Recent comments

Fly Heads with Tying Thread and Varnish.

I started tying flys in the 70's off and on in my spare time. Until about 20 years ago and started tying on a regular basis. Alot of people have said they like my flys. I have posted them on Facebook and on Instagram. I know some of my flys have large heads, out of proportion sometimes. But know this, I can catch 10 or more trout on one of my flys as opposed to some of the others that are beautiful but come apart after a few casts. And mind you I said casts, not fish strikes. If it makes you happy to tye a fly that is beautiful but not durable, then have at it. To me my materials for tying flys are too expensive to be lost after only a cast or two. Hey!!! The name of the game is tying fishing flys to catch fish. Not to be put in a frame for the Den or Office wall just because it looks good. That may be okay for guys that follow traditional fly tying. Believe me I tye Classic Salmon flys to catch fish. Not hang on my wall. The materials cost can financially put you in the poor house. I have cut my costs by tying with substitutes rather than the rare and sometimes illegal materials that would put you in jail.
Guys, the only advice about Fly Heads I can give you is tye with what you are comfortable with. Be it shiney and plastic looking, to rough and wraps exposed. Whatever you as a fly fisherman is happy with and it catches you fish. Who cares if it looks a little rough or shiney as a new penny. The idea is its your fly you made and tyed with your two hands and it catches fish. The name of the game.

Terrible

Tim, I love your videos but I think you're way off base with this review. In my opinion, this is the worst tension controlled bobbin holder on the market. I bought a compact and a standard based on your review and both fray thread (Veevus, UTC, Uni), break thread, and lose tension constantly. Frustrated with this, I did more research and found that these are common problems with Stonfo bobbins. I love my Stonfo vise and other tools, but these bobbin holders are garbage. I now use mine for wire. If you have some secret on how to make them suck less, I would love to hear it. Cheers.

Sheep Creek Special

Love this fly. I've even fished it at Sheep Creek Reservoir with great results. N.B.: Be sure to get your fishing license from the Duck Valley Indian Reservation store in order to fish the lake legally. The Res. has it's own mandatory license.

Separate dyed and undyed items

It seems obvious now, but I made the mistake of washing all of my furs and hair patches together in the same batch. The dyed items leaked dye and it soaked into the lighter colored items. If you have anything dyed, I recommend splitting up your batches like laundry. I will do a light dyed batch, a dark dyed batch, and a undyed batch in the future. If you don't want your white bucktail to turn blue, don't wash it with your blue bucktail, etc.

Slang

Kuttycrew,

I'm sorry if you are disappointed.

I don't know if you need to see these words... If you don't, you are more that welcome not to read the article. The first alleged offense appears right in the title, so you are warned in good time. No need to read on. I find the words rather harmless, which of course may be because I'm not a native English speaker.

I looked around for some evidence that this could be offensive or rude. Can't say that I found any.

Bling-bling is a slang term popularized in hip hop culture, referring to flashy, ostentatious, or elaborate jewelry and ornamented accessories. Exactly what I meant in the article - ironically of course.

I realize that a pimp is also what in the dictionary is referred to as a "whoremonger", but that was about as close as I could come to anything even lightly offensive. The term is more often connected with things such as the TV-series "Pimp my Ride" or the concept of "pimping a car", which was the reference that I was thinking of.

Martin

Bling? Pimp?

Great, do I really need to see this kinda slang in my hobby? disappointment......

Reply from Allan

Helmut,

I contacted Allan and he writes:
"Hi Helmut
I do not so much to sell flies when I unfortunately is ill at present
hope you can take The challenge in trying step by step fly
all the best Allan Kuhlmann"

You will have to take up the challenge and tie some flies yourself it seems.

Martin

Informations

Hi, I am writing from Germany.
Is it possible to buy flies from you?
Do you have any informations bat. style, sizes and prices?
Many thanks and best regards
Helmut

UV epoxy

A big advantage of UV epoxy is your choice of viscosity - thin or thick - for when you wish your epoxy to run and penetrate, and when you don't. Thick and thin LCR are compatible. They greatly simplify tying patterns such as Surf Candy. A third type, flexible LCR, comes in handy for some applications. Great stuff, and so little waste the effective cost is relatively low.

