Mike G

Tom In the video Wulff says he is using 2 pound tippet. I figured if it was gut it would have been 1 or 2x which would be 8 pounds or more in today's nylon. So his feat is catching that fish on a 2# tippet; gut or nylon 2 pounds is 2 pounds. In an old book (1940) that I have, John Alden Knight (the moon phase man) recommends to an IFI line for trout fishing; that's a dt3 in todays specs. So I suspect Wulff's rod is a 3 or 4 wt.

I looked it up. Your apology is accepted.

Thanks Tom. Lee taught himself to tie flies without a vise, but I guess he never got the hang of flying without a plane. I forgot that he was a big advocate of using the "flea" rod for big fish. He was also an early advocate for C&R though the coup that first salmon got does not fit the image. I wonder what he would do with today's equipment. His 2# leader was probably 1 or 2x Silk gut. Today he would be in heaven with a 2x leader testing around 8# maybe more.

I like it. It probably does not push as much water as a bulkier solid bucktail tie. But if it pushes water, a fly also pushes air. This one does not look like it would b such a chore to cast.

I always thought that Craig Riendieu should have called the fodder Frankenstein since in combines parts from many flies and lures. Now I have my chance with the Bride of Frankenstein inspired by the Fodder and adding parts from other flies. The Fish Skull Skeleton Segments challenged me two ways, first to avoid the high cost by making them myself, second to use them to create longer bigger flies. Getting length while avoiding the leverage of a long shank hook is a perennial tyer’s bugbear. All these are 5-6 inches long. Though I made fun of the Banjo Fly in the beginning, I began to see what it had to offer in action. Before I knew it, I had the bride of Frankenstein and the rest of the bridal party inspired by our ISA tyers. I will try to give the mentors proper credit. Here they are in order as they march in for the ceremony. Second Bridesmaid, Shannon 16. She is not a minnow anymore. This is a grown up edition of rich’s classic using the sparkly stuff that Terry first showed me and of course rich’s signature Bohemian Chenille. First Bridesmaid, Tom’s Thumbelina. If one iFly is good, a series of them has got to be better. The cross-cut fake fur used for the head is also an idea that came from Tom though the color comes from the way kids dye their hair these days. Maid of Honor, Lefty’s Fake Bunny Deciever. I combined Lefty’s style of bundling saddle hackle with my Fake Double Bunny. Bride of Frankenstein, she’s a Fodder with a long train, blue garter, and a cross-cut fake fur collar. Craig’s ringer treatment for eyes assures he gets credit. Of course, he’s the grandfather. The girls were very formal in the church procession. But they proved they could shake later at the reception.

Hannukah is eight (8) days, 8 candles to light.

There were more than just bass.

Here's on that used to work. Illinois fish went out of their way to clobber it. Wisconsin fish refused to hit it and treated it as a god,

Now I am really in. I set up an account. I set Terry as a fishing partner. Platonic only. BTW I had to use Mike-G not Mike G as a user name.

I'm in.

I remember winning a battle like that on a smaller scale. While we were fishing Basswood Lake in the Quetico long time ago, a 12" Smallmouth took my Mickey Fin. Instead of mixing dives and leaps like Smallmouths do, this one stayed on top leaping constantly. Being able to see it better from the other end of the Grumman, My father shouted, "Mike, there's a Musky after it, give it line." My animal turned on. Like a dog with a bone I was not going to let that Sky have my fish. To my father's disappointment, I horsed the fish to the canoe where he could net it. My fish! We had had some experiences before fishing for bass on Clear Lake in Wisconsin where our struggling bass stopped and suddenly turned to unmovable stone. Then just as suddenly they were moving again. The ones we landed typically had patches of skin peeled off their sides or tails. There's an informal pole here. Would/should you save your fish or feed it slack chancing on taking the Musky? It happens fast; so it is best to think it over ahead of time.

Rob, What does Rainys say? To me a head shaped like that should dive. As I mentioned, the problem could be buoyancy since a foam head the same size as a deer hair head is going to be a lot more buoyant on average. If I had you problem, I would try using a smaller head for the fly or slicing some foam off the bottom of the stock head. A #26 Exacto blade works well for that job. Ryan, Here's a link to the Stealth Bomber. http://www.flyfishga.com/stealth.htm Here's the old page with the old template. http://www.flyfishga.com/stealth_old_tie.htm

Oh yeah, Rob. This discussion made me remember when glass lenses were standard on glasses. We paid extra to upgrade to the lighter plastic lenses. Now that plastic is standard, the Carlin question, why do we still call them glasses? It also reminds me of a question that you might be able to answer. The earliest glasses I wore, could break if I dropped them. Some time in the 50s or 60s regulations were passes requiring tempered lenses in eyeglasses for safety. My problems with broken glasses ended there. Except I still have my father's vintage Ray-Ban Aviators from around 1950. Is there a way to tell if they are tempered? For safety sake I assume that they are not and will pass them on to the kids with that caution.

Actually this Ugly Duck based on Kent Edmonds' Stealth Bomber does the trick with foam. I used his original template for cutting the foam. I refrained from hackling to avoid buoyancy and just used 4 saddle hackles for a tail. #4 Mustad 3366. It's three flies in one--slider on a slow retrieve, popper on a hard twitch, diver that wobbles to the surface after a strip. The foam is very buoyant, much more than deer hair; so you do not need a lot. The head cannot be as big as one made of deer hair. I found that out when I doubled the thickness for a larger fly. It would not sink/dive. I did add legs to a variation which worked OK. Silicon is not buoyant. Second fly from the top. Now I need to try the same Stealth head design with synthetic hair for the wings. I believe the hair will have more action than bucktail and it will not create a buoyancy problem like bucktail might. There is the question of looks. Like Gapen's Muddler years earlier, Larry's Diver was no beauty contest winner. Some thought it was too ugly to use until they saw how many fish were being caught on it.

