Any other fly fishermen?

Anybody else fly fish here? I'm trying to get back into tying here in a few weeks, looking for a little advice or maybe a similar forum to HBT on flies.

I most definitely am one. I'm celebrating the upcoming steelhead season right now. Went out for the first time on Saturday but the steelhead 'run' consisted of one tired-looking fish. A little too early yet I guess.

Cheers to tying and brewing!

Love it! I have some fly tying to catch up on since brewing has been taking up so much of my time lately. I have a fishing trip happening at the end of this month.

Very nice little set up you have there. My parents just found my old equipment from my earlier days. Now I'm trying to learn to try to tie some wet trout flies. I'm used to making dries for bass about size 8-12, so moving to 20s is going to be an experience.

The small stuff is actually easier, a tuft of a feather and some thread on the hook is about all it takes. There's nothing like a classic wet fly though, nothing quite as deadly when you're hunting trout with no hatches for guidance either. During trout season I love swinging a wet fly through the tail of a pool. Works great on steelhead too.

How did you learn to tie? There any good resources you use?

I learned from my father who learned when I was a kid. He used the various Orvis books to teach himself but there are very few tricks to it. There are quite a few sites I've come across when looking for various patterns, google will reveal a ton. And believe it or not, youtube has videos if you want to see things actually being done (which definitely helps a lot).

I'm only 29 but I'm a big fan of these clip-on magnifiers. It really makes life easier when you're tying small flies. The best advice I can give though is to remember you're tying flies for the fish, not for the fisherman. The less pretty they look the better they seem to work.

Also I assume that Boulder == Colorado so find your nearest fly shop, during the winters they all have tying sessions where you can come in and watch experienced tyers and pick their brains, lots of fun!

All good advice, thanks. I guess looking for a fl fishing forum as great as this one is for homebrew is getting a little greedy. Lucky for me there is a fly shop a few blocks away from me and I'm sure they will have clinics in the offseason since that have all sorts of tours and lessons for actually fishing in the spring/summer. I'm just going to be glad to not have to pay $2.50 for crappy flies anymore

There used to be a decent forum at www.hipwader.com, but I haven't been there in ages (and never was a member) so I'm not sure what state it's in now.

Chiming in from Montana here. Came here from upstate New York. I like trouty places. It's looking like Houston next... we'll see how that transition goes. Tied up a big ugly cone-head articulated leech-beast last night over a homebrew, gonna go see if any big, pissed off browns are interested sometime soon here.

Another streamlasher and tier here! I have a real fondness for the tiny little mountain streams with fat, sassy brookies myself.

Now that I'm back in PA (where I've spent many hours stalking trout), I tend to seek out streams with wild and holdover populations of browns and rainbows.

I've played with tying a bit, but mostly tried to make topwater baits for panfish and bass. I don't have any experience in stream fishing. To be honest, I look at all of those trout flies and they all look the same to me. It's like you got three basic types, and within them they all look the same.

I did take a field trip with my daughter's class last week and found a nice state campground on a stream that had some Salmon. I might try for some steelies in the spring if I can get some time in my schedule then.

right nows when you should be hitting steelhead here homer! the run starting and they are hittng pretty well try a yarn fly or egg-sucking leech pattern or the fleshbugs from alaska also

Fly fisher here also. Grew up in the Black Hills but live in Northern Minnesota now. No trout to really speak of, but throwing deer hair poopers for smallies and northern is fun.

Wish i had a place to use the old 3-4 weights on some brookie or cuthroats, but its still fun to throw the 7s and 9s on a 5 lb smallie. They fight like hell.

MNBugeater said:

...Wish i had a place to use the old 3-4 weights on some brookie or cuthroats, but its still fun to throw the 7s and 9s on a 5 lb smallie. They fight like hell.

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Put a WF line on a 4wt and you can throw the smaller poppers and deer hair bugs. 2lbs+ smallies on a 4wt are fun!

I fly fish as well. Used to tie my own flies but I haven't for a few years. Actually with 2 kids and owning my own business, I only get out a few times a year and now I take the kids so its more like worm and bobber rather than a #16 adams. But its still fun. Watching the salmon here in CA disappear has been pretty sad.

bradsul said:

Put a WF line on a 4wt and you can throw the smaller poppers and deer hair bugs. 2lbs+ smallies on a 4wt are fun!

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I didn't understand a damn word of this! My parents flyfish, and my stepdad homebrews, so although I don't flyfish, they do so it evens out, I guess.

I thought this was an amusing thread combo;

EvilTOJ said:

I didn't understand a damn word of this!...

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It basically amounted to:

light rod + big fish = lots of fun

eriktlupus said:

right nows when you should be hitting steelhead here homer! the run starting and they are hittng pretty well try a yarn fly or egg-sucking leech pattern or the fleshbugs from alaska also

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That's odd, I was talking to one of the other fisherman (not fly fishing) and he said the steelies run in the spring... They were hooking Kings with egg sacks.

I once worked with a guy who stayed up all night fly fishing. Said he had more than a dozen on that night. Iasked him how many he brought home and he said "none". What? Well, he said he could catch steelies all day, so it's boring to him. He uses like 4lb. test and makes it a challenge.

He also got a great deal when he spent $400 on a USED fly rod on Ebay... ok...

Homercidal said:

That's odd, I was talking to one of the other fisherman (not fly fishing) and he said the steelies run in the spring... They were hooking Kings with egg sacks.

I once worked with a guy who stayed up all night fly fishing. Said he had more than a dozen on that night. Iasked him how many he brought home and he said "none". What? Well, he said he could catch steelies all day, so it's boring to him. He uses like 4lb. test and makes it a challenge.

He also got a great deal when he spent $400 on a USED fly rod on Ebay... ok...

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I practice catch and release as well, I often get strange looks when I tell people I don't keep the fish I catch. As for $400 for the used rod - fly fishing is like brewing, you can spend a fortune and have the shiniest most expensive rig, or you can spend a little bit and have an extremely serviceable setup that you will be very happy with.

I practice catch and release as well, I often get strange looks when I tell people I don't keep the fish I catch.

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Catch and release here as well (most trout waters in PA are special regs, catch and release only).

I generally use catch and release also. I like to give them more time to fatten up so I can come back and get them later. The only exception is when camping, then I'll take a few medium sized ones back.

I did catch and release for most of my life but now with 2 girls they will actually eat the fish and thats just the coolest thing in the world. Catching fresh fish for your family.

I am not sure if I am catch and release. I think I'll have to actually catch something before I know.

My dad took my out on a guided river trip once, due to a big discount from the guide who worked with him, and I had a King on for like 10 minutes. They tell me that was pretty quick, but my arm said that was still a pretty good workout. That was a casting rod. Can't wait to try it on a fly rod...

I'm kind of a big deal in the flyfishing community.