Tom L

Bought this on DVD years ago.  Been watching it over and over, and still picked up new info every time.  Glad that someone put it on YouTube and now more people will benefit.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LshIDly_qww

Glad to see situations are getting better.

Cool drone shots. Really enjoyed it. Thanks. 

Genius, Thanks for sharing.

Lately I've seen some tiers tied these divers on 60 or 90 degree jig hooks.  I wonder if that helps the fly dives better and get more action than on straight eye hook.

Rich, does this look familiar? Brushing the eyelash yarn with a steel brush sounds like a good idea.

Thanks John.  I'll be tying the Hollow Minnow tonight.  This fly is very deadly.  It took many smallies from the Fox last year, including a 20.5"er.  

Hope to see you all there tonight.

Nice ties Rob. And thanks for sharing a picture of Ron. 

Ron never smallmouth fish without a Tequeerie and a Meat Whistler.  In fact he mentioned about these 2 flies so much in his fishing reports that it served as a foundation of my success when I first started fly fishing for smallmouth and later served as a foundation of my development of the Foxy Craw.  A toss to you Ron! A Tequeerie & Meat Whistle and of cause follow up with a Gin & Tonic. 

This is very sudden and sad.  I was looking forward to seeing him at the Blowout.  We had planned to steelhead fishing in a few weeks.  We also planned to fish the Menominee and Alaska together later in the year.  I'd known Ron since I first  joined the ISA in 2012.  He is a great guy, great fly-fisher, and a great friend.  I'll miss you Bro!

Welcome Mike!  If you are into fly tying, the tying season for the Chicagoland will start soon.  Look out for the announcement. 

Welcome Erich.  The Fox is a great smallie fishery but well underated.  Glad to have you on board.

Fake News??? 

On ‎1‎/‎30‎/‎2018 at 4:21 PM, Rob G said:

A sampling of the articulated flies I've been tying.  Adding a couple new colors to the arsenal, and hoping that fluoro. shrimp pink might be the new chartreuse. 

Also, from Timothy's inspiration, an articulated McGinty : )  

Nice articulated steelhead popsicles.

Very nice looking bug.  Definitely will hunt.  Like the way you used a net to paint and gave the fly its textures.

Welcome to the ISA! Sounds like you will fit right in.

I will be working today at the restaurant.  Looking forward to seeing the gang. 

Thai Garden

225 W. Golf Rd.

Schaumburg,

I've been filling my steelhead box.  My typical go-tos; all on tubes: eggs, wooly buggers, stone and wet flies.

I'm a big fan of Dubbing Loop also.  Timothy hit on several good points (less bulk, less weight, fun to tie) of the Dubbing Loop.  One other thing I would like to add to that is the flexibility to customize the loop and let your imagination rolls, for example: you can add flashes, mix up colors or materials and so on.  For small flies (size 10 or smaller), I like to split the thread instead of looping the thread.  The downside to the Dubbing Loop  technique is that it is more time consuming to tie, it requires a little bit of practice, and it can be downright messy.  One final note on this: WAX is your friend in this technique.

Good start and good looking flies. Try hanging them in water to know for sure if they will stay horizontal. Some materials (e.i. Zonker strip) are buoyant in nature and will lift the tail up. 

Happy New Year!

May your fishing prospers in 2018.

Welcome Noel.  Looking forward to reading some of your adventures.

R.I.P. Now you can catch all the smallie you want. Our prayer will be with you and your family. 

Stumbled upon these masterpiece films.  Beautifully done.  Great to pass the time.  

Simple and clean. I like it.  

One of the pictures in my Fall-Run report was showing sideway, but now it is right side up after the up grade. 

Found it! Buried in with 100s of email. My bad.