Material selection

This is a tip that you learn for yourself after realizing that the flies you just tied should should have looked exactly like each other but they don't! Like what happened to me a few times and still does if I dont proportion correctly. A lot of fly aesthetics problems are easily remedied by selecting the right piece of material for the job. Along with diligent proportioning practices your flies will come out looking like their supposed to rather than intermittent juxtapositions.

The first piece of marabou from the left is one I prefer for tails and wings. Its relatively uniform length makes it easy to work with and makes sleek looking flys.

The middle feather is super fluffy. I like these to palmer in a dub loop after clipping off a pinch to give the appearance of bulk on flies without the weight. This one works good for smaller flies mostly but I have made crawfish flies with these too like this one below.



The last has a big spine down the middle and will cause your creations to look uneven. I usually cut the quill a few inches down from the end and use the longer outer barbules on my fly.

wishes and creations

I just finnished some baitfish for this weekends fishing trips. Saturday and Sunday will be in the Galveston bay area and Monday will be spent in East Matagorda. My uncle is going to be fishing with us for two days. I really hope that he gets a few fish on his stringer. I will be trying out my new Scientific Anglers quad tip line I picked up on "sale" earlier in the week. At least I have an intermediate option, at least for a little while untill I decide if I like this line. Im going to flyfish untill my arm gets tired then probably take a break with the baitcaster. Im also going to see about adjusting the boats location to allow me to cast from the bow instead of trying to wade deep all day. It would really allow me to control the belly better in the current as well as allowing me to make some longer casts in productive water. I really cant wait untill I can afford a decent boat. Maybe a 16ft double deep and wide aluminum boat with some pontoons. Not too much:)

Mudfly

This is a variation of a fly I have been tying and trying to turn into a clear water swing fly for fishing around reefs with a lot of current. This fly shares the palmered head like the seaducer but doesn't run with a dual rooster feather rudder and is a bendback. I have given it the name BHR or big head red. Although the proper name would probably be a bendback seaducer This will hopefully be a little more forgiving when bouncing on shell or grass. A single or double mono loop weedguard would probably help out also. I am kind of hooked on bendbacks right now.

Last Sunday I ran down to the local "mudhole" as I call it to try and stalk a lost flounder making boils a little too late in the season. I should call it the stink hole or the dead animal parts hole seeing as I have seen a deer head, hog foot, cleaned duck carcass, and countless filleted redfish, trout and flounder in the little ditch that drains from the road. Although not unheard of, after a couple weeks of the 60-45 weather pattern with rain and cloud cover prospecting back lakes flounder in shallow half brackish water becomes more a dream and less a reality. But you have to try right? I was doing my best to stand and survey taking a couple steps every thirty seconds or so when I noticed an eye on the ground. A fly I had lost while pestering a flounder three weeks ago. Which was odd because I broke it off close to 20 feet off the bank. My only guess is that another fisherman snagged the oyster clump the fly was on and dragged it in. Kinda neat to find. I snapped this photo, cleaned it off and pocketed it. No fish, but what luck.