Question:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Those that wanted to should have. You all missed a great one. Suckers! I’ll let Kevin give the details.  I had to get my digs in after driving more than 3,000 miles in the last two weeks just for a little fly fishing. Joel Axelrad **DFD** I wanted to, but wound up at my boss’s lake home.  Dang.  Hot water, flush toilets, sandy beach, pontoon boat.   Now if only I could have done both…

Did you catch any fish? Wolfgang

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rbc:  vixen wrote… I wanted to, but wound up at my boss’s lake home.  Dang.  Hot water, flush toilets, sandy beach, pontoon boat.   Now if only I could have done both…

We missed you cyli.  6, 7, 8, lb. pike on the fly and plenty of them.  We missed you all.  Make this clave the next time it comes up! Joel Axelrad **DFD**

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Reports?

I’ll post one later or more likely tomorrow. Pictures?

My slides and CD come back on Thursday, I’ll post to ABPF then. Willi

Fix underscore in address to reply

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Did you catch any fish? No, but I saw a nice imported striped bass.  It’s been so cold that I think they’re just getting ready to spawn up there in NW Wisconsin. There were no fish in evidence on Saturday, Sunday there were some rises out in the center of the lake and Monday we suddenly saw the same amount of fish I’d seen there on my trip last summer.   All the rivers were running high and lovely.  Each time I took a bridge over the Namekagon I was wishing for a raft and a bunch of time to go down it again.

had a clavemistress. I did do some casting practice from the dock, but only with a spinning rod, as the kids were in the water and up on the dock and on the beach (only two of them, but two kids and water makes a herd) and I was darned if I’d do anything with a back cast involved.

Get a bunch of ROFFians up there for a long weekend and you will get enough free casting instruction to have you threading a weighted woolly bugger effortlessly and successfully through an entire tribe of high speed young’ns…..well, MOSTLY successfully.     Wolfgang who ain’t never fished that neighborhood.

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rbc:  vixen wrote… I wanted to, but wound up at my boss’s lake home.  Dang.  Hot water, flush toilets, sandy beach, pontoon boat.   Now if only I could have done both… We missed you cyli.  6, 7, 8, lb. pike on the fly and plenty of them.  We missed you all.  Make this clave the next time it comes up!

Reports? Pictures? Willi

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– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Those that wanted to should have. You all missed a great one. Suckers! I’ll let Kevin give the details.  I had to get my digs in after driving more than 3,000 miles in the last two weeks just for a little fly fishing. Joel Axelrad **DFD** I wanted to, but wound up at my boss’s lake home.  Dang.  Hot water, flush toilets, sandy beach, pontoon boat.   Now if only I could have done both… Did you catch any fish? Wolfgang

No, but I saw a nice imported striped bass.  It’s been so cold that I think they’re just getting ready to spawn up there in NW Wisconsin. There were no fish in evidence on Saturday, Sunday there were some rises out in the center of the lake and Monday we suddenly saw the same amount of fish I’d seen there on my trip last summer.   All the rivers were running high and lovely.  Each time I took a bridge over the Namekagon I was wishing for a raft and a bunch of time to go down it again.   I did do some casting practice from the dock, but only with a spinning rod, as the kids were in the water and up on the dock and on the beach (only two of them, but two kids and water makes a herd) and I was darned if I’d do anything with a back cast involved. — rbc:  vixen    Fairly harmless remove invalid or hit reply to email. Though I’m very slow to respond. http://www.visi.com/~cyli

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Those that wanted to should have. You all missed a great one. Suckers! I’ll let Kevin give the details.  I had to get my digs in after driving more than 3,000 miles in the last two weeks just for a little fly fishing. Joel Axelrad **DFD**

Response:

Those that wanted to should have. You all missed a great one. Suckers! I’ll let Kevin give the details.  I had to get my digs in after driving more than 3,000 miles in the last two weeks just for a little fly fishing. Joel Axelrad **DFD**

I wanted to, but wound up at my boss’s lake home.  Dang.  Hot water, flush toilets, sandy beach, pontoon boat.   Now if only I could have done both… — rbc:  vixen    Fairly harmless remove invalid or hit reply to email. Though I’m very slow to respond. http://www.visi.com/~cyli

