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Answer

Hi Karsten
Thanks for your nice comment.

Regarding your trip to Iceland, I know these places very well. Fished quite a lot on the lower part of Blanda where there in June and July usually is a lot of action.
Both river you are fishing are under Icelandic circumstances larger river and fished best with 12-13 feet double hand rods. They also are fishing best with tubes like the HKA sunray. On the Blanda, I have had me best fishing on large hitch tubes and that is even locals say you need big flies and to get down. - Not my experience, only of the water is colored. That can happen on both river!!! So bring a sink tip for sure.

Fly tying

Learn how to make double shrimp fly

Guniea fowl

Mark,

My guess is that Guinea Fowl dyed blue would do well. The coarser feathers would very likely be able to do what the blue jay fibers do here.

Martin

Claret Bumble

I occasionally find Blue Jay feathers but, what would be a good substitute for the Jay feathers?

Videos by Steve Collie

Hey Steve:
Your fly tying videos are works of art. Would love to see more. Thanks for sharing your skills.

Ann (Collie) McNeilly

I tye this hibrid fly for

I tye this hibrid fly for years. I use this hibrid for bass. See my Instagram page @duferraro_flyfishing

Single-handed rods for salmon fishing

Dear Nils,

thank you for your interesting and very helpful post about salmon fishing in Iceland‘s rivers with single handed rods!

I hopefully will be travelling to Iceland this June after the trip has been postponed twice due to corona reasons.

We will be fishing the Brenan(Sea)Pool of the Thvera and the lower part of the Blanda.

Do you have Andy experience with the fishing on those rivers and have you maybe and recommendations regarding the tacke?

I am looking forward to maybe hearing from you.

Kind regards from northern Germany!

Karsten

Grooving wooden net frames

Much the easiest way to achieve a consistent groove, is to rout it out before steaming/bending.

True enough

Rob,

I'm sure no one claims that Davie invented the flies he ties - least of all himself. He may not credit every pattern to the originator in his videos, but he certainly doesn't say that all the patterns are his.

Martin

I still prefer Renomed

Jed, (sorry for my mistaking your name when first posting)

I find the Renomed scissors superior to various razor scissors that I have tried. I haven't used the Tiemco razors, but only their coarser Deer hair scissors, which I indeed have had and used for decades, but also have degraded to rougher work. Their tips are no nearly as fine as those of the razor models or the pointed Renomed models.

As mentioned in the article, most (read: all) razor scissors seem to come out of the same mold, just being branded differently by the sellers. You can find some inexpensive no-name razor scissors to try. In my experience they are exactly the same as the more expensive brand name models. The Renomeds are unique and unlike other scissors on the market, and my preferred tool in my day-to-day tying. But they are of course also quite expensive.

I hope this helps

Martin

Renoned scissors compared to Tiemco

Martin, first thank you for your extensive research on scissors. Bravo!!! I have been leaning towards a pair of Tiemco tungsten Carbide razor scissors and the Deer Dresser Scissors also by Tiemco. That was until I read your comments about Renomed. In a video put on by Fish Food Fly, a shop in Utah, the owner compared the points of a variety of different scissors. The Tiemco scissors came to the finest points. Do you think the Renomed match the fineness of the Tiemco points?? You’ve had your Tiemco for more than 25 years. Why do you think the Renomed scissors are better than the Tiemcos?? Any help making my decision is very appreciated. Thank you Martin. Jed Feffer

Antistatic Buzzer

Contrary to popular belief, Davie McPhail didn't invent every fly in the universe, and he didn't invent this one either. The Antistatic buzzer was originated by Alex Ferguson of Leicester around 2008.

even more easy fly

just take a coffee bean and superglue it on a hook

Tool type

Great video but I always like to know who makes the tools being used. I believe I saw loon but the bobkin?

Collie Dog ?

Looks more like a Sunray Shadow with the White in the wing. Original Collie was just Black !

covid

glad you are better ,, our health is all we have ,, best of the holidays to you ,,,, cbm

Good to hear

Good to hear you're back in the saddle at GFF, Martin. Best wishes to you and yours and a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

<()))><

Funny that this book comes out to us again. Yes, Keith compiled a huge dictionary of patterns. And yes, it is not consistent in type or print. I have a copy also signed by the author. He signed it for me at his shop in Ennis, Mt. on July 7, 1989. The thing is that although this book is terrible it was the work that Keith did on, or should I say to, bamboo rods that was worse. He single handily ruined several cane rods in that he would strip the finish and then die the blank in black ink. The rods were then displayed at his shop. I remember an entire line of black rods that he had destroyed. I cannot remember the makers of the rods but whoever they were are probably still rolling in their respective graves.
Mark

Ipatfly,

Ipatfly,

I think the Dyneema 55 is Roman Moser Power Silk Dyneema Thread GSP 8/0 which is sometimes referred to as Dyneema 55. I'll check with Barry and post his reply here.

Martin

Thanks

HI Martin - Glad to hear you are on the mend. Thank you for all you do for the fly fishing world. We all appreciate this as the best and most informative website for our fly fishing community. God Bless,
Jack Harford

Dyneema thread 55

In your video "Tying the Elk Hair Caddis with Barry Ord Clarke Sept. 28, 2016" in the comments you mentioned you use Dyneema 55 thread. Is 55 a product # or is it the Denier size? I cannot find "55" in Dyneema or Veevus search.

nice fly

hans ties terrefic flies and his instrucion are first rate. He has a great site with hundreds of fly tutorial,G

Fighting hard

Hi Jack, yes they do, jumping, running and putting a nice bend into the 8 weight, ,

The shakey

Brian,

Thanks for the comment, and yes, I have similar experiences with both glass and bamboo rods. They are such a joy to fish and cast with - not to mention catch - and the casting distance is much more dependent on your technique than the nature of the rod.

Martin