Hey Fly Tiers...What's In The Vise?

[WANNAKETCHUM]

My Mrs. headed to town today for groceries and before she left she asked if there's any thing I needed. I told her to pick me up a bottle of Sally's "hard as nails". She also mentioned that she was going to be stopping by the Dollar Tree store for some liquid hand soap refills. I asked her to check if they had packages of craft foam sheets and to pick me up some if they had it. She brought me back a packet of 32 sheets 4x6" and probably 1/16" thickness. There are 6 colors in the pack...blue, yellow, red, purple, orange, & green. All for $1.00 + tax!!!      Time to start tying those Bluegill bugs!

After she got home I explained to her what I planned on using it for and surprisingly she made mention that she was interested in learning how to fly fish. We have always fished together, but this is the first time I've heard her say that. We've fished streams together many times and she was always content to use one of her spinning rods while I fished with a fly rod. I told her when the ice goes off it, I would take her over to the neighbor's pond and show her some basics on casting. Our anniversary is only about 5 weeks away so I'm thinking maybe a decent (Redington) 9' 5wt outfit would make a nice present...   

WK

[kc]

for who?  

[WANNAKETCHUM]

for who?  

Why for her of course  ... Actually, when I told her she could use my 9' 4wt anytime she'd like she said, "No... I'd rather have my own".

WK

[rgfixit]

Get her a TFO Finesse 4wt. Great Rod and affordable.

Rg

[WANNAKETCHUM]

Get her a TFO Finesse 4wt. Great Rod and affordable.

Rg

No doubt Rg... but we have a pretty good selection of fly rods and reels at our store. No we don't carry TFO, but we have Sage, Redington, Hardy, St. Croix, Wright and McGill, and Field & Stream brands for rods. Sage, Lamson, Hardy, Redington, Wright and McGill, and Field & Stream reels. Rio and Scientific Anglers fly lines, plus a myriad of different leader and tippet brands. With my employee discount, I can probably put together a decent outfit (ready to fish)  for her for around what that TFO rod would cost alone.

WK

[WANNAKETCHUM]

And just so you all know...

Lets let this thread remain what it is and not turn it into a "What's the best fly rod to start out with?" Blah, blah... I pretty much know what she likes to fish for and how often she may even use a fly rod so if there's anything else anyone wants to plug in it's moot.

Rg,

I'm kinda with you... I was leaning toward a 4wt initially because we mostly fish small to medium streams locally. I mentioned a 5wt for her because I have 3's, 4's and 6's of my own, but the 5wt would be exclusively hers!! 

WK

[rgfixit]

Didn't realize you worked in a fly shop. Discounts are good   Last count I think I'm at 19 fly rods. Nobody needs 19 fly rods but the TFO 3wt I built a few years ago is one of my most used rods. I may do a 4wt this year. I built a 5 wt Axiom a couple years ago as well. Nice Rod, but I'm not as comfortable with it as some of the others. It's pretty fast and I'm pretty slow.

The Rod that is always somewhere close at hand and gets the most use is my 5wt Pfleuger President IM-6. It's got to be 20 years old now. Bought it out of a bargain bin at Dicks for $19. I just finished re-wrapping it last March. Talk about a comfortable Rod to use.

Won't be long now for me. I'm making up some furled leaders for the next few days.  I'm going to tune some down for dry flies and beef some up for carp. Might even do some Flourocarbon to try on e carp this year. There's a few changes I'm going to make to my setup so I can do up to 10'. I can do to 70" right now. Mostly I use 60" but the longest ones have their place.

There's always something to do!

Rg

[boondox]

rg
see if you can locate a gatti blank that maybe a rod you like.... not even sure if they sell them in the usa any more? i still got my five weight i built when they were sold in the usa... still better then any of my batson, seiver, pac bays, etc...   or even powell rods i have owned and some scott rods  there not broom sticks like scotts are  if you ask me...  but truly a fast action rod i think i paid $86 for a fast action and light weight blank 10-15 years ago... which is incredible find none the less and is still up to date to today standards......     

[trapper2000]

been working on  some  small mouth  and  panfish  flies  ...although i perfer  the  orginal  colrs   to  this  fly  the  u  tube  video  shows  how  to  tie  it  well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V77BTzCGPZM

crappie  candy  is  a  great  fly  for   early  crappies  and  for  small mouths  as  well  the   orginal colors   where a  white sparkle wool  body .....green  flash  and  white  wing white  thread

[Bluegillonafly]

Trap...here's a couple for crappies that I came up with:

[trapper2000]

oh i really like  them 

[big_guy_13021]

Nice trapper im gonna tie some a those n try them out..thanks for sharing that..

[trapper2000]

i  always  got  alot  of  crappies  on   micky fins  black  nose  dace  and  muddles ....but  half  the  fun is  tring  something  new and  BS  about  it   

[big_guy_13021]

..these r simple easy to tie i killed the crappie ion these 2 jigs all ice season no bait just jig

[big_guy_13021]

1/32 oz jig..