What have you been tying lately?

[OnAFly]

No kidding. The GM by me has three separate places with fly tying stuff. It takes a half hour to figure out what they do and don't have.

[itchmesir]

Its better than the GM in LaX.. they carry like 5 colors of thread.. 2 types of wire.. head cement.. hooks.. beadheads.. a couple random colors of krystal flashabou.. a couple random colors of marabou and that's it... no dubbing.. no other feathers.. a couple random tying accessories.. its really pathetic

[ted4887]

Just finished tying up a meat whistle. This was my go-to warmwater fly this fall. It absolutely slaughtered the bass and northern. I deviate from the original pattern a little bit on these flies, but for anyone interested, here's the recipe:

Hook: Gamakatsu Jig 90 Heavy Wire Size 1/0

Bead: Medium Cone Heads

Thread: White Kevlar or another heavy thread.

Tail: White Rabbit Strip

Body: Crystal Chenille, White Marabou around wrapped 360* towards the front.

Head: Tie in rubber legs on each side, and a few strands of pearl flashabou

I also will generally wrap white hackle directly behind the bead, but on this one, I added a little bit of pearl ice dub over the thread build up behind the bead.

Sorry for the poor picture, but an all white pattern is almost impossible to get a good picture of.

[Ic3wind]

that nymph worked very well. at this point Im pretty much saying to heck with wing cases and stuff. two tone nymphs tied in the round seem to be producing the best for me

[mainbutter]

Hey ted, what wt line do you throw that meat whistle on? How long is the rabbit strip? I'd love to be able to throw flies like that for bass and pike and am currently trying to decide on a wt rod/line. The flies look awesome guys, giving me some serious bouts of jealousy in tying skill over here :P

[ted4887]

I throw it on a 5 wt. Certainly not ideal, but it meets my needs. I've got a 7wt being built for me right now, so that will be what I use next year.

I cut the rabbit strip at about 3 1/2". I want to give this pattern a try with tinsel bunches that would replace the strips as well. I think that would also really give this fly some great action.

[OnAFly]

Ted - That looks like a sweet fly. I'm definitely going to have to tie a few of those. The best part, I've got all those materials in a couplt different colors, so it will cost me nothing but time.

What's that thing called? You invent it?

[ted4887]

Thanks OnAFly.

No, unfortunately I didn't invent it. I do tie a few variants, but in no way will I change it's name. The fly is called a Meat Whistle, initially tied by a guy named John Barr. You gotta like the fact that the materials are common. If it costs you nothing more than time, then I highly recommend keeping one, or more, in the box.

My next warmwater fly I'm working on is flat out amazing. Had to place an order for a few things today, so hopefully by next week I'll have a decent one tied up to post here. Tied by a Minnesotan too, which is even cooler IMO.

[ted4887]

Found a neat little pattern the other day for a bead back scud. This was my first attempt at it. I really don't have the right type of dubbing for it, nor do I have what I need to mix a good blend in my supplies. This scud dubbing that I used works, but I would rather use more of a yarn/antron for this like the originally tier did. Nonetheless, I still think it will fish pretty well.

Went back for a second attempt. A little better this time. Took it down 1 bead, and pinched the beads a bit closer together.

[itchmesir]

nice lookin bead scud!

[gooty]

Nice ties guys. Keep em coming! Here a couple dalhberg divers from the last couple nights of tying. Fun to do...but really messy! Sorry for the crappy cellphone pics, ill post better ones soon.

[ted4887]

Those Dalbergs look nice! Spinning deer hair is fun, but very messy. I was looking the other day at some absolutely ridiculous patterns that were all spun deer hair. I'll try to post a link to them if I can find it in my history. They were more of a novelty item than an actual fly though. I believe just one of them cost around $40.

[OnAFly]

Ted - You talkin about the Punk Rocker tied by Pat Cohen? Those things are pure art.

[ted4887]

That's it! It's an absolute jaw dropper

[itchmesir]

Yeah those 100% deer hair flies are sick.. seen some crazy frog patterns too

[OnAFly]

OK, time for me to actually contribute something to this post

Here's a fly I'll be trying out for steelhead this spring. Two tone zonker minnow type streamer.

Here's my Meat Whistles in black/yellow and white/grey. I put small a small bead in front to help the cone head to center itself.

