PSA #8: DIY Lanyard

Do It Yourself lanyard for a Loon Outdoors Nip N' Sip 2.0

1. Cut a six inch piece off of an old fly line. You can use the shooting head or the smaller diameter running line depending on your size preference.
2. Thread one end of the fly line through lanyard hole.
3. Make an overhand loop and cinch the knot.
4. Trim both tag ends of the fly line.
5. Liberally apply Loon Outdoors UV Wader Repair or UV Knot Sense to the knot.
6. Zap with UV Mega Light for 10 to 15 seconds or expose to sunlight.
7. Attach lanyard to vest, pack, etcetera, as desired.
8. Be awesome.

Note: for heavy duty items, you can substitute 550 Type III paracord as lanyard material

PSA #7: Free Advertising

Step One: Schlep your wares on your innocent, unsuspecting kids. Note daughter's gangsta pose.
Step Two: Release them out into the public.
Step Three: Wait for the sales to roll in so you can support your Hurricane High Gravity habit.

PSA #6: Keeping your kids off crack

It's dawned on me that I haven't published a recipe for my infamous Carp Crack pattern. I realize that I could pull a dick move and not disclose the simplicity secret behind this lethal pattern. I could direct you to my online store for some or tell you to go find a fly shop that carries my flies. I'm not gonna be that guy, at least for today. Many of you have asked for it, so here it is.

Carp Crack
Hook: Mustad 34007/S71SZ, Size 6
Thread: UNI-thread 6/0, Red
Antennae: Medium Centipede Legs, Hot Orange
Body: Roughfisher's Seal Sub Dub, Burnt Orange
Front Hackle: Ruffed Grouse or Hungarian Partridge, Dark/Brown
Thorax: Roughfisher's Seal Sub Dub, Burnt Orange
Eyes: #8 Bead chain, orange

Don't say I've never gave you anything...

PSA #5: Keep It Simple Stupid

KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid. There are flies tied to attract fish. Then there are flies to attract the fly angler. Then there are guide flies. Guide flies abide by the KISS principle, you want something cheap and fast to tie, yet is deadly effective on the water. These flies might not win any beauty pageants but the fish don't care. They just want to eat.


I recently found an old soldier (pictured in the forefront) going through my fly boxes recently. It's an old pattern I came up with a few years ago but kind of forgot about. I suddenly remembered how money this fly was; it had a good weight to it, great profile, and almost no splash when hitting the water. A perfect carp fly. I tried to recall why I never tied anymore of this pattern and then it dawned on me. The reason why I never tied anymore of these flies was because I used up almost all of my test flies one day out on the river. They were that good. The only reason why one fallen soldier lay rest was due to a bent hook point. Of course I tucked this fly away deep in my pack never to resurface until a few days ago.

This is about as easy a pattern to tie as the San Juan Worm. If you can dub a body and palmer hackle you're almost there. Just a size 4 salt hook, 0.30 lead wire wrapped hook shank, dubbed body, ringneck pheasant hackle, dubbed thorax, and bead chain eyes. Simple. The beauty of this pattern is that the pheasant hackle pulses in the water, giving a great profile and movement. In addition, the hackle and dubbed body help cushion and dampen the delivery of this fly on the water, huge when fishing to spooky fish. My favorite body colors of this fly are olive and burnt orange. And there you have it, a KISS guide fly for carp.


A quick note to myself and you folks out there: If you ever have a hot fly out on the water, write it down or record a history of it somewhere. Sometimes, when you're down to your last fly and the evidence is gone, it's easy to forget a killer pattern. Don't be a douche. Don't let my mistake happen to you.

PSA #4: DIY dubbing blends

Making your own dubbing blends can be a messy laborious task, running the risk of permanently banishing you from the kitchen and all associated paraphernalia and accoutrement. DIY dubbing can be extremely rewarding activity, and even an essential tool for helping you redecorate the kitchen while minting up a buggy nymph blend that perfectly matches the unique coloration of those caddis nymphs in your home waters. After you are done picking guard hairs from your teetch, clean up your mess, including those stray fibers of Angelina that found their way into the stove drip trays (don't ask), and hide all evidence that you were ever in the kitchen playing with the missus' coffee grinder. Let's see how it's done.


