Home Forums Fishing Flyfishing 2010 24 HOUR CAMPFIRE Fly Swat

Stuck in Yakutat. Waiting for weather window. Can't wait to get home. Long time gone, but have tied flies. I started a project, now have 180 flies tied for the Casting for Recovery boxes we had donated. Not all pretty, but useful.

The computer use here at the local high school ends in 20 minutes. Only open 3 days/week, wed, thurs, and saturday. No cell service in town and haven't found even one pay phone. Best bet to a phone is to buy one at the True Value store and plug it in at the jack at the boat harbor, and pray it works. Not that desperate, yet.

Typical feminist rant!


Please tell me you didn't tie 180 yourself!
I'd rather stab myself 180 times, as Sancho Panza might say. (Sorry, reading Quixote right now.)
But good for you, for the project.

Come home soon. Your left-behinds are getting antsy to open the box. (And your scotch is running low.)

Hurry home, we miss all you. The Pike should be hungry. --- Mel

I was just reading this thread yesterday, wondering if you were still in transit.

Are you heading to ANC or ADQ? If the latter, are you going to do it in small hops, or one straight shot?

Scott

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
ANC usually refers to: African National Congress, a revolutionary movement which became the ruling political party in South Africa in the 1994 election.
ADQ is a three-letter acronym that may refer to: Action d�mocratique du Qu�bec, political party in Quebec, Canada

You ask the strangest questions, Scott. This is a fly tying thread!
But I hear that Sitka takes many straight shots.

STUCK! Dear god. Explain to me why you are not down in the Seatuck fishing for early sockeyes and kings. Sure, it's been 20 years since I've done so but I fondly recall the trips there with my Grandfather.

The wait continues. MissKeeto will be leaving soon for The Real Alaska. Our other friend is chasing fish in Scandinavia. We shall never open this box of flies. Thanks heavens for single malt.

ANC, ADQ. I heard Seward was a possibility. But really, what could be prettier than to find yourself in Whittier?

p.s. I miss MissTreated.

Open it! Open it!

MsKeeto deserves her flies, as do you.
Throw the Sitka flies in the bushes near their back door. They'll find 'em sometime.

Just remember to boast over Riley that you're my favorite now!

Wonderful news today. Our seafarers called from Cordova. One more night on the water and home they'll be.

I still might throw their flies in the bushes just for fun. Can't wait to see everyone.

Yes, back from the voyage, a few stories and all that, but looking forward to the fly swap, swap 'n grab...

Riley and I did check out the Situk, it was without fish, and a one way cab fare there was $50! We hitched a ride back to the boat harbor, it was swarming with bugs, too. Miserable fishing day, but still better than sitting in the boat harbor. Main source of entertainment in Yak was setting and checking crab pots. Let's just leave it at "we got crabs in Yakutat."

M

Welcome home.

Who drove?

Mostly Capt. Art.


And yes, I did tie 180 flies myself, 10 sets of 18.

I bow.
I'm doing 90 Aztecs for a friend's group thing to Alberta. 'Tis a chore.

BTW, if you ever want some Aztecs for your CFR boxes, just ask.
(Since I've never had the honor of seeing a pic of Junior's efforts, I have to assume that you'd need to come to the source for good specimens. Dig, dig, hint, hint.)

I sense a hand being forced...

As the father of the "Fly of the Month" columnist for the AK Fly Fishers' newsletter I think I wield special powers and can get a piece written about the Aztec and a picture or two of the fly as he ties them... According to the originator's directions and using the right stuff even...

Just trying to get the efforts documented...
art

Last I heard, he was complaining about bumps on the butt. I never learned if he solved that problem. You don't want your son to have bumps on his butt, do you? (Though better a son than a daughter! )

I don't have that problem anymore. Now the tail always twists when I comb it and the mohawk doesn't ever come out right.

That's more like it.

What are you using to comb? I get more twisting if I use a poodle brush (and I don't use one, except for 'stacked' parts like the head of the Sculpin). But combing with a little anti-spin flip (Doug Swisher named it 'The Aztec Flip') helps during the process. And the yarn will straighten in use- it's really only cosmetic.
I only have a twist problem when using the Lightweight yarn from one company (LeeWards- and of course they were most available and in more colors! No doubt at all I gave you several lengths of theirs). That stuff is so tightly twisted; it just won't behave nicely. And it also needs quite a bit of 'combing' with my bodkin; sometimes as much as with the fine-tooth comb.

I don't know what to say about the Crest. Can you be more specific about your symptoms?
Seems foolproof to me. I use quite a bit of force when wrapping the Body Yarn. With 10s and smaller I'm in danger of bending the hook.
You are using just single plies in the Crest, I hope.?

(It's OK if I hijack the thread-- I started it! )

I am using single piles. They are always either too thick or too thin, and the trimming always doesn't come out looking right either.

Hmmm.
I expect that I marked the yarn cards Heavyweight or Lightweight.
You should use the HW on sizes 2 and larger, LW on smaller; as HW makes too dense a Crest on the smaller sizes; and the Body Yarn is also HW, so makes a proportionate spacing with each wrap.
And tie in the 2 Skip-a-Wrap method (one Crest-anchoring wrap, two solo wraps, one Cre...) to keep the Crest sparse and not make each ply crowd the others- that'd start pushing the row out of alignment.
And trim the Crest after combing, not before.
(I don't see how one can go wrong if following the instructions.)
I think I need specs and pics to make a good diagnosis.