Please Abuse my Tying

[yea-who]

After 2 years i figured out how to capture good photos of my flies.

 

[David]

Your mother was a blood sucking mosquito!!!!


:-D

 

[jayL]

Nice flies.

If you want me to critique, here goes:

I would use webbier hackle for the bugger (whiting bugger hackle), pack the deer hair tighter on teh bass bug, and assuming you didn't use them, use cross cut zonkers on the leech body. It looks a little buggy and the cross cut strips streamline it. I could be wrong though, since rabbit strips vary.

I think the hackle might be a bit oversized on the dry, but I'm not really a dry fly tyer.

I also might try to make the head neater on the nymph. The thorax could be a tad bigger, and making a smaller head would probably accomplish that.

Again, those flies are all nice. I tried to find something to critique in each one, but it took me some time to do that. I doubt that I tie my own any better.

Some of my critiques are a stretch, and I'm not sure that they would all improve fishability.

 

[blueheron]

The flies are nice. The nymphs and streamers will work fine being representative of several food items at once. Dry flies depend much more on proper proportions to match the hatch.
The hackle is usually one and a half times the body or hook length and yours is double. Everything else looks good.

 

[yea-who]

A couple More.............

 

[MKern]

I think they look good.

Along with what some of the others have said. On the first nymph, there appears to be a gap between the abdomen and the thorax.

I would also suggest a more tappered body on many of the flies, not for fish catching ability, but tyer appeal.

 

[skiltonian]

sweet - nice job!

 

[yea-who]

I'm pretty rough on myself these are the ones that fall in the Middle. I know i have a problem with crowding heads and over sized heads. Also, the Black hackle i have IMO is junk for dries due to the lenth of the fibers being so un-uniform.
I wanted to see if they got buy the council. (paflyfish forum members)
Good eye kern, that gap slipped right bye me. that red grizzly black bugger in the second group i Don't like its A$$.
Yes the tapering, well, i'm working on it. That's why i make those dub body Buggers to improve on the tapering affect.
thank you, keep them coming.

 

[blueheron]

I mis typed last post . The hackle should be one and a half of the hook gap. I can't type and think at the same time.

 

[flipnfly]

im in no position to critique but here goes your ice dub wooly bugger the hackle gets too bunched up at the end near the bead and is has a bulbous butt i think its still fishable my buggers still come out like that the gaps between abdomen and thorax on your march brown is a little big and the nymph body needs to be tapered more with the excpetion of your zug bug looks great but the tail should be peacock sword or eye you know the greener stuff same with the pt nymph needs tapered i like the splayed tails i tie some of mine like that and may i suggest that the red tail on the wooly worm works better if its not there i tend to use natural turkey biots and fish it as a hellgrammite pattern like i said in the beginning as a tyer im guilty of most of the same and im in no position to be critical but you asked for it so thats my 2 cents keep tying i would fish with any of those

whats your secret to photo shooting your flies? nice pix

 

[jayL]

I like the second batch too. Nice flies.

Agreed on the photo question. What is your secret?

You should get those buggers out in the high water.

 

[David]

Now that I have time to give a real answer, all my critiques have been mentioned.

Nice job on them.

A personal preference for me...turn the hackle over on the first bugger. It is angling forward (which you might want to create a larger silhouette). On the first bugger in the second group, you can see it is facing toward the tail.
Also on the first bugger, the hackle seems to get smaller towards the front (again, maybe by design, maybe by optical illusion). If you tie the tip of the hackle in at the tail, the silhouette will get bigger towards the head like the shape of most baitfish.

 

[ErnieBall]

They'll all catch fish. Nice ties.

 

[littlelehigh]

Nice flies especially the dora bugger and diego nymph! That dubbing looks like it's from a catapilla! I'd fish em

 

[yea-who]

The photo's aren't a secret really. I have a assoc. degree in hotel & Resturaunt management with a minor in bowling. i also took a photography class that i passed but don't remember going too ( AWWWWW !!!! the college days ), but i guess i learned something.

I keep my hackle in a three ring binder in full page plastic sleeves. i stand that up behind the fly for its back drop. Personnaly i don't like the white, but its always next to me. I gave up on MACRO on this camera for flies. I put it in portrait mode and set the focus to focus on the centered image. I then get the camera as close to the fly as possible so it stays in focus. Roughly 18". The bigger the fly the closer you can get. Then i take 1 or 2 photos of that particular fly. Take the SD memory card out of the camera and stick it in the slot on my Computer.

Now, is the part you might be interested in. I open the picture with the basic windows media player. There are options at the top, click "fix". On the right hand side of the screen options appear. Now you have to do it in this order because it will come out screw-ie. First "crop" it. i re-pete "crop" it first, move the boxes that appear in the corners of the focused box so the fly is the only thing in the box or your desired picture. Next click apply on the right hand menu under Crop. Bang how's that lookin. Then at the top of the menu where crop was click "auto fix" How about now ? Let me know how youz make out.

 

[sandfly]

as jayl said + the tail on the bugger could be a bit thicker, once wet it will look a lot smaller. the nymph thorax tie in should be back near the the abdomen, even over it slightly so there is no gap. hackle is a size to big on dry..

second set of pics..just the tails on the buggers need more..


all flies look good though.

 

[MKern]

y-w,
funny that you crop them, I've thought of that, but haven't.

Instead....
I bought a camera (3 years ago) that had the best macro setting for what I could afford. I actually put the lens of my camera within an inch of the fly; sometimes closer.

I too take multiple pictures and choose the best one.

 

[afishinado]

Nice flies Yea-who, you've been practicing! Some of the tweaks mentioned will help with aesthetics, but al your will catch fish. If you want to improve, just examine the actual fly or photo of the fly you are tying, and replicate the proportions that you see. At some point you will begin to look at the actual insects you are imitating, and tie based on that. Later you may look at a natural and try to pick out and imitate certain characteristics of the insects and tie a caricature of that insect to trigger strikes. Experimenting is great fun, and tying, to me anyway, really adds another dimension to FFing.

I'll give you some flies to tie when you come down from the mountains and we fish together this spring.

 

[ryguyfi]

Here's my few tips (not that I'm an expert tyer)

1. Use lead wraps to help build the taper of your nymphs. Not only does it help with the taper, it will help with the nymphs getting down to the fish. Most nymphs are actually more flat than round. Sometimes I'll take some pliers and flatten the lead and then tie my fly.

2. Even though longer tails IMO look nicer on buggers, shorter ones, especially for trout, are better. Trout seem to take on shorter strikes, and my catch rate on my buggers went up when I shortened their tails.

3. When tying in your bugger bodies, tie the material in facing backwards so you don't see the thread wraps and wrap over it towards the front of the fly. This will reduce the thread that you see at the end of your red bugger and make it look a bit nicer.


They look nice and will catch fish, but I like you want to take my tying to the next level. Having some advice on how to make things better is a good start.


Ryan

 

[jerseygeorge]

Yea W-

I don't see a wire rib on the bugger. When you wind the bugger make sure you wind the chenile away from you, as you did. Then wind the hackle (small end tied in first as previously mentioned) towards you, in the opposite direction the chenile was wound. You will have better control in making your hackle/palmer wraps more even. The feather won't find the "grooves" between each chenile wrap. Then wrap the wire ribbing in the opposite direction to the chenile. It adds a rib, and also secures the hackle, making the fly more durable. With practice you will be able to make the wrap without trapping many hackle fibers.

Overall you are doing a good job!