Thin or Fat

In this day and age everybody wants to be thin. Stay up late and I am sure you will find a host of infomercials trying to sell you something to thin you down. That's all fine and good if you need to get a pant size back but what if you're trying to attack the big meat eating monster of the river? A thin fly just doesn't have the same appeal.

I got on this thought of how to make flies fatter after several discussions on where to buy really shaggy copper colored chenille. Just didn't seem to be a source of extra large chenille out there. Small and medium were readily available but the fly I wanted needed to be fat. Plump. Chunky.

Wrapping the chenille over itself didn't seem to get the desired plumpness. It also proved to use a lot of material per fly. Then a trash fly idea erupted. My son had an art project from his preschool class that was made of flashy pipe cleaners. It looked like cactus chenille with a wire center. Next trip to his school I asked the teacher where she had got them under the pretense he really loved the project and wanted to make more at home. I was trying to keep the weirdness factor down as much as possible.

I have tried using the craft pipe cleaners on two patterns so far: the Tequeely and the Woolly Bugger. When tying a large woolly bugger chenille is not well suited to size. Below are the tying steps.

Hook: #6 Mustad 3x Streamer

Weight: White/pearl pipe cleaner and large brass cone

Tail: White Marabou

Hackle: White Saddle

Body: White/pearl pipe cleaner and pearl large chenille

The advantages of using the pipe cleaners for the under body are simple. The fiber is stiff enough to support the cactus chenille. It comes in colors that accent the patterns I tie. A copper bodied fly works with a gold pipe cleaner.

Hook: #6 Mustad Nymph Hook

Weight: Gold pipe cleaner and large brass cone

Legs: Yellow Silly Legs

Body: Gold pipe cleaner and copper large chenille

Plump up with pride and keep an eye on kids craft and art projects.

Dustin's Fly Box: A trip to Dollar Tree netted a great find

Great article on Dustin's Fly Box. Give it a read.

Dustin's Fly Box: A trip to Dollar Tree netted a great find: "I am always on the lookout for a great deal on materials that I can tie flies with. I went to dollar tree to get a present bag for a friends..."

Crayfish

We had a little time after lunch and the rest of the organization was agreeable to some nature and outdoor. I have done well in that regard for sure. A brief run down of options and such we jumped line into Tn and looked for smallies.

Still on the crayfish experimenting kick decided to just fish what I had yesterday morning on the FB. Even better it was rigged and ready. Caught mostly dinks with this as the exception. Good day in the world

Da River and Spring

I had about very short window to fish today. Mr Mom duty most of the afternoon so I went as close as I could and still maybe have a shot at some fish. The river has been really up for a several weeks and finally started back towards a normal flow. I was hopping for a smallie or more or less what ever would eat a fly

Saw lots of caddis fluttering but nothing was obviously keying on them.

Tried a few things with little success. Remember a TV show out of Canada where they were vertical streamer fishing for smallmouth bass. Decide to see how that went. No smallie but the yellow breast sunfish seem to fancy it.





Now I know we as human beings these days like to mark the calendar to springs start or use 'ole timey signs' of flowers and leave sizes. Me personally Spring is near when you start catching the bluegill and yellow breasts from the river

Finally Got To Fish All Day

I haven't been fishing a lot beyond quick trips to close water. That's when the snow allowed it. Well today was planned to fish and fish as long as I wanted Took off early to a stream a couple of counties over. Got there nobody was fishing Took me a little while to figure them out the stream had apparently been blown out a few days before. After a couple of fly switch ups I dialed it in better. The race was on. They were not podded up but scattered all over the stream. I fished till I was truly exhausted and smiling. Good day to despite the higher water level and bouts of strong breeze. Just a swangin

A few sample of better fish of the day.

_________________
Brad_S

Earth Quake and Tsunami

Lets keep those in the path of the disaster in our thoughts and prayers.

Nor Vise Dubbing Brush Table DIY

Several folks have been talking about ways to make dubbing brushes. All this got me thinking about it again. Looked at Norman's table he sells to go with the vise. I wasn't sure I liked $50 per. Did a set of drawing and some bartering with the machine shop teacher. Came out with this.



Opinions please.

DIY Rubber Legs (Small, Medium, and ?)

The old reliable Bungee Cord has been a source of small and medium rubber legs for many since the first time we saw one broken apart. Depending on the age of the cord they are reliably tough. In a recent trip to the hardware though I came across something I hadn't noticed. Bungee Cord material sold by the foot on a spool. It cost about .75 cent per foot. I got a foot just out of sheer curiosity.

When I got it back to the bench and sliced the fabric coating off with a razor knife something different was there. The rubber strands were still attached to each other in a sheet of sort. The sheets were the ever present strands just still joined. Probably from not being stretched.

It occurred to me that with them together that they could be colored easily. So I made some of my favorite patterns on the pieces. After the coloring was complete I pulled them apart. As seen in the photograph they turned out really well.

The strands are slightly bigger in this cord than medium in the purchased legs but not what I would term as large. Large I'm still not sure exists in the realm of manufactured legs. Which calls the size scale they use into some sort of question.

I used Sharpies for this experiment. Also remembers razor knives are extremely sharp.

Calling All Tiers......

I would like to share this message I got today. "Hey everyone! I'm in the middle of putting our show (South Holston Fly Fishing Fest, a benefit for River's Way) together for this summer and looking for some tiers that would like to set up shop, meet other tiers, and just have fun showing the paying guests some tricks. We have dozens more spots this year as we've grown quite a bit from the last two years. Anyone wanting to tie just for kicks would not need to pay for a booth, but if you're wanting to sell flies/market yourself the price would be $100 for a booth. Date is Sat, Aug 13, and the event is in Bristol. Kelly Galloup, Joe Humphreys, and Beau Beasley will be the headliners. Email me or call if you're ineterested: knox@riversway.org"

The Fiberglass Manifesto: The Tie-One-On-Athon Event

The Fiberglass Manifesto: The Tie-One-On-Athon Event: "This past Sunday I took the afternoon and spent it at the Tie-One-On-Athon which was put organized by the soon coming digital magazine South..."