A bit of fly tyers humor ..

I was in a giddy mood last night at the bench while tying a few spring flies and this creature emerged ....

The ultimate fly to deal with 'short takes'! Lol! 

But on a serious note, I tie my bugs with a hackle that starts at the head and wraps back to the tail for 2 reasons... The first and most important is durability ... Putting it on this way allows for 2 full wraps of thread over the feather versus 1 or sometimes NONE with the tail to head method.. Simply put, the way I use makes a more durable fly and that can't be debated. The second reason is  because I prefer the look which is obviously subjective.. Each tyer will prefer one look over the other, I doubt either way makes a difference to the fish, just remember MY way makes a more durable fly =D 

A couple examples:

A 'Wulff Den' style buck bug...

I'm just sitting here, waiting for vimeo to finish processing my first attempt at a fly tying video.. It's shaky, the camera is in and out of focus periodically but all in all, it's watchable and you'll get to see the deerhair madness that consumes me... Oh and this thing is just about to roll over on 20k hits - that's kinda cool. Lots of porn search engines have found this place but a few real people as well so thanks, real people! Anyhow, here's the fly from the video, i'll link it as soon as vimeo's done doing whatever it's doing.

 

EDIT:: VIMEO IS DONE!

A "Wulff Den" style buck bug.. from Salmo Salar on Vimeo.

  

 

 

 

 

 

Northumberland Salmon Protection Association dinner Feb 11th/2014

Just a quick post about the upcoming Northumberland Salmon Protection Association fundraising dinnner on Feb 11th at the Rodd Miramichi. If anyone has an interest in making a charitable donation of flies just let me know and I'll zap you my mailing address. Thanks to everyone who has already signed up to support this event either from NSFLYGUY or Facebook.

Lastly, this place will start picking up soon, I promise!

The 'Melissa' bug :)

I had a bunch of really great hooks show up in the mail this week, got a sweet deal on a bunch of nice strong salmon hooks and i'll definitely be buying more in other sizes at my next opportunity.

It's no secret that I love to tie and fish bugs, probably a little too much by times and when I get a new batch of hooks I always have to spin a bit of deerhair just to see what they'll be like to tie on. This all brings me to this bug, the 'Melissa' or 'Honey Bee':

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa

I tied this for my daughter, Melissa, and she liked it! She prefers the brown one most and I have to agree. I'll be doing some dry fly/bomber style bees soon as some lad from Nfld. told me they're effective -- I guess we'll see!

Bugs for the 12th Annual ASF Autumn Run Dinner - Oct 29th Saint John, N.B.

I finished getting a box of flies ready for the 12th Annual Autumn Run Dinner, today. As usual it's a box of bugs with a hairwing thrown in for good measure. The hairwing is a "Black 'n Purple" which is a pattern by Jens Slettvoll. I really like it and plan to fish it in the 2014 season. It reminds me of the Bob Baker pattern Purple Shadow which I've had great luck on in the past.

If you happen to attend the dinner, please bid these up during the silent auction!

HookBill's Hookbill ... er, yeah that's right!

The very first thing I have to say about this entry is thanks a million to Gordie Richard, a kind gent we ran into while fishing the Cains last Thursday. Gordie was kind enough to shoot the following pics and then take the time to send them to me! Thanks again for documenting Bill's epic fish - we owe you at least a soda or two sometime.

The story of this beautiful Hookbill, not to be confused with HookBill goes something like this....

Last Thursday after bidding our good friend GT farewell and safe travels, Bill and I decided to hit the Cains which would put us closer to the Den for when Dad and Joe were to arrive later that afternoon. Brad went with Paul and John and had a great day on the NW. Our plans were to do a micro, blast 'n cast - hunt on the way to and from the pool - a decent plan that has served us well in the past. Before I go getting ahead of myself, I have to add that a couple fly ideas came to me while I while I was trying to get to sleep the night before and going back to the Den would allow me to get on the vise and get these ideas out of my head. Before leaving Paul's place, Bill joked that he needed a 'fresh' fly for the Cains so I decided that he should be the one to beta test this big old shrimpy pattern. Keeping with tradition, Bill named this fly after it was christened by a fish, and the "Kains Kraken" was born :)
(I dig alliteration - hence the 'K' in Cains)

Here's the fly:
(haha! kidding!)

Enough of the rambling -- here's the money:

Bill hooked up:

The tug of war:

Getting ready to tail:



Sneakin' up behind the brute:

Here comes the grab!

Incredibly powerful fish!

I'll just tell everyone this was my fish! Muahaha!

Back in the water, big fella...

Bill going to work on the big guy while submerged - the fish, not Bill:

Getting ready to fumble a handoff --- it's kind of a fall tradition we have :)

Bill just said "jeezus, it's like petting a dolphin!"

One last pic in case he slips:

About 5 seconds after this pic, he was free after a botched handoff attempt -- he tore off like he was shot from a gun! He was fought and landed fast and held under water for all of about 5 seconds total to snap a couple pics. Thanks for the good times, Hookbill and er HookBill!