Recent comments

To bad he squeezes t

To bad he squeezes that beautiful fish when he lands it.

Thanks for the infor

Thanks for the informative information. A great help.

These flies like the

These flies like the Black Knat I have used for many years and yes find them to still work effectively. Always give them a shot when nothing else seems to work. These are flies that I used to use fishing with my grandfather some sixty years ago. He was quite the fly fisherman.

Bob Marriotts Fly Shop

Bob Marriotts Fly Shop and The Fly Shop in Redding CA have Tiemco micro jig hooks. Also Blue Quill Angler , and Allen Fly Fishing has hooks and slotted beads down to size 18.

I've tied and fished wet flies for many years

I've tied and fished wet flies for many years. I can't believe that so many have completely gotten away from them because , as demonstrated here, they are beautiful , colorful flies to tie and they certainly are still very effective patterns. Nice article , Bob Petti and very beautiful work.

Maybe young guys wou

Maybe young guys would like the music but I found it annoying. So annoying that I put it on mute. The video is okay and has gotten me interested to see where this little stream is in relation to where I live so I might give it a try.

Isn't there a possib

Isn't there a possibility of coming face to face with an Asian tiger?

Lovely fish

Lovely fish with an amazing number of big red spots!

Miro,

Miro,

A very interesting concept! Let's hear how it works once you get to fish with it.

Martin

I did a WWW search

Me again, I did a WWW search and found the following:

*Umpqua Tiemco, 403BLJ, 60 degree bend, wide gap, sizes 8 thru16;
*Allen Flyfishing, J100BL, barbless, thin wire, 60 degree bend, in sizes 8 thru 18;
*Saber Fly Hooks, 5220, 60 degree bend, barbless, and listed at US$6.99 per 100.in sizes 8 thru 18.

I have been fishing

I have been fishing lead head micro jigs for about 25 years. These are made on size 12 gold wire hooks and come in 1/80 or 1/100 oz. In competition fishing lead isn't legal, hence the tungsten beads and offset eyes. Umpqua, Partridge and Daiichi offer the offset jig hooks in sizes 10-16. The Daiichi are $5.75/15 and come in sizes 10-16. I sell the Wapsi micro jigs and the Daiichi hooks on my site. www.eflytyer.com

Great article

Great article. I have found 10 & 12 jigs with lead heads at 1/80 and 1/100 ounces at a local outdoor store. (Bob's Sporting Goods in Longview Washington USA) But no where else. But 16's !!!???...that would be nice...14's too.
?Maybe I'll try bending the eyes on other hooks? What do you think?

Matt,

A quick sea

Matt,

A quick search sent me to J-mac Lures, where they have Eagle Claw 570 Jig hooks with no bead down to size 12.
Jan's Netcraft has some down to size 8, also from Eagle Claw.

A little more research will probably reveal many more sources.

Martin

Where do you get tho

Where do you get those little jig hooks? I have never seen them in any fly tying catalog here in the USA.

Lovely flies!

Lovely flies! You possess a masters level of fly tying skill. I've been fly fishing for 55 years and ironically have caught less than ten trout on wet flies. They are very pretty and I think I'll tie some to put into my fly box.

Newborn Ver.2014 - variant 2.

Newborn Ver.2014 - variant 2.

Imitation of small fish hatched from egg, with head forward.

Happy New 2015 year. All the best.
Miro

A nice solution I found

A nice solution I found to connect tippet to tip of furled leader is to trim off any uneven bits and tie on an Albright Knot, using a length of mono or fluoro tippet material which has 2 parts: the first ties in along the tip of the furled leader, the second around the butt of the tippet with the tippet tapered to the center of the tip of the leader. (This terminal line can be your final tippet or a length of other tippet material like a shock tippet for pike.)

Comment to Big Poppey by Bill Chandler

Like the shoulder, nice tie. Great photo.

Comment to Big Poppey by Bill Chandler

Thanks Larry!

You may discover pla

You may discover plans for building a fly tying bench in your inviting fly angling magazine, yet with the Web you've got access to data in plenitude - and with our help, you won't have "fish" for long to discover the arrangements for an incredible tying bench.

About that Redington

About that Redington Prospector - it's a two handed baby spey, the very poor man's Sage One 4116. The line weight recommendations from Redington, SA, and Rio seem to have a range of about 250-300 grains so I'm looking to start in the middle.

A sinking running line sounds like a bummer for my targets areas on the North Platte, full of submerged twigs, reeds, and rocks.

Tnx, for the prompt response and advice. I will definitely check out the link you posted.

Thanks martin i've

Thanks martin i've got it now i need to use a combination of inner and outer tubing thank you very much for your help.By the way what pattern or style of fly are suitable for the scierra bullet tubes ? Again thanks for your help.

Ian, Using a 275

Ian,

Using a 275 grain (almost 18 grams) head on a 4 wt. seems a quite heavy to me - even considering that the Skagit technique calls for heavy, short heads. When casting overhead we typically use a 14-15 grams (225 grains or so) head on a 5 or 6 wt. rod and a head for a 4 wt. would be more like 12-13 grams or around 200 grains. I would think that lifting and controlling the heavy head in a current would be difficult.

Regarding your questions:
1) Yes, the weight and surface of the shooting line is critical to the length and quality of the cast. A heavy line with too much friction can essentially prevent any shooting, especially at lower line speeds as you have when Skagit or underhand casting. On the other hand you might gain distance and shoot longer with a smooth and light line (like mono), but will have no friction to help turn over the head and present the fly.
My personal preference lies somewhere in between. I use hollow, braided shooting lines when possible.

2) The above pretty much answers this. Yes, the hollow, braided lines combine weight, friction and handling in the optimal way in my eyes. Unfortunately the good ones are few and far between. I have tried almost all of them, and my preference is a line discontinued by the manufacturer. I have tried the Airflo braided lines - they have had several different types - and while they shoot and handle well, they sink and have a tendency to kink and knot. Careful stretching and coating with a floatant can help, but never makes them perfect. Still, my guess is that a braided or a thin, coated line would be a good choice for your light setup - unless you can cope with the idiosyncrasies of mono, which can be had in almost any thickness you want. I personally dislike the lack of friction, but it might work for you as it does for a lot of people.

There's basically only one way to go, and that's trying as many as you can. Luckily a lot of them are fairly inexpensive, and you can buy a bunch a try them out until you find the one that suits you best.

You have probably seen FlyFish USA's selection, which is quite large and covers most types.

Martin

Noel,

Sometimes p

Noel,

Sometimes people simply let the hook trail the tube or use a piece of plastic tube or a pearl to create some distance. Some of the bottle tubes even allow a sleeve to go inside.
Oftentimes the bottle tubes are meant to be mounted on plastic tubes, which can then accept a sleeve.

Here are some examples:
Hooks on tubes
Weight mounted on tubes in different ways

Martin

Martin