Fly Tying
Fly Tie Tuesday – PoPs Fly Shop Reminder
Clouser tied with coyote on top, and pink on bottom to emulate small shrimp. Sold HERE! Pops Fly Shop
Being sick just ain’t what it used to be! It’s lasting me longer than I want, and I gots things to do, and flies to tie!
I certainly enjoyed plenty of activity at my old site www.popsflyshop.com, but the world’s hackers just wouldn’t leave it alone, so I shut it down awhile back. Remember when the internet used to be fun? It’s a fading memory now …
POPS FLY SHOP IS HERE
So we have a new menu item at the top of the page, and it leads to PoPs Fly Shop and some images of what I sell under the increasingly prescient monicker of “PoPs.” I don’t mind it because I can take it with me wherever I go, when I go – to some other latitude that understands the need for a good supply of killer flies and items they can’t find anywhere else. Heck, the vast majority of my sales went to Houston and further south. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. The fly scene in Houston is so much more open, friendly, huge and down to earth than the scene I find myself in here.
So keep an eye on that page, and I will see if I can salvage the images from the old files of the website hackers burned to the ground.
WEATHER
Thankfully, being sick coincides nicely with the weather we are in today. I’d say it’s rained an inch already this morning, and it’s still coming down pretty heavy. A few more days of this and off goes the burn ban, and away goes the drought here in North Texas. Will we be so fortunate? All these other lakes in my sites are probably benefitting more than those north of the Messtroplex, and that DOES bode well for our spring searches of those named lakes.
Finn had his time out in the rain this morning, and unlike our other companion, he has absolutely no aversion to rain – he seems to like it. Breaking him in on the skiff next month, now there’s a trick to witness. His birthdate just didn’t jibe with the seasons that would have him on the water at a younger age. Forecast: A slow motion train wreck.
Thanks for tuning back in, and if you read, you can raise your expectations here!
Monday Afternoon Sidewalk Frozen Over
Time to Tie and Dye a Fly
Good Monday to you all! I always want to put an “!” in Monday, somewhere somehow, and this Monday, all things considered, needs a few of those exclamation points littered throughout!
The temperature is having a hard time breaking 30-degrees here “North of Normal,” and this weather really is good for one thing (fly fishing related), and that is undertaking a huge fly demand from people having trouble in big water that is clear, aka. “Texas Zebra Mussel Lakes.”
I gleaned the knowledge from watching multiple conventional fishing shows that emphasize natural colors for their hardbalts in clear / clearing lake waters. You are well versed on the successes of my “Black-on-Black” series of Clousers (for mongo bass), but you would be surprised to know that in my assault on other lakes last year? The Black-on-black ruffled a few scales, but very few, and my reaction to the slow bite? I went with brighter and brighter flies in an attempt to generate “attraction” to my fly. That, in retrospect, was probably exactly the wrong thing to do.
DYEING NATURAL FIBERS
Somewhere in this pile of books I overestimate to be a “fly fishing library” there’s a pamphlet-styled-book on “Dyeing Organic Fibers” as I recall it was named … I have no idea where that went. The plan is to tie and dye a fly made from border collie, and do it well – colorfast and realistic. It’s hard to believe I had to get my “own” dog to have free reign over my supply of dog hair, and this dog has a red-brown that lends itself more to shrimp and crayfish patterns … but Finn has enough white that it’s just begging to be “borrowed.” It is certainly time for him to start earning his kibble, and this is how it’s done around here.
What makes the effort different is the idea of cutting harvesting trimming ever so subtly, his hair, tying the fly AND THEN dyeing the fly. It means creating a single-tone fly, but we can certainly provide some contrast with flash. All I know for sure is; a fly tied with border collie is a killer that is supreme to bucktail of any flavor, as durable as synthetics and has an exponentially longer fiber than any upcountry winter bucktail grows.
We are supposed to have a break in the weather this week, but it is also supposed to be tweaked by wind, so we are in a wait-and-see mode for the week. It seems like it is about time to sit down and NOW (after all the early year shite) concentrate on all things fly. I just started on the book, “Bugwater,” and it is an incredible book for anyone who wants to take the journey to the microscopic level of bugs emulated in the fly fishing world. The photography is a showstopper (you remember I’m a “picture guy” right?), and the text is just as abundant as the photography content. I will write a review on this one once I can honestly say I have read (at least some of) the text.
Meanwhile, have a great week, don’t release any memos, don’t beat your spouse, and show up here on Valentine’s day – if not sooner!!!
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