Travis Swift

these look awesome Wrench!! I would love to learn how to make those!

What do you guys paint them with and how do you seal them

I bought some Wapsi perfect popper bodies and I also have 2 sizes of double barrel popper bodies coming. After seeing the price of about 8 bucks each with shipping for made up poppers I've decided to try and make my own. any advice? these are bass sized poppers

As some of you know I'm new to this stuff but gathering all I can on here and reading. We don't have trout here in Kansas except in the winter. I have a city pond by my house that they stock with catfish all the time. Been taking my fly rod down and catching catfish on little 1/80th ounce trout jigs that I pour and tie. Boy they really are fun to catch. Yesterday I was sight fishing for them as they were right on the bank feeding on something......I suspect snails as there are a bunch on the rocks. I'm trying to think what might be a good fly to try and catch them on besides my tiny jigs, I'm thinking a black wolly bugger by chance? Anyhow wanted to share a couple pics, they aren't to big but are a blast. Caught 1 a couple weeks ago that was close to 4 pounds. These 2 yesterday aren't near that big. But I caught them both and only fished about 15 minutes which leads me to believe If I really tried I could figure out a way to catch them on some sort of flies or small jigs consistently?

Agreed, he is wonderful, kind and helpful. 2 mins with him and you feel like you have been friends forever. One year we rented a boat from lilleys for 2 days. we ran out of white jigs and lilleys was sold out. we casually mentioned it to Duane as we left the first day. Came back to get in the boat on day 2 and there set a pile if white jigs on the seat waiting for us on day 2. He helped me a ton with fly fishing questions and baits a couple weeks ago as well. Just a great person!

it's rated as a moderate tip

Thanks Duane that is a terrific tip. So your suggestion would be to buy a 6wt line for my 5wt rod? Any particular brand/model? I do think I want to purchase a camo type line to help with spooky fish in the trophy area.

I'm new to flyfishing, have no mentors so I ask questions....sorry. BTW I've fallen in love with it. I bought a Cabelas Bighorn Combo 9ft 5 weight that came with flyline and backing on the reel already. It bothers me not knowing what flyline is on there and honestly I'm sure it's cheap and not great line. I want to purchase some good line. It will be used on Taney for trout and here in Kansas for bluegills and smallish bass. Also this will be used for jig and indicator, midge and indicator and scud's and indicators pretty much exclusively. I don't plan to throw any dry flies at all. Can someone give me some suggestions on what line to buy for that kind of scenario? I'm assuming a better more premium type of line will help with casting distance and control a lot? thank you in advance I really appreciate the help. travis

Yes I have read most of those. They are great info! Just had those last specific questions. I'm know I'm probably getting annoying.... It sure is nice to have an active Taney forum going though. For some of us this forum is all we got to get us thru several months at at time before we can get back

couple questions if I can....... Mega worm......fish it on the bottom? with our without an indicator? Zebra Midge.....I fished it as a dropper off a jig and was shaking the jig as usual. If fished alone is it best to just let it float along or do you import action somehow? Scud.....I fished with an indicator just floating it along and sometimes with a midge dropper. Caught a couple doing this, not sure if it's the right way to fish a scud or not? What is the proper way? Egg Fly (or miracle fly)...I'm assuming water moving do you fish this basically like a taneycomo drift rig without powerbait? San Juan worm.......I'm assuming again moving water and do you drift it like powerbait as well or same principal? Sorry for the questions, these baits should cover about all I need........for now I just need to know how to fish them or the proper way to fish them.

For what it's worth Eagle Claw makes a black platinum sickle hook called the Lil' Nasty in sizes down to 10. It's extremely sharp and strong and cheap. I have started making all my trout jigs, road runners and Ned rigs using this hook and have loved the results.

Not trying to make a Turners but was just messing around trying to make a tiny micro. Just took a #10 sickle hook and pinched a split shot on. Painted it and tied. Bottom jig is a Dinky Doty for reference

do you guys have any pictures of the fly tying jig hooks with the slotted beads on there as a finished project? or really any other small micro type jig stuff?

those are good looking hooks. I was looking for a 90 degree hook to fit a do it mold. I have been known to modify my molds a lot though so I might be able to use something of this sort to make a micro jig if I needed to.

if a guy was gonna pour some small jig heads what size hook should be used? smallest jig hook I can find is a size 12...or is there a good place to buy premade heads with a small size 12 hook that is a decent quality hook? For instance there is a collarless jig head mold that goes down to 1/80th ounce. If I put a small size 12 hook in that, could I make some decent small jig heads to use with my fly rod with them? Or would it be easier to just buy some plain PJ's jig heads in the 1/125th ounce with the size 10 jig hook?