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Question:

Anyone know why this wonderful show is no longer carried by the "Toronto Sports Network" (TSN). I think one would be hard pressed to find a better show in the genre and I am sooo sick of the current offerings, really almost totally void of any quality fly fishing programs – I think if I see Henry and Italio again I’m going to take hostages! You have to wonder that if the CRTC was abolished tommorrow, most of the fishing shows currently we are forced to watch would not last one season. Got questions?  Get answers over the phone at Keen.com. Up to 100 minutes free! http://www.keen.com

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Anyone know why this wonderful show is no longer carried by the "Toronto Sports Network" (TSN). I think one would be hard pressed to find a better show in the genre and I am sooo sick of the current offerings, really almost totally void of any quality fly fishing programs – I think if I see Henry and Italio again I’m going to take hostages! You have to wonder that if the CRTC was abolished tommorrow, most of the fishing shows currently we are forced to watch would not last one season.

Bill Ya, the show just disappeared off the tube and I haven’t seen a trace of it.  Speaking of hostages and H & I, these shows are total hostages of the sponsors, they have to work in the product constantly to the point that the show is a 30 minute commercial.  IBFF never once mentioned the product and concentrated on fishing, maybe that was their downfall? Peter

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The show was finded by OLF and was not renewed after it’s second season was completed last year. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Anyone know why this wonderful show is no longer carried by the "Toronto Sports Network" (TSN). I think one would be hard pressed to find a better show in the genre and I am sooo sick of the current offerings, really almost totally void of any quality fly fishing programs – I think if I see Henry and Italio again I’m going to take hostages! You have to wonder that if the CRTC was abolished tommorrow, most of the fishing shows currently we are forced to watch would not last one season. Got questions?  Get answers over the phone at Keen.com. Up to 100 minutes free! http://www.keen.com

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Question:

George – Can I have some of what your drinking? It’s gotta be good stuff! Nice prose there Georgie… Greg – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I began this journey on a dare.  I don’t even remember who it was.   It was one of you, even two or three, yet, here I am, wondering why I’m here? The fly rod is but a stick.  It is a reaching prest toward trout. Something to dab with, as in days of yore.  The lure of water, fins, and things that fall into water are what closes the chain that draws such as you   and I to feeding fish? We are men of water. I have mused much in my lifetime of how fishing began with sticks.  I have thought of the first hook and I’m sure, in my mind, it has always been hidden in the crotch of a sapling.  A simple affair of early man looking ‘down’ into clear water at big fish, stationary and finning, holding – waiting for food to come their way.  Food, the number one driving force of this planet.  Food, the mother of imagination.  Food, the mistress of fly fishing.  In all time, it only needed a student, willing to learn. I can see myself in another life, ugly, naked, hungry,  looking at such fish.  How it came to be that ‘the light of imagination,’ would turn the sapling, I may have been holding onto, so I could peer out and down a little better, sparked the logic of stripping it of all the limbs except one lower one, branch stub ‘up’ for a snare, to be able to reach down, slowly, moving the stick under such a wild creature and with all the quickness and might I could muster, lift it quickly, impelling and catching it fresh and easy . . . surely was a feat that had to be repeated again and again over the entire history of mankind.  Repeated by others of our reincarnated pasts? Today, I have built a bamboo fly rod plant.  A great river flows in front.  I am torn between its lure and the wand one must have in hand to conquer it.  A line of Osage orange trees line the other side of the road and a few yards beyond that, the Snake River slowly begins to fill with spring run off.  I am a trapped man in love with all that is around him.  Wood, freshly sawed with the dust veins, lay in heaps on the floor – sweetly scenting of pine, prints upon the mind.  This is a place children would remember.  Work benches, take form and the whirling sounds of a large table saw, cross saws, drills and electric screwdrivers whine late into the night.  A man’s dream slowly takes shape.  You can see his commitment to the future and of the many men he thinks about as he builds alone, thoughtful, diligent, steadily he holds on to his beliefs and dreams.  He feel very alone many times, late at night. Already, it is 1:26 AM in the morning.  The rod-guide-winding table has been dyed cherry wood and it has been varnished and now a clear finish dries while I write this.  Today, cutting bevels of sixty degrees each arrived for a new tapering machine.  A Beveler for roughing out Bamboo strips has been ordered and is on its way.  A new and second rod winding machine has been set up and the new table will have two of them.  Late this evening I bought the glue that will hold the Bastard Rods together.  Two cases of rod binding string are on its way, enough to wrap several hundred fly rods.  Planers, drill press, a SouthBend Lathe have bee ordered along with a heating oven.  Daily, hour by hour, week by week this is all I think of.  It is all I do.  I am a man of water. My mind sees pictures into the future.  Of men astream, casting.   If I am lucky, they may be casting a bamboo fly rod . . . a tool of our past, welded in spirit by our human history, flowing like the mane of a horse, that once upon a time was our fly lines. I can visualize another one day sitting in this fly rod shop I’m building, musing,  banding guides in colors sublime.  Green or Blue trimmed in Black or Gold, each wrap a binding makes – the man to his client.  One simple wrap, will go astream to secret places I know not of, but in spirit as the reed swishes softly in a early dawn, many miles away, by another.  We are men of water. The simplicity of thread has much beauty as the simplicity of the Chinese Bamboo does.  The simplicity of cork grown in Portugal by peasants who wait 35 years for its first crop, provides ‘feel,’ yet no one has empathy for those that work from hand to mouth for it.  The story of cane comes not without just dues.  How can something so simple be so cost intensive by involving so many lives?  It is just a stick, right?  How can anything like this be complicated? Up the Sui River  Northwest of Canton on a parcel of land of about 48,000 acres is the only place in the world that Angler Bamboo grows. In all the world, in a nation that crawls with more people then a colony of ants, a peasant gleans the mountain side of mature Tonkin.  He will strip it of leaves and he will drag it to the river.  He will bind it into rafts and then ride it over 230 miles down river.  There, the bamboo is scrubbed in wet beach sand to get rid of white fungus growth and it is stacked in tall bundles, left in the sun for weeks to dry and slowly cure.  Many hands have already handled the pole and so, it is taken to a warehouse where it is heated over charcoal and a bend is straightened out.  Soon, it is culled and cut and shipped to the United States.  Some of it cures now in a loft in my new shop.  That this one pole for a fly rod has traveled nearly 10,000 miles to be here, few of us care not.  It is so simple in form.  So naive in purpose, as to boggle the mind.  It’s destiny is held in my hands, and in that, magic is possible.  Isn’t it said that anything is possible for those who dream? "There’s a Wood Duck Decoy in that there hunk of wood if you know how to carve him out of it." Making a fly rod is a contemplative man’s sport as is the art of fly fishing.  If it isn’t an art form, then it should be.  Only a mindless boar doesn’t appreciate his own past. So it is, I see in the near future – a simple pole being split into eighteen strips, and each designed in a specific place in a fly rod for someone . . . many miles away.  Six sides and two tips filled with glues, varnishes, hardwood inserts, guides for sliding graceful fly lines and for a fly, a man, a trout, and a season.  For a man of water. I am humbled to be just a little part of it.  There is much to think about yet.  I am close to beginning the journey of building.  God help me. —

Question:

Olympus Pro-Master Twin. Water resistant. Great lens. Great pictures. Gary C. "Lie ? Me ? Never!  No, no, no, the truth is far too much fun !" – Captain Hook

Response:

 One other thing to consider….choose a camera that has "macro focus". This feature allows you to have clearly focussed shots of fish that are between 1 to 4 feet away from you.  Such as, right at your feet, or on your lap while in a float tube.  Many cameras don’t have this capaability and you will end up with a blurred image of your prize…….

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I use one of those cheap-ass disposable jobs.  It doesn’t take the greatest pictures but all I care about is "evidence."  Besides, I wade too deep and fall too much. I don’t want to have to worry about a camera when I should be worried about the fish (and myself for that matter.)

