tjm

somehow I got the idea that OK had privatized the management of the state parks a few years ago, is that not the case?

I think that I first heard of the Booby Fly on another forum posted by guys fishing them in Utah's lakes for trout. As I recall they claimed to tie them so buoyant that when fished on a sinking line the flies stayed up off the bottom. Said they were damsels. Sounded good for ponds and sloughs.

Mono eyes would be lighter or the Brits use "Booby flies" with foam for eyes on damsels and dragons, a random example from the www

3366 is one of my favorite hooks, have some in #10 & #12 for trout, I wish they made them down to #18. #6 is my go to stream bass size as well; I've never had one bend, but I try not to catch fish over ~3-3.5# so can't say that they won't bend, big fish are just too much trouble. Now I'll have set one in the bench vise and try to test it.

Dry flies can use down eye to let the fly ride higher when the tippet is on the film. Wet flies in the film or subsurface flies can benefit from up eye as the tippet is above the fly. For inverted wets/streamers a down eye becomes an up eye in use and the pull of he leader tends to keep the hook inverted; and if the up eye is inverted so that it becomes a down eye on the retrieve it can tend to roll the fly over, how much that happens would depend on size of hook compared to size of fly and on how resistant to roll over the design is. I've tied old style winged wets on down eye hooks that fished upside down but still caught the occasional fish. Winged wets are probably more like a forage fish than any insect anyway and the white wings could pass as belly. I like straight eyes for all my wets and streamers although I have a couple hundred 4XL & 6XL down eye hooks still that I'll someday likely tie something on. It's been a long while since using those type streamers. With a dumbbell on the salmon hooks set near the eye as most do, I doubt that the leader would cause roll over but you can trial it in the bath tub or the sink. If the dumbbell is set halfway back like Clouser suggests I think the eye would cause rollover more often than not.

Lots of flies are jigs, in essence, all the bead heads and cone heads and dumbbell eyed stuff act as jigs and many of them are even tied on jig hooks. And if your jig is tied on a single point hook, in Mo. it is legally a fly in fly fishing only waters. So put them with the rest of the flies. Not so many flies today have spinners on them as there were back 60-70 years ago, but Pistol Petes are still fairly common. If you want to do a bunch of hand carved plugs or molded stuff and lures with multipoint and/or multiple hooks, those as "not legally flies" might need a special place, but to me a lure is lure. Almost anything that is not "bait" is a lure. By the way, nice flies in that last image.

Woody's kid.

How many of them are still living?

No, it's not a matter of getting them right, the first one off the vise will probably be the best of that pattern for that session, before I start to make changes. It's just not being able to stay on that subject longer than about 15 minutes. I don't tie flies from boredom, but because of need and I suppose early on I tried 3 each of several patterns just to replace that day's loss and it became a habit, or maybe I had ADD as child back before they gave it a name. It doesn't take me long to look at anything. I can't watch a fly tying video either unless it's on 2.5X speed. If I tied 20 thread jigs, they'd be in 8-10 different colors, or on three kinds of hooks. Or both.

I'm a little envious of y'all that can tie the same pattern over and over. I'd be bored too soon, about three alike and my attention wanders and I end with 12-30 odd things that have no relation to the first pattern. probably take me a dozen tying sessions to end up with enough of the same for a swap.

I built an 8' pram when I was in high school, so about 60 years ago, designed to sail, it wasn't that slow, was two person capacity and my brother and camped out it on one stream float, I fished the Osage and S. Grand out of it and would kinda compare it with the 12' Jon that had years later except that it would fit in the bed if my '51 Ford and it only weighed about 40#. If I remember right it took two whole sheets of plywood. loved that little boat and never got to sail it. But, after the Jon I built a square stern 15' plywood pirogue that I liked much better than either. With fiberglass outside it weighed almost 80# and carried myself wife two kids and the dog. If I were thinking of another boat for me, I'd probably be looking at pirogue plans, but for small waters and easy portability the small pram is stable fishing seat if not too nimble.

I wonder in the USA how many "Indian Creeks" there are? Most creek and river names got used over and over but "Indian" and "Sugar" seem to get most use.

I think that any trout in the USA has "Hatchery" genetics, even the "wild" trout in their native range have been repeatedly diluted with stocked trout and it 's obvious that any trout outside it's native range came from hatchery stock even if it's been naturalized for a hundred years like some Mo. rainbows. We've been moving and stocking fish since the early 1880s and for the majority of that time no one thought anything about preservation of native stocks. There still those who think bass should be stocked in Ozark reservoirs to insure any native bass are mixed with hatchery genetics.

Back east I could fish five flies on a cast and I set up dropper wets to resemble a cluster of fry, it caught a few fish but a single fly or three spaced much farther apart seemed to catch more. I do like his use of the tube and the stiff mono with differing fly weights to keep the shape and relative orientation during the retrieve. It looks like largemouth or pike bait to me.

I remember when there were bushels of those used chicken plant knives at the flea markets. Had a few of them given to me by a guy that worked as a sharpener. But it occurs to me now that I haven't seen one in a years.