looks like a great site Tosser. I added it to my favorites.

He dose a lot of submissions for hatches.

Posted By bpetersen on 22 Mar 2012 03:56 PM
Troutinator. right now I am more comfortable with finishing by hand but what i am doing is throwing on a couple of half hitches and then using the whip finish tool. that way the fly doesn't come unraveled when i screw up the whip finish, i use it because I want to become proficient with it. right now my smallest fly that i try to tye is a #18 zebra. I have no idea how anyone does a 26 even with a magnification lamp. What do you tye the tiger with?

Brian

My size 24 tiger midges are very simple, in my opinion.  I simply slide a size 1/16 dia gold bead only a size 22 or 24 TMC 2488 (but I'm sure others will work).  I make a quick wrap with black thread from the bead to halfway around the bend.  I return to the bead and place a strand of small dia copper wire on the top of the hook, sliding it into the bead.  I tie it into place and keeping the wire on top, I tie it back down to the middle of the bend then bring the thread back up to the bead once again.  At this point, I make tight wraps with the copper wire with even spacing (spaces about the width of the wire) up the bead and tie it off.  Once I trim the wire, I'll add a piece of crystal flash on top.  We catch (or lose) about 90% of our local trout on these midges.  I've sure you've seen the posts of our catches.  Of course, you can vary to silver beads and silver wire, or even red wire, or different color beads or even thread.  Heck, rarely do more than 2 or 3 of my midges ever look alike because of the variations.  I fly tying friend gave me a small bag of colored beads a couple of years ago, so I now have beads in green, black (I do like the black), clear, pink, red, as well as gold and silver.  For tying, I use a large magnifying glass with a light and a pair of cheap reading glasses.  However, my wife (who's still a young 43) can tie these size 24 midges without the use of a magnifying glass or reading glasses.  Simply amazes me.

I'm starting to experiment with some new designs and material to match some midges I found in the river.  How do some of these look?

Very nice. I have not worked with the tubing before but it seems to really look good to me.

Last week in my class we did hares ear nyphs and the chernobyl ant. I have ties the chernobyl before but not with a poly yarn and crystal flash wing. I can really see why folks say tying is addicting, you see how someone else does something and then a bunch of other ideas start popping up in your head.

One more thing, at the beginning of this thread I mentioned that one of my goals was to learn how to use the whip finishing tool. I was just using half hitches but wanted to know how to do the whip finish anyway. well for a while I was really struggling and I felt clumsy using the tool. I would throw on a couple of half hitches before I started the whip finish so in case I screwed up everyting still held together. well I think I finally picked it up and it seems like second nature to use the whip finishing tool now.

Brian

I use a Thompson style whip finisher or whip finish buy hand . I have used a ink pen or turkey feather for a half hitch tool in the past but prefer a whip finish and I double whip finish my flys .
just my preference.

well finished my last class( i need to make up the class that we did elk hair caddis). we tied parachute adams and I was pretty happy with how they turned out. i will try and post some pics at some point.

It sounds like you have a rely great set of flies that should work anywhere Brian . Glad you decided to give it a go as i am sure you will find much enjoyment out of it .There is nothing better then catching a fish on something you made .

Yep Rod Tosser. Im hooked. now I just gotta get out and use them. I was gonna go out last weekend but ended up having a family emergency. I am amazed at how easily little boys can hurt themselves.

bpetersen ... I hope the family emergency is over and wasn't too bad. Kind of concerned that it's been over four months.
If everything is NOT okay, I hope it's getting better ... my best wishes are headed your way.
If everything IS better ... where are the pictures ????

When you find your skill set in fly tying, check out trout nut, a website providing aquatic insect pictures and information down to the genus and species which can be a huge tool in locking into the bite of a given stream.