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I carry a Pentax 90WR.  This is a "showerproof" zoom fully automatic compact.  It is slightly larger and heavier than most compacts but I prefer that.  When turned off, it would survive a complete dunking (shallow water) – certainly if it was in a case or in a vest pocket – and will operate in rainy conditions if required. Laurie Melbourne, Victoria Australia – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Hi I’m new to flyfishing and I’d trying to decide what kind of camera to permanently carry in my fly vest. What do you guys use? _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ Neil Summers Calgary, Alberta Canada _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/

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  Hi   I’m new to flyfishing and I’d trying to decide what kind of camera to   permanently carry in my fly vest. What do you guys use?

        In addition to those already mentioned you might want to look into an Olympus camera I think is called the "Stylus." (?) I have an older model Olympus which isn’t made anymore but which I *think* was replaced by the Stylus, which I also think has the features I bought mine for: I.e. not only a 35 mm wide angle lens but also a 70 mm lens which is very nice, and a "splashproof" rating saying it is seriously water-resistant, usable even in the rain. (Just not good for use underwater.) In fact I’ve had it submerged for a good 10 minute dunk once on accident and it has showed no ill effects, and it has gotten wet many times in the rain, even in the cold rain while duck hunting. Mine cost me about $170 if I recall right.         As stated, I *think* the Stylus is its replacement, and the only change I know of is that it is smaller. But if not, then I’d look for a camera giving you at least those two features of a "zoom"-type second lens (which has really turned out to be very very nice if not indispensable) and at least some degree of water-proofedness.         Cheers, and good luck. Let us know what you decide. Tom B. (P.S. Though, as one other poster noted, if you really are after very very fine quality shots don’t get a camera with two lenses; get the one with the Zeiss lens. But expect to pay, and if you are just after casual snaps, expect to wish that you had something other than a wide-angle lens.)

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Question:

I have a ton of Ruffed Grouse feathers. What do flies do you use it for? Thanks!

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I have a ton of Ruffed Grouse feathers. What do flies do you use it for? Thanks!

See Sylvester Neme’s book The Soft Hackled Fly.  One grouse will go a very long way:  hackles for motion (rather than colour) and "filoplumes" for gills on large nymphs, but not much more:  Quill and tail fibres are commonly too small to use like pheasant. — |  Donald Phillipson, 4180 Boundary Road, Carlsbad Springs,  | |        Ontario, Canada, K0A 1K0, tel. 613 822 0734         |

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I have a ton of Ruffed Grouse feathers. What do flies do you use it for? Thanks! See Sylvester Neme’s book The Soft Hackled Fly.  One grouse will go a very long way:  hackles for motion (rather than colour) and "filoplumes" for gills on large nymphs, but not much more:  Quill and tail fibres are commonly too small to use like pheasant.

Might try crossposting it to rec.outdoors.fishing.fly.tying, those guys’ll be able to help you over there, tell ‘em TBone sent ya. 8{)…. However, my very favorite wet fly, The Breadcrust, uses Grouse tail exclusively.  What a fly ! TimW

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I have a ton of Ruffed Grouse feathers. What do flies do you use it for? Thanks!

Hi Ronald, I use grouse feathers for soft hackle flies.  I particularly like them on a bead head Hare’s Ear Softhackle.  TIP:  If you have trouble finding feathers small enough to tie #18 and smaller, you can take the fibers from a larger feather and spin them around the hook like you would spin deer hair.  In so doing you have soft hackle for just about any sized fly. — Tight Lines Al Beatty BT’s Fly Fishing Products Bozeman, MT (97 catalog) http://www.flyshop.com/Expo/Specialty/BTsPdcts/index.html

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Question:

You should really do your homework befor going to the devils river. Legally, your cannot step on the streambed due to mexican land grants. You might wan’t to check out the water temperatures as well. Jeff goodwin **  Ashley Laurent,Inc. **  Software Development  **     Consulting          ** *                                   *                                         * * 10,000 Research Blvd, Suite 128   *     voice: 512-478-0776                 * * Austin, Texas 78759               *     fax  : 512-478-0803                 * *                                   *                                         * * Microsoft Solution Provider       *     Complete Systems Design/Development * * OS/2 Premier Developer            *     Workflow and Workgroup Solutions    * * Novell Professional Developer     *     Industrial Appl./Device Drivers     * – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I’m heading to Texas in late March to flyfish for smallmouth on Devil’s River.  I’ve never been there before, nor have I done much fly-fishing for smallmouth.  Can anyone recommend flies or provide any other useful advice?  I was thinking of just tying some muddlers and wooly buggers, and maybe some ghosts.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Response:

