More tying crap

[Stan Gula]

Water's too cold (and most of it too hard) for fishing, so my tying buddies
and I went to the FFU show in Danbury today to prepare for the flytying
cabin fever season. I was mainly looking for ideas for a fly to tie for the
GFS, and was thinking mainly along the lines of a new variation on the olive
damselfly nymph theme, and I ran into that ******* Tom Littleton (and the
Handyman, but it's Tom that screwed my budget and sanity). I have now
acquired two packets of dyed peccary quills (sold by Allan Podell, a former
denizen of this rathole). Tom of course had way more... So now I'm
thinking about quill bodied snowshoe duns (or something) so I can practice
with these quills. These things look really nice - good colors,
variegation, tough as nails. Of course I also bought an olive Brahma hen
pelt so I have stuff for the damsels... Crap. All of it crap. Nice crap
though.

--
Stan Gula
http://gula.org/roffswaps

[walt winter]

Stan Gula wrote:
> Water's too cold (and most of it too hard) for fishing, so my tying buddies
> and I went to the FFU show in Danbury today to prepare for the flytying
> cabin fever season. I was mainly looking for ideas for a fly to tie for the
> GFS, and was thinking mainly along the lines of a new variation on the olive
> damselfly nymph theme, and I ran into that ******* Tom Littleton (and the
> Handyman, but it's Tom that screwed my budget and sanity). I have now
> acquired two packets of dyed peccary quills (sold by Allan Podell, a former
> denizen of this rathole). Tom of course had way more... So now I'm
> thinking about quill bodied snowshoe duns (or something) so I can practice
> with these quills. These things look really nice - good colors,
> variegation, tough as nails. Of course I also bought an olive Brahma hen
> pelt so I have stuff for the damsels... Crap. All of it crap. Nice crap
> though.
>

awesome!

wally

[Big Dale]

Stan wrote:snip>Water's too cold (and most of it too hard) for fishing, so my
tying buddies
>and I went to the FFU show in Danbury today to prepare for the flytying
>cabin fever season.

Did my old friend (formerly of Iowa) Mike Hogue of Badger Creek Fly Tying make
the show. I think he has a table there most years and has a lot of unusual fly
tying materials at reasonable prices. If you ever get a chance to go to one of
his programs he does a good job on his warmwater program and I would love to
see his program on fishing the Finger Lakes Area.His web
site(Http://WWW.eflytier.com) is one of the best around and has some cool
patterns on the site. I am just a happy customer and have enjoyed visiting with
Mike at various conclaves for about a decade now.

Big Dale

[Tom Littleton]

Dale asks:
>Did my old friend (formerly of Iowa) Mike Hogue of Badger Creek Fly Tying
>make
>the show.

yup, a good sized display as well. I ran into that crew at Somerset in November
and bought a few items at that time.
Tom

[Tom Littleton]

Stan notes:
>I ran into that ******* Tom Littleton

indeed....It was a joy to run into you, Jim, Handy-Mike(and wife Cathy) and
about a dozen or so other tying types from around the country, so I got my
money's worth.
Best bargain I rustled up was a signed
(by Winnie, Mary and Eric Leiser) copy of Leiser's book on the Dettes, for 25
bucks.
Fly swap participants will probably see something with the quills for a body
out of me, as well. I am currently thinking of smallish Red Quills, but could
easily change my mind a few times.
Tom

[Stan Gula]

"Big Dale" > wrote in message
...
> Did my old friend (formerly of Iowa) Mike Hogue of Badger Creek Fly Tying
make
> the show. I think he has a table there most years and has a lot of unusual
fly
> tying materials at reasonable prices. If you ever get a chance to go to
one of
> his programs he does a good job on his warmwater program and I would love
to
> see his program on fishing the Finger Lakes Area.His web
> site(Http://WWW.eflytier.com) is one of the best around and has some cool
> patterns on the site. I am just a happy customer and have enjoyed visiting
with
> Mike at various conclaves for about a decade now.
>
> Big Dale

I don't recall seeing Mike but I note that Tom did. There's not much
warmwater focus up here - some trout, and a lot of satlwater. I *did* find
a guy who was selling Gurgler earrings. The guy didn't know they were
Gurglers - he called them 'shrimp' (a lot of them were pink but he had my
favorite frog green too).
--
Stan Gula
http://gula.org/roffswaps

[Stan Gula]

"Tom Littleton" > wrote in message
...
> Stan notes:
> >I ran into that ******* Tom Littleton
>
> indeed....It was a joy to run into you, Jim, Handy-Mike(and wife Cathy)
and
> about a dozen or so other tying types from around the country, so I got my
> money's worth.
> Best bargain I rustled up was a signed
> (by Winnie, Mary and Eric Leiser) copy of Leiser's book on the Dettes, for
25
> bucks.
> Fly swap participants will probably see something with the quills for a
body
> out of me, as well. I am currently thinking of smallish Red Quills, but
could
> easily change my mind a few times.
> Tom

I tied up a couple of test flies last night and those quills look really
good. I don't think I got enough... The soft hackle damsel nymph also came
out really nice.

[Tom Littleton]

Stan writes:
> I *did* find
>a guy who was selling Gurgler earrings. The guy didn't know they were
>Gurglers - he called them 'shrimp' (a lot of them were pink but he had my
>favorite frog green too).

didn't they clash with your sweater?
Accessorizing is a bitch!
Tom

[vincent p. norris]

>I tie quite a few quill bodied flies. I think they look good and catch
>fish. However, stripping quills and dying them is a PITA. ....

