Thank you. I like this forum best. My oddball stuff fits in here. I'll try to participate here more often. Here's one to show I'm not just about small dry flies, although I do like tying them the most.
One way to define useful and practical for fly tying is to talk about fish catching flies that are quick cheap and easy to make. If it's dry flies you're making you can add floats well and dries off quickly too. The above isn't quick and easy. Fly tying is about fun too and fun isn't always about quick and easy. The above fly takes some hassle to make but it is one of the best big fish flies I've found.
Bend a thinnest possible stainless steel wire into a hook at one end. Put two vises face to face where one is a rotary and the other not, like a Nor and a Regal. Put a swivel in the Regal. Hook the wire loop in the swivel at one end. Clamp the other end of the wire in the Nor. Now, when you spin the Nor you spin the wire. Hook some spawn sack netting into the loop too, and some thread from a bobbin. Spin the wire, moving the bobbin from one end to the other so you lash the spawn sack onto the wire--to form a foundation for the fly. Lash on a snelled hook. Lash on a tail. Lash on a loooooooooong saddle hackle so the feather tip is tied on at the base of the tail. Wind the feather and the thread simultaneously, all the way to the other end while spinning the wire. Tie it off at the front. Walk the thread back to the tail and then forward again. Knot it off. Now you have a Swizzle Sticker that flexes from end to end.
This is a good big fish fly. Once you get the lathe built they're not hard to make.
Posted: 22 Oct 2015, 16:57 • 
