Jonn Graham

17 inches is a trophy for my guiding clients. Many of them have never caught a river smallie in their life.

Forgot the website: www.huntingpins.com

Here is a pic of a pin I had made for my guiding business. They are made by a company down in Effingham. They have pins and decals for fishing and hunting.

I plan to get some custom pins done with some of my pictures of my biggest smallies on the pin...............kinda neat I think.

Don is right. That hand is my son's hand. These crease flys are not that big. Around 2-3 inches long from head to tail. Definitely not too big for smallies. Back in my spin/casting days, I would routinely throw topwaters four inches or better and have good success doing it.

Greg:

It must be the picture. None of the hooks are over 2/0 in size. Some have a longer shank than others, but they are definitely nothing close to a 7/0 hook. Just a nice size hook with a good gap for hooking and holding our fiesty, central Illinois bronzies.

Been burning the midnight oil of late working on my skill at building crease flys. I feel I have made a few strides. I was able to take one out on Saturday and give it a test run. It worked beautifully!!! It sat perfectly in the water and popped and dove slightly under the water when stripped. Yipee!! Here is a picture of a few of my new models:

As you can see, I am making them in different sizes and color shemes. That foam with the glitter already on it, is a godsend.

The five minute epoxy by the company, Devcon, does not seem to yellow. But I will keep an eye on it. Later today I hope to post a new picture of my newest crease flys. They look MUCH BETTER than my first batch. In addition, I am now making them in different sizes thanks to Scott F.'s donation of hooks.

Joe:

Probably won't make meeting in Waterman. Will you be at the blowout?

Joe:

I think I am leaning towards your school of thought. I like to experiment as well. Tie up an idea and take the fly to the water and test it out. To me that is just pure fun! I like to throw out covential rules and principles and just tye what I think "might" work. I am so new to fly fishing that I will try anything.

I won't forget my roots ...........................and the little people who helped me along the way.

I got my foam from Wal Mart as well. Yesterday I went back to Wal Mart and found 2 mm foam with a sticky back AND covered with glitter. Got a variety pack of about six colors.........all with glitter. Really made my lunch hour when I found this stuff

Here is what I came up with last night with the new foam:

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=11jrh3o&s=4

The top crease fly has a base of pearl sparkle foam and I added a few touches with the sharpie marker

Now, the bottom fly, which I thought came out perfectly, has a rattle shoved inside the foam and sealed in with epoxy.

By the way, all of the crease flys I have made have had at least one coat of five minute epoxy.

I am going to try and hit some open water this weekend, just to see how these flies react in the water.

Hey, this fly tying thing is fun.

Well, I have sink tested them and they float perfectly. Tail slightly down in the water with the head of the bait at or above the water level. Wait til you see the new ones I made tonite. I will post pics tomorrow morning.

2 mm closed cell foam. I bought mine in a sheet for under a dollar. I suppose I can make 15-20 crease flys from one sheet.

I whipped these up last night. They sit on the surface tail down. I am going to continue to work on different sizes and color patterns:

My buddy and ISA member, Curt Ebert, has a fly rod he would like to sell. It is a 9 foot, five weight, St. Croix Reign - 2 piece. It has been used only about five or six days. It comes with a hard tube case. $65 plus shipping or pick up from Curt or I and save the shipping.

My wintering areas produce a big fat zero during the warmer months. Not even a sniff. It's funny, it seems that the wintering areas are just that - only used during the cold water months.

I agree about the price of a lanyard. I could not believe how much $$$$ they want for a simple lanyard. That is why I decided to make my own.

Nothing like using something that you made.

Here are a couple of pics of the lanyard I made yesterday:

The clip at the very bottom of the lanyard is there to clip the lanyard to your shirt so as to stop the lanyard from leaning out when the angler is bending over.

Of course, those are snap swivels........four of them altogether

Those black cylindrical pieces towards the top are neoprene/foam. Those are there to hold a few flies and/or dry flies after use.

The top neck strap is made from the same material as the fly holders.

The whole strap is made of leather. The beads are just cheapies from Wal Mart.

I have another one in the works using a different material.

Loads of fun making these. Matter of fact, last night, my kids got a kick out of making their own lanyard.

I almost have two alredy made. Just got to finish them up tonite. I will post pics tomorrow.

I have a friend who is a fly casting instructor. I think I will save my $$$$ spent on fly casting videos/books and spend them elsewhere. I am sure my buddy can steer me the right way once we get a chance to fish together.

Thanks Brian.................I would like to borrow it. Are you coming to the meeting tonite at Gander? If you are, could you bring it along?

It will probably be a long winter for a newbie fly fisherman that is totally obsessed. I need to read some books. I have a couple of smallmouth fly fishing books (Holschlag's, Turtilliane's, and Cornwall's), but I am looking for more. Especially would like to read the one by Bob Clouser and Harry Murray.

Anyone out there want to sell a used copy, let me borrow it, or trade for some jigs??? Let me know.

I will have them at the meeting on Friday night.

We will hold our first winter meeting this Friday night at Gander Mtn. at 6:00 PM. I was not able to book a speaker for this first meeting, but thought we might use all in attendance as guest speakers. Here is my plan:

Each person in attendance will talk about their best smallmouth trip in 2008. We do not need to know locations, just if it was on a river, what baits worked, any big fish, etc. Secondly, tell us about a trip or two you plan to do in 2009.

When this is done, the meeting will adjourn and many of us will head to a local watering hole and/or restaurant. Hope to see you there.

Been researching and thinking quite a bit. Here is what I have come up with:

The above picture is a leech pattern I have come up with. The body is a rope material wrapped three layers on the hook shank. The tail is Chamois cloth. While the picture makes it look blue, it is actually black.

The above pic is of my version of the Kreel Craw, which I found on the internet. The tail is custom cut from Chamois cloth.

This final picture is of a minnow pattern I came up with. Once again the body is wrapped with a type of rope/cord material I found. I really like the color of the cord. The tail is Arctic Fox tail with a little crystal flash.

Let me know what you think.