What have you been tying lately?

[OnAFly]

Oh brown UV dubbing, that stuff is awesome!

[redneckdan]

Hey Slab, do you have a step by step of the pheasant tail and the stone? Looks kind of like a chartreuse dubbing under the wing case.

[Slabasaurus]

I'll try to get an SBS up tonight sometime. The thorax on the PT soft hackle is just ostrich herl, I use chartreuse, pink, orange, and a few in peacock herl.

[Slabasaurus]

[redneckdan]

Been tying some copper johns. Did a rewiring project recently and had a bunch of scraps laying around. I've been playing with nymphing more lately and wanted some heavies for running tandom rigs.

[Slabasaurus]

Nice copper johns there. I'll be addin some of those to the winter trout box here in the next month or so.

Getting ready for one last weekend o steel, playin with some stonefly ideas. These are size 14's, I think I'm going to tie a handful of both these styles in 14 and 16.

[redneckdan]

I tied up some size #6 hares ear type nymphs tonight. I am out of hare so I used a squirrel pelt that's been laying around for close to a decade. The thread was old stuff that is starting to dry rot so i wanted to get it used up. These are disposa-flies, the kind I select when i go probing log jams. Cheap, fast, and easy to tie.

Body is traditionally dubbed. Thorax is a dubbing loop.

[Slabasaurus]

Headin up for one last shot at heartbreakers steelheads.

Tied up some of these in 14 and 16s.

[redneckdan]

Tied up some 3/0 clousers for big toothy stuffs.

[Ic3wind]

Looking good. Might I suggest going bigger? The hammerhandles will snap those things up like scooby snacks but if your looking for the top predators you cant tie a fly that's too big for them.

Also once you go over to the Dark side there is no going back...... It becomes it's own special obsession

[redneckdan]

I intend to size up at some point. Right now my heavy rod is a cheapie gander mountain 10' 7 wt. These are about the max that it will handle with anything remotely resembling efficiency. It's really more of a 6 or 6.5 wt. I needed another steelhead rod in college and the price was right. The True Temper fiberglass rod I was using grenaded mid season.

I am looking at getting something in the 9wt class for tossing the big stuff. I'm still figuring this out and an afternoon teasing the hammer handles wouldn't be all that disappointing. Are there any bread and butter pike patterns you can recommend? I have no large warm water fly arsenal and little experiencing tying the larger flies. I am planning on starting with clousers and decievers.

Thank you for your help.

[Ic3wind]

You might be suprised with what that rod can handle. My first suggestion (maybe you already are) is to ditch the floating line. Streamer fishing for me means a neutrally boyant fly on a very short leader of around 3ft on a sink line.

That 7wt of yours should be able to handle a 250 or 300 grain. I regularly fish smallmouth, Pike, and largemouth with a stiff 7wt. and my go to bugs on that rod are usually around 8inches long.

I really only fish about 3 diffrent streamers but they are basically a platform that allows for endless variations in size, color, and shape. They are the Hangtime optic minnow, the Beauford, And a pattern I created that was heavily influenced by the sex dungeon.

If your looking to do some reading on the subject I would suggest getting your hands on Modern Streamers For Trophy Trout by Bob Linsman and Kelly Galloup. Although the title says "trout" the concepts in that book can be applied to every predatory fish that swims in fresh and saltwater. It's like the streamer guy's bible.

[Ufatz]

If you want to chase pike a 7 or 8wt will do most of what you need. You can use a sink-tip or a floater with a stout and short leader. You are on the right track for flies; all you really need for those fresh water barracudas are some deceivers and Clousers. Just make sure to use a bit of flash and some chartreuse, or, as my old pal Lefty would say "If it ain't chartreuse it ain't no use!"

Have fun. Pike are a blast for a few minutes....before they dog it. Ha Ha Ha!

[Slabasaurus]

On the pike dealio, each time I went out this fall for warmwater fishing... I caught at least one pike on that hollow fly deceiver/ghost thing I posted earlier on this page. They go nuts for em (so do dogfish).

Here's what they look like wet

Here are some random poor word usage flies I've been playin with, hopefully put these to work in SE this weekend.

poor word usage gray ghost (silver pheasant cheek is too long, started silk too far forward, tinsel isn't even close to even, and my GP crest feathers were forced, i bought another crest this weekend and the results are nicer.)

poor word usage gray ghost with peasant pheasant cheek (ran out of silver pheasant feathers)

Tied up some not poor word usage hotspot scuds last night.... which pretty much competes the trout box for the winter season. Maybe I'll put up pics of those tonight if I remember. Likely not though, since I'll be too busy screamin WAR EAGLE and enjoyin some knob creek single barrel...

