How to put on a fish skin or foam head

This is always the hardest step. Deciding where the head should go. You want it to look good, but you must remember to keep as much gap as possible in order to get hook-ups. This is easiest by simply moving the head around until you like the looks.

Then roll the film back far enough to put a dab of glue on the fly head.

Then hold down the fish skin while it dries. Using two fingers helps the head to be concave over the fly head. This will make the two halves meet up better in the middle.

The worst thing about these heads is that they take time. Go slow, use a little super glue and do the head in pieces. Once you have done a few, the process will be easier.

PLEASE try not to glue your fingers together. Use a clothes hanger or something else to hold the two halves together.

Fish skin heads

Fish skin is one of my fav new materials for heads. I shines and looks nice and stamps out really cleanly in my pic punch. I will post some finished flies maybe later tonight.

Got Pike flies?

Long 1/4 wig tinsel for flies

These are about 8 bucks each. Will probably do 100 flies each.

Indianapolis on the fly show Jan. 7

Just found out I will be tying on the main stage on January 7. Pretty cool. I think I will tie one of my big orange foam head flies.

Another batch of flies in process

New foam head flies

Tying at local fly fishing shows

Here's a list of my show plans so far.

Indianapolis on the Fly on January 7

Chicago Musky show on Jan 14

Madison Fly tiers on February 11

Hawkey Fly Fisherman on Feb 18/19

Great Waters Fly fishing Expo March 24/25

Show diaplay is getting ready

Got my rack full and am now just working on having extra flies to put on it when they are sold. First show is January 7 in Indianapolis.

Orange foam head flies

Turned out a couple new flies with foam this morning. For these i used LOCO foam which has a silvery sheen to it. It has a more reflective surface than the other standard foam. The eyes are 1/2 inch in size.

Poppers

Got a score of poppers on the drying rack.

Xmas already....

This will probably keep me busy till xmas, then have to order again.

Foam heads

Tied some flies with foam cut heads, bottom is best placed head on fly.

Foam head cutter

This is actually a guitar pick maker from Thinkgeek.com, but it cuts sweet 1" foam heads. These are from 1 mm foam sheets. These will speed up head making allot. It takes about a second to punch two sides. Just glue them over the fly and done. I will tie up a few shortly and post them.

New stickers

Send be an address if you want one.

Question:

Why is it that every time I vacuum it looks like a herd of My Little Ponies went through a tree shredder?

Gizzard shad flies

Been playing with some new shad flies shaped a little different from my normal minnows. I definantly like the straighter back and deeper bellow. Will have to try some normal half and half colors to see how they look.

Haven't figured out a good way to represent the black dot behind the head yet.

New fly display for upcoming shows.

Indiana on the Fly show

Stop by and see me if your in the area.

Fly Storage

Everyone has there own way to store their flies. I throw large 10+ inch flies that are tall, long and thin like a real minnow. Very few boxes are large enough to hold them. None of which will even fit in my chest pack. I sell the flies in these neat little plastic sleeves, which cost around .08 each. I also carry them on the water in these as well. The flies come out of the bag in the nice flat way they should be fished. Most flies out of boxes tend to get squished and bent. I can also put 30-40 flies in the area of a VHS box or the average medium fly box. Another advantage is no extra weight, nor stiffness to the chest pack from the box. I have also found these bags to work nicely in carrying 3 size 6-7 ring cigars. Bonus!

Line control on the pontoon

Often in a float trip I make forays to the bank and then back into the pontoon. I bring a shooting basket with me and lay it on the left side of the pontoon, between the rod holders. If I make a stop I simply carry the basket with me and lay it on the bank to start fishing. The line is already out and fed into the basket and ready to shoot. Before getting back in to the pontoon I shoot the line and strip it back into the basket. I carry the basket back to the pontoon. It is now ready to shoot once I get headed back down the river again. This saves lots of time in preparing the line when movong from the bank to the pontoon.

Fall salmon fishing

I caught 3 chinook and had a few good runs but no pics of them.

Cigar boxes

New cigar box from cao, sopranos edition. Coated wood outside with pleather inside.

Pontoon fishing

This is how I spend most of my floats in the pontoon. The higher vantage point gives me more movement and more visibility of the water. I put the line on the seat in front of me as a stripping basket.

Cigars

Heading up north to swing some flies next week so I picked up a few cigars. My friends went thus weekend and are hiting browns and cohos.

Fall leaves and crap on the bottom

The local rivers i fish are covered on the bottom with leaves and jet-some this time of the year, but I fish mostly a full sinking line. In order to combat this I usually throw my flies with a 1mm foam head. I run about a foot and a half of leader and then the fly. The water is only 5 feet or less so the line normally drags by the bottom. The fly floats up a little and generally keeps it out of the bottom layer of crap.

Smoke 'em if they are Cohiba's.

reverse tying

This is what I call reverse tying in order to keep the heads stacked neatly layered instead of them wrapping around the hook. By wrapping towards the back of the hook, you are holding the material in a tight clump the whole time as you tie it down.
This is with the thread on the outside ready for the next layer.

I tie in the tip of the clump of material and then wrap to the back of the hook, instead of forward like normal.

Continue wrapping until you have secured it towards the back, then wrap back to the front in preparation of the next clump. You should try to only have one layer of thread in each direction.

This style makes the head tall and skinny instead of roundish. Once eyes are added it will be round and not a large oval.

Bloody sardines

Mess of sardines tied with custom one batch of dyed yak. New supplier of yak was trying to get me an orange I liked.

Aluminum pliers

So I have wanted a pair of these for a while but been unwilling to spend $100, these were $30 on ebay. they have passed my quality concerns. The only issue is they don't fit my chest pack as nice as I wanted.

Saterday fishing

Order of "mini's"

This order of mini's is on the way to Chicago tomorrow. I call them mini's becaude they are 1/2 the size of a normal fly.

Casting vs Shooting Line

Throwing a large fly should generally use the term of shooting not casting. Here is my take,

Casting: throwing a long line with multiple false casts.

Shooting: throwing for distance with normally only one or two false casts.

Every time you false cast, you use the body strength of a cast; keeping the false casts down to a minimum means more fishing before you get tired. Shooting a longer line means you can fish more water with less casting. More line on the water is more time between shooting and allows your body to rest more. All these things add up to a less tiring day on the water. As we get tired our casting/shooting falls apart and I find I get more frustrated with timing and distance issues in my shooting.

I run a ten weight pike taper on my 8 weight Axiom/TiCR x. I only shoot so it doesn’t over weight my rod. I could never cast this large of a line. The larger belly allows me to throw 10 inch or bigger flies 70+ feet with one false cast all day long.

Here is the process. Lift the fly off the water with close to half the belly still out of the rod. Make a large haul like you are throwing a backwards cast and use the water to load the rod. I lay the rod against my forearm to help create an anchor point. On the back-cast you should be feeding line. This will normally feed enough line to clear the belly through the guides. Now the forward cast has a full belly to shoot properly.

Since the line is a ten weight it also has a larger mass to over compensate for the larger fly. You really do not feel the larger fly on the line as much as you do with an 8/9 line. This helps to make the rod feel better in the loading and casting as well.

Sunday fishing

Nice warm day in October, almost 80. Very windy but a good float. Saw lots a wildlife for as late in the year as it is. A few smallies and only one little pike.