Going to try my hand at it

[STUMP HUNTER]

To help keep things under control the wife bought me this desk from Cabela's. Flop the lid and instant clean up.

Very nice tying desk Skeetbum. Thumbs Up

[skiptomylu]

Very cool Skeet, I like that!

[skeetbum]

Thanks guys.

[NeonMoon]

Yep, nice set-up Skeet! I live in an RV, so I won't have room for much of a set-up, and dedicating a specific area to tie is definetly out of the question for me. I may do something like an "artist" uses, like a larger/flat suitcase and arrange it so it can be my entire workspace/table. As long as it wasn't windy outside, I could even set outside and tie. Imagine being on the lake and not having a particular color/pattern the fish are hitting. I could just go back and tie what I needed, and head back out on the water armed to do battle Thumbs Up

Acording to tracking numbers, I should have my Cabelas delivery by the end of the day today. Not bad since I just placed my order on the 7th.

I have a few questions while I'm typing: Those sickle hooks...are they that much "better" than regular hooks? I'm through about 130 pages of the older posts here, and thought I'd seen mention of a problem with some of them breaking. I assume that's been remedied?

In regards to tying "proportions", I'd also seen repeted mention of body-length, and tail length. The tail-length I can see adding to the posibility of short-strikes. Is body-length (stopping at the hook point) strictly to allow for more open hook gap, or is there another reason?

Lastly (at least for now), is there any "do's and dont's" as far as what types of materials to use on a jig, or is it open to personal taste (well, maybe the fish's taste)?

[Donald@CrappieLogic]

Welcome neon have fun with it!

[NeonMoon]

Thanks Donald! Well, dad just dropped-off the Cabelas stuff. I asked him if he knew what was in it (because he loves to fish, though we don't get the chance to go often) and he said "it must be marshmellows no more than it weighs", so when I looked at the box I knew I didn't get the entire order. So I just looked at the email I got, and sure enough I'd missed they sent it in 2 shipments, so the balance of the order (everything but 1 bag of maribou and assortment dispenser of chenille I got today) will arrive tomorrow afternoon. So much for gettin' my fingers fuzzy tonight...sniff-sniff :p

[NeonMoon]

Well, I picked-up some odds & ends today while I was out, then stopped by Dads about time the Big Brown Truck generally stops by there, so I got the rest of the Cabelas order today, as well as seeing what Hobby Lobby and JoAnn Fabrics had to offer.





I tied a few not really paying a whole lot of attention to color scheme, just giving it a go at the process. LOL, I've got a (long) ways to go Rofl I took close-ups, but they were so blurry they wouldn't have done any good to post, so I'll save you all the migrane from looking at them. I'll slow-down a bit and concentrate on color pattern and wrapping things. Shouldn't be long before I'm up to mediocre Hands Clapping I guess I'd failed to order any floss/thread, so these were tied with sewing thread. Looks like I need to place another online order...may as well get some other materials while I'm at it..

[Crappiehappy]

welcome to the addiction! good job,those jigs will catch, so toss em out and give em a whirl.

[skiptomylu]

Look good for your first ones and yep I bet they will catch fish!

Just have fun with it and let your mind go where it wants. I suggest looking at the Class at FAOL and reading/studying it really well. Makes no difference if it's flies, the materials still tie in the same and good ides can come from them. Start with the beginner stuff and later move on to the intermediate and then finally advanced. He did an awesome job with this and when watching videos on youtube you never know if they are right or not, some are very good, but this like is right and easy to see and understand.
Beginning Tying

Good Job,

Skip

[NeonMoon]

Funny you guys should mention that ("they'll catch fish"). Generally, Thursday or Fridays, my dad (who's 86) and I go out for lunch, maybe run around a bit while his wifes daughters take her out for lunch (she's in poor health, so dad seldom gets a break). Today while eating I asked if he wanted to take a short ride to check-out a small public pond next town over. He said "sure, but let's stop and grab a couple rods on the way." (Dad loves to fish).

So I grabbed a rod and the box containing the few jigs I'd been tying, then stopped by dads for him to grab a rod. Got to the little pond which they've let grow over, and there was really no spot to even cast from. It's a small pond, and loaded with small crappie, gills, and bass, but it's a place to go if you just want to fish and not care about size or keepers.

I tied-on one of the jigs I'd tied (not one pictured above, was a 16th oz with brown chennile body with a couple flashy legs), and had one run that lasted about 2 seconds. That was it. So we headed into town to fish at the park. Not a place I'd plan to go to catch fish, but we were 3 minutes from it anyway, and I know dad was just enjoying being outside. The pond was signed "No Fishing Today", nit sure why, but we fished the creek across the street (was the local swimming hole "back in the day"). Long story short, I caught a 6-7" crappie on one of the jigs I tied, and dad caught 2 small gills on a beetle spin.

We were headding back to the van when a guy stopped us and asked about fishing there (he just wanted to talk fishing I think). Anyway, he was going to fish with his boy at a place dad and I fish, and proceded to tell us where they were catching large gills at in the past. Now Dad's all excited about going again, and checking-out that spot. I told him I may take the bus over there for a week, that way he could come anytime he could get free.

On top of all that, got my CrazyAngler order in the mail.....spent time with pops, got to fish a bit, and got some new toys in the mail. Now if I could just hitt the lottery Hands Clapping