[Slabasaurus]

Tied some of these up, all size 16. Fun times. Used both orange and pink.

Which pretty much completes the midge/scud side of the troutbox.

Just a few buggers/leeches to tie up and I'll be set for the weekend... provided of course I didn't leave all of my rods/reels up north.

Which is a possibility... the accident/repairs/backissues had me distracted the last few times I was up there... that's another story though.

[Icefishfun]

Can you Tie hair jigs without a vice?

[Ic3wind]

Sure but it's a pain in the *****. You would be better off using one

[Flyhammer]

Howdy fellahs. Pretty new to the board, but since this winter hasn't been good for much but vise time, figured I'd post up.

Pink Squirrel and KF Midge

[Flyhammer]

Wiggle Perch and Wiggle CC

[Flyhammer]

Charlie Hustle

[Icefishfun]

I am just researching on how to tie flies and am wondering what are the "10" necessary materials for a lot of the beginner flies? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[Flyhammer]

If you are chasing trout, here's where I'd start

pheasant tails

dubbing (one of those 12 pack dispensers)

beads for heads

copper wire and gold tinsel

peacock herl

turkey feather

hackle feathers (variety of colors)

elk hair

chenille (olive and black)

marabou (olive and black)

With this stuff, you should be able to tie some of the more basic patterns (pheasant tails, hare's ears, brassies, wooly buggers, etc.) that are pretty easy to tie, but also still catch fish. Good luck.

[mainbutter]

I am just researching on how to tie flies and am wondering what are the "10" necessary materials for a lot of the beginner flies? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

I'll narrow it down to three:

- dubbing

- hair, fur, or some similarly thin synthetic fiber

- rubber legs

My dubbing of choice is sea dragon dubbing from fly tyers dungeon.

I have no hair of choice. Rabbit fur in various styles is great, but congo hair from FTD is cheap.

I honestly don't know what kind of rubber legs I have, but probably half are also from FTD.

Half of my panfish fly fishing is with foam bodied surface poppers, but every single one of those in my fly box was purchased online, making poppers is an art to itself beyond just tying materials.

Generic streamers will go a long way for any freshwater predators, dubbing and thread on a hook will go a long way for bluegills. Cheap, low on materials, and easy.

[Icefishfun]

Both of those really help thanks a lot.

[redneckdan]

If you want to try tying up some flies before buying a vise, mount a pair of needle nose vise grips in a bench vise. You won't be tying any #26 tricos with it but you can do some larger streamers to see if you like the hobby.

[Slabasaurus]

If you are chasing trout, here's where I'd start

pheasant tails

dubbing (one of those 12 pack dispensers)

beads for heads

copper wire and gold tinsel

peacock herl

turkey feather

hackle feathers (variety of colors)

elk hair

chenille (olive and black)

marabou (olive and black)

With this stuff, you should be able to tie some of the more basic patterns (pheasant tails, hare's ears, brassies, wooly buggers, etc.) that are pretty easy to tie, but also still catch fish. Good luck.

Only thing I might add is a partridge skin or something like that for soft hackles. Pretty easy ties, and they work on panfish/trout/rough fish alike.

Know that you're getting into something that is going to snowball... fast. Before I knew it I had 3 desk drawers overflowing with fur n feathers.

[redneckdan]

Only thing I might add is a partridge skin or something like that for soft hackles. Pretty easy ties, and they work on panfish/trout/rough fish alike.

Know that you're getting into something that is going to snowball... fast. Before I knew it I had 3 desk drawers overflowing with fur n feathers.

Yup. Eventually you will degenerate to the point you stop to check out road kill for tying suitability....

[Icefishfun]

Thanks everybody. One other question though, does anybody know anything about the wapsi fly tying starter kit- full kit. Thanks

[UpperSippi]

I just started tying last month, but I’ve been having fun trying out different streamer patterns for smallmouth and pike.

I kind of like this one. All synthetic materials on a saltwater Gamakatsu 1/0 hook.

[Slabasaurus]

I kind of like this one.

Yep. I kinda like that one too. Nice tie there.