Mike G

Good tip Al.

Excellent! You have successfully completed the first challenge. Next Challenge: where do you get those larger Mallard feathers for these flies?

It is good to see the great work that was done on this classic and versatile pattern. I can't wait to see Zoo Master Rob's Stealth Cougar.

Don't overanalyse, Rob. Tie a Cougar. Replace the front deer hair head with an EVA sheet foam head like the Bomber's. Should work?

Rob, Your mission should you accept it: the Stealth Zoo Cougar. This message will never self destruct or go away.

Al, you really leaked a secret here. Kent Edmonds' Stealth Bomber is a seriously underrated pattern that can be scaled from #10 trout to 3/0 saltwater. Rob, you will find it is a true 3-way bug--slider, diver, popper. Fish it slow as a slider. On a firm 10-20" strip it will dive and flutter up on the pause. A hard twitch will make it pop. You can also fish it with a full sink line a la Graham and Galloup. It is a great way to make a diver without having to mess with deer hair. I prefer to use Edmonds' original Y shaped cutout on my flies leaving the collar long. I have found that a relative sparse dressing works best. Bulky materials like rabbit strips or thick chenille keep the head from doing its thing. My favorite version is a hackle streamer. Red thread body. The tail is four feathers flared out. It has silicon rubber strands for gills. It is a little over 3" long tied on a #2 Mustad 3366. The pictures that I had were lost in the Photobucket Disaster. I found one with it grouped with my 3 other favorite flies of all times. Ugly flies catch more fish. Rob I hope your session goes well. 20120311_9 by Michael Gerharz, on Flickr

Back to the topic. What I will be tying soon? Some of these: Clouser Frogs by Michael Gerharz, on Flickr Some of these: Untitled by Michael Gerharz, on Flickr And maybe some of these: HSLGDiver by Michael Gerharz, on Flickr I am not sure if I want to risk a good blockhead body on the experiment.

The First Family of Fly Tying, Al and Gretchen Beatty, did a great article on Mops in Fly Tyer 1-2 years ago. Besides the basic Weenie, they used the material in streamers, buggers, and cadis patterns. Each nib is a piece of tightly furled chenille. So you could make your own nib out of chenille; or, as I have done, unfurl it to wrap a standard bugger body when I didn't have that color in chenille. For whatever reason blue really works, as rich said. Matches what hatch?

rich, Tinley? I won't be there. Are you doing the Rockford Show? The ISA NW will be glad to see you.

Where did you get blue?

Got it Rich. Problem is true believers in the loop will cut the fibers off of the cord and spin them into a new cord reinventing the wheel. The yarn and the products.

Thanks Rob. Consider me doodley warned that that design does not perform as advertised. On the other hand, Holschlag features his design in his book and sells it on his site. Clouser sells both finished divers ($4.00 +) and the bodies on his site. One bad apple...

"Anybody listening who?" I see both Holschlag and Clouser reverse their popper heads to create divers. Holschlag HSLGDiver by Michael Gerharz, on Flickr http://smallmouthangler.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/2543_B_sliding-Diver-2-colors-smallmouth-bass-fishing-fly_800.jpg Clouser ClouserEZcrop by Michael Gerharz, on Flickr Untitled by Michael Gerharz, on Flickr Anybody doing this?

TJ, I sees the point about bulk. And dubbing loops certainly have become popular. In one video I watched a guy use the bulldog clamp method to cut the fibers from a Puglisi brush, use those fibers to recreate the brush in a dubbing loop, and wrap that on the front hook of a tandem streamer. Since I see you make boo rods, I should not be surprised you like loops "doing things the hard way." (If God wanted us to make bamboo rods, he would not have created glass and graphite blanks.) Let me guess. I bet you like to spin deer hair bugs too. Tom, Thanks for bringing out more advantages of loops. General I have in mind making some super sized Schenk Minnows # 1/0 or 2 3xl. Since I want the hair of the bunny fur to be as long as possible, I think the strip is the way to go. In those sizes bulk is not such an issue. Thanks for comments.

Lately I have seem a lot of videos where fur is cut from a rabbit hide, spun in a loop to create a hackle and then wrapped and trimmed to shape. I think it was a Shank pattern. Why not just use a rabbit strip for this?

I think rich meant to say the guy in the video uses those eyes. It's odd that the guy used eyes because he kinda dissed eyes before he put them on the fly saying that few of the flies he used for guiding had eyes. That is a real can of worms anyway. I am not big fan of eyes other than dumbbells that add weight.

Right. Warm days for winter now. You should be field testing.

Hook the flasher to your brand new 12v car battery.

In the spirit of my original comment, I can answer your question. "Neither." The purpose of the art of fly tying is to produce bugs that show well in the shop and fool fools like me into buying them. The guy at bench has to decide between tying scruffy things that fish eat and creating works of art that sell well anywhere in the country.

Have you ever heard the rule that for each 1 degree off of true horizontal that the hook shank is deflected, you reduce your chance of catching a fish by 10 per cent. I haven't either. By the time your float and fly is engaged in current and wave action, moments when your fly lies perfecttly horizontal will be rare indeed. Go fish.

Manny, You are right. This thread needs pictures. Here's one of the balance leeches that rich mentioned. Here is a link to an article that shows how to use a straight pin to create that front extension/ http://www.flycraftangling.com/index.asp?p=145&szArticleButtonCommand=view&nArticleID=59 A while ago we had a similar discussion. From that one I recovered some of my pictures that were buried in mud by Photobucket. Bending a 90 deg jig hook back to form a 120 deg hook lets you tie one of Holschlag's Winter streamer. Eagle Claw Aberdeens are soft enough that you can bend the shank to the right angle. I used round nosed pliers to avoid a sharp bend that might break. My "think out of the box" contribution to the discussion is the Wacky Fly. Here's a Hornberg Wacky.

Um...Jude, that's not a fly rod.

It seems to work. I can see my photobucket photos in the Blockhead stream as well as some that I replaced with Flickr links. there is a step or two after where Rob's instructions leave off. I will try to add that. Also I had to do a restart to get it to work.

Very nice, Rob. I will have to give it a try.

Happy Chanukah! All eight days.