Flyfishing, flytying and hooks
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Fly Tyer Briefcase – DIY

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI think this is a story that a lot of flytyers have been through: When I started fly fishing I purchased flies and brought them with me on a trip, noticing which was good or not. Then I started tying myself, looking at the experience I had with the flies and was happy with that, but I was tying up a lot of different patterns to ensure I wouldn’t be empty of a particular size.

Then came the next step: bringing with me tying gear to tie on-the-spot, or if the weather was bad! But, I brought with me stuff in plastic bags, and everything was messy, and the bottles of varnish had to be wrapped and things was all over the place. So: there are some cases you can buy out there, but they are expensive, and they don’t fit what you want, so after work today I got one of these briefcases that are meant to transport cameras and so on, and got to work (these should be able to get a lot of different places)

The inside is well padded and the material is “pre-cut” in small squares that you easily can tear off to get your bottles and gear into.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI have half the briefcase for my bottles of varnish, the vice and all the other things I need when I go outside my normal tying station.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe other half I can then fill up with hooks, dubbing, hair and everything else I need for that particular trip. Of course: this is not the ideal place to bring along capes, but I’ll see what I can do with the lid there to get room for some more.

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Red & Gold

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Body: Gudebrod Metallic Braid
Rib: UNI French Gold
Wing: Red Bucktail with GP topping
Throat: Red Bucktail with GP topping
Eye: JC

The base pattern I picked up from Ken Sawada’s The Tube Fly book: Gold Aquamarine, but I did it with red instead of orange bucktail, and I did mine a bit more spare than the original pattern. The slim profile and red&gold colors on this is what makes it stand out: will try this out on seatrout as well.

Spey Zonker

2015.03.28.dryfly.me.spey_zonkerHook: Alec Jackson Spey #1.5
Thread: UNI 6/0 Red
Tag: Lagartun French Tinsel, UNI-Floss Red
Body: UNI-Floss Black
Rib: Lagartun French Tinsel
Wing: Rabbit zonker
Hackle: Ringneck Rump Hackle
Head: Loon Hard Head Red

I have done some variants of this on tube earlier this winter, and after testing it earlier this week I had to tie this up on the Alec Jackson Spey #1.5 hook as well. The zonker and the Ringneck hackle makes this a brilliantly simple pattern that should be in any box, either for seatrout or salmon.

 

Baitfish

2015.03.17.dryfly.me.blue_baitfishHook: Daiichi 2546 #4
Thread: UNI 6/0 White
Body: Just Add H20 – Steve Farrar’s Flash Blend –  Natural, Herring Back & Midnight Blitz
Eye: Just Add H20

2015.03.17.dryfly.me.slim_baitfishHook: TMC 777SP #6
Thread: UNI 6/0 White
Body: Just Add H20 – Steve Farrar’s Flash Blend –  Natural & Midnight Blitz
Eye: Generic 3D eye

Easter is around the corner and the seatrout season is all over us here in Norway, I haven’t been out fishing because of a bad neck, but in between I can test out some new material. I hadn’t heard anything about this before, but I stopped by the local flytying shop and picked up some colors to create some baitfish in something other than craft fur.

The material is very good to work with, it stays in place and when testing it out in the sink it seems like the material stays in place and doesn’t interfere much with the hook, but I’ll get to test that out soon. I created one larger baitfish and one where I tried to go as slim as possible (still working on less-is-more). The bigger one with blue back I also added some lead on two of them to see how they are to throw and how they will behave once I get to test them out in real conditions.

Once I get to see how the material behaves I might pick up some darker green and red to create a bigger set of baitfish, and I have a couple that are really big, this material stays in place and forms very nice: think big pike flies and big saltwater flies! But more about that later.

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