In my happy place this morning tying a sample collection for my friend in the inner city of Chicago. Yes he fishes and does well.

[kjackson]

I'm beginning to hate posts like these...I love the flies, but jeez.  I have thousands of hooks for fly tying but none like Billethead is using.  Nor do I have any slotted tungsten beads.  And let's not even get into the micro squirrel zonker strips. I have a lot of rabbit zonker hides, but they're all rabbit and in steelhead and salmon colors.  And then try to find Needleoft Plastic Canvas Yarn in the right colors... the only thing I do have is a coffee grinder for blending dubbing.  

But if I buy some beads, I might be able to work with them on the stash of Octopus hooks I have. They might work there...but still, I'm trying to thin the herd of fishing and tying gear I have. I really don't need to buy more...  And then I realize that if I buy some crappie-size tube-style jigheads, I could use a lot of the short hoochie skirts that are filling a box in my basement, and Amazon does ship free if you spend enough.  

[BilletHead]

36 minutes ago, kjackson said:

I'm beginning to hate posts like these...I love the flies, but jeez.  I have thousands of hooks for fly tying but none like Billethead is using.  Nor do I have any slotted tungsten beads.  And let's not even get into the micro squirrel zonker strips. I have a lot of rabbit zonker hides, but they're all rabbit and in steelhead and salmon colors.  And then try to find Needleoft Plastic Canvas Yarn in the right colors... the only thing I do have is a coffee grinder for blending dubbing.  

But if I buy some beads, I might be able to work with them on the stash of Octopus hooks I have. They might work there...but still, I'm trying to thin the herd of fishing and tying gear I have. I really don't need to buy more...  And then I realize that if I buy some crappie-size tube-style jigheads, I could use a lot of the short hoochie skirts that are filling a box in my basement, and Amazon does ship free if you spend enough.  

       I will help you a bit. Common B10s hook or equivalent. Do you have any Mustad 3366? It's really like the ones I use. Not a slotted bead. Not what I use but can get by with a standard fly brass bead.

    It's funny that you brought this up. Although this is a fly jig hook and a standard brass bead head I was just messing around and tried a rabbit zonker a couple hours ago. 

     

[tjm]

@kjackson when I get around to tying again, I'll modify Marty's pattern by using a 3366 hook and bead chain to invert it, I think both are available at Walmart, and while I don't have any zonker strips, I do have a partial pine squirrel skin or two and a razor blade. Probably try a yellow marker to give that an olive tint. The shine in the Needloft yarn is the 100% nylon same as the shine in Antron was and I sometimes use Dazzle Aire yarn (60% Creslan 40% nylon); I'm not sure color matters much when blending into a dubbing for a subtle shine, white, yellow or pastel shades seem to have more shine, and I only worry about color when using it as a shuck. Nylon mixed into the dubbing as I intend won't have the show and hide effect that he gets with the sparkly stuff hidden and revealed by the pectorals when stripped.

I won't be copying his pattern so much as copying his idea and adapting it to materials that I have. 

[BilletHead]

2 minutes ago, tjm said:

@kjackson when I get around to tying again, I'll modify Marty's pattern by using a 3366 hook and bead chain to invert it, I think both are available at Walmart, and while I don't have and zonker strips, I do have a partial pine squirrel skin or two and a razor blade. The shine in the Needloft yarn is the 100% nylon same as the shine in Antron was and I sometimes use Dazzle Aire yarn (60% Creslan 40% nylon); I'm not sure color matters much when blending into a dubbing for a subtle shine, white, yellow or pastel shades seem to have more shine, and I only worry about color when using it as a shuck. Nylon mixed into the dubbing as I intend won't have the show and hide effect that he gets with the sparkly stuff hidden and revealed by the pectorals when stripped.

I won't be copying his pattern so much as copying his idea and adapting it to materials that I have. 

Bravo!  

[Foghorn]

I liked the timing of the wraps with the music on the first video. The man ,Dan Peek, lived in Farmington after he left the band America. 

[BilletHead]

20 minutes ago, Foghorn said:

I liked the timing of the wraps with the music on the first video. The man ,Dan Peek, lived in Farmington after he left the band America. 

            Ha it wasn't planned. What can I say other than I need some tunes when things get too quiet. It helps to partially keep my ear ringing from driving me crazy. Now you all know why I am crazy. 🤣

[ness]

16 hours ago, tjm said:

I won't be copying his pattern so much as copying his idea and adapting it to materials that I have. 

Great approach!

[tjm]

43 minutes ago, ness said:

Great approach!

Been doing it that way since the 1970s when my best source of patterns was catalogs from Orvis, Dan Bailey and  Kaufmann’s Streamborn. And the tying supplies all came from the bait shop. Or "mail order", my first "good" grizzly cape involved several letters between myself and a California chicken raiser, probably a month or more of correspondence. So having all the proper materials, or even knowing them, was rare other than for the "standard" flies. I've tied hundreds (maybe dozens) of flies that called for Hungarian grouse but never owned one until a couple years ago. Ruffed grouse, quail, hen necks all catch just as many fish as a real Hun. 

My flies are always recognizable or identifiable as the patterns they started out to be.  

[kjackson]

It figures that a recommended hook is one I don't have...Mustad 3366?  I don't believe I ever bought them.  I used a ton of 3399As and have a lot of them in stock. Plus a strong selection of the newer versions of Mustad. But  I do have the B10s I think in a fair range of sizes.  And a bunch of VMC hooks (a friend was a sales rep for VMC and gave me his stock when he quit). Undoubtedly, I will find a hook that will work.  But I'll need to buy the squirrel zonkers because the rabbit strips I have are all too wide and definitely in colors that are, let's say, bright.  

[fishinwrench]

55 minutes ago, kjackson said:

Mustad 3366?  I don't believe I ever bought them

 

Are you not a Clouser slinging guy ?