Recent comments

Single-handed rods for salmon fishing

Dear Nils,

thank you for your interesting and very helpful post about salmon fishing in Iceland‘s rivers with single handed rods!

I hopefully will be travelling to Iceland this June after the trip has been postponed twice due to corona reasons.

We will be fishing the Brenan(Sea)Pool of the Thvera and the lower part of the Blanda.

Do you have Andy experience with the fishing on those rivers and have you maybe and recommendations regarding the tacke?

I am looking forward to maybe hearing from you.

Kind regards from northern Germany!

Karsten

Grooving wooden net frames

Much the easiest way to achieve a consistent groove, is to rout it out before steaming/bending.

True enough

Rob,

I'm sure no one claims that Davie invented the flies he ties - least of all himself. He may not credit every pattern to the originator in his videos, but he certainly doesn't say that all the patterns are his.

Martin

I still prefer Renomed

Jed, (sorry for my mistaking your name when first posting)

I find the Renomed scissors superior to various razor scissors that I have tried. I haven't used the Tiemco razors, but only their coarser Deer hair scissors, which I indeed have had and used for decades, but also have degraded to rougher work. Their tips are no nearly as fine as those of the razor models or the pointed Renomed models.

As mentioned in the article, most (read: all) razor scissors seem to come out of the same mold, just being branded differently by the sellers. You can find some inexpensive no-name razor scissors to try. In my experience they are exactly the same as the more expensive brand name models. The Renomeds are unique and unlike other scissors on the market, and my preferred tool in my day-to-day tying. But they are of course also quite expensive.

I hope this helps

Martin

Renoned scissors compared to Tiemco

Martin, first thank you for your extensive research on scissors. Bravo!!! I have been leaning towards a pair of Tiemco tungsten Carbide razor scissors and the Deer Dresser Scissors also by Tiemco. That was until I read your comments about Renomed. In a video put on by Fish Food Fly, a shop in Utah, the owner compared the points of a variety of different scissors. The Tiemco scissors came to the finest points. Do you think the Renomed match the fineness of the Tiemco points?? You’ve had your Tiemco for more than 25 years. Why do you think the Renomed scissors are better than the Tiemcos?? Any help making my decision is very appreciated. Thank you Martin. Jed Feffer

Antistatic Buzzer

Contrary to popular belief, Davie McPhail didn't invent every fly in the universe, and he didn't invent this one either. The Antistatic buzzer was originated by Alex Ferguson of Leicester around 2008.

even more easy fly

just take a coffee bean and superglue it on a hook

Tool type

Great video but I always like to know who makes the tools being used. I believe I saw loon but the bobkin?

Collie Dog ?

Looks more like a Sunray Shadow with the White in the wing. Original Collie was just Black !

covid

glad you are better ,, our health is all we have ,, best of the holidays to you ,,,, cbm

Good to hear

Good to hear you're back in the saddle at GFF, Martin. Best wishes to you and yours and a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

<()))><

Funny that this book comes out to us again. Yes, Keith compiled a huge dictionary of patterns. And yes, it is not consistent in type or print. I have a copy also signed by the author. He signed it for me at his shop in Ennis, Mt. on July 7, 1989. The thing is that although this book is terrible it was the work that Keith did on, or should I say to, bamboo rods that was worse. He single handily ruined several cane rods in that he would strip the finish and then die the blank in black ink. The rods were then displayed at his shop. I remember an entire line of black rods that he had destroyed. I cannot remember the makers of the rods but whoever they were are probably still rolling in their respective graves.
Mark

Ipatfly,

Ipatfly,

I think the Dyneema 55 is Roman Moser Power Silk Dyneema Thread GSP 8/0 which is sometimes referred to as Dyneema 55. I'll check with Barry and post his reply here.

