Recent comments

Arne,

I'm not sure I get your point... do you mean that Niels is a jerk? Or that he is making life complicated?

I would definitely oppose to both points of view.

Niels is certainly not a jerk, and yes, the flies are complicated, but compare Niels' flies to a particularly delicate and complex meal: sure you could cure your hunger with a piece of bread, but the joy of a well and elaborately cooked meal is so much bigger. Same thing for Niels fishing with Jock Scotts. A Wooly Bugger could maybe do the trick, but catching a salmon on a full dressed salmon fly is just a bigger thrill for some.

Martin

Submitted by Arne on

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This perfectly matches the German translation of the title of Hughes book "A jerk on one end" which is "Es ist so leicht, sich das Leben schwer zu machen". Basically it means " It is so easy to make life complicated".
The joy of fly tying is tying them.
The joy of fly fishing is fly fishing.
You need no excuse.
Just do it.

I used to buy tubes to tie on and still buy micro tubes or nesting tubes to tie my fresh water flies on. Recently my wife bought some Q-Tips. When I picked one up to use, I immediately realized that it felt like plastic instead of rolled paper. After using the Q-Tip I cut off the ends and sure enough they were plastic. They measured 2 1/2 to 3" long and very ridged. I decided that recycling was the best why to go and saved me a lot of money on the purchase of tubes. I tied a tube fly on this plastic tube and it was beautiful. The plastic is white and takes coloring by use of magic marker nicely. Now the Q-Tips serve two purposes and I am contributing to a clean earth by reusing the plastic tubes. Give it a try, you'll love it.

Martin, right on as usual. I bought some buck tail recently, one natural and the others were died. They came in thick zipper locked plastic bags. It had not occurred to me that these would need to be cleaned until I started to smell some nasty oders. When I opened the bags to use the material, I got a nasty surprise. I didn't think about cleaning these. I even sprayed them with Fabrese to kill the smell. It worked for awhile but then came back. I just read your article on cleaning the buck tail. So I gave it try. My wife thought I had finally lost me mind watching me bath the buck tail in my utility sink. Then she really thought I had gone gone nuts when I dried them with a hair drier. I noticed that the died buck tail shed some die. Good thing I washed them in the utility sink. I would recommend that your readers use disposable gloves when they clean tying materials. The heat from the drier brought out more smells so I hung them up to dry for the remainder of the drying process. I also,sprayed the buck tail with some antibacterial spray for a little extra measure of protection. Thanks for the tip.

Submitted by simon Broabent on

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Hi there,I will be in Lucca early aug 2013,I will have basic fly fishing takle with me,and I wondered if anyone could share a day on a river,the favour would be returned if ever in my neck of the woods,south africa.
Regards all
Simon

Submitted by Ian on

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I think I need to invest in a belly boat...Wading is limiting and if you can't cover the fish, you can't catch them.

Submitted by Steve Buckley on

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Lee Wulff said it years ago. Good fishing for trophy fish can only be sustained on private waters. The lodges on the Rio Grande and Rio Gallegos enforce catch & release fishing. Water open to all comers is subject to something called "the tragedy of the commons." When no one owns the water, no one takes care of it.

Submitted by Scott Barnden on

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Not sure if you have looked into it or could get it but you could look at a drug called Modafinil/Provigil.

I've heard it work well for other MS sufferers to deal with the fatigue at least.

Submitted by Ian on

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Fantastic film. The end credits song is beautiful. I haven't found where to buy it but you can listen to it on SoundCloud on the singers own page - Bjarke Stenbaek - Old Sun. :o)

"I'm not a riverside, you're not a river bed, still time keeps floating by like water..."

Bob, I don't comment on many tyers work, but when ever I see yours, I have to chip in my 2 cents worth. Superb tying job! You get better with every fly you tie. I have pics of your earlier ties, and you have evolved into a first class tyer! I say this out of respect for your work. It deserves respect!
Cheers, Joel

Submitted by Rick Fiedler on

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Hello Sir, Nice work!! I too am a wood carver. I am looking for a pattern of a 36 inch pike but am having no luck. Any suggestions?????

I use a Norvise Tube conversion on my Norvise and I have found that the mandrels that come with the conversion kit fit most applications, however I tie on very small tubes for fresh water flies and the mandrels just didn't make it for me. The right size mandrel I needed was a size 28mm. I went on line and found a "Spring Metal" manufacturer by the name of Brownell. They had a special on a kit which had just about every size mandrel you could want for $26.00. I bought the kit and cut the stock to size. Bent over one end added a bead and then applied hot wax to cover the bead and enlarge the end so that it would be easier for me to handle it. Now I have every conceivable mandrel size needed to fit any application. On the Norvise, you have to have enough plastic tube to fit inside the vise conversion so that the tightening turn nob holds the material. This stops the tube from spinning. You can also "pinch" tube material as well but that is better suited for metal tubes.

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