VanH

Good point. I left that part out about not casting well for longer distances but along as you bring it back and toss it and avoid false casting it works well for shorter cast in fast water .

I tie several types of leaders depending on the species and conditions but for smallmouth my go to leader is a Harry Murray's bright butt leader I learned to tie while out in Virginia, but if you are tossing heavy streamers a straight piece of fluoro works fine .

Looks better than the store made poppers! What size kit did you use to make them?

Merry Christmas Phil Let's fish in 2011 Van

Phil, I think a better name would be called a "Huggie" What was the water temp today?

That would match up nice with the 1ft 3wt ice rod Sage just came out with.

Does that wax fly have some weight to it? Looks like we need to have a ice fishing outing to test out these patterns.

Rob, I unfortunately have to work Sunday but a couple of my friends will be there.I will make a point of making the next one in CU. Van

Mike, The $39 dryer seems like the best option.The time spent finding parts and building a homemade dryer could be used to fish or tie more flys. Van

Rob, I currently don't have a rotisserie but that would sure be cheaper,and I could use it for more than one purpose. Maybe I will start a new TV show called Grillin & Tying

I think tadpoles are the forgotten baitfish. A fat woolly bugger is a close match. I just started tying and successfully fishing a thing called a spoonfly that just about every fish in the river is going wild over. It's profile could be mistaken for a tadpole. Here's a link to the pattern. http://www.bvipirate.com/spoonfly/ I have used black,silver & gold but I'm working on some purple and chartruse ones. Anyone know a source for a cheap epoxy drying wheel? Spinning them on the vise by hand is a little time consuming but I don't want to spend $60 to $70 on one. Van

For smallies it would be "John Coleman's Depth Charge streamer in chartreuse with a black tail" with a blockhead popper and black woolly bugger tied for second.