Those aren't legal in the restricted area so they would need to be fished outside of it

It's amazing to me how I can lay a jerk bait down in my boat and those 3 treble hooks will catch everything, other lines, my carpet, my seats, my shirt... But some how those freaking brown trout can flat attack it and not get hooked up. They are like houdinis.

Gotcha yeah I think a fishing one would be awesome there. With the water off you could beach it on the gravel bar at the narrows and hammer down on them

seriously? You took that out of my post? There is a giant difference in a couple guys in Kayak's fishing and 10 to 20 novice floaters going down the middle of the lake with no clue where they are, where they are headed, no boating rules and going right down the middle of the lake or widing out where they make it hard to pass them. I also showed some concern for very young children in 48 degree water with 4 units running. Nowhere in my post did I say guys fishing in Yak's. Hell yes go down in your Yak with your jerkbaits and post some darn reports for us to, we would love to see them!

well we have hit prime vacation season but more importantly it was freaking HOT last week with heat indexes close to 100 on several days so that may have had a ton to do with all of them being out. Can't blame them, it felt good on the water, especially close to the dam when the 4 units started running.

Respectfully back, have you been on Taney much of late? I have been coming multiple times a year, every year since 1985. I just spent 8 days there last week and it's just gotten crazy, especially with the Kayak's. I totally understand they have every right to be there and enjoy the lake but I just wish they would stay off to the side. There are times they basically stretch the entire width of the lake as far not being able to get a boat past them with docks and downed trees. Taney is a different animal with the current, cold water and especially the FOG. It's not very wide anyhow and is seeing increasing boating traffic. On top of all that there are some places on the Upper lake such as the narrows, fall creek, short creek, lookout island and above trophy run that require a very narrow area to boat thru. Multiple times I saw these places completely clogged shut with kayaks. Did I mention FOG? It seriously in my opinion is getting pretty crazy and dangerous.

I have slept on this a few nights but it still makes my blood boil thinking about it. I had a great week at Taney last week. But boy last Saturday was stupid. I stay down lake at a resort and as I'm getting my boat back out of the dock that freaking Jet Boat comes by, the wave it throws darn near swamped my boat under the dock, it took 2 of us to try to hold onto the dock and boat to try and minimize the damage. Then as I run up the lake I start seeing the Kayak's......dear lord the Kayaks. If there was 1 there was a hundred of them. And they are in the middle of the lake, all the way across the lake etc. Man by the time I got past about 90 of them I was at Fall Creek and there were more in the middle of the lake......couldn't take it anymore I started hollering at them to get out of the middle of the darn lake. Those aren't like big stable kayak's either, they are small and narrow ones. And I can't believe they put kids that look like they are 4 or 5 years old in those things in 48 degree water temps with 4 units running. Sorry I'm ranting on, I'm not grumpy old man I promise. I'm only 41. And I love seeing other people on the lake and waving and having family time, that's how I grew up down there and just love it. But man that lake has changed ALOT and I for one miss the 80's and 90's on Taney. Rant over.

I'm 3 days in to a 7 day trip down here at taney so far. I've pretty much fallen in love with the fly rod and I'm mad I wasted alot of years not using one. I caught close to 40 on it the first day in the trophy area in my boat. Water was off and we had a nice chop. Didn't have a clue what I was doing except for all the advice on here. They ate a small jig that day. On the way back I stopped at Lilleys and had a nice visit with Duane. He helped me pick out some midges and scud and gave me advice on how to tie a dropper. The next day it was flat water with no wind and although tougher I caught over 20 with a secret micro jig.. Thanks again Duane and a midge dropper. When they crank the water then I go to straight jigs and jerk baits at the cable on a spinning rod. Still trying to figure out an indicator. I have some small ones with a rubber center but throw them off ALOT. Also using an SOS trout cork like I use on my spinning rods with a trout magnet. It's been sufficient so far but I'm sure it's not the best option.

man there are a lot of big browns in there now. congrats to the Lisa that's a great fish!

well Duane you better start selling some. Let's name it the Dinky Doty jig.....I'll take a dozen to try this coming week.