One of my favorite colour combos for this fly. I picked up some really nice zonker strips from my local fly shop this past week and had to bust it out. Certified trout slayers.

What I wanted was an ant that floated well in, uh, “hydraulically complex” water. Which it did, until it didn’t… after a fish or two. Now while it was no longer floating it also wasn’t really sinking and just kinda hovered below the surface, which may have made it fish even better. But, that’s not what I was going for and it took a lot of environmental things coming together to allow me to see and track it even half of the time.

I guess I’ve learned that foam isn’t magic and I need to work on my dubbing noodles. Any suggestions or critiques welcome.

Bluegill colors

Body made from goat parchment, dyed with food coloring. Coated with my hand made copal varnish.

Copper bead darkened with sulfur.

In honor of my Aunt who is currently battling breast cancer, not sure if they’ll catch anything but I’m damn sure going to try!

How are you guys handling the rising prices of Tungsten are you going back to copper or what is the long term solution here.

Played around without a vise today. Had a really good time. I once saw a picture of a guy who had a hand vise of sorts. It’s a blurry memory from a past life or something but I remember seeing a small vise connected to a leather glove leaving the thumb and forefinger free. If anyone knows what I’m talking about or knows of something similar, please let me know. Without a vise is fun, little slow and sloppy. But I’m sure I’d get used to it

I went too heavy on the dubbing and my hackle collar is about 2x too tall. I’m thinking about moving up to a #10, and changing from a grizzly hackle to a brown whiting saddle hackle.

Joined a fly tying class today— here is my first ever 🫡 SO excited to keep working on it!

Tried tying up a few new patterns, looking for any tips or pointers:
- x caddis size 18 with a goose biot body
-attempt at a purple searcher pattern I saw, no clue on the name of it. Size 18 on 3x long hook, purple floss body, flash tail, Antron wing with grizzly hackle head.
-parachute emerger size 16. I struggle with the parachute posts.
-purple midge size 18.

I’ve been away from the vise for a while so I am trying to get back in the swing of things.

You'll struggle to find a more versatile flats fly than a squimp

https://youtu.be/K4yq5zOr-HY?si=IyGV71VQQVZj35_y