Here's one of the hair jigs I tied up earlier for ice fishing. This one is a perch pattern.

Here's a couple pics of the fly box I filled up before my week long trip out to MT last summer.

The first pic of the box has a couple colors of CDC caddis in 14 and 16. There are also some PMD emergers and cripples in there, also made with CDC. This was in the prime of the hair hackle thing, so I was trying as many CDC patterns as I could.

The second one is filled with caddis pupae, purple/red/green/pink lightening bugs, couple kinds of midge, little green machines, and a bunch of those grape slushies.

This entire box was tied by me for one trip (minus the grape slushies). I used the purple lightening bugs and CDC caddis almost exclusively for 5 days.

[itchmesir]

Nice lookin box there oaf... reminds me i need to tie up a couple lightning bugs...

just got a fresh shipment of hooks in.. successfully tied my first size #22 PT.... my eyes are officially sore from staring at such a tiny hook.. i need to get a magnifying glass or some like 10x reading glasses lol

[ted4887]

Nice ties OnAFly!! I like the bead addition to the meat whistle for sure. That's a good looking box of flies. Have much look out west?

[OnAFly]

Luck? Yeah, got lots of big fish on...and probably should have gone up a tippet size as I broke plenty off too. Had either a giant brown to a carp on at one point wading. I tried as hard as I could to steer it away from a brush pile but it was having none of my B$ and immediately went in and broke off. That was either a mid 20s brown, or a average sized carp. There were lots of browns in there so it could have been either.

Got a couple 20" rainbows, lots of 16" rainbows, couple a browns, and a wife. It was my wedding trip with a nice little vacation afterwards

We were on the Missouru, BTW. Great fishery with lots of big, big fish. Lots of pressure too, so you need to be on your game at times.

[itchmesir]

here some cellphone macros of my #22's...

on a side note.. filed my taxes today... time to upgrade my vise

[ted4887]

What size thread are you using on those 22's? I picked up a few spools of 14/0 for the stuff smaller than 20's. Would definitely recommend picking up a spool if you're going to tie a bunch of those size flies. Makes tying off a nice head way easier than even with 8/0.

[itchmesir]

i used 210 Denier LOL!.. because i only have red in 70 and white in 140 atm.. i need to go pickup some black in 70

[OnAFly]

That's just ridiculously small. Nice ties. What vice are you going for?

[itchmesir]

Thinking about maybe one of the lower end Danvise.. or a Terra...

Maybe a Griffin Odyssey.. now that i read more about the cheaper Danvise.. I see they are made of plastic.. [PoorWordUsage].. what kind of vise is made of plastic

[OnAFly]

Yeah, I saw those plastic ones too when I was mlooking at vises. The Griffin looks like a nice one, not a bad price either. I've got the Renzetti Traveler. I like it for what I do, which is a little bit of everything. I don't think you could go wrong with either though.

I don't know how you guys tie those 22s. That's got to take some real patience.

[Ic3wind]

I've used both That Griffin and the Danvise. That Danvise is no pushover in fact its about the strongest holding vice I've ever seen. Its so strong in fact that unless you set it correctly It own strength will bend the jaws. Its body is indeed made of some sort of plastic composite but that was never an issue for me. My only beef with it is the body of the thing is needlessly large. I disliked the distance between the cam and the Jaws. The only negative thing about he Griffin I can say is that if you are tying off a pedestal base the thing is pretty darn tall. If you are using a C-clamp that that shouldnt be an issue.

[itchmesir]

thanks for the input ic3wind.. maybe i'll keep the danvise as an option.. i have a desk that i use a c-clamp on so bar height is not an issue

here's a couple of what i've been tying..

#22 Brassies..

Prince Brassie

Rainbow Warrior

[ted4887]

I can see you're starting to get better with the biot wing length on those brassies. Have you had a chance to fish any of those patterns lately?

[itchmesir]

Nope... Was sick last week... Didn't wanna make it worse.... But I'm goin out today.. will be sure to test'em out

[Ic3wind]

your tying is indeed coming along nicely. Here is a tip for those biot wings,If you tie them in backwards so the pointy ends are pointing towards the eye of the hook make 2 wraps then fold them back and secure them it does a nice job of eliminating that little white tag next to the bead that gets left when you trim off the excess. You can take that or leave it though. Thats more about making them look good to you. The fish wont care either way