flyangler

Simple and elegant. You mean you really fish with these works of art?

It's really much worse when there is silence. Then you don't even know if you're dead until it starts hurting.

Clive, NYC is just the cheapest brand of nail polish I can find. I get mine at Target, which has an online option if you really need it. But seriously, there is no magic in any particular brand. HAN tends to be slightly more viscous, but you can get to that if you like it by leaving the lid off your discount brand of nail enamel. Hydropsyche- I use maybe 4 turns of lead free wire and both the gauge for this and the brass wire is rather small for the size of the hook. It's just what I have on hand. If you use a bead head, skip the weighted wire. If you have heavier gauge brass wire, you can wind it on as a single strand rather than a doubled strand. In any case, duck if the fish spits it.

Iron Sally a la Sarah Antennae and tails: yellow tan goose biot Weight: no-lead wire Body and rib: brass wire Back and wing cases: golden pheasant tail lacquered with clear nail polish(I got mine at a craft store in the dried flower dept) Thorax and bulk under the wire: sparkle antron, yellow tan Legs: round rubber in coral snake or other color of choice Cover the hook with thread. Add both tails and antennae. Finish the head now if you wish. Weight with a few turns of lead free wire. Tie in a 12" length of brass wire by it's middle. Cover with thread to the bend. Add a separate piece of ribbing wire. Put in the pheasant tail, then the antron. Wind the antron up to the lead free wire on the thorax. Tie off and trim. Wind the doubled length of brass wire in a carrot shape up into the thorax and tie off. Fold the pheasant over the back and secure with a few thread wraps. Wind the rib up and, lifting the pheasant tail butts, tie off the wire on top of the thorax. Add legs. Put some antron yarn on your thread like dubbing. Fold the wing case and secure with dubbed thread. Fold another wing case and do the same, catching in the rubber leg material to form the front pair of legs. Trim the remaining pheasant tail fibers in whatever way that suits you- folded back to look like a pronatum (sp?), extending out over the eye to look more like a head, or trimmed flush and covered with thread wraps. Much depends on how much feather you still have left at this point. I used a fairly short hook. You may choose to use two sections of tail fibers for your stonefly nymph.

Thanks all. Darren, I should have guessed you for a leg man. Seriously, thanks for the coral snake colored legs. I was saving them for hoppers but thought with that brass wire body they gave kind of an unfortunate-new-years-eve-outfit look to this nymph. In other words, so offensive to the fish that they would bite it out of territoriality, if nothing else. Last summer's Iron Sallies had brown and black barred legs and the fish just Hoovered them up! The other thing I like is that golden pheasant tail for the back and wing cases. Lacquered up with nail polish, it's easy and beautiful to handle.

What do y'all think? This was a real good fly for us last summer. Are the legs too long? Here are the ingredients:

Thanks for taking us along in words and pictures. Somebody beat me to the blue sweater question, though. esleech--BOO! How's that for scary?

The opalescent Easter basket grass has supplied me with year's worth of tying material. But I second the motion on the clear elastic. We get ours on cards from the fabric store, choosing the narrowest possible and cutting it in strips if need be. I've got a fondness for recycling, so plastic bags certainly get the thumbs up on that score.

I honestly think brookies, ounce for ounce are the best fighters. But I have a favorite rainbow fight story and picture from Alberta in 2004. The fish would have been a legal keeper in one of our favorite Wisconsin steelhead rivers. Ignore me if I've told you before. (There she goes again ) Al Brice took my husband and me out for a day of bow fishing, swearing us to secrecy on the location (and don't any of you "out" this one!). Alan patiently tried to school me in the fine art of casting, but it just wasn't sinking in. I was catching fish, missing fish, swearing, taking photos of my husband's fish, sitting down to rest. The bows just kept rising to the giant hoppers that were blown into the water by the arid winds. Alan pointed out a different spot in the pool for me to try. He tried to get me to cast to it but my hopper would end up anywhere but where he pointed. After many tries, he swapped rods with me and bingo, all his hard work finally bore fruit. I cast exactly where and how he'd instructed and the fight was on. The rainbow bolted out of it's tub-sized lie and raced to the foot of the pool. If I could have given her any more leeway, I would have, but I was out of line and into the backing. Stepping carefully toward safer footing, I kept the pressure on but now, instead of heading for the hills she started swimming at me. I was glad it was Al's TFO, because I'm not sure my rod could have taken the pressure. She dove to the bottom of the pool, directly in front of me, but put a rocky ledge between us. That ledge had sawed off my tippet a couple of times already, and I wasn't using any weenie sized stuff. I waited her out and she finally gave ground, a little at a time. Did I mention I wasn't breathing this whole time? I was praying to be angler enough to land this fish. Of course the grip and grin photo is priceless, but the fight took longer. Here is the run into the backing:

I find that I have to cover it with more wraps than hackle butt, though. You've got to have enough coverage to make the tie in point smooth and to keep the wire from spinning around on the hook when you begin wrapping it. To do both, I will lay the wire on the hook at least midway up the hook, and cover it with thread wraps back to the bend. I'll tie in the rest of the materials that start at the back of the hook over that, then rib with the wire. Hope that helps.

