After work I was able top catch the nice weather and swim some recent flies that I've tied. Most swam well, a little glitch here and there, but for the most part looked good, and will hopefully catch some striped bass when the season opens in two weeks. Water did some of them good as it laid down
some of the peacock heel and the bucktail. The long hackles out the back gave it nice action and lengthened the fly. While the 10 plus inch ones are nice, I think a tad smaller, 8-10 inches will do the trick, besides, I haven't hit novice level yet with tying the mono extensions. After some swimming
which gave me some confidence, I tied on the above mop and threw it out there. Surprisingly, it didnt swim bad, although dry it looks hideous. I call it "The Loch Ness Monster", why? Because I am sure the real monster scarers away all the fish, and this one might do the same. It will be my goal to catch a good fish on this in the next coming weeks. Below is what it looked like after the swim. It will be the perfect
fly when the river is up, off color, moving fast, kinda in low light, and in the face of a less-than-smart bass. Stay tuned for that. While I wasn't fishing, I welcomed any tug that may have happened. I found a guy soaking some minnows looking for walleye, but he didn't have any luck. Once home, and after
getting ready for my hospital day tomorrow I sat down at the vice. So I didn't want to ruin my buzz by attempting,tping to tie a mono extension fly so I got some long hackles and tied more upfront, with some short-base- feathers tie in on the body, to give it some bulk and color. After looking at it it
reminded me, kind of, of Joe Calcevechia's "Striper Dragon". That's one that I had purchased from him a few years back and used a few times. His Dragon's come in at 8 inches. My fly came in at just over 11.
with work tomorrow and the Philadelphia Fishing Show on Friday I won't be tying much the next few days. It might be good to take a break and reevaluate what I have and what I need to get done before fishing season arrives. On my list is trying Bob Popovic's silicone style flies. I saw in his book and
confirmed with Steve that Photo-Flo is a must ingredient when using silicone, it makes it less silicony and easier to work with around the head of the fly. I ordered a bottle from Amazon and it would take 50 years to use it all up, so ion you need some just drop me a line. Maybe there's even a Pop-Lips attempt in my future, oh, imagine what that will look like.