Comments on: There’s always some fellow that wants to paint outside the lines

By: craig

craig — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:54:48 +0000

my personal watershed moment was a soon to be unemployed fellow, who told his class..it really doesn’t matter what or how you do it, somebody will like it.

and so it goes.

By: Anthony

Anthony — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:52:25 +0000

“and Science be Damned, the real fun is in spattering the canvas with Puce, Mauve, and Day Glo yellow, as it upsets conventional bug theory and masks the fact I’ve never been much good at painting within lines …”

Amen to that!

By: John Peipon

John Peipon — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 11:52:14 +0000

Maybe it is the flavor that attracts the Striper…Hmmm.

Never feed a blogger a straight line?

One the other hand, some of the best saltwater flies are basic white or black.

I use the AP Nymph myself. More blending next week…

By: KBarton10

KBarton10 — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 00:00:11 +0000

@John – I get this really uncomfortable feeling that were a fellow to hook up consistently with plain white – you’d pop one of those Jello flavored concoctions in your gob and suck frantically.

… even with a big hook sticking out.

I’ve heard that tea and coffee do a reasonable tan – brown. I’d be especially vulnerable to one of those if it was early morning and the bite was slow.

By: John Peipon

John Peipon — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 23:47:50 +0000

Keep on painting and stay out of the coloring books!
One of my mentors and a great fly tyer in his own right, the late Fran Betters loved to use Hot Orange thread. The color seeps through a Haystack or a Usual just enough. Why not brown, green or grey? I’ve caught fish with all.
Don’t doubt the blend. I’ve been doing it with bucktail for a few years, and I just started playing with dubbing. I find that when blending natural with syntho, little is better than lots. One part or less to ten parts natural. With buck tail, I just stick to color blending.
I take back most of the foolish stuff that I said about dyeing hair and feathers. I remembered how I dye the feathers for squid flys. Are you ready? Jell-O. Yup, Jell-O. Yellow from Lemon, red from cherry and green from Lime, etc. White strung hackle comes out in delicate pastels that tie beautiful squid patterns. I just soak the stock until I’m happy and rinse well. But, I don’t feed the Jell-O to the kids. I’d get busted for sure.

By: KBarton10

KBarton10 — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:27:05 +0000

Don’t worry Reed, they were all mules.

By: Reed

Reed — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:13:40 +0000

KB,

As a measure of reassurance would you please define “adding in some wild ass stuff” as several images have appeared in my mind that are most unwelcome.

Please tell us you are using hairs from feral equines. Please.

By: KBarton10

KBarton10 — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:20:26 +0000

The mottle is all blended. The black is a new Angora-Mohair yarn I’m testing. Once shredded I start adding a pinch of halo color – and often two or three more just to test outcomes.

If you remember there’s the blue opal angelina, the aurora style, and the crystilina flavor – each offers tints of different glimmer. I’m pairing the glimmer with the base colors – and also adding in some wild ass stuff just to gauge effects.

By: Ray

Ray — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:42:32 +0000

PS – are you getting all that mottling effect in the dye bath, or are you blending fibers afterwards?

By: Ray

Ray — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:41:11 +0000

Looks like I wasn’t the only one mixing Angelina fibers to make nymphs last night.

I got to about here:

“Hot Orange isn’t high on the list of trout colors, so it’s only natural you suspect I’m up to something gaudy.”

and started screaming: What the hell is he talking about?? 2/3 of the attractor dries I fish (and therefore, something that’s on the end of my line about 50% of the time I’m on the water… year round) are orange!…. and then I read on… they are huge stoneflies and Caddis. Guilty.

I just bought a spool of that “Fire Orange” Danville a couple weeks ago… nice stuff.