Ashley: I live in south-central Texas and have fished the Devil’s on several occasions. Right now the river is going to be low because of the drought along the border. Generally speaking the best source of information is probably from Jim Kuper at The Tacklebox Outfitters in San Antonio, Tx. Jim is knowledgeable about floating the Devil’s from Baker’s Crossing to Lake Amistad. Contact Jim at (210) 821-5806. As I said, I’ve fished the Devil’s several times over the last 3 years. Because of the draught each year seems to get worse. Last summer I decided not to go back until the draught broke… I’m still waiting. DNW

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Question:

Hello, I will have the opportunity to go fly fishing in Jasper Nation Park (Alberta, Canada) and could surely use any advice on fishing in the area. I am familiar with some of Alberta’s central streams and prefer to fish small streams, usually for browns and rainbows.  Any recommendations on ’small’ trouty streams in Jasper?   It seems everyone I talk to fish the lakes (Maligne, Moab etc) only.   Being both boatless & floattube-less lakes lose their appeal quickly. As comedian Stephen Wright(sp) states "There’s a fine line between fishing and standing on the shoreline looking like an idiot." Any recommendations or suggestions would be highly appreciated. Thanks, Allan — =       Allan Young        = If I had only one semester to live I would = = "The lowly cs undergrad" = spend it in MATH 215 lectures.  That way   = =   University of Alberta  =       it would seem like an eternity.      =

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I think your best bet is Maligne, you might also want to try Medicine lake.  You can fish it from the boulders on the far shore and get into some decent fish.  I am planning on fishing Maligne next weekend, I’ll let you know how it turns out. Cam Forster St. Albert

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Question:

    On the 19th of this month we will be taking a trip to the Green River in Utah.  If anyone’s been there recently could you tell me what the hatches have been like and what times.  Also any other suggestions that might help us out.  THANKS                           Fryman P.S.  Would someone give me a good definition of what a yuppie is, and        why does everyone talk about them.  

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– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -Path: news.teleport.com!news.reed.edu!usenet.ee.pdx.edu!cs.uoregon.edu!reuter.cse .ogi.edu!uwm.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!cs.utexas.edu!ne ws.cs.utah.edu!news.provo.novell.com!nntp.et.byu.edu!news.byu.edu!news Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.fishing.fly Organization: Brigham Young University, Provo UT USA Lines: 9 NNTP-Posting-Host: pc18.et.byu.edu    On the 19th of this month we will be taking a trip to the Green River in Utah.  If anyone’s been there recently could you tell me what the hatches have been like and what times.  Also any other suggestions that might help us out.  THANKS                          Fryman P.S.  Would someone give me a good definition of what a yuppie is, and       why does everyone talk about them.  

I was just at the Green in late March.  It’s funny but all the hatch charts I found made it look like the BWO’s would be out in March.  When I got there (with a healthy selection of my favorite BWO ties) all the locals told me, "yeah, the charts are wrong…"  they all claimed that the BWO’s should be out in mid April.  So…   According to Larry Tullis (hatch chart in RIVER JOURNAL: GREEN RIVER) April shoud have: midges, BWO, Scuds, Redworms, Eggs, Minnows Leeches, & Crane flies.  For the midges I’d focus on Griffiths Gnats (20-24), and Brassies (18-20), and WD-40’s (20-22, local tie) – oh yeah, your magnifier…  The midges were good to me – numerous 16"-20" fish on 20 Griffiths.   anthony  

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Question:

I’ll try to remain calm… I just heard about a guy here in Glenwood Springs that is attempting to get a patent for a new Green Drake pattern that he ‘invented’. I am (almost) physically ill at the thought of this. When we walk down to the stream (or lake or salt or…) to flyfish we are carrying with us the knowledge, spirit and soul of hundreds of years of tradition.  We can design flies,  but our basis is that of every fisher who ever wet a line. I can think of nothing more arrogant. Tim Walker

