Belly hair, deer strips in several colors. To get a nice natural mottling effect use colors that doesn't contrast too much
Set up a clean foundation of thread. I still use Danville Flymaster Plus.
You can get them anywhere, strong, very affordable & available in many colors
Use stiff, wide and webby hackles for the tail (legs). Often called 'bass hackle'
Add some rubber legs for some movement and joy 😀
Stack white belly hair
Foundation for the collar
Second stack for the collar
Third stack
Pull gently yet deliberately
Secure (whip finish or half hitch, a drop of super glue helps to make your stacks stronger) the steps after every
completed stack to make sure your fly doesn't explode if an accident (thread breakage) happens 😀
Make sure the upper and lower stacks are cleanly separated.
Another first of the upper stack
One of the last stacks of deer hair
All stacking deer hair done!
Don't crowd the eye!
Make sure you have enough room behind the eye to tie off
Yup, belly side looks okay 😀
First cut for the belly. Don't cut it right away to the hook shank.
Use the first cuts to check the balance of the sack being even on top.
Make sure you cut the belly to have enough hooking gap
Head of the diver. Again cut in stages for more control
I need a bath! Where's the tub? 😀
Add some rubber legs on the head for some tantalising action 😀
I should fish with silk fly lines more often. Maybe I'm just too lazy 😀
Silk line doesn't come with a loop, so to attach a leader you either need to use a needle knot or make a loop (fold the tip of the fly line and secure the loop using tying thread). Here my friend Hiro from Japan shows how to make a more durable loop on a silk fly line using a braided loop connector.
Chris is building me a new 70p, arguably the last blank from his acclaimed and retired fiberglass parabolic rod series known to mankind. I requested a torpedo shaped ventilated grip. A little shorter than most would order. I just love how the grip turned out!
For me the most important part of the rod is the grip. I have very specific thoughts about proportions of a grip. Maybe it's because in fly tying proportion is the single most important detail on a well tied fly. Fortunately Chris understands my pickiness on grips 😀
About ventilated grips:
The ventilated grip was pioneered in the 1940's by South Bend Rod Company and Paul Young Rod Company. Rods from both companies had distinctive parabolic action and the segmented (ventilated) grip allowed the rod to flex all the way to the reel seat.
Update Jan 25, 2019:
Rod is finished! Looking mighty handsome.
Big trophy brown trouts are the hallmarks of the New Zealand experience. Especially in the south island these trouts are all fly fishermen talk about. But how on earth did this invasive trout become the nation's number one targeted fish? There's an interesting story about how the brown trout was imported to New Zealand.
Did you know that the American Museum of Fly Fishing has all of its past quarterly magazine on line to be viewed for free? All issues starting from 1970 till the most recent issue! Amazing resource of information.
If you love reading about history of fly fishing you're gonna love it!
I think I tied this Matuka Sculpin somewhere around 1992.
I got inspired by the sculpin (page 61) tied by Dave Whitlock in the book 'The Art of the Trout fly'.
Dave Whitlock's Red Fox Squirrel nymph and Matuka Sculpin (page 61)
I met Dave his lovely wife Emily at the Dutch Fly Fair, May 1994. I still remember meeting them during the dinner on the eve before the fair. Both Dave and I were attending the fair as fly tier. Dave tied for me his Red Fox Squirrel nymph during my break from the tying bench. Why didn't we have iPhones with cameras back then?.. 😥
Dave Whitlock about the Red Fox Squirrel (from Mike Valla's book 'The Founding Flies'):
Per Brandin is considered the top bamboo rod maker in the world. His rods fetch the highest prices on the market. That's probably because he doesn't take any orders for more than a decennia as his order book is filled far beyond his retirement.
This legendary series of fiberglass rods was introduced in 1974 by Winston, just after Tom Morgan bought Winston in 1973. The Stalker is one of the rods in the 'rods of fame' frame in the museum at the Winston factory I visited a few weeks ago.
Not much has been written about this rod series. I have no idea how many Stalkers were built & sold over the years and how many are still used today. Here's an amazing and very elaborate article by Tom Morgan on what he did after requiring Winston in the 1973 to improve the quality of fiberglass rods sold by Winston.
A few quotes by Tom Morgan along the years about the Stalker:
"... Before buying Winston in 1973, I had enjoyed fishing light line #3 and #4 bamboo rods. I thought that similar fiberglass rods would be popular, so I designed the Winston fiberglass Stalker Rods to add to Winston's already great line of fiberglass rods that were custom-made by the J. K. Fisher Co."
