DonAndersen

Guys, Built a couple of these. They use a barbecue rotisserie motor, a 1/2" shaft and a piece of expanded poly to hold the flies. The fly is ribbed with 3 fine wires and covered with epoxy. The cheeks are red floss. catch ya' Don

Guys, To make the dubbing or herl last longer, I use a twister I built utilizing a Matterelli hackle plier that broke. I placed a Sunrise Hackle plier into the chrome loop and pinched just enough to hold it there. The Sunrise hackle plier has crappy jaws. To repair, I slid a piece of small heat shrink tubing onto each jaw and shrank using a heat gun. The shrink tubing is available from Radio Shack. The bodkin is make from pieces of cane rod that didn't make the grade. A decent length of needle + 30 minute epoxy finished it off. catch ya' Don

Guys, The plan was to make a fly that floated and lasted. Both were accomplished. Hence the name 100 fish fly. [ C is roman numeral for 100, F is for fish and second F is for fly] If you really want dubbing to hold, use a loop of thread + the herl [ or dubbing] + a stand of light wire. Twist together. Pheasant Tail nymphs really work well using this technique. Similarly, I've added loops of Flashabou into the thread loop as well. Tough flies are GOOD! catch ya' Don

For those that can't see the "lady", I added captions. Don

Oh Goody! Just what we need - more combat fishing on the Bow. Don

All, Was setting up a different screensaver and chose this one. Didn't notice for a while the "lady in the lake" in the lower left corner - somewhat spooky. Don

Conor,. What do ya' need? Other than corks, got guides, ferrules etc and so on. Don

Rickr, You got buttons - I thought they were all knobs. Don

fisher26, Na, taint no pickle - just Xmas spirit rearing it's ugly head. I'm still evolving as well. 'Bout made it full circle. Still waiting for my group hug. Don

Ya' But!!! Nearly all the talk on this web site and other FF sites is about gear, how-to & where to. What we say is important and is NOT reflected in the postings generally. I don't know about you guys, but I fish to catch fish. Often said by anglers " I had a great day" which in angler speak means - I haven't caught anything If the object of the fishing is really to get away from it all, how 'bout choosing some out of the way place and quit mucking up the water for the rest of us. I fish 'cause I like the challenge - the game if you will. Certainly the experience is heightened by friends or location, but the object of the game is to catch fish. Now if I could just get a big hug from you all, maybe I'd really get into the Xmas spirit. catch ya' Don

Guys/Gals, Looking for some Syd Glasso flies and I found this: http://www.sportingspirit.com/index.html?t...p;startatsb=131 Guess I'll keep looking. Don

Rick, The denier on Phentex is much finer than some Macrame yarns. Some flower pot holders [where macrame was supposed to be used was really phentex] And the crap you buy @ Walmart is made in China. Not the original stuff @ all. The macrame store's bonnie braid is what I use. Don't get me wrong. I have a number of colors of Phentex that I use for various things - mostly dubbing. catch ya' Don

Smitty, My experience somewhat mirrors yours. I've fished it from the N. Ram upstream with little luck and from where it leaves the FTR downstream for a couple of klicks. No much luck there either. But, above the FRT, caught a sack of fish as well as along the road. Whoops - there goes the theory of easy access makes lousy fishing. catch ya' Don

Hydropsyche, http://www.macramesuperstore.com/macrame/M...-yd.aspx?page=1 You need Bonnie Braid. Don

Hydropsyche, What do ya mean. Somebody digs them out. I always thought that the bodies were a put there to act like a chum line. Fish flesh flies downstream of them for lots of big browns. And Calgary was close to #1 about 25 years ago. Just another city now. catch ya' Don

sirocco, The thread you chose must be of the flat filament type. I use Danville's 6/0. You should stroke the thread against your finger and thumb nail to get the twists out while leaving your bobbin spin. This is done prior to splitting the thread. Note: most threads are left hand twist meaning right hand tiers put more and more twists into the thread each turn you take. Leaving your bobbin spin will remove most of them. [ Go lefties] You also need a very sharp needle to separate the threads into even bundles. The methods works well for small denier hydrocarbon dubbing materials like Fly Rite etc. Heavier denier materials [like seal fur] are much tougher to capture. catch ya' Don

Din, I'd suspect that it will sink like a stone [not a golden - like a rock]. It appears like you used deer hair for detached tail. When wrapped tightly, the air capsules within the deerhair collapse and the fly won't float well if at all. The hackle is too small to lend support to the body of the fly. The wing to too long and will cause the fly to lay on it's side. Further, detached bodies, while looking good rarely fish well as the body is just stiff enough to force the fly out of the mouth of the fish. If you wish to make detached bodies, use some type of yarn material. Take a strand, tie it in @ the bend of the hook, rotate it a number of times and tie it again @ the bend of the hook. The yarn is soft and the hooking misses tend to disappear, the yarn will soak up floatant, the yarn is less weight than deer hair. A lot of problems disappear when using yarn for detached tails. Mind you, you won't get the tailing fibers w/o a lot of effort. The only mayfly imitation that may require a detached body are brown drakes and Hexs. Either of which are late night hatches and rarely require the guile of daylight ties. catch ya' Don

