June 30, 2010

Admiral Akbar

Admiral Akbar solarized
Thanks go out to The Daily Fly Paper Blog for recently featuring the Admiral Akbar pattern on their site. The Daily Fly Paper often showcases patterns from legends like Carrie Stevens, Davie McPhail, Paul Schmookler, the Global Fly Fisher, and now me. Now I know I made it. Bask in my glory.

June 29, 2010

Crown Jewels

GP2
One of my favorite spots on earth, located deep within the Superior National Forest. Serene and picturesque, this place symbolizes the heartbeat of Northern Minnesota. Towering outcrops of granite and greenstone, majestic pines, drumming grouse, and the forest floor littered with blueberries and wild strawberries. The added bonus, Salvelinus fontinalis swim these waters. I make it a point to visit whenever I'm in the region.

GP2
Salvelinus fontinalis
A brook trout caught from the pond back in 2006.

lowbush blueberries
Lowbush blueberries, the jewel of the Canadian Shield. Not to be confused with the bastardized commercially cultivated highbush variety, these berries are the real deal, sweet and juicy.

GP2
I've made a lot of great memories at this place. I just hope to someday share this with my kids.

I heart Minnesota.

June 28, 2010

DIY Bugger Barns: Revisited

DIY Bugger Barns
The end result to the DIY Fly Boxes. I finally got around to putting together some of the larger Bugger Barn sized fly boxes this past weekend. Only available in case quantity, I went in with fellow bloggers Ben, Cameron, and Tony and split a case of the Flambeau 4040-2 boxes. I steered away from the traditional brown foam that I use on my boxes and made some in several different colors, including a crazy orange that will be home to my carp nasties. I even tipped the sticker to resemble a tailing fish. All that awesomeness for just under $6 a piece. Bitchin'.

I'd like to see how those other guys' boxes turned out.

June 24, 2010

Bumpin' Uglies

Bumpin' Ugly
No horndogigin' bass assassin can resist this piece of ass. Good for those hood rat smallies from around the block. Those sluts will be begging for more.

I'd hit that.

June 23, 2010

It's a trap!

Admiral Akbar
Here's my best calamari pattern, Mon Calamari that is. Here's the Admiral Akbar pattern, tied with red squirrel tail, Super Squirrel dub, grouse hackle, and orange beadchain eyes, on vintage Mustad steel, a size 7 O'Shaughnessy hook.
"May the force be with us"

June 22, 2010

Paint Your Wagon

New yarns
More tasty yarns to play around with: Reynolds Lopi and Artful Yarns Broadway, both by JCA Crafts. An Icelandic wool and an acrylic/mohair/poly blend, these are both wonderfully spun fiber yarns. Let's get down to the nitty gritty shall we?

Reynolds Lopi
The Lopi is the original, heavier weight yarn than the Lite-Lopi I featured recently. It is a 14 gauge plied yarn, coming in at 100g per 110 yard skein. The Amber Heather color was too tasty of a hue to pass up, with primary spectral highlights of red, blue, and yellow. Better yet, it blends beautifully in the grinder without much effort. This is another killer crawfish and scud dub straight out of the grinder.

Artful Yarns Broadway
The Broadway is a 59% Acrylic, 28% Mohair, 6% Poly, 4% Metallic, and 3% Nylon blended yarn. It comes in 50g skeins at 101 yards. I opted for the Paint Your Wagon color, composed of a blend of fibers favoring the red-blue spectrum. The first order of duty is stripping the fibers from the Poly/Metallic/ core and nylon threads. What you have left is pure awesomeness, a spectral blend of acrylic and mohair fibers. Your best bet is to pull the fibers apart by hand to start the blending process. After the fibers are all evenly separated, trim the thinly wadded fibers into one inch increments. This will minimized any binding of the long mohair fibers in the grinder. Highlight this with some Violette Angelina, and you've got a killer base for a UV dub. Just add the binder and wrapper, like rabbit and hare or squirrel, and you're ready to roll.

On the other hand, you could just combine the two concoctions and come out with a kick-ass blend like this:

Super Squirrel dub

June 21, 2010

Raging Bull

raging bull
Brother John from Central Minnesota representing, shown here with a raging bull. Not only was this a lifelister for him, he subdued the beast on a freaking five weight. What a way to start of the summer. Well done.

