# Ugliest fly ever



## Fsyxxx (Oct 11, 2016)

Just tied my first fly. Damn. A lot harder than it looks.

Reactions: Like 1 | Way Cool 2


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## Kevin (Oct 11, 2016)

From what I hear that's a very addictive hobby. I bet it's fun!


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## Tony (Oct 11, 2016)

Nice Greg!! I've never been fly fishing but the idea of tying my own flies is fascinating. Tony


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## gman2431 (Oct 11, 2016)

It's very fun and rewarding once you get the hang of what you wanna tie. 

I used to be a very good tier in my younger days and sold flies to local shops. You need any help with questions just fire away!


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## rocky1 (Oct 11, 2016)

Most fishing tackle is designed to look purty to sell to humans, it can be seriously ugly to us but long as the fish like it, it really doesn't matter.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1


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## ironman123 (Oct 11, 2016)

I never tried to tie up a fly. We just squash them with a swatter.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Fsyxxx (Oct 11, 2016)

It's addictive, already wanna do some more! They guy I bought the tools from told me his pretty flies don't catch fish but his ugly ones do, maybe I'll get lucky!

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Spinartist (Oct 11, 2016)

Fsyxxx said:


> View attachment 114843 Just tied my first fly. Damn. A lot harder than it looks.




Just what are you planning to catch??


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## rocky1 (Oct 11, 2016)

When you get it mastered, you can tie them on safety pins to adorn one's lapel. Using jeweler's wire in place of the hook, they also make an interesting earing/necklace.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## JR Parks (Oct 11, 2016)

I'll save you some Bucktails should you need them.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Fsyxxx (Oct 11, 2016)

Spinartist said:


> Just what are you planning to catch??


Anything that'll bite I guess. Bass mostly, that's what we catch down here.


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## rocky1 (Oct 12, 2016)

You'll have more fun finding a school of bluegill and harassing them until you're tired of taking them off the hook Greg. Catching anything on a 1 - 2 lb. tippet and floating fly is a rush; even panfish.

As for ugly baits, that little bitty piece of cork lying there at the end of the Queen Cage pictured below, is hands down the most productive fly that has ever been tied, and honestly I've never heard of another soul using them to fish with until I tell them about it. Beekeepers throw them away all the time, and I have yet to meet another beekeeper that has considered using one for bait. Isn't anything to making them, it's just a simple piece of cork 3/16" - 1/4" thick 5/16" in diameter.

You can fish it on a cane pole, you can fish it on a fly rod. Proper way of fishing the below ugly fly is, you find someone that has a fish pond in their backyard and feeds floating fish food all the time. Grab a bucket of fish food, thread one of those little corks on your hook, wing it out in the pond, then toss a dozen pellets of fish food out there in the same general vicinity as that piece of cork and give it about 10 seconds. It works every time!!

Now somewhere someone is thinking that don't sound very sporting, I'm sure. In fly fishing lingo, it's called matching the hatch. The fish in the pond feed on fish food, daily in many cases, so you want to match what they feed on, and that little cork does exactly that. And, after you spend 45 minutes on the back of a Penn Automatic Fly Reel landing a 7 1/2 lb. channel cat on a 2 lb. tippet, you'll realize it is not only sporting, it's a friggin blast! And, it's got nothing to do with a fly being pretty!!

Reactions: Like 1 | Great Post 2


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## HomeBody (Oct 12, 2016)

rocky1 said:


> Now somewhere someone is thinking that don't sound very sporting, I'm sure.
> View attachment 114869



Yes, me. You're cheating. Like shooting ducks in a barrel. Gary


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## NeilYeag (Oct 12, 2016)

looking at the world through fly's eyes song


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## rocky1 (Oct 12, 2016)

And, catching the same catfish, in the same pond, on a piece of hot dog, or a piece of chicken liver, or a dough ball, on 18 lb. test line is any more sporting exactly how Gary??


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## Fsyxxx (Oct 12, 2016)

We've done something similiar @rocky1 in a youth fishing tourney. We knew they were farm raised cats so we use little bait that looked and smelled like the food!

Here's #2!

Reactions: Like 1


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## Tony (Oct 12, 2016)

Fsyxxx said:


> Here's #2!




