Graham's Cracker

My friend Graham showed me this fly a few years ago. He swears by it and uses it everywhere from Lake Ontario tributaries to high mountain streams in California.

It's simple to tie. I wrap chartruese thread on the hook then wrap micro tubing over the top. Use a little white egg yarn for the viel and finish off the head. Graham likes to use Christmas tree tinsle for an underbody and chartruese tubing.

Tie them up now because it's that time of year and the brown trout from the lake will be hungry for some Graham Crackers!

The GFP Bobbin Hook

A simple paper clip twisted around your bobbin and you've got yourself a virtually free bobbin hook similar to Mitch's Bobbin Whirler and allows you to make dubbing loops without the need for a second tool.

Here's a shot of the hook in action, on a test hook, but you can see how right at the bobbin tip the hook has the dubbing loop and it's all set and ready to wrap around the hook.

The few minutes it takes you to make this is worth it since you'll never be searching for your dubbing twister or having your bobbin get in the way while spinning it up!

UPDATE: Here's a short video of it in action.

Jim's Travel Fly Tying Box

A few weeks ago when I was tying at the FFAA show in Utica I was able to check out this sweet box made by my friend Jim.

It fit's together into a nice portable box, but opens up to find a vise and materials. Jim says that it's very handy to take on the road for business or fishing trips. He's known for running back to the truck then coming back to the water with a fresh tied fly.

All Closed Up

Opened

Setup

Foam Bass Popper

I've always thought that foam should be able to make a good popper. Sure, I've thought about how to form it into a popper, but to date, I have never done it.

However I did find a nice video on how to do it. Thankfully he sped up the playback so it's only 6 minutes instead of probably 30.

Punk Rocker

Over the weekend I found a few minutes to try something I've wanted to try for years....stacking deer hair. I've seen flies with stacked deer hair before and always loved the way they looked, but I've never tried it. I tried spinning deer hair once before, and didn't do too well and never tried it again. Recently I've been following the work of Pat Cohen on http://gotbronze.blogspot.com and been extremely impressed. He ties a pattern called a Punk Rocker which combines two of my favorite things....deer hair and mohawks. I've tied a fly or two in the past with mohawk, but never did they turn out even half as cool as his flies. So, last night with a little bit of time (trying to avoid the Miss America Pageant that my wife and mother were watching in the other room) I sat down and tried to tie up a punk rocker...or at least my version of one.

I learned a few things from doing this. No matter how many ties I thought I was almost done, I wasn't. Once I used the hair packer and pushed the hair back I found plenty of bare hook ready and waiting to be covered. I need to use a bit more hair each time. Pat has a video about another one of his deer hair flies, and shows that he uses about 3 pencil sized clumps for top and bottom of each section. I'm pretty sure that's why it seemed like I needed more and more. I also learned that shaving this thing down to size/shape is pretty hard to do. I am now even more amazed how well Pat's look. Shaping is something I definitely need to work on.

Here's a picture of what I was trying to do:

If you are interested in trying these type of flies, I suggest checking out his video he posted a few weeks ago, it has a lot of good info on how to stack hair. I just watched a few minutes of it and picked up a few hints I wish I had remembered while tying the fly above.

Here's a link to the video. It's 30+ minutes, so grab something to drink and sit back and enjoy!

http://gotbronze.blogspot.com/2011/01/1-3-11-hot-butt-toad-tutorial.html


Keep up with his work on his blog at http://gotbronze.blogspot.com

UNI Products - Axxel

UNI has sponsored GFP for 3 years now, and some of you have won some of their great products. While going through the advertisements they sent along with this years prizes, I noticed a product I didn't realize they had. It's worth mentioning because I think it's a one of a kind type of product.

UNI AXXEL

It's called Axxel and here is the press release description of the product:

UNI-Products, a world leader in the supply of spooled fly-tying materials, announces the addition of five fresh colors—brown, yellow, rainbow black, pink, and light blue—to their very popular Axxel Ty-Rap product. Axxel 8" Ty-Rap is one narrow strand of flash material supported by two nylon micro-filaments for strength. It is packaged in bundles of 8" lengths.

A combo package with packages of all seventeen colors is available.

Fly-tiers are continuously finding new uses for Axxel flash material. For example, to add sparkle, Axxel can be wound with other body materials or added to a standard wing. It makes excellent ribbing material; tough and adds a more subtle flash than regular tinsels. For example, when used as a rib with ordinary chenille it creates an effect similar to crystal chenille. Also, it makes interesting tinsel bodies featuring the variegated or broken-up pattern so often found in the natural world.