That's not a brownie, that's a BRAWNY!

Great stories guys! I emailed mine to my brother and he liked it. He said that while he doesn't remember all the details exactly the same way he could believe that he wouldn't bait my hook for me "You little sissy!"

The Fly Fishing Rabbi started this on another board. http://www.theflyfishingrabbi.blogspot.com/ Here's mine: Dad, Mom, and the church youth minister were taking a spin in the big canoe. My brother and I had agitated to fish from the dock, so Dad left us his big metal tackle box that weighed ninety one point nine pounds and waved from the stern. They were going to watch birds and take a leisurely paddle. Worms are the best for this, my brother tried to convince me. But he was not going to bait my hook for me. Two years older than me and already a jerk. I was not going to bait my hook for me either. We were maybe 10 and 8. Oh what wonders that tackle box held. Feathery things, shiny things, brightly colored things. If it weren't for the sharp, pointy things, I bet that gal we snuck a peek at on tv, that Gypsy Rose Lee, would have loved them. I liked the red and white Dare Devl spoon the best. It took some time to figure out how to cast and release the push button at the right time, but no mammals were hurt in the making of this memory. To our great and lasting surprise, northern pike plied these waters like so many piscine rip saws. The boat load of bird watchers arrived just in time to see me dragging a northern only slightly shorter than me across the beach, imploring anyone who would listen to take it off the hook. You know what? I still don't touch those things. Dad came to the rescue. It was a tagged pike, so we had that learning lesson. We also had pike for dinner. But the other thing I remember about this trip is standing around the big Country Squire Wagon and rehashing the bird watching. Dad had admired the youth minister's bucket hat and she plucked it from her head and dropped it on top of his crew cut. His hair poked out of the vent holes in such a way that she declared that he looked like a weird bird the "horny pecker." Her face was as red as the setting sun on an oxbow lake in Iowa when she realized what she'd said to one of the church elders. My brother and I laughed at the laughing then, but now that I know what it means, I laugh in fond remembrance.

Not in Cal, not a wireless expert. But OMG is that funny! I applaud your efforts to apply the hi tech to your, uh, earthly problem. Along those lines, a friend spent weeks landscaping his hilly front yard, setting boulders, hand placing stones, planting shrubs and flowers. Then along comes a thief and starts stealing his stones! Imagine what the local police had to say when he called them about the case of the missing rocks. No time for that. So he bought himself a camera and sure enough he catches the thief. Turns out to be the neighbor directly across the street. Turns out she has mental problems. Kinda took the wind out of the Rock Justice sails, but she gave them all back.

OOOOOOSJW! I like the combination of full dress body and butterfly wings! http://tinypic.com/o9ip1l.jpg

Thank you! I am humbled by your admiration. And your suggestion, Toolman, I will consider. It would pressure me to say something smart or new. If you wanted photos, it means tying more and that might not be until cabin fever strikes again!

My tofu is mighty;)! How many sessions does each fly take? I just don't think that way. But then, I don't count or measure fish, either. The mayfly wings took quite a few sittings all by themselves. But for each fly it seems like there's a point where I take any instructions I've gotten and any advice anyone's given and have to launch out into unknown space. I have a few stoneflies, but they blow. I've gotten a copy of Whillock's book to torture myself with. I don't use any of the commercial nymph legs or pre printed shell backs that are mentioned there, I bullheadedly re-invent the stuff. I'll cook my food in the microwave, but I have to tie flies the hard way. On the other hand, we use stonefly nymphs for Great Lakes steelhead which are fast, easy and expendable. They also work. Here's the damselfly showing more detail on the legs and feet:

This is Big Blue: A Hex and a Spider called "Moondance" and "Dancin in the Moonlight": Ebony Jewel Wing and it's natural enemy: Should I use the "tag" rather than the "link"?

Infreekingcredible Jeffro!!!

Naw, it's just our rumps that make those waders look fat.

Very nice. I'm aboard if you'll have me.