With back to school starting tomorrow at the college my time for fun, and recovering from the flu, is coming to an end. After yesterday's fly test I needed to just sit down and try and get into some kind of rhythm at the vice. No thought, not trying any known techniques, just load up a hook and grab some materials and tie. Above is a six-pack of Squimish flies that were the result. Some better than others but all fishy. My next round of ties will be those sloopy mops that caught really nice fish in the spring, like the McNasty, below.
If I could mass produce one for the spring it would be the above. 9 inches from the hook to the tail. I like the color, I like the taper. There is a mono extension in there, belive it or not. Few things, I didn't keel them, which is something I feel you need to do with larger flies, fished in big river currents. With a synthetic material like Squimpish, I have found that this material, when tied long, can foul, one, if you don't stiffen it up a bit with Softex or Plasti-Dip, using the technique I learned from Steve Farrar, and two, necessitates carrying a small comb to comb them back if they foul or get eaten by a fish. You can see it below,
These flies are all tied on Gamakatzu SL12S 6/0 hooks. There's something interesting about hooks, and especially about hooks and big fish, hooks and their points, and hooks and their ability to handle being sharpened. Every tyer has their favorite. Last year most of my flies were tied on Mustad 34007's, but the DT make, DT stands for Duratin, which is different than the 34007 in stainless steel. There's alot of hub hub about Ahrex, and their bluewater line. I am going to give those a go, but in the meantime I ordered a 50 pack of the 34007SS long shanks to get me by. I got them in 6/0, and I contemplated giving the 7/0 a shot. In December I saw a post by Joe Nicosia, a fly guy and tyer from South Jersey.
He posted the above chart showing the inconsistencies in hook size among the bigger manufacturers. It is kind of like grains in fly lines. I remember way back talking with Ian Devlin about how he doesn't talk line weight in 9 or 10, but in grains, as he weighs each of his lines. He's that hardcore.
I am glad the fly fishing show is coming at the end of the month. By then I'll need a reboot of tying materials, and I like picking and looking rather than just clicking online. What I am looking for is a solid big eye, like herring eye, tab eye. I have tried a few different things with different success. The flies above have nice eyes, give them about 20 minutes bouncing off the water, rocks, and concrete, and they'll be eyeless.
And then there's the jet boat. Cover was shot so I ordered a new one from Seal Skin. The saleman asked all kinds of questions about the boat, make model, year, trolling motor, and outboard. I provided it and waited for the delivery, which came yesterday. What a joke! It's about 6 feet too long, and six feet too wide at the stern. I immediately got on the customer supoort chat and
complained and started the process of refund. They promised the will make it right and will send out "a perfect fit" replacement. I ordered through them after asking advice on a Lowe's boat owner group. This looks like it could fit my 20 foot Jones Brothers.