found another gem of a video

I have yet to go saltwater fishing and I know someday I will get out. Here is another video that was filmed very well and this time for tarpon. Check it out. I am not special enough to embed it in my blog but hopefully this link works.

http://vimeo.com/14575317

one day I will get to permit fish

I saw this video on another blog and it got me dreaming of the day I can cast out to some permit!!  Hope you enjoy and if you have never been maybe someday you will too. Here is where I got it from. http://thisriveriswildflyfishing.blogspot.com/

"Satori" Trailer: Fly Fishing For Permit from WorldANGLING on Vimeo.

Some recent bead flies I have been playing with

I have been playing with some bead caddis flies lately. These ones on the right was a test and I sent them to a friend in Colorado to try and they caught a mess of browns. These are quite simple to tie. I used a normal scud hook and pink seed beads. They were tied on a size 16 and the dubbing I used was black squirrel brite from spirit river. The thread is normal mono type. On the heads I will hit it really good with a piece of velcro and tease the fibers towards the back to represent legs

Here is another version that has not been tested yet. Same concept with materials but I used green and pink beads and the head is Medium Olive Squirrel Brite. I used a pink butt again as a test an waiting to hear how they worked. You can use several colors for the head. Below are some of the other colors I have used. Again these are all squirrel brite for the heads.

Amazing fly art

Sorry I have not posted lately, just been busy with life. Check out these flies!! They are amazing and a work of art.  http://www.vksteelworks.com/VKS/Piscivore.html#0

A sneak peak at my kevlar base

I am building a kevlar base for my HMH vise.  Here is a sneak peak before I hopefully get it finished next week. It is blue kevlar and excited to get it done. I got it layed and the layers of  resin now I just need to spray the surface, sand, and buff.

Oh and I knocked out a dozen killer caddis flies in 16 tonight. Kinda a slow tying day. Got some shots today and very lethargic because of it. So I am granted a lazy day

A trip to Dollar Tree netted a great find

I am always on the lookout for a great deal on materials that I can tie flies with. I went to dollar tree to get a present bag for a friends birthday. I ran out of some winging material I got from a garage sale which was sold by Rainy's .  I found that maybe a 2 inch by 8 inch of the material is about $2 .  I found pretty much the same thing at the dollar store for...  guess what... $1 lol .. It came in 3 sheets of 20x20 inches.  Here is a picture of rainy's material. It is the only pic I could find.  Great picture??  I think not..

Here is what I found and how I could duplicate it the above material for really cheap in 3 colors and get a lifetime supply

 This is what it looked like before I took it out of the bag. Hopefully you can find the same thing. Michael's sales it for about $3.50 I think as well

 It is clear but has a cool sheen too it.

 I will cut the piece I want and roll it in my fingers to wrinkle it quite a bit

 Here are some caddis wings I cut out of it from my wing cutter.

Here is a foam hopper I tied using the clear version Which was on the right of my picture that showed all three. You don't have to crinkle it but I do cause it gives it angles so it holds its shape a lot better and looks more like a real wing.  give it a try and see what you can come up with

Shultry Sculpin

  I started working on my fly order on friday and going through my list I wanted to do the most time consuming ones done first. The shop really liked my shiners and asked if I could do a sculpin version of it. I thought and thought cause I needed to pick the right colors of super hair and beads. I studied pictures of the fish and came up with a good pattern. I tied these a little longer than my shiner and used bigger eyes cause the natural fish has big eyes. The biggest feature of the sculpin is the the large front fins.  Here is my creation I came up with.

Shultry Sculpin

Hook:  Mustad 3366 size 6

Thread: Clear mono thread

Body: Green and Brown 6/0 Glass Beads

Inner Tail: Lite Bright holographic silver

Tail:  Top black, sides green, bottom blue super hair

Head:  2 green and 1 brown 6/0 glass beads

Eyes:  extra small doll eyes
Fins:  Pheasant 

Glue: 6 coats of hard as nails

This is not the best step by step but this shows the steps. I could not tie the tail off and hold the camera at the same time so I couldn't take a picture of it. To get the curve of the body is quite simple. Just leave yourself a little slack and it naturally will curve like above.


As you can see from the below pictures that multiple layers of hard as nails fills the grooves of the beads and it keeps the eyes on while fishing.