June 19, 2010

Paterfamilias

Happy Father's Day to all you proud papas out there. I was lucky enough to get to see my Dad twice this past year, including a bass assassin mission. Good times.

Note to self: make sure I share plenty of those same memories with my son. Life is too short.

Papa Roughfisher
Happy Father's Day Dad! Let's do it again soon. Fifteen years is too long to wait.

June 18, 2010

Oompa, Loompa, doom-pa-dee-do

"What's next? A fucking Oompa Loompa pattern?"
Ahh Jim, an Oompa Loompa.

Oompa Loompa
Oh no he didn't!

June 17, 2010

The Everlasting Carpstopper

Crazy Master Willy is back at it again. He's been a bit of a recluse as of late, spending long hours in the lab concocting all sorts of candy creations. Wonka's gone mad over his latest invention, the Everlasting Carpstopper. Slugworth has been hot on his trail, trying to get any dirt he can on the hot new secret in town. Come see what the fuss is all about.

Everlasting Carpstopper
The Everlasting Carpstopper holds true to it's name, keeping it's flavor and form indefinitely. Don't bite down on this candy, as chewing it will break your teeth. Two flavors are currently available, Tangerine and Pomegrante, with Juicy Pear, Blueberry, Banana, and Licorice slated for future release.

Everlasting Carpstopper, Pomegranate
Everlasting Carpstopper, Tangerine
What's next? A fucking Oompa Loompa pattern?

June 16, 2010

Butt Nuggets

Butt Nuggets
Butt Nuggets. AKA dingleberries, stool, feces, shit, shite, stercus, scat, excrement, brown, poo, poop, poopie, dook, dookie, doody, doo-doo, crap, caca, turds, BM, #2, booty hole burnout, toilet bowl stew, ass goblins, ass brownies, ass kabobs, lawn sausage, cattle cookies, chimp chunks, horse apples, dog logs, dung, elk duds, sea bisquits, shitsicles, splatter bowl punch, mierda.

These basturds are Stage 5 Clingers. Down one of them and you'll end up with the squirts. Where's the TP?

June 15, 2010

Holy Camel Toe!

The beauty of the MindTrap is that people will flock and bend over backward to hook you up with some sweet shit, even your own mother. At least that's how it went in my mind, though I must confess that I really don't posses any tangible superpower. It's more of a pipe dream really. Regardless of how it really played out, I nonetheless ended up with a couple of baggies of some fine-ass Alpaca fiber to play around with. Camelidae.

Suri Alpaca
Huacaya Alpaca
Ma Roughfisher hooked me up with some Alpaca fiber from a fellow co-worker who also raises Alpacas at the Fossum Family Farm. I didn't even have to beg, she just handed it over from the goodness of her heart. I wish I could be that nice. I received a variety of colors from two breeds of Alpaca, Suri and Huacaya. The Suri contains a bunch of fine strands of silky hair, much like mohair or angora. This is similar to the llama fibers I have, but much finer. The Huacaya contains a dense lot of fine crimped hairs. This holds the real appeal to me. Much like the advantages of crimped Angelina, the Huacaya fibers will add body to any nymph dubbing, as well as add a bit of depth and dimension to a spectral blend. The fibers almost remind me of Enrico Puglisi fibers, so I bet they could also be put to great use for baitfish patterns.

Huacaya brown
Huacaya gray
Huacaya white
Huacaya cream
Alpaca fiber contains no lanolin, thus does not repel water; a feature great for nymph bodies. The lack of lanolin will easily allow the fiber to take a dye. I would like to experiment with some reds, blues and yellows for constructing spectral dubbing blends. Perhaps this could make a good seal substitute. Only time will tell. Too many ideas, not enough time.

Thanks Ma.

June 14, 2010

Arachnophobia

Hello old friend.

Rubber Legged Scorpion
Never count out the Rubber Legged Scorpion. Just when you let your guard down, these nasty little buggers will sneak up and stick their chemically sharpened point deep into your flesh. You better hope they have the antidote.

June 11, 2010

Emo

Emo
Finally found a useful pattern for the pastel colored beadchain I picked up a while back. Sage green is a subdued enough color to put in to service on most traditional patterns, however, hot pink and orange are a bit too loud for ordinary use. But for an Emo fly, it's craptacular.