Martin

Thanks

HI Martin - Glad to hear you are on the mend. Thank you for all you do for the fly fishing world. We all appreciate this as the best and most informative website for our fly fishing community. God Bless,
Jack Harford

Dyneema thread 55

In your video "Tying the Elk Hair Caddis with Barry Ord Clarke Sept. 28, 2016" in the comments you mentioned you use Dyneema 55 thread. Is 55 a product # or is it the Denier size? I cannot find "55" in Dyneema or Veevus search.

nice fly

hans ties terrefic flies and his instrucion are first rate. He has a great site with hundreds of fly tutorial,G

Fighting hard

Hi Jack, yes they do, jumping, running and putting a nice bend into the 8 weight, ,

The shakey

Brian,

Thanks for the comment, and yes, I have similar experiences with both glass and bamboo rods. They are such a joy to fish and cast with - not to mention catch - and the casting distance is much more dependent on your technique than the nature of the rod.

Martin

Thanks

Carl,

Thanks for noticing. I try to keep the mumble jumble to a minimum - and also try to keep the tracking to a minimum. Cookies are used as a tool to help users and improve the site, and not to keep track of your shoe size or what side you sleep on at night... ;-)

Martin

Thanks for the clarity on cookies, etc.

Martin, I got to the box about “Of course we use cookies…” on your home page and out of curiosity, clicked on the more info link. I just wanted to thank you for the clarity and brevity of information on what data you collect and how you use it. In opposition to so many things that I have to agree to in order to use many sites, apps and programs, yours actually was written to be understood and add clarity, rather than obfuscate with excessive length and legalese.

Casting

I was 8 when my dad handed me a fly rod for the first time! I'm not sure what age I was when he first brought me with him fishing but he used to cast a worm out on a spinning rod and told me to watch for a fish taking it! When one took it he never once took the rod off me to show me how to land it, he just told me what to do and god only knows how many I lost before I caught on! I know now that if I had have actually listened to his instructions and done what I was told I would have learned how to do it a lot more quickly! He has since told me that when he gave me the fly rod he was filled with both dread and delightment! Delightment at the thought of me learning to love what he loves but dread at how hard it was going to be to help me learn! Lol! That was 35 years ago and it was all river fishing back then and I picked up his passion for it!

My favorite rod is the first brand new rod he gave me! It's a fibreglass shakespeare 8'6ft 7#. I have a fair few rods in my armoury now of various lengths and weights and I fish mostly these days on lakes! I have a lovely greys 10'6ft 7/8# that I thought I could cast the most distance with until one day I thought I'd bring out my wee shakey just to see the how far I could cast with it compared to my big rod and was very surprised to find that there is very little difference with regard to how far I can cast with them! About 60 ft with the greys and a bit less with the shakey! After throwing the greys for a while it felt like I was casting in slow motion to keep the line in the air with the shakey lol! Much more relaxing and enjoyable! (I brought the slack after the cast back onto the reel then once I retrieved the fly I walked the line along the bank to measure it) sorry about the long post but hopefully its helpful!

Sounds like exciting fishing

Sounds like exciting fishing waiting for the shoals of fish to come in. Do they fight hard on the fly gear?

Good to hear!

Nemo,

Good to hear that the setup works! And yes, the spey casting or underhand casting requires practice like all other fly casts. I find it fairly easy to get into the rhythm and get it to work - and if I can do it, so can you!

On of the keys - as with most casting - is not to force it, but work the rod and let the weight of the line do the work, so to say. On a two hand rod I find that keeping the bottom of the rod fairly still, and simply moving the lower hand (left in my case) while the top hand on the handle is more static, works well. I'm not quite as used to casting this way with a one hand rod, but when using a shooting head, the way the line is lifted off the water is kind of an underhand cast.

Martin

Martin

I used a lighter fly

I've downsized the fly to a size 6 Ahrex NS 122 Light Stinger hook and a transparent plastic head (Fish-Mask), and used composite material for the body; it works like a charm - when I manage to get the cast right ;) - on a 5 foot fluoro leader. No need for the weighted head , the S3 tip brings the fly to the right depth in my neck of the woods.
Now, this single handed speycasting can be quite tricky to perform. Definitely not as easy as it seems in the vids; you really must get every step right and smoothly too. But when you get it right it flies :) I'll need a lot of practice for sure, but it's well worth the effort as I'll be able to fish lots of new stretches of water where an overhead cast would be near to impossible.