 Pre-bead all your hooks for ease of tying

 Separate the beads in the middle leaving three in the front and four in the back, Make sure to leave a space to tie the tail in. Move the thread to the rear and tie in the Lite Bright

 Bring the thread to the middle again and tie in the black super hair on the top and then the blue super hair on the bottom.

 Tie in the green super hair on both sides.

 Trim the tail 3 times the length of the body.  This is over kill but I like to have a lot of space to work with to tie the tail.

 Now tie the pheasant on both sides. After this you need to leave a very large thread base to glue the eyes on without too much overhang of the eye

 Now glue the eyes on both sides. Sorry again I couldn't get the pic of tying the tail. This picture does not have the fins cause this was a prototype before I did the fins.

Here is all the ones I got finished so far. These have been very time consuming. I use this foam so I can put the hard as nails on without them moving and I can do them all at once.

Making a picture box and fly tying contest

I know I got some really talented tiers as followers and even more impressive are their pictures. As everyone can see I take my pictures on my brick patio and bigger flies look ok but as the flies get smaller I get out of focus and have to take the pics from farther away. I am looking for suggestions on how I can make a picture box to get higher quality pictures so you guys can really see the fly. I think also a big problem is I don't really know how to work my camera.

Second a fellow blogger is having a fly tying contest. He is a young buck and a great tier. Check out his blog and his contest. You don't have to send any flies and it is just for fun.  Here is the link http://treartonfly.blogspot.com/2011/03/if-you-build-it-they-will-come-due-july.html#comments  I did tie some flies this morning but it is overcast today so I need it to clear up before I can post some pics.  Oh yeah, HAPPY ST. PATRICKS DAY!

Some cool stuff today

I got featured on Troutrageous blog today!  Here is the link to that post  http://www.troutrageous.com/2011/03/wednesday-nibbles-march-madness-edition.html#comment-form

Also did a little tying today. Been going back and forth to doctors appts and had a little time to do some flies and take some pics. Funny thing is I live in vegas and there is some weird stuff that goes on here. I have a doctors office right by the downtown section of las vegas blvd and drove past the pawn shop where pawn stars was from and was amazed. They had a line about 200 people long just to get in. I have been in their before the show came out and really it is not that special. I know several pawn shops that are 5 times bigger than that here in vegas. Plus I got to see the normal scene. Drunk people puking on the side of the road, hookers slinging, and my favorite the tourists running in traffic and almost getting hit by cars..  REALLY!  Vegas does have cross walks but no one uses them. Also a huge mainstay casino is fully closing. The Sahara has announced that they are closing at the end of this month.  Well..  Anyway here are some flies I got tied.  Sorry the pics are not the best.  If anyone wants the recipe for any of these I will post that. Also starting tomorrow I will start posting more original patterns with all materials.  Thanks for reading

I signed my first contract to tie 40 dozen flies for a shop!!!!

Today I faxed my first contract to tie 40 dozen flies for a shop. I really needed this due to low funds and on disability.  I was really happy because now I can take what I love and send them to someone that can catch some fish on my creations. Here are the samples I sent last monday to show the shop what I can do.

This fly might look weird but it is called a emunator. It is a leech pattern I came up with last fall. It is a marabou tail, olive body, and the back end of and emu feather. It made a real buggy leech that they liked.

Here is a cool pattern I came up with 2 weeks ago. I called it the double threat. It has two hooks and a double bead made all out of marabou. It is legal to fish just cause the 2 hooks are not considered one. If that makes sense. The hooks are attached with mono and has amazing movement in the water. It is hard to see the 2 hooks but the last pic shows the movement it would have and how flexible it is

These are not all the flies I am tying. I am doing some dries and some local favorites as well

I got asked to show some of my own dubbing so here we go

Here is a start on my dubbing. I love the whole concept of manufacturing. Taking raw materials and making a product that can be used. I used other tying materials, antrons, yarn, ground chenille, and just about anything I can find at a craft store or craft fair to make my dubbing creations.  I also have used quite a bit of natural furs.  I have 72 colors and variations so far and recipes for all of them just in case one day someone might want to buy some. Here is a sample of my colors I have. This has no intention of trying to get purchases from this post cause I am not ready yet to sale anything!!!

I also have sample packs that I have given to companies and to tiers just for them to play with and to give me honest reviews. Here was a batch I sent out to a dozen or so companies.

I also made some dubbing packages in dispensers.