"... because of the delicate touch and "feel" they provide along with their fish playing attributes, I've always been a fan of fiberglass rods for fishing in the short to medium distances where most trout are caught."
Mistakenly labelled as 'Stalber' 😁
"... The Stalker Series of glass rods completes a longtime goal of ours, to provide fishermen with a glass rod that has delicacy and lightness of our Leetle Fellers. They have been designed to fish spring creeks where the utmost precision is needed in presenting small flies on light leaders. The rods are supple enough to play large fish on light leaders with a minimum of loss. They are not designed to be all-around trout rods to cover all situations. Since their introduction, they have become our most popular glass rods. Once you use one of these rods, it will soon become a favorite."
"... unfortunately, the J.K. Fisher Rod Co. who made our fiberglass blanks quit making them in the early '80s and I was forced to quit offering them. I was extremely unhappy with this circumstance even though the regular angler was buying mostly graphite rods. I still think that fiberglass fly rods have an important place in an angler's repertoire of rods."
Update Jan 5, 2022:
This very unique letter from 1974 Tom Morgan wrote to Harry Darbee was sent to me by Harry Darbee's daughter, Mrs. Judie Darbee Vinciguerra Smith. In this letter Morgan writes about the new Stalker fiberglass rod series he just introduced.
I also found this Winston ad in Fly Fisherman magazine 1975 spring issue
A nice short video of Julie Arnold of Headhunters fly shop in Craig, Montana fishing a Winston Stalker:
Remember those rubber waders or hippers with those hard rubber soles? Wading with these were hazardous for your health. Fast forward 35 years and we now got wading boots with felt and rubber soles with fancy names like Vibram (Simms) and Rock Grip (Patagonia).
I have been using felt soled wading boots since 1992 and I really love them for their very secure grip. Only on the most slippery algae covered rocks can they slip a bit. For my recent trip to USA & Canada I left my felt sole wading boots at home. Because of restrictions of felt sole in certain areas in Montana and Yellowstone National Park, I had my first introduction to rubber soled wading boots.
On wading (safety) these boots has been a huge disappointment. I rarely feel insecure when wading, but after the first steps I was very cautious with these rubber soles. I started the trip with the Patagonia Ultralight wading shoes and tried the Simms Freestone later on to see if one rubber type is more secure than the other. The verdict? They both sucked... How is it possible that even after 10 years selling these rubber soled wading boots, the manufacturers still haven't nailed this issue?
With rubber soles adding cleats is a must to get a secure grip. Ask if your fly shop has experience with adding the cleats. Adding cleats is serious stuff as my first cleats installed at a fly shop came off real easy. I tried with five cleats on each boot and that didn't do much. My experience is that you need at least 10, preferably more, cleats per boot.
Update 20 Sep 2019:
Here's a review of a the new Simms Flyweight wading boots. The boots are nice indeed, but in this review they talk about the superior grip/traction of felt soles over rubber soles.
My last fishing day of the two week trip to BC / Montana / Idaho. Dusty suggested we go to Yellowstone National Park and fish the Slough Creek or Lamar river. I didn't plan to fish in the Park this trip but it's nice to be back. It has been a while I visited the Park. I think the last time was in 1998.
Since Slough Creek moves pretty slow (almost like a lake at some places) we headed for the Lamar river. During the night there seemed to have been some rain causing slight discoloration of the water. Along the way we did see some discolouring but it didn't seem that bad.
Fishing in the park means that wild life is every where. Along the road means that visitors will stop to take pictures. The first herd of bisons is like 'Wow!', but after the third and fourth stop it, how odd this might sound, becomes tedious.
We decided to try the smaller nearby Soda Butte first and get to the Lamar river later on. The cool weather of the previous day didn't stay. I'm not sure at which altitude the Lamar river area is but the temps went up pretty fast. The sky was still a bit hazy due to fires of the past weeks.
Maybe the many days of fishing started to wear us out but fishing wasn't as hot as the temperatures. The idea of bisons around us kept me alert. At one point a lonely bison was about 150 meters away from us. I certainly was not as concentrated as I should have been because I missed a few nice fish. After lunch we moved to the Lamar river. No noticeable increase in fish activity here.
Colt having a Lamar flavoured instant coffee
It has been a wonderful trip. Many moments of the trip flashed through my mind as I fished upstream of Colt and Dusty. It's remarkable how fast the second week blazed through the days. Meeting old and new friends was the highlight of the whole trip.
