Mojo

[Billy]

I too have a depleted nymph box so I tied a shitload of PTNs just before the festive break. Next will be GRHE and then some spiders.

I ordered Oliver Edwards masterclass book last week and bought a couple of things from the Stirling Angling centre on the way home on Friday including a cautery tool so my fly boxes should be bulging by the time the new season starts.
I plan to use wing burners and the cautery tool to make some stone clinger wing cases out of old cassette tape. I had a wee trial with an old audio cassette tape last night but I reckon video tape is the way to go.
I just thought it might look good and plan to give it a try tonight.

Billy

[otter]

Stop Mike 

It was a hard enough trek over the last few years to get to a couple of useful iron blue patterns, given the vagaries of hatches and my time to enjoy same I will for the moment stick to the starling and the profanities required to use it.

- okay okay, i'll tie a few using my OtterClip (c)  which being a standard bulldog clip aint very clear.

Great tying method all the same, can get one outta jail on  various problems of material availability and material size issues.

[Traditionalist]

It works alright as far as making the wings is concerned but the flies don't work very well;

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/tyingtips/part195.php

Templates;

http://www.fullwingburners.com/cart/

PDF to print templates;

http://fullwingburners.com/cart/images/Burner%20page1.pdf

http://fullwingburners.com/cart/images/Burner%20page2.pdf

[Traditionalist]

In case you have any problems, you can adjust these image sizes with more or less any graphics software;

[Traditionalist]

Best for the wings is tyvek;

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

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=tyvek

[Traditionalist]

What I mostly use is this;

Exceptionally good for sedges (caddis) and similar roof-wing flies are hen back feathers, pheasant and other similar feathers. Strip the fluff from the base of the feather, put a drop of good waterproof glue on your left index finger and pull the feather slowly between your left thumb and forefinger so that the glue is soaked up and the feather is tapered. When dry, which with the right type of glue only takes a few seconds, the feather may be folded along the quill, and the tip cut at an angle, this makes a perfectly formed and extremely durable sedge wing, which when tied in correctly makes the flies just about unsinkable. Various game bird feathers like partridge and one or two others also work very well indeed for this, and are also good colour imitations of many naturals.

I use UHU non stringing glue for this.

WARNING !!!!! Do not use cyanoacrylate glue for this. It will stick your fingers together so that you cannot get them apart without surgery or other drastic methods. A normal waterproof, clear, and flexible, quick drying general adhesive is suitable, the best types are those which leave a thin film on the fingers when dry, which when rubbed rolls up into little flexible balls, and may be easily removed. It is best to make up a dozen wings or so at a sitting and then tie your flies up with the ready made wings. Trying to dress flies with glue or varnish or anything else on your fingers would try the patience of a saint, so it is best to avoid it if possible!

You can also do it like this;

http://hatchesmagazine.com/blogs/Hatches/2011/02/02/teabag-winged-caddis-by-tom-herr/


Here are some glue wing caddis, ( just a quick and dirty snap of a few tipped out of one of my boxes), very easy and quick to make, they float like corks and are also extremely durable;




you can use the technique for other flies as well.

[Traditionalist]

Some other stuff which may be of interest;

http://ukflydressing.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=tips&action=print&thread=3018

http://www.rr-tu.org/Monthly_Fly.html

[zeolite]

I was just presented with a couple of drake mallards by my future son-in-law today. I haven't tied in years. In fact since I sold my kit to Alan Robb. I wonder if the North Platte trout will like a butcher?

[Traditionalist]

There are a lot of flies you can dress with various mallard feathers. Americans traditionally used a large number of fairly gaudy flies, ( admittedly mainly for brook trout), but other fish will take all sorts of stuff as well.  The breast feathers can be used for spiders, and are also easily dyed using marker pens. They were once commonly used for mayfly wings ( As in E.danica  ).  The green head feathers also make good spiders.  The sides and wings make good nymphs. The flank feathers can be used for wings etc. There are a lot of things you can do with mallard feathers.

[Malcolm]

I have never heard of a pin vice but these look an incredibly useful tool. I can imagine tiny screwdrivers, saws and drills in them and also dare I say it multi-head dubbing needles with one needle set up for picking out dibbing and another for varnishing.