Mike62 - I posted a tutorial showing how to switch the retrieve on a Pfluger reel. Not sure if it will work on yours, but it might be worth looking at the tutorial to see if the internal geometry is similar. LINK TO TUTORIAL ---> https://flymphforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=7632 I already check...

I still have my very first reel. It is an all aluminum LLBean real that makes a god awful clacking that spooks every fish within 50 feet but is good for keeping away the bears in Yellowstone area. I think it was made by Hardy. I still have my first fly reel, a Bronson Royalist 370. My grandfather g...

SenecaLaker wrote: ↑Thu Jan 03, 2019 3:18 pm That would be nice, thinking Osage Orange would be pretty also. I have a piece from a broken long bow around here somewhere. I'll have to find it.

Osage orange leads me to Black Locust. I've got two pieces of birdseye maple that have been earmarked for blocks; I guess I should get to it...

I think they're great looking flies.

You could also wash the feathers using Woolite in a tub and swishing them around so that they remarry. Don't know how well this would work on dyed feathers but it works wonders on Golden Pheasat tails. The best pheasant feathers I ever got came from a hunter friend of mine who only hunts wild birds...

That's a beautifully tied fly. Not sure how I'd fish it but I could look at it all day. I've never heard of shoo fly pie, I had to look that one up. We're more of a poutine and ployes crowd up here; we eat a lot of warm biscuits slathered in molasses.

letumgo wrote: ↑Sun Dec 16, 2018 7:27 am Beautiful pattern and excellent conversion. It looks like an effective searching pattern.

Your tinsel work is impeccable, by the way.

It certainly is. I like this version better than the original, too.

...I keep looking at the tinsel work. Beautiful.

A little more Tup's trivia... It's often described as a "dusty yellow", and I'm told that rendering it " thoroughly washed and cleansed of the natural oil " is not a pleasant task. A lot of things we do as farmers would seem genuinely unpleasant to a lot of people, and maybe the...

Mike I collect sap, maybe the size of a big marble. Then put it in a baby food jar and melt over very low heat - pick out the bits of bark, etc. Add just enough alcohol to turn from a solid to tacky paste: the consistency of cold bacon grease is just about right. Footnote- my tying wax is 40% of th...

redietz wrote: ↑Mon Dec 03, 2018 3:26 am

Bazzer69 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 03, 2018 12:38 am Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly is a Catskill style head?

One with enough bare hook between the head and the eye to seat a Turle knot.

I learned something new today. Thank you.