Joe D

if you are talking about the fly fishing one, they are very handy. I made my own from a boot lace, wood beads from a craft store and a few swivels. they go for 30-50 bucks. I made mine for about6-7 bucks. I'll try to get a pic of it posted. Joe

jude, once you have tied with geneticaly bread hackles its tough to go back to the cheap imports isnt it ?!?! I stress that to new tyers alot. alot of new guys get discouraged with their finished fly. when they look at a picture or see a fly from someone who has been tying for awhile they sometimes give up or say this just isnt for me. I have been tying for awhile and have tied flies fit for the garbage can when using cheap material. I've found the best thing for me is each time I'm at the fly shop I buy something. if you do that little by little you can aquire a pretty nice arsenal of materials. even if I dont need it right away I know with as much tying as I do I will use it sooner or later. my next thing I need to get is a partridge cape. they are about $40 but worth every penny. I also NEVER buy anything over the internet or mail order, you never know what you are going to get. even grade 1 hackles very in color, some browns are darker then other and things like that. ALWAYS inspect the product before you buy it. marabou is the same way, you want nice long fibers that come to sharp points. the cheap stuff looks like mini hackle full of barbs on the fibers and very little of the desired fibers. and because I use high grade materials I minimize waste by saving what I've clipped off. sometimes you can get 2-3 flies out of one strand of quality hackle. I have a few small bins that I keep excess material in. I may only need a small piece of something and always check the waste bin first. same goes for copper wire and rubber legs ect. Joe

I'm with you steve, it gets harder and harder every winter for me. I've worked outside my whole life and coming up to 40 years old I cant take the cold like I used to!! but I force myself to chase steelhead well into the dead of winter. Joe

personaly I use a renzetti vise. it has cam jaws and is a rotory vise on a pedistal. a good rotory vise makes tying a 100% easier!! it will make you a better and faster tyer. I'm not really concerned with speed, but the rotory option allows you to see the whole fly. its much easier to put legs and things like that on. it make it much more enjoyable which means you'll tie more and practice makes perfect. also when buying materials get the highest grades you can afford. genetically bread hackle make such a difference in ease of tying as well as a better final product. inspect the feathers before you buy them, make sure that there is alot of usable feathers. the cheap inported stuff is a nightmare and alot of it is to me unusable. try to have atleast one good pair of scissors that you only use on feathers and other soft materials. get a cheap pair to cut lead or copper wire. a lighted magnifing light is a big help too. there are some instances where you can get away with cheap materials, but for the most part you get what you pay for. as far as vises go, renzetti does not pay me for endorsments so I'm not pushing them. there are alot of good vises out there. shop around to find one you like. hope that helps. Joe

mark, I tie a tippet to my leader to prevent the magical shrinking leader. as you change flies you take off length. this way it minimizes that and adds life to my leader. josh, I like my leader to be inline w/ my line. as the fly turns over it seems to help keep the leader straight and fully extended, thats all. just seems to work for me. Joe

ronk, your right there. tapered leaders are a must for me. turns the fly over nicely John, now your cook'in. I'm sure you'll be happy with that set up now. Joe

well I'll put my .02 in too. I use the cortland loop on the end of the fly line, then a loop to loop leader to fly line, then a blood knot tippet to my leader. not saying it better than anyone elses, but I fish 90% subsurface and have no probs. it works for me. I also cheat and use the little tool/jig for tying blood knots and it works great. Joe

see you guys there Joe

Mike G, how have you been? havent talked to you in a while. hows the new place? Joe

rich, I can do a hex in about 10 minutes. its the golden stones that are very time consuming. I do them in stages, so the flex seal has time to dry. I tie the bodies, color them and seal them. I do 6-8 at a time and then start the second step on the first one over again. usually by then its dry enough to continue. the crawbug is a example of my "hybrid" flies. it is of my own design using ideas from other flies. you wont find it in any book. that is what I was talking about on johns thread. Joe

Here are a few flies I've tied. These are some hexes: This is a tandem hex wiggler: Another tandem hex wiggler: The next 5 are assorted sizes of hex flies: Here's my version of a golden stone fly. There a few wigglers in there too: This is one of my designs, I call it a Crawbug:

john, by now it is just about impossable to create a "new fly". what I like to do is combine different aspects of known flies and make a "hybrid". that has worked great for me. what you will eventually do is create your own "style" of tying. atleast thats what I've found. I spend probably 2 hours a day at the vise, it helps unwind me and occupies some time, not to mention keeping me out of trouble!! I really enjoy it alot. I'm on this new realistic kick. realistic but still fishable. I'm not one to put anything on display and not be able to use it. one of the neatest things I like is finding new materials and new ways of using them. that has helped my tying out alot. there are days when I'm done with a new creation it gets pitched right into the garbage, it just didnt work out. there will be alot of trial and error if you really get into tying unless you tie strictkly text book patterns. just try to keep it fun!! Joe

its really scary to think we are that close to loosing everything. Joe

everytime I watch these clip I am speechless, sickend to my stomack and just shocked. this is a real wake up call to everyone that our fisheries are this close to being COMPLETELY destroyed!! please, everyone watch these clips and be aware of what is about to happen!! Joe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS7zkTnQVaM&NR=1

its sad to see this disaster waiting to happen. I've seen many clips and one in particular on you tube by the head authority on these bigheads. they themselves recently learned just how big of a problem these fish are. mainly the numbers of them. they were "shocking" the fish, as they do for fish counts on gamefish. when they hit the juice you could not see through the bigheads!! they were on a stretch of the Ill river and seen 10's of thousands of bigheads. many of them were good size fish 10-15lbs plus. the big problem they present is that they are filter feeders. they eat what the smallest of baitfish eat. which means they take out the food chain at the very bottom. I dont remember exactly how much they eat a day, but it is a incredible amout by body wieght. I will find the clips and post them for everyone to see. Joe the next 2 posts below are part 1 and part 2 of the asian invasion. this is a must see about the problem at hand.

I'm for whatever will catch'em. I use berkley gulp worms unwieghted and kill the gills with them, and bass like them too. I dont worry about not being a purist at all, at the end of the day I just want to catch fish however I can. Joe

my biggest lm bass was 21" and it came in at 5lbs Joe

if I caught that smallie it would have been 10lbs its nowhere near 9, but it is a nice fish Joe

sounds like fun

what does this do differently than a regular tube jig??

and I almost forgot..........looking forward to meeting alot of the guys from this site at the shabbona swap meet. see you all there. Joe

thanks rich!! I wasnt sure if I could mention my website or not. so thanks for answering jeff's question. and thanks for all the kind words from everyone else. somehow some of my flies made their way to a guy named Matt Straw in Minnesota. he is the senior editor of IN-FISHERMAN magazine. he contacted me about featuring some of my flies in the IN-FISHERMAN magazine. of coarse I was more than happy to be a part of that!! I have talked to him a few times and while nothing yet is written in stone, he said he had a idea for a article that would feature my work. I am really looking forward to it. I remember as a kid being excited to get in fisherman and watch it on tv. growing up with it , it is like the bible of fishing to me. so to possibley be a part of it is mind boggling to me. Joe

I look deep into their eyes and hypnotize them