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I’ll try to remain calm… I just heard about a guy here in Glenwood Springs that is attempting to get a patent for a new Green Drake pattern that he ‘invented’. I am (almost) physically ill at the thought of this. When we walk down to the stream (or lake or salt or…) to flyfish we are carrying with us the knowledge, spirit and soul of hundreds of years of tradition.  We can design flies,  but our basis is that of every fisher who ever wet a line. I can think of nothing more arrogant. Tim Walker

I’ll agree in principal, but practicaly it wishful thinking.  Some people seek a living from the sport, and a patent can serve to protect their interest.  Pott Mite flies still carry a patent.  Parachute flies were patented at one time, and called "gyros".  Mike Tucker has a patented scud pattern (it’s excellent).  Many people today trademark the name of their patterns.  You may not like the idea, and I must say that a patent is perhaps going a bit too far, but only because it’s so easy to get around it by switching materials, or process.  If someone wants to, I’d be the last person to object, but I sure wouldn’t waste my time by doing it. —  Have a marvelous time, and be sure to get a lot of roughage in your Diet! Chaz ;-

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: I’ll try to remain calm…   … as will I … : I just heard about a guy here in Glenwood Springs that is attempting to : get a patent for a new Green Drake pattern that he ‘invented’. : I am (almost) physically ill at the thought of this. : When we walk down to the stream (or lake or salt or…) to flyfish we : are carrying with us the knowledge, spirit and soul of hundreds of : years of tradition.  We can design flies,  but our basis is that of : every fisher who ever wet a line.   This man may fly-fish but he certainly doesn’t fit my definition of a   fly-fisherman. : I can think of nothing more arrogant.   Nor I : Tim Walker   Izaak Walton had a little to say about "rich men" being a sad lot because   they become " vexatious " and ‘invent’ ways to hold on to their money .   This guy sounds like he’s inventing other things besides fly-patterns.   For crying out loud, who does he think he is, what tyer/fisher hasn’t   developed a pattern that works for him/her and is his favourite when a   a hatch of "so and so’s" is on … and I bet there’ll be a guy a mile or   so upstream using a similar pattern that he ‘invented’. In the interests of sharing patterns here’s one I ‘invented’ (given the constraint listed above) for use as a general search pattern on a small river that I fish quite often. This river has a population of freshwater crayfish, which are royal blue and black with a large white claw and white spots on the carapace nodules ( the spiny bits on the shell). The best part is the young also look like this and can be represented quite nicely on a size 10 long shank hook. Large black mayfly numphs also thrive here, with the distinguishing feature of these blokes is a white under belly …. So this Is what I came up with ….         hook: 10ls, 12, 14           tail: black cock (1/2 body length – good bunch)     body: black – antron, seals fur, dyed carpet underlay (cow hair) all work.         rib : fine dark blue tinsel 3-4 turns depending on size.         thorax: same as body material – just a bit of a hump not execessive.     wingcase: pale electric/iridescent blue feather from the wing of one of               our local Australian parrots (Rosella – Ithink – I pick the                           feathers up in the yard – the advantages of living in the hills         throat hackle: guinea fowl (natural)         NOTES:                 General nymph shaped body.             Weight for heavy water.         Fishing: Large (10) – fished down and across with little crayfishy jerks     in the slower sections.         Smaller – just like a normal nymph – upstream under a dry for an indicator.         It works well in grubby water as well as clear … well down here at least.         I would be pleased to hear about about any similar patterns  that anyone     knows of. steve Melbourne, Australia

Response:

I’ll try to remain calm… I just heard about a guy here in Glenwood Springs that is attempting to get a patent for a new Green Drake pattern that he ‘invented’. I am (almost) physically ill at the thought of this….

