Trout Stick

[CreationBear]

Excellent, thanks for elaborating--the GEM seems rather more elegant, though I've no doubt antron yarn would make a fine sub.

At any rate, you and Ray ought to figure out a PayPal ap that paid y'all everytime somebody bookmarked one of your patterns.

[Old Hat]

Thanks all for the comments on the flies and photos. My wife got me a photography class for Christmas this year so I have been trying to put some of it to work. A friend has lent me a nice Macro lens to go on my camera (can't afford one myself). I think I'm going to have to return it just for that reason, I get very nervous when I use it. It has been fun, not necessarily easy to work with but I am just starting to figure it out.

You know Vicki, you're right. The Trout Stick patterns have salvaged many days. I have also used them very productively to find fish. Sometimes you just get on the water and you know there are fish there but you can't get them to bite. First instinct is "I've got the wrong fly". So you can spend a lot of time changing flies to find the right one to "match the hatch". Often times though, I have found that the fish are biting it's just that they are not exactly where you might expect that day or where they usually are. This is where a fly like the Trout Stick comes in handy. It is a confident pattern. I know it catches fish in just about any water anytime. It may not be the most productive fly for the occasion, but it will draw strikes. It doesn't match any hatch, so it removes that variable from my thoughts and simplifies the approach. Once I can figure where the fish are specifically that day then I can change flies to a more exact pattern to the bugs available and increase my catch.

This is where I get the gem's wool. It's a bit spendy but a little goes a very long way. I see though they are a little short on colors at the moment.
http://store.allaboutthefly.com/gemswool.aspx

[willowhead]

Thankx for the link Carl...........i just ordered bout $80 worth of Rhea from them. Pretty decent prices.

[willowhead]

DANG! them folks is way cool.....they've already contacted me, and it's been shipped same day.

[Old Hat]

Yes, they are great to work with. They had a very nice shop but went all online last year.

[willowhead]

In these times that's going to happen more and more...........the one bummer is you don't have the chance to see it in your hands first.........but hey, from their point of view...............who needs a building lease. They will still be competing with 100's of other on-line fly shops.........but that's good for the consummer, because it drives prices down. ........ALWAYS a good thing.