Recent comments

Jerry,

The Plipper originally had a tail and looked like a "real" fly, but I cut away all the surplus, and wound up with the foam only. Simple and efficient - and throw-away!

I certainly have fished pike with more traditional flies like the ones you show. The pike are not always willing to take in the surface, and much of my fishing is done with sinking line and traditional, large pike flies.

But mostly I try the surface first - especially when wading and fishing shallow water.

Martin

Submitted by Ruan Hinze on

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Hi Martin,

I can see it now - thanks,

It was only this image...all others i could see without problems...

Regards,

Ruan

Martin:
Great idea. I've got to give it a try. Have you thought of adding feathers or some sort of tail material to it. I've got a bunch of home made loco/sili foam lying around. Problem is by the time I get to do some pike fishing they're not that interested in top water stuff. Maybe the bluefish and striped bass will like it.

Alex:
This is my favorite pike pattern though I use it much later in the year.
[img:64e7254d95]http://www.flytyingforum.com/uploads/gallery45fdee7d401bc.jpg[/img:64e7…]

I tie it without the prop also.

Or some weedless ones
[img:64e7254d95]http://www.flytyingforum.com/uploads/gallery4544154a1aca7.jpg[/img:64e7…]

I did an update to this fly and tied it as a dry fly several years ago. The original maker of the fly's son in law contacted me and told me about the streamer, I have one of those.

Mike Hogue, www.eflytyer.com

Salmofiliac,

Will second what`s been said about small hooks. Also, if you want to improve your "solid hookup-rate" DON`T strike. Use looong, slooow retrieves, and once you feel the garfish striking at the fly, simply keep the slow retrieve going. When you feel "solid weight", then gently lift your rod. This approach has improved my strike/hookup ratio A LOT.

Cheers,
Peter

Every time I read a comment on this photo I think it is like one of those prank videos.
No matter how I tried, never have been able to see the photo.
Manage to see the screen dump, but that is all.
Someone must be having serious laughs. ;) :)

Gang,

Found the error - the image was CMYK-color an not RGB. Many browsers cannot show CMYK-images. It's now converted, and should work. Enjoy the image, which is indeed a great photo.

Martin

Submitted by Morten Thomsen on

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Hi Martin
I agree this is a great shot.

FYI I couldn't see the photo with IE either, neither the link you provided.
With Firefox there were no problems.

Morten

Submitted by Ruan Hinze on

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Hi Martin,

I can not see it either...am a Windows user... tried it on IE 6 and 7 , as well as on Chrome.... the image remains blank...... but in your screen print I can see it...

Regards,

Ruan

Kevin,

Strange that you can't see the image... it's showing nicely here in any browser I can dig out on my computer: Firefox, Chrome and even IE. Haven't tried Safari or Opera. Are you a Mac user?

Well, just to prove that it's there, here's a screen dump:

Martin

Submitted by George Durr on

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How do you get to painters bend from the Roscoe Diner? What river houses the largest trout. Last Memorial Day weekend 2008, I caught some bruisers at The Roscoe Campground all on Lure, and yes I threw them back. The next day a friend of mine home on leave from Iraq caught and released over 50 trout from Cairn's Pool. The trout were so abundant they were swimming around us like sharks on a wreckage.

Submitted by Robin Harvick on

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bob your flies are beautiful i just wish i had half the talent that you have. I am not ready to salmon flies yet have only been tying one year and i am getting the hang of nymphs, drys.emergers and streamers ,deer hair poppers and someday going to try full dress salmon. so keep up the hard work and dont be so hard on yourself

Robin

Russ,

When working in 9, 10 and 11 weight rods, the difference between one line class and the next is quite significant, and if you are talking premade shooting heads (just the head with no running line), I would hesitate to acquire an 11 weight head for a 9 weight rod - even with the intent of cutting it down.

Lefty is right in his arguments (what else, he's Lefty!) that a longer head will give potentially longer casts, but depending on your casting position and skills, remember that keeping a 40 foot head in the air is no easy task. If you fish from a boat it's manageable, but if you wade, it's a lot harder.

But the idea of starting long and working your way down is still my preferred way of doing things, and in you situation I would consider finding a full double taper line in a suitable weight class - typical a 10 weight in your case. This is the way I usually go about trimming shooting heads. Most DT-lines are even longer than 80 feet meaning that you can most likely get two heads from one line.

If you look for Salmon Double Taper lines in shops and on the web you will most likely find lines in the 9-12 weight range, and some of those might be what you need. Some of the manufacturers have them on their program in both floating, intermediate and sinking versions.
They are not uncommon in UK and Scandinavian shops, where classical two hand rods for salmon might be more common than in the US.

In my own case I have been able to buy inexpensive mill end lines at really good prices on a couple of occasions, and that just makes the deal even sweeter.

Hope this helps.

Martin

Submitted by Russ on

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Martin, I am just rigging up for saltwater flyfishing (mostly fishing for snook, redfish, spotted trout, bluefish and various snappers in Indian River in Florida) after being a trout fly fisherman in PA for many years. I've acquired a 9wt graphite Lamiglas flyrod that's 9feet 6 inches long. I've read alot of Lefty Kreh articles about saltwater fly fishing and have made it a habit to heed much of his advice. One piece of advice he gave me is not to use many flies bigger than 1/0 in size. That they are just difficult to cast. With the casting difficulty aspect in my mind, naturally the idea of using shooting heads has caught my fancy. Mr Kreh in his book writes that most of the line manufacturers provide shooting heads that are precisely 30 feet in length because that's how flyline weights are measured, by the first 30 feet. He finds fault with that because as soon as the shooting head unfurls in mid air it quickly falls to the water. He says to get better casting distance it's better to start with a shooting head of about 40 foot or longer and work your way down to the optimal SH length thru trial and error much the same way you advocate to determine what's the best SH length you can handle. In my case I am finding 40 foot shooting heads hard to find in 10wt. I know where I can get one in 11wt. Would I be making a huge mistake attempting a shooting head that's 2 steps above my 9wt rod? Not that it matters much but I will be using a 10wt Tioga reel.

Submitted by pepper46 on

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I have found that the wax used on bow strings works quite well as any dubbing wax used previously.
The costs associated are less than $3.00 per tube which gives enough wax to last quite a long time.
I comes in a plastic push up tube with a cover.

Submitted by Howard Gallup on

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I have used these wax rings for years. I like your system of melting into containers. Do you have a website for this supplier?

Submitted by Kevin Cox 1737246380 on

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Yip- I am afraid that I cannot see it either! Wish I could!

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