ironfly

The flies at Reelflies.ca are actually tied by Canadians, in Canada. Can the same be said of Icky?

SD, do you buy the foam body like that, or cut it yourself?

Have you considered Goodwill?

Beefing up the tail a bit will also help.

Both, not necessarily in that order.

LOL! Get's my vote.

As others have mentioned, getting it thin enough can be challenging, and tying with the thick stuff even more so. Phil Rowley and Brian Chan have gone to the trouble of selecting the perfect grade of this material, and it is now available under the Stillwater Solutions brand, labeled as "Midge Body Material".

The journalist makes no claim to being an expert in chemistry. However, the U of A geochemist who is quoted throughout the article, probably qualifies. And they're not talking only about shallow wells; some of the wells cited in the article were 8000 feet (almost 2500 meters) deep. There's no shortage of examples of science being able to "prove" both sides of an argument simultaneously. Consider the source.

The mine sites will be reclaimed? That's great news! Thanks Pollyanna! Want to buy a bridge? Comes with a great view of Brooklyn.

As far as the smell goes, it's most likely due to the tanning agents that were used. Some of the cheap ones smell pretty bad. Try sealing it in a container with an open dish of white vinegar. Vinegar has an amazing capacity to soak up odors, but the smell of the vinegar itself will dissipate off the hair in short order.

I recommend you bag it with a good amount of silica beads. If any bugs get into it, they'll die of dessication before they can do any damage. You can go through the freeze drying process if you want (2 days in the freezer, 2 days at room temperature, and repeat a few times), but that's no guarantee that bugs won't get into it in the future. The silica beads will kill anything that's present, and offers prevention. Refresh the beads once a year, as they'll pull moisture right out of the air and become saturated.

I can't wait to meet Tom. Is he as good a caster as his brother Tim?

They're called split-rings.

I've tried it with squirrel. Either the hair was too dense, or too stiff. In the water it had no movement, and looked like a puffball. I like muskrat, and I'm sure mink would work great. The thinner you can cut it the better.

PGK, I think we both started off as well intentioned, just sharing information and knowledge. But we clearly touched nerves, and it escalated. I try to not use the internet as my venting outlet, but slipped up a bit here. It's been a stressful month. For my part, I apologize. I had the same kind of reaction as when someone from Ontario tells me the fishing sucks in Alberta. I didn't do any research on lodges, my comments were based on 20 year old conversations with lodge owners/operators. Anecdotal evidence being what it is, I should've known better. I don't have bookshelves filled with reference material, and I don't have the time for posting a bunch of links, so the name dropping was my way of saying, "you don't have to take my word for it." Even if we do go on butting heads forever, I'd like you to know that I do have some degree of respect for you. Your passion for fisheries is pretty plain, and I have some limited knowledge of the good work you do. We're on the same side, really, and I'll try to remember that in the future.

2 whole years, eh? Wow. You're going to have to stay there for a long time to catch up with my knowledge and experience base, kid. I have ties to Aklavik that go back to when the world was new, if you catch my drift. The comment about a bad week of fishing was to give you the benefit of the doubt. Thanks for confirming my assumptions about your knowledge of the dehcho and sahtu, though. A lake trout trolling meat fishery? Sure, that's all they have to offer, don't bother going there or trying to learn more. Pay no attention to what Duane Radford or Mark Krupa have to say about it. And don't talk to me about land claims, local opposition and expenses, kid. It'll take you years to learn as much about that stuff as I've forgotten. All the same obstacles were in the way on the big lakes, but Plummers, Enodah, and others found a way. You think I seemed pissy? I'd say you're projecting, because you clearly have no idea how rough it can get.

Well, I have also fished the delta. With hyperbole like that, I'm going to have to conclude that you have very limited, if any, experience with the other regions. Or maybe it's like my trip to the Manitoba parklands this fall; supposedly some of the best stillwater fishing in North America, I just was there during a bad week. I will say this, though; there are some world-class lodges on and around Great Slave and Great Bear, but none that I'm aware of in the Mad Trapper neck of the woods.

