November

[Micanopy]

Happy All Saints Day. This day is the reason there is an All Hollows Eve Day. Seems the ghouls, goblins, witches and creatures of the night, pour out there worse upon us before having to go back and hide from the forces of good. In the Catholic faith this signifies the beginning of a new year, and they replace the now year old paschal candle with a brand new one. A new page in the book of the dead gets turned and life goes on.


Well I played some more.



Very crude stuff I know, but the material is tricky stuff. I am learning as I go. I tried flaring out my Mare-A-Boo on the two on the left. At still there are two, when swimming they legs will drawn in tighter. They will resist this inward movement as they get pulled along and provide action. That’s the plan. Saw something similar on the interwebs. Of course everything has already been done.



The jig on the right has some white Mare-A-Boo added to indicate there is a white belly, but it kind of gets buried some. Little things like that are where I am stuck now. I need to master technique in order to make beauty.

The grizzly hackles are soft and flexible and I want to try wrapping hackle vs tying chenille. I have watched some videos featuring this technique and think I could follow along fairly well. A hackle behind the jig head would offer some body without becoming a center of attention thingie. I want that eye to lead the way.

So far I am enjoying tying with feathers. They are difficult to work with as they are so flimsy but they offer plenty of whimsical rewards. Fly tyers must be a crazy lot as they detail they put into a fly is way too much. I am lucky if the feather points anywhere near in the right direction. LOL

[DockShootinJack]

I have done a few with twisted and wrapped hackle. Also wrapped some hackle between the wraps of chenille. Gave kind of a wolly worm appearance

[BuckeyeCrappie]

[ksnouf]

Twisting hackle around close to the head gives a real nice furry collar. Adds a nice look. Try wrapping the marabow around the hook like you would chenlle...makes a real fluffy body and tail. It's lots of fun trying so many different ways to work with stuff. Keep up the good work.

[Takeum]

Nice ties,,,love those eyes

[Micanopy]

Well tried my first hackle wrapping exercise, and it came out uneven. Still it is interesting. I think I need to watch a few more videos to understand the intricacies in manipulating feathers.



I appreciated the idea of using Mare-A-Boo for my collars. I bet that is wild.


Here are a few tamer versions. This is more what I had envisioned when I selected my hackle.






Still I am making the tails too long. I wet the marabou and then gauge the length, a few loosies and trim and wind down. Not sure why I am doing that.

The grizzly barred hackle sure looks cool running down the sides. To my eye it mimics a minnow. I imagine a man could simply use a magic marker and scribe slashes onto a material and skip the feather, but the feather would still look better.

I need to look at getting more materials. I see now how things go with this hobby. I almost stopped to collect the tail off a roadkill squirrel yesterday. Sad I know. Maybe I will get a squirrel tail today. Wonder what Crow feathers look like when lashed to steel. Hair of hog. Her Chihuahua is starting to get nervous and is avoiding me.

[DockShootinJack]

Once it is in the water it should even itself out

[Micanopy]

I watched some videos on wrapping Marabou, and saw how things are supposed to go. I must admit the feathers in the dry condition are very impressive, but when wet same same as not wrapping. Maybe they have an added attraction when being trolled, not sure. I know my first attempt left me with a really long tail for my size jig. I will try some more and see if I can do it without making a tail a dinosaur would be proud of.



Thinking I should give away these to make room for the newer ones I intend to tie up. They all have their own flaws and such as I am just learning.

Watching videos and seeing a few new tools I need to acquire. Hackle pliers and a spinner. Whatever that thing is. Figure I will get another bobbin while I am at it. Wanting to try lots of the things I am seeing done. Some of the videos were basically showing techniques that can be done on a Norvise. Like $400 is worth being able to do this here boy. My Regal vice doesn’t spin round and round and I ain’t in no race, but dubbin seems popular and I want to try that, too.

[DockShootinJack]

One good thing about tying tools is they don't take up a lot of room. The materials seem to be a different story

[Micanopy]

Well I ordered some new tools. A dubbin spinner thingie and a new whip finishing tool and a hackle plier. I added some Fishair to my order just to see if I like it. Never know unless I try it.








Saw some cool videos and got some ideas. Seems everyone does things differently.

My next batch of jig heads will be getting some paint. Thinking bright white