Jump to content
Fly Fusion Forums

flyangler

Members
  • Posts

    454
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by flyangler

  1. I know where he lives and I'm going back for him. I swear.

     

    I skittered a smallish Royal Stimulator past a downed pine thinking "there ought to be a cutt in there." Then, as if somebody standing on the river bottom tossed it straight into the air with both hands, this bull launched out of the water, full body at once. Not head, followed by back followed by tail, like a porpoise, it showed it's full length in one go. This was followed by the awe and disbelief something much bigger than expected will inspire. That my hook came back to me still bent is a source of continued amazement. This was followed by the continuing longing for one more cast at this spot. Pardon the repetition of both the photo and the story.

     

    301130m.jpg

  2. Yeah, I've floated the Missouri in April. But it was in a canoe in Iowa. It was big, fast, muddy, laden with farm chemicals and packing plant effluent and fished like a box of chocolates. You never knew what you were gonna get; pike, gar, carp, sturgeon, catfish, bullhead, bass, redhorse, skipjack, dead guy, family pet, grain barge. . . .

  3. That's all three stores in my home state. 200 people will be laid off. We're down to two mom and pop flyshops in the 5 county metro area and two big boxes.

     

    The flyfishing manager at one SW recently offered the company's support for both my river clean up in April and a Casting for Recovery retreat scheduled for July. I don't expect that's going to come through. Worse than that, I wonder what a fellow his vintage is going to do for work in this economy.

  4. nice flies man! do they float?

     

    They might. As with many of my Pain In The Arse or PITA flies, these were donated to a TU auction in display boxes. They are made of deer hair, so they should float, theoretically. If you really want a spider to fish with, it's quicker and easier to use foam for the body and rubber legs.

  5.  

    Well, if you miss her a lot Andrew, you can tie your own. Little bit of a different color scheme.

     

    desmk1.jpg

     

    A fellow by the last name of Martin had some spiders in a fly tying magazine a few years back that inspired me. I used his method to tie the "flies" above with deer hair bodies, mono legs and nail polish for color.

     

    Cool photos. Glad you found her before she found you.

  6. Glad to be done with the first set. Thanks for the kind words. They'll fuel me in finishing the second and LAST set. Then it's nothing but fishing flies for me.

     

    I get to go fishing tomorrow!

  7. Here is the first collection in a shadow box. The lid has a glass insert and closes with magnetic clasps. It will be donated to a local (Minnesota) TU chapter for their fundraising auction. I have begun a second collection and will have a carpenter build me a box, an artist cut a mat, and hope this will improve things.

     

    2ni6yom.jpg

  8. Not sure what you mean by regular flies. You may know all the things I'm going to tell you, but since your question was brief, bear with me.

     

    "Soft-hackle flies" are an old fashioned fish getter tied and fished as subsurface patterns. I like to tie the old classic "Partridge and Orange" with orange ultrawire in place of the floss. They work for me in green, orange, chartreuse, red and gold wires. Wire makes them quick to tie, durable, slightly heavy and attractive to fish and angler alike.

     

    They are related to "North Country Spiders" in that they often have no tail and lack the shiny, more stiff type of hackle that will help a dry fly to float. Soft hackle feathers are widely available if you hunt or know hunters who target pheasant, grouse, partridge, quail and that sort of game bird. Good soft hackle feathers have fine, flexible stems and are not overly webby (web is created by hooks on each feather barb that interlock with neighboring barbs). They give the fly bug like movement in the water as the feather flows with the water.

     

    Google both the terms in quotation marks above for countless photos, recipes and discussions on their merits. I am a mere student in these matters.

  9. Thanks for the feedback guys. I'm reinventing the wheel. I've been storing these mallard wings for at least a decade and this project used up the first matching primaries. That's how often I use winged wet flies. I'm getting comfortable with the idea that they don't all turn out like this dry fly. They're all free hand, as you say.

     

    35n5ws6.jpg

     

    The "new" tying desk I picked up at the thrift store has been inspirational for both tying and tidying up- I finally got all my tying mess off the dining room table. We can eat without blowing feathers out of our food. It closes up nicely when cats or guests appear.

     

    2h2gx84.jpg

  10. Very nice flies and tied well.

    Im also a big fan of those old flies,on the English forum we just finished a swap with such flies.

    http://ukflydressing.proboards47.com/index...amp;thread=2860

    I also have a nice website from a member there and he has lots of old patterns,who knows you can do somthing with it.

    Its Donald Nicolsons site http://www.dtnicolson.dial.pipex.com/ .

     

    Klaas

     

    Thanks for the resources, Klaas.

     

    I've seen quite a few of Donald's flies on FAOL over the past few years.

  11. The colorplate is tucked into the center of an old book on fly tying so I have the recipes. The images of each fly are not photos, but some kind of artwork, which is where I got the template idea.

     

    Probably just have to let go of my perfectionism long enough to tie the dang flies without worrying so much about the outcome. This is a process, after all, and the lessons I learn may be unexpected.

  12. Thanks fellas. I just hope they make a nice display. I've made a color photocopy of the page and plan to display that in a frame near a shadowbox for the flies. My first qualm is that the page has such stylized wings (they must have been a template that the graphic artist colored in with the appropriate colors for each fly) that my flies won't look at all the same.

×
×
  • Create New...