Fly Tying

They say that if you want to hear god laugh, you should tell him your plans.

Long story short... I went through most of my career without a degree... god got a good chuckle out of my plans.  But getting it was near the top of my todo list and now after nearly 4 years of late nights I can finally say I have a Bachelors degree from Penn State.  I graduated on Dec 18th. Maga cum laude at that.



So anyway, that's a major part of the reason that I've been absent for so long. That and the girlfriend hovering over me with that "When are we moving to Texas? You promised!" stare.

A few months ago, as things started winding down and I was able to start to have a little more time to do things other than study I decided I was going to take up fly fishing.  Shortly after I remembered that I had a fly tying vise in the garage and now I think the actual pastime I've taken up is fly tying and not so much fly fishing.

I quickly learned that although an expensive vise is not required, having a cheap one makes tying pretty hard sometimes.  I upgraded from a cheapo vise to a Renzetti Traveler, it's not the highest quality vise but it's made life easier.

After tying quite a few small trout flies and becoming somewhat proficient and not really using them much I decided to tie some that I could use in the salt.  First up was my attempt at Kelly Galloup's Belly Bumper.





Art and I fished them a few times with a decent amount of success.

Now I've been wanting to get out after some Dabs and decided to tie up some that I hope the fish will be somewhat impressed with.

Here was my first attempt at replicating the packaged sabiki's:



A little variety:



But then I dedided to kick it up a notch by using some Marabou:



Then came these...




And these...




Now I just need to wait for an opportunity to use them.

I can personally attest to the 4 years of laborious nights of homework......I can't count all the times I had to call him a wussy for staying home to do that sh*t instead of hanging with the shenanigang. 

Congrats again buddy.

Them bellybumpers are legit....

Congrats.. and nice looking flies!

Thanks DavoG!

Agarcia, I'm back!  Kind of like being single and ready to mingle but instead I'm just about married and I want to kill fish.

Congratulations ! And nice looking flies! I’m sure they will hook up fish🤙🏽

Serious Congratulations for a hard earned degree!  Nice looking flys too!  Did a little fly fishing in the streams last year and am looking forward to doing some more of it this spring.    Tying them looks like fun, but I'm more than willing to fork over cash for them at this point 

Congrats on the degree.  And the sabiki's look great.  Please post up when you use them.  The store bought offerings are so average looking at best! 

Al,

Let me know if you want me to tie something up for you.  I got a lot of different materials (it's amazing how quickly they accumulate) and it would be good to recover some of the expenses so I can buy more.

Here's a purple "egg sucking leech" tied on an AHREX barbless #2 size hook.



I should have cleaned it up a bit more before the pic.

WE ARE!!!

Here are a couple I tried tying up tonight.  They're a work in progress but they're coming along.

Nice!

Nice!

Seriously! Excellent mimics of lil squid and like, what, a shrimp of some type?
Really cool stuff Angel!

WE ARE!!!
Congratulations!
Class of '99 here

Congrats on your achievement.

Those squid flies look great for rockfish among other species.

Alex