My daughter glommed onto hair from the manes of several horses of
different colors. Makes nicely segmented bodies on small flies.

By wrapping a black and a white hair together, you get a great
zebra-type body.

vince

[Willi]

Tom Littleton wrote:
> Stan notes:
>
>>I ran into that ******* Tom Littleton
>
>
> indeed....It was a joy to run into you, Jim, Handy-Mike(and wife Cathy) and
> about a dozen or so other tying types from around the country, so I got my
> money's worth.
> Best bargain I rustled up was a signed
> (by Winnie, Mary and Eric Leiser) copy of Leiser's book on the Dettes, for 25
> bucks.
> Fly swap participants will probably see something with the quills for a body
> out of me, as well. I am currently thinking of smallish Red Quills, but could
> easily change my mind a few times.
> Tom


I tie quite a few quill bodied flies. I think they look good and catch
fish. However, stripping quills and dying them is a PITA. Bruce has
turned me onto thread bodies with some of his midge patterns. I find
they work great on flies up to and including a sixteen. Sewing thread is
used and it's important to unwind the thread to get an even tapered body
and then tightly wind it to get a segmented body. I little different
look than a quill, but it produces a well segmented, good looking body.

Willi

[Stan Gula]

"Willi" > wrote in message
...
> I tie quite a few quill bodied flies. I think they look good and catch
> fish. However, stripping quills and dying them is a PITA. Bruce has
> turned me onto thread bodies with some of his midge patterns. I find
> they work great on flies up to and including a sixteen. Sewing thread is
> used and it's important to unwind the thread to get an even tapered body
> and then tightly wind it to get a segmented body. I little different
> look than a quill, but it produces a well segmented, good looking body.
>
> Willi
>
>
>

Ditto - I like quill bodied flies, but have not done a lot lately (one
exception: H&L variants - semi stripped peacock quills - they just look and
work great) because I hate stripping them and hate the cost of packaged
stripped quills (and the fragility). I have some beautiful 'hendrickson
pink' sewing thread I have used for nice looking light Hendricksons (an
important Spring fly up here). You would like these dyed peccary quills...
A bit pricy, but not more than stripped feather quills, and a lot more
durable. Tom, can I repost the photos you sent me to ABPF?
--
Stan Gula
http://gula.org/roffswaps

[Larry]

> I tie quite a few quill bodied flies. I think they look good and catch
> fish. However, stripping quills and dying them is a PITA. Bruce has
> turned me onto thread bodies with some of his midge patterns. I find
> they work great on flies up to and including a sixteen. Sewing thread is
> used and it's important to unwind the thread to get an even tapered body
> and then tightly wind it to get a segmented body. I little different
> look than a quill, but it produces a well segmented, good looking body.

I've done some work with a nylon mono underbody (that represents
ribbing) and then a nylon thread (similar to the old NYMO) as the body
material then placed a drop of acetone on it to "melt" the thread which
results in a pretty good quill body substitute.

Larry

[Tom Littleton]

Willi writes:
>Bruce has
>turned me onto thread bodies with some of his midge patterns. I find
>they work great on flies up to and including a sixteen. Sewing thread is
>used and it's important to unwind the thread to get an even tapered body
>and then tightly wind it

very good option for smaller mayflies....I use a similar technique for small
olives and tricos. As you know, we have quite a few species out here that go
from size 8 down to 14 for which I need larger segmented bodies. I have, at
various times, used stripped quills(PITA, expensive to buy), turkey
biot(alright, but sometimes fragile,sometimes too translucent) and stripped
dyed peacock(very fragile to tie with). One of the major reasons I have done so
much experimenting is the need for a segmented body that retains bright colors
when in actual use(ie wet or greased). These things I am trying seem useful,
will report back on the trout's opinions.
Tom

[Tom Littleton]

repost away, Stan
>Tom, can I repost the photos you sent me to ABPF?

Tom

[Stan Gula]

"Willi" > wrote in message
...
> I tie quite a few quill bodied flies<etc>

I posted a picture of one of my test flies to ABPF and also at
http://gula.org/quill.jpg

Tom's are there too at http://gula.org/newquill.jpg

I messed up the hackle on that one due to running the quill all the way to
the eye. I had a gap where I went past the wing and it twisted the hackle.
For Tom: this is the dark stemmed natural dun hackles I got. Natural
mallard flank wing. The same thing with traditional dubbed body is what
worked for me at Uncle Tom's last May.

[Kevin Vang]

In article >,
says...
>
> I tie quite a few quill bodied flies. I think they look good and catch
> fish. However, stripping quills and dying them is a PITA.

Moose mane works pretty good for quill bodies too. I don't know
if anybody sells it in different colors, so you still have the
dying PITA.

> Bruce has
> turned me onto thread bodies with some of his midge patterns.

I use thread bodies on all my small mayflies. I think the
body is probably the least important part of a dry fly.

Kevin

[Tom Littleton]

Kevin Vang writes:
>I think the
>body is probably the least important part of a dry fly.

if said dry fly body ever touches the water, I could not disagree more. The
shape, texture and to a lesser degree the color of the body are critical, to my
mind. Fish have, over the years, shown me that they laugh at dry fly bodies
which are too fat, don't show segmentation, and in some cases they ignore color
variance from the naturals.
Tom
p.s above comments refer to what may be
called selective fish in clear, relatively
smooth water. Body shape and size
seem to be most important in faster,
choppy water, but sometimes merely
placing nearly anything in the right spot
will work.