I don't know how effective it's going to be, kinda hard to see! Tony


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## Kevin (Oct 13, 2016)

Oh boy, here we go.


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## Tony (Oct 13, 2016)

Now I see it, very cool Greg! Tony


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## Fsyxxx (Oct 13, 2016)

Numero tres.

Reactions: Like 1 | Way Cool 1


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## brown down (Oct 17, 2016)

I used to tie my own flies and it is very rewarding hooking one on one you tied yourself. I have my grandfathers and fathers furs and feathers. They gave me furs that you can't even get anymore. I have a box of what I call drunken flies somewhere lol mostly streamers that I would just tie stuff on the hook and invent my own fly hahah never caught anything on them but still get a laugh when I look at them. I may have some books for you if you'd like I will have to look for them tho not sure where I put them. they are mostly magazines and not in color but still tell you what to use if you want a few?

Reactions: Sincere 1


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## Mike Hill (Oct 17, 2016)

Those are pretty ugly!


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## Fsyxxx (Oct 17, 2016)

brown down said:


> I used to tie my own flies and it is very rewarding hooking one on one you tied yourself. I have my grandfathers and fathers furs and feathers. They gave me furs that you can't even get anymore. I have a box of what I call drunken flies somewhere lol mostly streamers that I would just tie stuff on the hook and invent my own fly hahah never caught anything on them but still get a laugh when I look at them. I may have some books for you if you'd like I will have to look for them tho not sure where I put them. they are mostly magazines and not in color but still tell you what to use if you want a few?



That's super kind of you, if you run across them I'd be very interested in them. Thank you very much!


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## rocky1 (Oct 17, 2016)

I used to subscribe to this one... http://www.flytyer.com/

Never tied any flies, it was kinda like Penthouse for me, I just enjoyed the read and looking at the pictures.


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## Mike Hill (Oct 18, 2016)

s


brown down said:


> I used to tie my own flies and it is very rewarding hooking one on one you tied yourself. I have my grandfathers and fathers furs and feathers. They gave me furs that you can't even get anymore. I have a box of what I call drunken flies somewhere lol mostly streamers that I would just tie stuff on the hook and invent my own fly hahah never caught anything on them but still get a laugh when I look at them. I may have some books for you if you'd like I will have to look for them tho not sure where I put them. they are mostly magazines and not in color but still tell you what to use if you want a few?


One of my wife's friends gave me a plastic box she found while going through her deceased Dad's things. The cheap, clear plastic box was chock full of "drunken flies." Tied with all sorts of things - gum wrappers, carpet yarn, cat fur, kite string, songbird feathers, mop strands, probably had some bellybutton lint in there also. I cherish those flies. Her dad was genuinely poor - dirt poor. He didn't have the money to waste on things such as colored threads and the like. But he had a dream to fly fish in his mountain streams. By virtue of his unconquerable will, he was driven to devise a countermeasure. A fly rod was out of the question so he "dabbled." A technique reinvented and now called Tenkara. He procured a long slender bamboo pole and tied a short length of found monofilament to the tip. No casting - just dabbling in those wondrously overgrown, clear, crisp mountain streams that are the haunt of the native southern brookie. If there ever was a gem of freshwater sporting fish, those beauties, in their spawning splendor are unmatched! Their emotional pull is magical. Their lure is locked-in, tenacious and indivisible. Possessing an innate capacity to convert mere men, proceed with caution. They are dangerous, able to influence seemingly sensible adults with their guile. Abandoning rationale, they collect the accouterments: thousand dollar fly rods, thousand dollar fly reels to hold the fly lines, boxes and boxes of tying materials, gossamer leaders, waders and boots, oilskin jackets of English branding, jaunty hats, and all the jingle-jangle of a flim-flam man. Risking matrimonial life and limb, sagacity is disregarded, replaced with wanton and impassioned acts of volition. All focus is now on scrambling over mossy time-worn boulders into hallowed lairs, places where tireless ancient waters conjoin with the human consciousness all for the pursuit of a single adversary - a little 6" fish!

Ahem... whew.....I think I need a big cup of strong black coffee!