I have a Krups 203 blade grinder. The Mr Coffee's are also a good model, but some of the models (like the cuisinart) have a weird looking blade that don't look like they would chop the fiber apart and mix them well. I like the old fashioned sharpened straight edge with (with flanged turn down tips) on those bad boys. They can chop. Any blade grinder should be up to the task of blending, just make sure the top cover is a shape that you can work with and that there is a big enough mixing reservoir to hold fibers in. Add a favorite or sticker or two on the grinder housing, as this not only makes the blending job sweeter and faster, but makes you more awesome.

When it comes to making dry fly dub, I don't know a whole lot except that muskrat, beaver, and any of the other water rodents really work well. You're looking for light fibers that will loft up well in a mixer; hydrophobic fibers are even better, as they won't require much for floatant. Singlebarbed has a few great tutorials on DIY dubbing worth checking out. He is the guru of dub.

Nymph dub. I've visited the topic of DIY Ice Dub on here in the past. I like antron, acrylic, and other similar type fibers (trilobal). I like coarse guard hairs like hare, fox, squirrel, woodchuck, etc. Rabbit and hare underfur serve well for bulk filler. ANGELINA. That stuff is the shiznit. It will add flash and sparkle to any good nymph mix. There are different colors and they all produce different effects when used separately or in conjunction with one another. The violette Angelina gives off a purplish sparkle and is what is added to dubbing to give it that "UV" look.


If you're looking for the brands of synthetics yarns I like to use, then here goes:

MCG Textiles rug yarn
Design Works Craft Trim
Craft and Rug yarn from the Hobby Lobby
Needloft craft cord

Needloft is a great antron substitute, but the fibers can become knotted and tangled. You'll just have to pick the nits apart when blending. I try to alleviate the situation by cutting the fibers down to 1" to 1/2" lengths. Pretty much any rug or latch hook yarn you can find is gonna make some sweet dubbing. They are a lot like the "Sparkle yarn" used for caddis patterns, especially by La Fontaine. I typically try to keep my fibers about an inch or so in length, as the tend to blend and mix a lot better. Longer fibers will bind up and even get caught under the blade, making a natty mess. Dread, Natty Dread now...

Keep the batches in the grinder small, too many fibers at once will bind up; not enough and they won't break apart and mix. I tend to chop each type of fiber one at a time. I'll separate the chopped fibers into a few mix piles with the ratios of fibers I want, then blend. When each pile is blended, I'll combine them into one big pile and mix by hand, if necessary. For fur, I'll cut the amount of fur I need right off the skin and into the grinder, chopping and mixing the hair to add loft. One thing with fine furs like rabbit is that they'll become statically charged, which can become a total mess.

If any of you have a brown (or gray) shorthair tabby, brush the kitty as much as possible and save the hair. Collect as much as possible. Put the fur in a ziploc and microwave for a few seconds, put in the freezer, or both. This should kill any lingering microbes that were hanging out with old kitty. Then proceed to send the bag to The roughfisher Command Post, Detroit Lakes, MN 56501, c/o the roughfisher. The cat will love you, and you'll have a plentiful never ending bounty of the world's best dubbing fur. My old tabby made the best dubbing; I wish she was still lurking around so I could get my hands on some of that sweet, sweet fur. I don't know how a medium or long hair cat would work, but a shorthair tabby is like hare fur, but with tons of sweetass guard hairs.


The best advice I can give any of you about dubbing blends is the concept "spectral". Use a composite of colors in your blends to make up one single color. Rarely in nature is an object a single pure color. The object is composed of a myriad of colors that when compiled together blend to form a hue. One example is when I make some orange sow/scud dubbing. The base of the blend is hot orange acrylic yarn and aurora Angelina. I add rabbit/hare (dyed fluorescent orange) for texture and filler. I also add minute amounts of red, yellow, and perhaps another orange colored fiber to the blend. When mixed together, the red and yellow fibers add highlights to the blend, and help complement the overall color base. Same goes for peacock: black fiber base, dark and light green highlights, and peacock and black Angelina. Don't over do it though. A subtle highlight is more effective, as too many extra fibers will dull the base color down.