PGK, I thought you were up on the coast. It's pretty well known amongst Northerners that the Dehcho has the best pike fishing. By the time you get up to the Sahtu region, lakers take the lead. Don't get me wrong, both regions have world class fishing for both species (and more), but they edge each other out for those fish. More to the point, I believe in big flies for big pike, and this belief has been reaffirmed many times by the fish. One time, early in my fly fishing experience, I was invited out by a very accomplished pike fly guy. As we were gearing up he asked to see my flies. He laughed at me, teased me, insulted me, and was all around pretty rude about the fact that smallest one was at least 6" long. He offered me a couple wooly buggers and clousers, around size 4, insisting that I would catch more fish on smaller flies, and that the bigger fish wouldn't care. After a couple hours I got tired of hammerhandles and switched to one of my "ridiculous monstrosities". As the day was getting on, I noticed he had been casting to the same spot for quite a while, and kept at it as I finned my way over to him. Here was a guy, who I had on good authority could teach me a lot, working a big, reluctant fish. I figured I'd watch a master in action and pick up a skill or two, but he got frustrated eventually, muttered about changing flies, and told me I might as well try a cast or two while he re-rigged. The look on his face was pretty good as I worked out some line and he saw the big fly whipping back and forth, but his expression became priceless when the water exploded 2 seconds after my fly landed. I couldn't help but rub it in a little, and that guy has never spoken to me again. Good riddance. Oh, and I've never had enough trouble with short strikes to notice. I tye some flies about 9" long on a short-shanked treble, which I had intended to be the rear of component tube flies, but never got around to tying the tubes and tried them anyway, and they worked like gangbusters. I've heard others claim that pike side-swipe a lot, and maybe the food base is the key; if they mostly eat spiny fishes (most lakes around here) they become head strikers, but if soft-rayed fish are the main (or only, like up north) entree, they change tactics. By the way, PGK, you claim pike prefer to not eat spiny fish, but list sticklebacks as a preferred food. Just seems a little contradictory to me.

I've seen the breakdown, and about 90% of the money we spend on our fishing licenses goes directly into fisheries. I suppose these government officials could've been lying in a public forum, but I doubt it.

I didn't come from an outdoorsy family, but for some reason my brother and I were interested. We lived in the Crowsnest Pass when I was little, and my father took me and my brother out, once, on the Crow. My brother caught a nice little rainbow, I got skunked, we heard of a bear sighting before our next trip and never went again. A few years later we moved to Nova Scotia, and got to do lots of fishing. Brookies in streams, eels by the dam, Gaspereau runs in summer. A few years later, and we were living on the shores of Great Slave Lake; let's just say that I'm not too impressed with pictures of big fish anymore. About 15 years ago, I moved back to Alberta and started a landscaping company. The business wasn't going very well, and I was really stressed out, so I looked into local fishing. I went out to a few stocked ponds, but had no luck using spinners, spoons, or even bait (all I knew up till then), but I would often see a fly fisher catching fish after fish. So I figured, that must be how you do it around here, and bought a Crystal River combo. Needless to say, it didn't work out so well. Lucky for me, the girl I had just started dating had a brother who fly fished, helped her buy some better equipment for my birthday, and gave me a few pointers. Before long I had read every book and watched every video I could get my hands on, started tying, joined the Northern Lights Fly Tying club, and it just kept escalating. I think we need another catagory for this thread though, because I think it would be disrespectful to the makers of those fine books and videos to say I was self-taught, but it's not like I had a mentor, and I've never taken any courses.

Remember when they brought in unleaded gas? It was a little before my time, but didn't people say pretty much all the same things back then? At least as far as performance and maintenance goes.

I highly recommend the Nor-Vise. Maybe stretches your budget a bit, but about half the price of a Petitjean.

PM sent.

But don't worry, it's just a fad, right?

Set up trail cams. Worked for me.