Well, I didn't catch anything on the North Country Spider, but I did catch a small smallmouth and a bluegill on a size 32 Stewart Spider (easier to tie, but not as photogenic). http://i565.photobucket.com/albums/ss91/CMStwrt/tiemco-518-32-spider-smallmouth_zpsa1e49fc2.jpg For removing the tiny hooks...

Hook: Tiemco 518 #32
Thread: Veevus 16/0
Hackle: Starling

The other question is about the allowable number of partridge barbs. I know that sparse is the standard. One wrap only, or two wraps if one side is stripped clear. However, I was hackling my POs heavy, one-and-a-half or two full wraps of the full feather, looking like an ignorant novice. But the fi...

Maybe I'm just used to thorax hackle, but the first one does look a lot "buggier" to me. I like it!

The old flies work surprisingly well. Some time ago I was given a number of flies tied to old patterns with horsehair snells. When the guy who had given them to me (Paul Jones of Historic Angling Enterprises) found out that I was saving them rather than fishing them, he was not pleased and told me t...

If you want old, why not choose the fly Aelian described (arguable the oldest published "pattern"), consisting of red wool and a cock's hackle. Lots of room for interpretation. Might be an interesting swap.

Very, very nice. Thanks. Your "before" photo is pretty much the way I remember my dad's wallet. I don't remember him fishing snelled flies but it did have the hooks and spring. If I recall, my grandfather's wallet was full of snelled flies.

William, the flies are so magnificent that I am embarrassed to ask about the wallet itself. I fondly remember my father's fly wallet but sadly I did not take it (or his Phillipson glass fly rod) when he was still alive (didn't seem right) and my mother gave everything to the kid next door shortly af...

save alot of marginal hackles from certain extinction! Extinction!?! There is an even easier, and PROBABLY JUST AS EFFECTIVE use for larger hackles! Tie larger flies. I have done extremely well with size 6 flies (1XL - so effectively a size 4) tied with the largest hackles a partridge skin has to o...

William Anderson wrote:Another reason to fool around with the Killer Bugs.

w

That would be an easy tie with yarn!