Emo
Another Hobby Lobby score: normally $3.99 per four 20" strands, %50 off the pack of beadchain equals thirty cents per foot. 30¢! Compare that to #6 (1/8"/3.2mm) nickel plated steel ball chain at $0.31 per foot (100 foot spool), and you've got a deal. Under fly tyer principles, you have to stock up on this kind of bargain.

Emo
Emo
Go hang yourself.

June 10, 2010

Pellet-heads

Inside the hatchery: Kamloops strain rainbow trout sac fry (alevins).

RBT KAM
RBT KAM
St. Croix Falls strain brook trout brood stock.

BKT SCF brood stock
Anyone got a good pellet pattern for those football brookies?

June 9, 2010

June 8, 2010

WASPs

yellowjacket
green hornet
These fuckers will sting when provoked. Hope you've got some serious bank.

June 5, 2010

Nighthawk

Nighthawk
Decked out in a UV visible paint job. New school stealth. Don't mess or you'll get fucked up.

June 4, 2010

Throwing Stones

Earth
Fuck you BP, fuck you corporate America, and fuck you all you fucking fucks who have sold the environment short just to make a fucking buck. FUCK YOU.

Picture a bright blue ball, just spinning, spinnin free,
Dizzy with eternity.
Paint it with a skin of sky,
Brush in some clouds and sea,
Call it home for you and me.
A peaceful place or so it looks from space,
A closer look reveals the human race.
Full of hope, full of grace
Is the human face,
But afraid we may lay our home to waste.

There's a fear down here we can't forget.
Hasn't got a name just yet.
Always awake, always around,
Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down.
Ashes, ashes, all fall down.

Now watch as the ball revolves
And the nighttime falls.
Again the hunt begins,
Again the bloodwind calls.
By and by, the morning sun will rise,
But the darkness never goes
From some men's eyes.
It strolls the sidewalks and it rolls the streets,
Staking turf, dividing up meat.
Nightmare spook, piece of heat,
It's you and me.
You and me.

Click flash blade in ghetto night,
Rudies looking for a fight.
Rat cat alley, roll them bones.
Need that cash to feed that jones.
And the politicians throwin' stones,
Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down.
Ashes, ashes, all fall down.

Commissars and pin-stripe bosses
Roll the dice.
Any way they fall,
Guess who gets to pay the price.
Money green or proletarian gray,
Selling guns 'stead of food today.

So the kids they dance
And shake their bones,
And the politicians throwin' stones,
Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down.
Ashes, ashes, all fall down.

Heartless powers try to tell us
What to think.
If the spirit's sleeping,
Then the flesh is ink
History's page will thus be carved in stone.
And we are here, and we are on our own
On our own.
On our own.
On our own.

If the game is lost,
Then we're all the same.
No one left to place or take the blame.
We can leave this place and empty stone
Or that shinin' ball we used to call our home.

So the kids they dance
And shake their bones,
And the politicians throwin' stones,
Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down.
Ashes, ashes, all fall down.

Shipping powders back and forth
Singing black goes south and white comes north.
In a whole world full of petty wars
Singing I got mine and you got yours.
And the current fashion sets the pace,
Lose your step, fall out of grace.
And the radical, he rant and rage,
Singing someone's got to turn the page.
And the rich man in his summer home,
Singing just leave well enough alone.
But his pants are down, his cover's blown...

And the politicians throwin' stones,
So the kids they dance
And shake their bones,
And it's all too clear we're on our own.
Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down.
Ashes, ashes, all fall down.

Picture a bright blue ball,
Just spinnin', spinnin, free.
Dizzy with the possibilities.
"Throwing Stones" Words by John Perry Barlow; music by Bob Weir. Copyright Ice Nine Publishing.


June 3, 2010

Smack Dodi

Smack Dodi
Some tasty ass nuggets for yo'selfs. Smack Dodi. I crossed some of that pomegranate Wooly Bully dub with some grouse and centipede legs and ended up with a kind blend. Just look at the Angelina glisten like a resinous bud. I'm also developing a few other different colored hybrids.

Smack Dodi
Smack Dodi
I 'll let the carp decide which colored legs they like. In the meantime, I've got the munchies.