Maxwell, Didn't vote 'cause all the flies were well tied and looked good. I'd fish 'em all. Don

Guys, Got any use for some crow feathers. I'm eating the rest of the bird. Don

Guys, Watched the Czech nymph thing with interest. Am I mistaken here but few of the flies offered are truly Czech nymphs. They must be very heavily weighted. None of the offerings appear to be. The Czech nymph is both a nymph and a fly presentation. Czech nymphing cannot be done with W/O heavily weighted flies. Maybe you should have renamed the contest - lightly weighted Caddis nymphs. regards, Don

Conor, Want some cane to try? Got a couple of hundred spline left over from rod building. Give a shout. For a plane, like CD says, get it from Lee Valley tools. http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=...amp;cat=1,41182 The Stanley planes are going down hill fast. Plane steel is not great but will work. For sharping & tuning a plane see http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/pages/w00003.asp + look for Scary Sharp Build the rest of the stuff - see Todd's site above. Don

Hydropsyche, There is a pictorial + description of how to build a PMQ @ http://www.rodbuildingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=15417 I've never built one and only cast a couple. I really haven't any opinion. Seems like a neat idea. regards, Don

nickt, For a lot of info on building anything to do with bamboo rods, go to: http://www.bamboorodmaking.com/html/tips.html This is a compilation from a host of builders on everything to do with making rods & equipment Don

nickt, Thought I might pass along an "introduction" that was posted to Rodmakers this AM and a response by another builder to the newbie. The response is critical. You learn by doing. By doing a lot of things wrong and working out the problem. Don't let the absence of tooling stop you. Built my first rod using forms I made from laminated hockey sticks, a single plane, no binder, a Benzomatic Propane torch and a lot of time. Building cane rods well takes some time and a lot of splinters, cuts, ruined cane, lousy casting rods, learning a new language [cussing] and on and on. It's a journey much like FFing. It just never ends. Still trying to figure out the road map. Don The intro: Hi, my name is Mike Shelton and I have been reading "Rodmakers" for about a month. I have been restoring old bamboo fly rods and decided to take the next step - make them. I recently ordered a Bellinger Planing Form, their Bamboo Strip Wrapper, and depth gauge. I also bought a Lie Nielson 9 1/2 block planer and 212 scraper. I went to Woodcraft and purchased diamond sharpeners, a wooden mallet, #7 gouge, sand paper, a Black in Decker heat gun, a small brass caliper, and a digital caliper. What other tools do you feel I need to make hex fly rods. I was thinking about ordering other equipment from The Golden Witch. Would that be a good company to order from? I live in Midlothian, Virginia and I have been teaching 7th grade Life Science for 26 years. I would greatly appreciate your input and help. I am sure I will be asking a lot of questions in the future as I start this journey. Thank you all ahead of time for any information. Sincerely, Mike Shelton The response: Michael, Like all good questions, the answer to your's is the same. It depends! You have more then enough tools to get started. I would encourage you to do just that. Get started. Go ahead and start. If you find you need a tool, buy it when this realty sets in. You are fortunate to have excellent tools. You have all of the tools required, in fact you have more than that required, but that might not be the same thing as having all you might find helpful or that you might want. Dave Norling, who is active on this list, taught a class last August to six worthy students in Minneapolis with just basic tools, not even all that you already have. I stood around and watched most of the time when I was not digging graves for the few that died along the way. Most of the students actually lived through the experience. I wish you had taken part. We really demystified the process by applying good doses of reality. While not perfect, many produced beautiful rods that should make them proud. So, it can be done. The class never used calipers, or a gouge. It did use a froe, which is not on you list, but an old sheath knife will do just as well. You might find glue helpful. You probably figured that out, but you sorta need to make a decision in that regard. You might find a healthy supply of single-edged razor blades, straight edge of some sort, colored markers, pencils, pencil sharpener, rags, paper towels, fresh masking tape, cotton cord larger than you would use in a binder, and large bastard file helpful. I don't know if these fall into the classification of supplies or tools. I see no obvious provision for heat treatment, so I'd encourage you to consider your options. Propane torch, large ones are easier to use, will do nicely. That's about it except for you to work with an eye on safety, and a large supply of bandages wouldn't hurt. Don't over look the tool that sits on top of your shoulders. Without out that one in good working order, you are sure to fail. None of these supply items are hard to come-by, and you might not have intended an answer to go in this direction because you already know or have this stuff. Of course, you do need bamboo and a taper; I guess these go without mentioning. > From that point, gee there are some neat gadgets that might make the phases of the process you find boring, frustrating, tiring, whatever, more enjoyable and faster. You don't need such things, but they are nice. Only you can really know which they are. Good luck. How about keeping us posted on your process? Russell