It sounds like a reinforced flash material. This could make it great for flies where the flash is used as a rib or some other part of the fly that might typically get broken and ruin the look of the fly.

Click the images below for a larger version of Axxel and some other products they have.

Once again this year, we have quite a few spools of various UNI materials that we will be part of the prizes for the night. See you next month!

Check out UNI online here!

The Zug Bug

So, twice now in the last week I've been thinking about the Zug Bug, and I gotta ask...where did the zug bug go?  I know it's not a new pattern, it's not a fancy, pattern, and it's not tied out of illegal dingo.....but where did it go. You just don't see many people talking about it much any more.

When I started tying...probably 15 or so years ago, the zug bug was one of the first I tied. I fished it often but don't recall if it caught anything. It's a great looking bug, and I think I'm going to tie some up this winter and give them a place again in the fly box!

Welcome back Zuggy!

Midge Man's Midges

My recent trip to a local spring creek got me interested in midges again and while cruising around the internet I found a great site by a guy who goes by Midge Man. His website Poudre Canyon Chronicles has pages worth of midge patterns. I especially liked the box he recently filled....in "a week's" time. That box would take me months to fill with the way too infrequent time I get at the vise.

So if you're looking for some midge inspiration have a look at his site.
LINK

Tying the MOAESL

So I thought I'd share a few approaches to tying a MOAESL/String Leech, but every attempt to get these things to load is failing.

I've been able to get this video to show and play ocasionally, but not consistently, and when I tried to load the slideshow of another way, it is out of order. So, click the links to see if you do any better.

http://www.hatches.tv/play.php?vid=128

String Leech slide show

Travel Trash

Here's a tip from my fishing friend. He took an Eclipse Gum Big Pack container and turned it into a travel trash can for tying!

Power Dubbing Twister

Here's some photos from a friends powered dubbing twister. The black board is just the base. The light wood has a groove in it where you lay down a piece of wire, cover with dubbing, then cover with the rest of the wire. Once he hits the button it spins up the material into a dubbing loop in about 2 seconds. This is a great way to premake dubbing brushes quickly.

Bobbin Tip Replacement

Let's say, hypothetically of course, that your 2 year old son grabs your bobbin and somehow, using the power of saliva, removes the ceramic tip. Don't toss it out just because it now cuts thread, but replace the tip with a bead.

Click here to see the full step by step!

Trout's Eye View(tm) Fly Tying Mirror

I saw it first at Moldy Chum (so go check them out). But check out www.troutseyeview.com for the real deal!

A little mirror setup to let you see how your fly looks upside down and wet. I think this is pretty cool!

DJ Roughfisher Mixes the Dub

USCarpPro has an article by Roughfisher that talks about making your own dubbing. Anyone who loves paying too much for dubbing should visit oprah.com instead. All others who don't mind mixing their own blends should start at page 88.


LINK

Tubes for Bass

Eumer Pro Fishing Accessories shows a great way to mix and match poppers with tails. I've wanted to try this for a while, but haven't done it yet. I've often wondered if there was a good way to rig them so if you got snagged you could break off the hook and not lose the popper head. This would allow for less crying like a girl when a nice popper head was lost to a tree.

LINK to Eumer

The GFP Bobbin Hook Video

If you haven't seen how I made the GFP Bobbin Hook, take a look at this link.

Here's a short video of it in action. Nothing fancy, but hopefully shows how having a dubbing loop hook on the bobbin can make it easier to twirl than having 2 tools in the way.

An Egg or an Omelette?

Deneki Outdoors post Get It Down! got me thinking....should we offer fish an egg or an omelette?

I've tied plenty of single egg flies, and some cluster eggs, but after seeing the picture they shared I've been trying to think how I could tie up a carton of eggs fly.

Either way, I'm thinking I should tie some eggs up tonight!

Legged Gurgler

I had this idea to thread some rubber legs through some foam. So last night I tied up this legged gurgler variant.

Of course, there are some variations to the original gurgler pattern, but that's what tying's all about.  When tying this, I did use supper glue at both points where the foam is wrapped. Fishing this pattern this summer I found that the foam likes to rotate around the hook. Hopefully the super glue will help keep it in place....hopefully.

The rubber legs did exactly what I expected....pointed straight down. I want to figure out a way to get them to stick out to the side a bit more. But, for now, having tried this idea out, it's got the brain working on other ideas! 

Here's a cool step by step of how to tie a more traditional gurgler.

http://www.danblanton.com/hotflyLeeGurglerinst.html

RITE Half-Hitch MAG Bobbin

At the IFTD show a few weeks ago Rite introduced a new bobbin with a tapered thread tube. Check out the video for the tricks it can do.