Xuron, eh? I have one of those, though I have never tied on it; it was in my grandfathers tying kit that he kept at camp. Until this thread I had no idea what the name of the vise was. There were several other vises in his collection, some I actually knew of. There's a reasonably well kept Thompson ...

I'm glad somebody else tried the glue on the thread thing. I used to loose a lot of dubbing rather quickly and assumed my dubbing loop technique needed work; in desperation I tried running a tiny bead of glue down the thread with a needle. My dubbing has gotten better but I still use cement from tim...

Yes - The hackle undulates back-and-forth.......That’s the main reason that Scotch tied hackle is soooo deadly! [/quote] The middle picture, the hackling on that particular fly is what you refer to as 'Scotch hackle'? I've always been curious as to how you got that effect. Any insights you'd care to...

I am sure that my lack of success with winged wets early on was due to user error on my part and I never gained any confidence in them. After being inspired by Sy Nemes’ first book on soft hackle flies I tied some up and used his techniques and had excellent results. I have fished with anglers that...

Dana, The next time we get together, I would like to make a video recording of your set-up. I think this would be an excellent tutorial on the loop-to-loop set-up. Wish I had thought of that when we were together earlier this summer. Do you think we could convince Ivan to do a couple educational tu...

I remember watching David James Duncan's 'Trout Grass' several years ago at a TU meeting in NH. I've always been fascinated by the culture surrounding bamboo, but apparently not fascinated enough to buy one of my own. My only experience with working with it comes from the old gnarled Montague's that...

A guy in my TU Chapter says he ONLY fishes orange colored dry flies....I owe him a few Orange Otters! That was a wonderful read, thanks for putting that up. I could spend every dime I make buying up the literature that speaks to our sport; I never get tired of it. Orange seems to be a staple, I use...

I've been folding my wings forever because the whole 'matching slip' thing has always escaped me. All these years of practice and I still can't match what you apparently just sat down and pulled off at a single setting. Those flies are sublime, seriously. I made myself feel like a second class tier ...

These ties are gorgeous. I really like the Baby Sunfly softy. I wish I had the chops to tie that one down even smaller; I'd like to throw it as an alternative to the minuscule Griffith's Gnats that I'm forced to buy because my fingers can't make the music. I'd like to hear the thinking that led up t...

Mike, I think we have a lot in common, in terms of experience. I too have fished at ice out, trolling streamers to catch trout and salmon in the Adirondacks. Sounds very similar to me This year spring never showed up. Ice out up here was the second week in May and even then it kept thinking about f...