I see some stores are putting out Xmas stuff already. The Season is coming. Last year's 12 Flies of Xmas was a lot of fun. For diversity let's do the 8 Flies of Hannukah. It was a lot to work through so I want to start thinking about it earlier. Also Hannukah comes earlier. This year it starts at sundown on November 27 and ends at sundown on December 5. First rule submit 8 flies starting after sundown on November 27. Second Rule there are no other rules. The flies can be your new original designs or old favorites. They can be your creations or tied by someone else. Pictures are good. Lists are good. Descriptions are good. You can follow the tradition of rolling them out one a day or put them up all at once. We are not going to enforce a December 5 deadline. Now I will get back to figuring what I am going to do. Tie some up!

Rob, The OEM part is still Derlin-a 21st century material. I am sure you still have customers who insist on glass lenses. I still have my dad's 50s vintage Ray Bans. But never wear them. Being from Northrop my favorite "plastic" plane is the B-2. The aircraft industry uses a lot of composites these days. That may be why I did not give a second thought to the use of Derlin in the Danvise. If plastic wigs you out, beware of the 787 because the tail assembly is "plastic." We don't have to go any further than the rod rack to see some dandy plastic rods, aka, graphite composite rods. It has been ages since I have seen a rod made of metal. For most of my spinning reels I have extra spools made of composite material. I switch from the aluminum spools to the composite ones without noticing any drop in performance. I see the newest casting reels are made with composite frames. Peak is primarily an engineering outfit. So I can see why they stick with the Derlin screw even though the marketing guys want to change the specs.

Ryan, I love that profile with the synthetic hair. The natural deer hair head is classic. Some day I will try to get the same effect with a foam head to dodge the problem of having the deer hair getting water logged.

But there's more. If 20% off on a Danvise is good, 31% is even better. $69.00 from the prestigious Orvis Company. http://www.orvis.com/store/product.aspx?pf_id=527e http://www.orvis.com/store/product.aspx?pf_id=527e Get yours now. At this price supplies will not last forever.

Rob, Thank you. My beautiful high functioning Danvise is made of Derlin not plastic. "Polyoxymethylene (POM), also known as acetal,%5B1%5Dpolyacetal and polyformaldehyde, is an engineering thermoplastic used in precision parts requiring high stiffness, low friction and excellent dimensional stability. As with many other synthetic polymers, it is produced by different chemical firms with slightly different formulas and sold variously by such names as Delrin, Celcon, Duracon and Hostaform." A critical part of the Peak is also made of Derlin. That is the tension screw on the coulet that controls the ease of rotation for the main shaft. No wonder Peaks are so good.

Affordable is a relative term. What do these things cost anyway?

Well it is not that simple. You pay 150 for the vise and they give you a coupon for $25 in their merchandise. Or you pay $150 for $175 worth of stuff. that's about a 14% discount. Their Danvise sale is better. With a 20% discount you pay $80 instead of the 100 msrp, or $45 less than the 125 for the Peak. http://www.jsflyfishing.com/cgi-bin/item/OF-900805-0000/80100/Danica-Danvise.html I know the Danvise is solid. But I do not have any experience with the Peak. Does anyone? Fly Fish Ohio gave both great reviews in their shoot out on "working man's vises.".

Rob Grider in our grinder. He is an optometrist who always has a smile on his face and a positive attitude. He is also in the eyeglass business; so he can deal with the technical issues and explain why the prescription lenses cost so much. I can give you a view from the user side of the lenses having worn glasses for 60 years till cataract surgery gave me 20-20 or better in both eyes a year ago. In all that time my prescription changed regularly meaning I had to shell out again for both regular glasses and Sun glasses if I wanted them too. So for economical and practical reasons I settled on updating the regular lenses and resorting to polarized clip ons or cacoon like glasses for use in the sun. This works very well during those good morning and evening fishing periods when light levels change dramatically over a few hours. You have to have your regular glasses along anyway, and it is not a big hit if you damage or loose clip ons or cacoons. Though the Cacoon brand is the standard, I found that the polarized Solar Shields sold by Wally do the job at half the price. Fishing in the Keyes I came to appreciate sunglasses that wrap around and shield out light from all angles. Forgo fashion to save your eyes. You are fishing not modeling. Now I am in phase 3. After 60 years of wearing glasses all the time I only need them for close work. On Amazon I found a nice pair of wrap around polarized glasses with cheater bifocal inserts for $15. They do the job. I do not claim this is the perfect answer. Others will suggest contacts, and maybe you can get reasonably priced prescription Polaroid. Just sharing my experience.

Just a thought. At Woodstock last year Bob sed it is best to leave off leaders, tippets, and dehooked flies when casting on the grass. He thinks they catch in the grass and add drag which gives you an experience different from what you will get in water. Now that you have used the rod on the Kish, what do you think? Wally's sale will not last forever if someone is thinking of grabbing one.

Where's Brutus?

Ryan, Thanks for the old link. The link that was added later was especially good. I started doing this a few years ago after reading about it in one of Lefty's books. He sez it is important to loop the thread around the leg of the bobbin a few times so it digs into the line finish when you spin it. Both plain nylon and unithread worked for me. I have used both Sally's and UV cure to finish it off. It is easier than it looks.