Recent comments

  • Reply to: Good floss work   1 month 2 weeks ago

    I am visiting multiple cities in Japan next month. I am looking for the source that the author used to buy their silk and sample card and am wondering if there is a retail source I can visit during my trip. Thank you so much for your time.

  • Reply to: Fly Tying Thread Table   1 month 4 weeks ago

    Peter,

    Your findings match my own experiences with almost any spooled material: tinsel, wire, monofilament ... you name it. We can't use terms like small, medium, large, wide, narrow, thin, thick for anything! We need absolute measurements in fractions of an inch or millimeter (preferably both), so that there can be no doubt and things can be compared.

    And don't get me started on hooks where the problem is the same. I have worked on an article on hook sizes, which is just as confusing with numbered sizes that vary wildly from company to company and are totally crazy even from the same manufacturer.

    It's 2024 and you'd think that the industry would be as interested as us consumers in updating these measures and units, of which most were invented up towards two centuries ago.

    But that doesn't seem to be the case. We're stuck with 1/0, 5 weight, medium and all kinds of odd and almost useless units.

    My thread table is a feeble try to get a little order into that part of our world. I'm glad it's helpful.

    Martin

  • Reply to: Fly Tying Thread Table   2 months 1 day ago

    Thank you Martin, This is really helpful! Compiling it and updating it must take a lot of work, Thank you so much.
    I recently entered a fly tying competition run by a print and digital magazine I subscripe to. The first fly is tied on a size 12 hook, the second on a size 10 hook. What I find confusing in the materials list is 'Fine Silver Wire'. I checked my stock from 3 different manufacturers, Measured by vernier calliper my discovery is as follows:
    Veniards:Fine: 0.125mm (No. 27) ( actual 0.12mm), Medium: 0.155mm (No. 26), Large/Wide: 0.185mm (No. 25).
    Uni-Soft: Small 0.15mm (No. 33) Between medium and large?, UTC Wire:X-Small: 0.1mm, Small: 0.16mm, Brassie: 0.22mm
    Medium: 0.32mm.
    Fly-Box: Micro/Small 0.10mm, Medium 0.20mm.
    Again not much consistency across the sizes, so I guess we need to purchase from different suppliers so we can match diameters to the fly we are tying. This doesn't help us elderly folk dependant on our retirement pension!
    Across my stock Small varies from 0.15mm, 0.16mm, 0.10mm.
    Meduim varies from 0.155mm, 0.32mm, 0.20mm.
    Thank you Martin for excellent work as always.
    Best regards
    Peter Jackson

  • Reply to: Chain Worm   2 months 4 days ago

    Hey Nick,
    Thanks for the heads-up on that fly tying video by Piscator. I had not seen it before at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRrTmAWvF2I
    Cheers!
    Rory

  • Reply to: Chain Worm   2 months 4 days ago

    Hi Rory,
    Glad you liked the worm.I looked up Ridj-bak flies and found a You Tube video on a Steelhead pattern that looked good. I've used chain along the back of a curved hook to tie shrimps with a dubbing loop wound between the beads and then a shell back pulled over.
    Cheers, Nick

  • Reply to: Chain Worm   2 months 6 days ago

    Hey Nick,
    Great fly pattern and good use of bead-chain.
    Back in the '80s, when looking to add some bling and weight to some fly patterns for winter-run steelhead on Vancouver Island, I used bead-chain as a ridged back on the fly body. It worked great. These patterns are now called Ridj-bak flies. The bead-chain can be attached by overwinding it with wire or coloured floss and could even have a saddle hackle wound over between the beads. Looks great and fishes well. Can't attach a photo here but will send it to you via private e-mail if you wish.
    Cheers!

  • Reply to: Feather Mechanic II   2 months 2 weeks ago

    Serge,

    Thanks for the nice words about the site!

    I'm sure you will not regret your purchase. It's a very interesting book, and one I hope you will like. Supporting books like this is important if we want to continue seeing them published.

    Martin

  • Reply to: Feather Mechanic II   2 months 2 weeks ago

    Hi Martin. First, I want to wish you «une Belle et Bonne Année 2024».
    I also say thanks…thanks for keeping alive and healthy GFF. I can’t imagine the time and efforts you had put in the project until now.

    This book review is useful for me. I didn’t buy volume one and I kind of regret. Volume II is on the way. Fly fishing and Fly tying books are important object to me. My library has more than 150 of them. I am from this old school were the smell of the book is as important as it content.

    Feather Mechanic II is different…that convinced me to put my hands on it. Knowing that some great tiers had collaborated is another good reason. Is this world of great photos and computerized images, hand drawings by the author is one more. So thanks for the review.

  • Reply to: I stopped counting   3 months 3 days ago

    Well written. One more reason for tuning in here again. And for recommending GFF.

    I was born 1962. States used to control TV. Now I can have my own weekly show and many are watching from around the globe. Super cool. Websites made many magazines redundant. Mail order catalogues turned into mainstream shopping -mobile first. Analytics.

    But interesting stuff is often found in niche places. Nothing is new about this.
    If GFF is to cater for the big crowds it will have to adopt. Not being niche. Not being cool.

  • Reply to: Perrault's Standard   3 months 2 weeks ago

    Mark, I assure you those rods were cheap production rods such as Montague and H&I and were intended as entry level rods or wall hangers, the black "ink" being in homage to the minor trend of "Japanning" as black laquering was called, primarily in the 50s. He wouldn't have done that to a high quality rod from a classic maker.

  • Reply to: Bert Quimby   3 months 3 weeks ago

    Just to correct the record. I recently discovered pictures of Bert Quimby in uniform from World War One and his letter to my Grandmother, Grace Miller Davis. They were cousins living in Whitefield New Hampshire in 1917. My twin brother, Bill Davis commented on 2018 that he believed we were related to Bert’s wife Jackie but the actual relationship is to Bert. I am looking for any information on Bert.

  • Reply to: Ted Patlen   3 months 3 weeks ago

    Give me a call Ted. Lots of work Ted and need to have this moving at this times of our life.

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