flies slightly upstream, follow it with the rod tip, then in the middle of the run rod is gradually lowered. When the rig is on 45 degrees downstream from the angler, fly line and rod almost dropped to the water. So it ends up like classic downstream swing. I tried that in the riffle full of graylings and trout, and half of fish takes were on wet fly, when rig was 45 degree downstream or in the lower part of the drift.

measurements

Wow, amazing work!

Would it be possible to have the measurements of such a wonderful vise? I'd like to have students build one.

Thanks a lot.

R

Great story!!! Great Film!!!

Great story!!! Great Film!!! Thanks for showing it us!

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