This Public Service Announcement was brought to you by: the roughfisher.

PSA #3: Stuffed Meats

In a move to collect more capital, I went into hardcore sausage production here at the Roughfisher Command Post. Singlebarbed's offer of a one foot square of Polar Bear and a Jungle Cock cape are great and all, but I want something worthy of a brownliner. Give me a pound of glimmer flash chenille in cinnamon, or 2K 5/32" tungsten beads. Throw in a thousand Knapek scud hooks, size 10; hell, I'll even settle for Skalka's. Throw in everything you've got, 'cause these goods aren't going to go cheap.



A batch of pepperoni, currywurst, and Hawaiian-style portuguese sausage, aka linguiça. Can't go wrong smoking up a pork loin either, canadian bacon style.



Now that I've got you drooling, open up your wallets. The bidding war has begun.

PSA #2: DIY Fly Boxes

Part of the roughfisher spirit is doing it yourself. Some may call it cheap, some thrifty, I say if you can do a project yourself, why not make it better? Clifford makes a mighty fine box, but you can make your own custom fly box of comparable quality for easily less than half the price and with minimal effort. Here's how.


I already did the hard part for you and found a great price through a distributor for the Flambeau Precision boxes, the exact same boxes that Cliff uses for the Bugger Barns and smaller fly boxes. Check out Mouser Electronics and you can find the same box used for the Day's Worth for only $3.61. The beauty of buying through Mouser is that you don't need to buy case quantity (except for the 4040-2 [Bugger Barn size] at this time). I was even fortunate to receive a complimentary upgrade to 2 Day Air when I placed my order, how's that for service?

Head on over to the craft store and pick up a couple sheets of 6 mm craft foam, in any color you like, and some craft foam glue. If your store doesn't carry 6 mm craft foam sheets, don't worry, I've got you covered. I like to cut out a template of the inside of the box with a sheet of paper, then trace the template onto the craft foam. I used a heavy duty pair of shears to cut the foam; an exacto blade works great for cutting slits in the foam to hold your flies. I spaced mine about 1 cm apart. Apply the adhesive to the back of the foam and let dry. All you need to do is press the foam into the inside of the box and your almost ready to go.


If you're interested in making a magnetic bottom like on the Day's Worth box, pick up a package of paintable magnetic sheeting while at the craft store. Cut out a piece using a template like the foam pieces and apply adhesive to the back of the magnet and set in the box. If you're looking for those nifty little foam dividers to separate flies, take a piece of the waste foam and cut out a narrow 1/4" strip of foam and adhere on top the magnet or on top of the inner lid of the case using the foam adhesive.


Here's the easy part: Grab your favorite stickers and plaster them all over your boxes and show your pride. Pimp your awesomeness with style. Your welcome.


This Public Service Announcement was brought to you by: the roughfisher

PSA #1: Luminescence

The thought crossed my mind a while back on how to approach nocturnal feeding fish. I had been getting my ass kicked daily on the water by non-feeding fish and had to crack that code. Since sight fishing is out of the question, a fellow carp angler raised the question of tying luminous flies. Why not? Ice fisherman use glow jigs all the time. That idea sparked the genesis of the roughfisher Nocturnal nymph.


The tail and body were tied with glow in the dark flashabou, and a fluorescent yellow wire rib was tied in to secure the material. The thorax was tied with either glimmer flash chenille, krystal chenille, or UV dub. A tungsten head rounded out the pattern, tied on a Togen scud hook.


During the peak of summer, it does not get dark until around 2230 up here, the sunset topping out around 2130. Travel obligations for work and young kids at home don't allow for fishing late anymore, besides, who knows what will happen to the roughfisher after midnight. Fishing at night may not always be an option, however, this pattern would be just as effective in the pre-dawn hours and other low light conditions, especially early and late in the season. By the end of October, the lazy sun is rising after 0800 and setting near 1800, providing plenty of low light conditions throughout the day. Another benefit of the luminescence of this pattern is that it may also improve visibility in turbid waters. Add another weapon to the arsenal.


This Public Service Announcement was brought to you by: the roughfisher