I’m not the only one thinking about flies, it seems. Here’s a post from Scott Heywood about one of his favorites. He gets pretty deep.
I should love this fly. Afterall, the Shane in Shane’s Psycho Puff is my friend Shane. Still, I haven’t had luck with this fly, but that may be because I don’t fish it often and tend to reach for it when everything else hasn’t worked, which isn’t the best testing ground.
I may need to give this fly a second look.
But I have to get in the right state of mind to do it. If I’m going to try and pound out a bunch of flies (and Dan, I’m starting on that task, fyi), I need to prepare the space. I need to clean up all the bits and snips from previous sessions. I need to clean up my desk and get things ready.
I do like tying though. I like the process of creating. I’ve always loved sculpture, as an art, but I’m no sculptor. Tying, though, tying is building something which, in the right light, can look a little bit like discrete pieces of art, purpose built and intended for personal, private moments of greatness.
Production.
Here is the EP crab variation that I tied up recently. The video… yeah… a little rough. I have way too much Hand in there and I need to get closer in on the actual fly, change the perspective of the camera… but this is a start. I’ll likely do more of these videos as they appear to be fairly popular.
I got sent some of the Eyes-N-Tubes and I have to say… I now officially love them. I’ve been trying a lot of big flies, eyes in back flies… EP Shrimp, Peterson Shrimp, Revers Gotchas… that sort of thing and the ease of tying, the consistency of the eyes is remarkable.
I’m a fan… I need to catch a fish on one of these flies. Has to happen.
Yes… I like these.
The hot nosed Gotcha, some close ups of my hand, some background music and… yeah, low on the production values.
I love this fly. Simple, effective with just a hint of something different going on.
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OK… it was suggested that I do some testing of that SC15 Gama hook and that is exactly what I did.
I put some pyramid fishing weights on a line attached to the shank of the #4 and saw what it could take. The Gama could take it all. When the weight was applied straight down on the hook it bent at 12.5 pounds into more of an “L” shape, but it didn’t fail (see bottom picture).
Next, I wanted to see what would happen if you put pressure on the hook not in the totally most ideal location… like might happen in the real world. Securing the hook in a vice and putting the weight at the back of the hook saw the Gama bend 90 degrees at 3.4 pounds. The picture of that is below.
#fail
I also tried this with the Tiemco 811S… in a size smaller, a #6 (which means it was even slightly bigger than the #4 Gama because the size chart guy for the Gama is compensating for something).
Not #fail
This was with 12.5 pounds.
Um… I’m not going to fish these Gama SC15’s. Anyone want them?
Now, I know this isn’t “real world,” (or “reel world” if I wanted to be punny) but I think if you want to assess the strength of the metal, this might get you there.
I tried to straighten the hook and ran out of weights. It didn’t straighten. It “L”ed, but it didn’t turn into an l.
I still don’t want to fish this.
Yes, that’s a horrid picture, but the point is that the hook on the right turned into the hook on the left with weight. It doesn’t break, but it sure does bend a lot. I can’t imagine a fish staying on if it encountered this L.
Yeah. I’m still trying to get a more realistic testing method and for the time being, I’m failing at that.
In all likelihood it has all been done. When it comes to fly tying and especially for bonefish, it feels like every “new” pattern is mostly an old pattern with one new material thrown in and a name slapped on it for vanity.
I like to play around at the vice a bit and most of that experimenting doesn’t turn out so well. Other times I look at it and thing “hmmm…. that might work.”
Looking good.
I recently had a bunch of Eyes-n-tubes sent to me to play around with and they certainly do give a different look to my flies.
They look unweighted, but actually do have weight and they slide right on the hook, then to be anchored down. The eyes are on stalks which get them away from the body of the fly. Always funny looking to tie up a Peterson’s Spawning Shrimp and have the EP eyes right next to each other, no matter how I try to get them to separate. This solves that particular problem very well.
The more I tie with these new eyes the better I’m figuring out how to use them and I have to say… the flies are looking good and they have a very “new” look to them, almost like they are something new.
They are worth a look.
Once the skies turn grey and the temps start to fall, many anglers start to think about re-stocking their fly boxes. Tis the season for fly tying (or steelheading, but let’s focus on fly tying).
Do you have a number in mind of flies you’d like to tie this winter? What is on your list?
I need to restock the following:
What do you need to resupply?
The desk.
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So… I have a few things going on these days. One of those things is that I’m getting hitched (re-hitched) really, really soon.
Wedding is at 6 PM, we get picked up at 4:00 AM to head to the airport. Once there we will partake in the miracle that is human flight and some hours (and a few planes) later we will end up toes-in-the-water at El Pescador in Belize.
Once there we’ll have ONE day of guided fishing. The new Mrs. Bonefish on the Brain will be with me and we should get into some fish. Along those lines, it occurred to me that I have some tying to do.
The desk. Wine Fly.
Pretty much, I’m looking forward to the adventure.
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