Phoenix

Hello Niels,
is that Phoenix #10 weight-line a DT
and what linesize is you Mc Ginn please?
Thanks for giving me answer.
Willie Ostiadal
Chieming Lake Chiemsee, Germany

My Tying Area...

When my Fiance and I were looking at a new home to purchase, we saw this house. It was being converted into an in-law apartment in the basement. The first thing I noticed was the old cabinets that were already in place. I quickly dubbed this are "Mine". The drawers are filled with tying supplies, I have a TV hooked up to my laptop, so I can stream Netflix or check out the latest patterns people post to Facebook or Instagram. There is also a radio for listening to tunes while I tie away. I still need to organize the shelves a bit, but so far, it's my own slice of solitude.

cool bobinholder

cool bobinholder

pescador de sea run brown trout

the tying is fantastic, but I don't know if its fish

Thanks so much...

Thanks so much...

April ide

Keith,

I don't know if the ides are on the fins in April, but I'd think so. We usually see them later in the season on the Baltic coasts, but my guess is that they are in the Odense Aa all year. You can give them a try if catching lost of sea trout gets too boring...

Martin

danish ide

great article! I love Ide and have caught them in Sweden, Karlstad. I am coming to Fyn in April, would there be any Ide around that early? I believe the river running through Odense has Ide, would that be a good place to try? We will be sea trout fishing but I would like to try for ide as well.

Spelling mistakes happen,

Spelling mistakes happen, were not all perfect. I personally have always been bad at spelling and language, so it happens more with me then most. Sorry to all the grammar natzis out there... haha!

Some people are good at language, others at math, etc... you might be good at English, and language in general. Maybe your also good at math, not sure. We just aren't all the same. I was doing advanced algebra at 4 years old, however couldn't pass English classes to save my life. I don't think negatively about people who can't do math, because I rejoice in their strengths not their weaknesses. I hope those who have a problem with misspelling can understand that as well.

Windmills

Jeff,

If their/there/they're, too/two, it's/its and lose/loose is your battle, you are basically bound to lose (pun intended).

Even I, as a non-native English speaker, find these errors all the time, and even though they do bother me, they don't take much away from my appreciation of the fact that people actually make great content (like this video) that I can read and watch for free. Sure it would be nice if everything was spelled perfectly, but that's not the case I'm afraid. And the errors are becoming more and more common. That's part of how language develops.

I'm sure the spelling control simply convinces people that all is OK - and that time will roll over us ant *beep*'ers as many of the "alternative" spellings eventually will be allowed and finally the norm.

Dame Juliana spelled the title of her book "A treatyse of fysshynge wyth an angle". She would probably roll over in her grave if she saw it written "A treatise of fishing with a rod" as we would do it today.

Martin

Just curious, why did you

Just curious, why did you spell lose- loose? I see this all the time, do you not know better or why exactly? thanks

Dumbbell eyes

Robb,

The eyes are usually made out of metal, lead, tungsten or brass. These are painted, which is sometimes available, but can be fixed with some nail polish if you can't find them painted. Size depends on hook size, but these seem to be about 2.5 mm or maybe 3 mm in diameter. It's probably not critical.

Martin

Bouncing bomb

Great fly.......what are the dunbell eyes made out of and what size are they thanks

Thanks

Thank you for the post

I started fishing a couple of

I started fishing a couple of months ago and all I can say is that it's a great experience, especially when you get your first big fish!

Egg sucking leach.

Jim, you are one of the best fly tyers that I enjoy watching. I like the leach pattern, but do not have bird fur. I use maraboo feathers instead. I like to keep a slightly shorter tail; so that I don't get short strikes. I usually fish for hatchery trout and they seem to like any type of wooley bugger, especially black. I also like to keep my hackle long and close to the chenille body so that it moves, but does not stick out; sort of like a wet fly type of longer hackle. It works for me. I think you are a great instructor. My suggestion is that you also tell tyers that they can subtitute materials that they have in their tying table, like maraboo instead of bird fur. I am not familiar with bird fur. Keep up the excellent work, I enjoy watching all of your videos and you provide and excellent service to all of us amateurs. Thanks again. Dominick