Some of the above are true. Some are merely my muse escaping its usual hangout!

P.S. - I might resemble some of them remarks.


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## Fsyxxx (Oct 18, 2016)

I'm dabbling in tenkara now. I think I'm about to build a couple tenkara rods myself. Why use ugly cork when you can have beautiful wood for a handle. Wrapping thread sounds fun! What you say above @Mike Mills is certainly true. My buddy just sent me a pic of his steelhead catch, btw his wife is home pregnant in Texas and he is in Washington state for ten days. He wanted me to go with him but I'm not so drunk on the fly fishing kool aid yet, I'd like to have a place to sleep when I get home from the trip!


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## Mike Hill (Oct 18, 2016)

Fsyxxx said:


> I'm dabbling in tenkara now. I think I'm about to build a couple tenkara rods myself. Why use ugly cork when you can have beautiful wood for a handle. Wrapping thread sounds fun! What you say above @Mike Mills is certainly true. My buddy just sent me a pic of his steelhead catch, btw his wife is home pregnant in Texas and he is in Washington state for ten days. He wanted me to go with him but I'm not so drunk on the fly fishing kool aid yet, I'd like to have a place to sleep when I get home from the trip!


Its been quite some time since I've been through Blanco, but I do have the experience of fly fishing the Blanco River just down from downtown, below a dam for a few hundred feet. Now this was probably over 40 years ago. Dad and I used to fish Canyon as it was filling up. Fished Inks Lake many times. Granite Shoals and Buchanon - not as much. Stonewall was our go to place to pick a bunch of peaches - grandad had a friend with an orchard. Mom and Dad used to set up at the flea market at Wimberley. And of course, I ended up at Lukenbach on more than one occasion. Even before the song! My girl friends made me into a two-stepping fool! 

I'm not sold (I guess I'm too conventional) on wood handles of fly rods yet. Tenkara rods are another thing altogether. I've recently seen some spinning rods with wood handles that are probably next on my list. I've got 2 or 3 ultralights to build. Have you seen the tenkara nets they are making?

Have yet to fish for chromers. Have a friend that's been urging me to go up with him to the U.P. but haven't broken away for it. I cherish my trips with my dad, that if I have extra time and money for a trip, it's going to be with him. We went to Montana last year and going to Port O' or Corpus this year hopefully - he loves fishing the salt. Mom had a shoulder operation and he hasn't been able to schedule it until she gets more independent.


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## gman2431 (Oct 18, 2016)

@Mike Hill I live 4 miles from one of West Michigan's premiere salmon and steelhead rivers. About another hour from all the other ones. If you're ever in Michigan I personally would fish them here than the UP. Our fishing is way better and we get huge runs of fish. I will be in the boat every weekend here out, feel free to come and fish!


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## Fsyxxx (Oct 18, 2016)

I'll be making some nets when I get the shop up and running.... I can do the rods without a shop. My kiddo is gonna build his own. When he makes it he takes much better care of it I think.


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## Mike Hill (Oct 19, 2016)

gman2431 said:


> @Mike Hill I live 4 miles from one of West Michigan's premiere salmon and steelhead rivers. About another hour from all the other ones. If you're ever in Michigan I personally would fish them here than the UP. Our fishing is way better and we get huge runs of fish. I will be in the boat every weekend here out, feel free to come and fish!



I said UP because I didn't know what to call the area. Some of the rivers he goes to are the AuSable, Muskegon, Manistee, Pere Marquette. He'll fish the biggies, but will spend more time on the small ones - away from the crowds he hopes. I think it is only about 8.5 hours from here to Grand Rapids - doable.

Reactions: Like 1


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## gman2431 (Oct 19, 2016)

Mike Hill said:


> I said UP because I didn't know what to call the area. Some of the rivers he goes to are the AuSable, Muskegon, Manistee, Pere Marquette. He'll fish the biggies, but will spend more time on the small ones - away from the crowds he hopes. I think it is only about 8.5 hours from here to Grand Rapids - doable.



10 minutes and I'm launching in the Muskegon river. 45 to the grand heading SE and about an hour to pere Marquette and manistee going due North. 

This is considered West Michigan area. Oh and the fish are here As we speak!


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