The practice of patenting a fly, or patenting the design/materials/methods used in tying one, is not new.  There were British and American patents granted decades ago, and for all I know it has been done under the patent laws of other countries.  I doubt that anyone would begrudge a rodmaker patenting an improved ferrule, or a reel designer patenting a unique drag system.  But there is something about the art, or at least the craft, of fly design that causes us to resist the idea of patents being granted in this area.  You may at least take solace in the fact that fly patents are never likely to have much impact on the market.  If the fly is not effective, the fly fisher will not buy it and the patent holder will not benefit.  If the patented fly is successful (the McMurray Ant comes to mind), its success will likely be due to a design principle that cannot be easily constrained under patent law.  The balsawood-and-monofilament McMurray design really catches fish, but the principle was easily mimicked by closed cell foam-bodied ants, which have the added benefit of being more durable. Woods Hole, MA   USA

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   I think this patent thing is a great idea.  Just think of all the opportunities it will afford thousands of people across America.  I myself can’t wait until its in full scale across the country.  I want to be one of the firt to sign up for "fly patrol".  Just think of it.  I’ll get to travel across the country to its finest streams and rivers and check the fly boxes of each angler I see.  I can see it now.  "Excuse me, sir. Do you have the proper licencing for that Green Drake pattern?" Jason

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Parachute flies were patented at one time, and called "gyros".

Yes indeed!  I have a set of four of these flies, tied on #16 hooks; each has a ginger hackle and a partridge body feather tied in parachute-style. They date from the 1930’s and were sold by Alex. Martin, Ltd. of Scotland. One of the flies has a tiny piece of paper attached to the hook, reading: "Parachute" Reg’d. Trade Mark – Alex. Martin’s Patent 379343. Woods Hole, MA   USA

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        Sounds like the guy has an attitude problem.  I cna’t ever imagine a true flyfisher not wanting to share in his experiences and knowledge.                 Tom <:?

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Just to add to the list of patent fly patterns: I seem to remember that the Teeny Nymph was/is a patented fly, even though I’ve seen tying instructions (dead easy, really) all over the place. — Blair Sharpe Ottawa, ON, Canada

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I’ll try to remain calm… I just heard about a guy here in Glenwood Springs that is attempting to get a patent for a new Green Drake pattern that he ‘invented’. I am (almost) physically ill at the thought of this. I can think of nothing more arrogant.

Unless he’s really got something _outrageous_, the only patent protection available would be a Design Patent.  That means if he got it, he could bring suit to stop someone producing the fly.  In practical terms, read producing it _commercially_.  You, of course, and thousands of others, could be equally arrogant, tie his fly for your own use, and say, "So sue me for infringing your patent."  Getting a patent is a _lot_ easier than enforcing it. This is not legal advice, merely the reality of patents. — John Taylor    (W3ZID)     |  "The opinions expressed are those of the

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Question:

Sage blanks? Actually, you could save yourself some grief. Why? Because Sage will locate the location of the spine with removable white markings. I’ve built three SAGE rods and they all came with the spine marked out. The most difficult part is the coating. Try and get the FLEXCOAT package with syringes, cups and mixtures. There are two kinds of FLEXCOAT: one coat (thick) and several coats (thin). I’ve used the one coat and it works ok but for a more consistent finish, I would try the several coat version. Getting a slow rpm motor to turn the rod while applying the FLEXCOAT would help a great deal. If you can’t borrow one from the local flyshop, any BBQ motor will suffice. Not to worry, you’ll make a great rod! p.s. there’s a flyfishing digest on the net you could join.

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I’ve used the one coat Flexcoat building many rods and I like it a lot.  In order to make it a little more workable in  a large finish area, I dilute the finish mix with a small amount of Acetone.  It is very quick to evaporate and leaves me with extra working time in laying a great finish coat on all types of rods. The only pitfall is to make sure that you don’t use too much acetone or your flexcoat will never set up correctly. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Sage blanks? Actually, you could save yourself some grief. Why? Because Sage will locate the location of the spine with removable white markings. I’ve built three SAGE rods and they all came with the spine marked out. The most difficult part is the coating. Try and get the FLEXCOAT package with syringes, cups and mixtures. There are two kinds of FLEXCOAT: one coat (thick) and several coats (thin). I’ve used the one coat and it works ok but for a more consistent finish, I would try the several coat version. Getting a slow rpm motor to turn the rod while applying the FLEXCOAT would help a great deal. If you can’t borrow one from the local flyshop, any BBQ motor will suffice. Not to worry, you’ll make a great rod! p.s. there’s a flyfishing digest on the net you could join.

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