Category Archives: Uncategorized

Wire is available in a multitude of colors and sizes, and fly tiers are unaware that they are available

The intersection of magnets, jewelry, and fly tying

1 Reply

I spent more hours trying to find “gold” than anything else, and gold being the, “..first or second most popular wire” in fly tying, I knew I had to return victorious versus carried on my shield. In hindsight, I’m thinking there may be an electronic convention that only certain colors are used to wrap electric motors, and that’s why some colors are easy to find and some not at all. Not being an electrician I can only guess that color and use are tied together when describing magnet wire, as certain colors are simply not available, hence the countless hours of my searching,

“Magnet wire” is the electrical name for the colored fly tying wire sold in fly tying stores. The enamel coloring of the wire also acts as an insulator. allowing it to be wound around a core to produce a magnetic field. Magnet wire is available in a huge range of sizes; in spools weighing from five pounds to as small as the three yard spools sold in fly shops. Magnet wire is available in only a few colors however, natural copper, amber (similar to natural copper), red, green, and blue. Searching electrical supply houses will not yield colors like gold, silver, black, and olive, or any of the other colors available to fly tiers, I assume its electrical use is somehow tied to specific colors.

Us anglers know identical wire is available in nearly thirty other colors and it’s likely the same manufacturer that makes them all, so why are some colors hard to find compared to red, green, and natural, colors that are available everywhere?

After countless hours of searching and several dozen manufacturers, the answer is simple. The wire is made by the large wire makers, but the colors are marketed to different customers. The electrical trade uses a finite grouping of colors, and all others are marketed to the “craft” industry.

If you require larger spools of enameled copper wire in other colors, specifically Gold, you need to use the search criteria, “craft wire” not “magnet wire.”

The problem with “craft wire” is that most of it is used for beading and jewelry work, so the sizes available are tied to strength, not necessarily its ampere rating. The wire sizes fly tiers use most commonly are 34 (34AWG) and 36 (36AWG) gauge. As the gauge number increases, the wire gets smaller, so 36 gauge would be for (roughly) size 14-16-18 hooks, and 34 gauge would be for 10-12-14 hooks. 32 gauge wire can be really useful on large flies, big stoneflies or steelhead flies, but isn’t sold in fly shops, only in electrical or craft venues.

Brass wire is “gold colored” and is much stronger than copper, and is used extensively in the jewelry business, so is an option for both fly tying and jewelry. It is tougher and stiffer than copper, so requires good scissors to cut it cleanly. Many types and sizes of brass wire exist in the jewelry business, but fly tiers should avoid all but the smallest sizes, 32, 34, and 36AWG. In addition to using your heavy scissors on brass, you need to ensure it is enameled with a clear coat, as brass can discolor with age. (Most jewelry grade brass wire is properly sealed, but the occasional off-shore vendor may not coat their wire).

Stainless steel wire is also commonly available as a “silver colored” wire. If you have a quality set of heavy scissors it is a wonderful, tarnish proof, version of a silver wire, but don’t use good scissors to cut it, you will destroy them over time. Excellent for salt water flies, used in 32 AWG.

Your biggest wire use will be natural copper and gold. The first is easy to find, and the second, gold, is very difficult to find as it is the craft variant. Internet search engines are NOT your friend, as searching for “gold wire” or “silver wire” will return gold (or silver) plated, or gold (or silver) filled wire, “Gold colored wire” made of copper will not even make the first couple of pages of the search result. Search engines will return, in order; real gold wire, gold plated, gold filled wire, brass wire, and then other wire types, like gold colored copper or aluminum wire.

As craft wire is intended for jewelry, real gold and real silver are more commonly used than all other wire colors and types, and dominate all search results from Google or similar search engines. AI based searching is a little better, but AI searches (using CoPilot or similar) are not yet smart enough to distinguish between real gold and gold colored, so you have to select your search terms carefully.

Many craft oriented vendors exist but few accomodate our need for the smallest craft wire sizes, and most only carry craft wire to 30AWG, which is much too thick for fly tying, and not terribly strong for jewelry. Finding a consistent source of gold or silver colored craft wire is problematic.

Chart of Artistic Wires sizes and decimal equivalents

Artistic Wire is a vendor of many different colors of colored copper wire. They offer nearly 30 colors of copper wire, and brass wire, but only down to 34AWG. The above chart shows that a 1/4lb spool of 34 gauge wire contains about 2000 ft of wire, and retails for around $12-$15 dollars. Considering that a fly shop sells the same wire for $4 for 15 feet, and you can see the savings.

Only Gold and Copper wire are used in quantities warranting the purchase of larger spools, but some tiers may have unique needs. Local flies like Olive or Brown Copper John nymphs, or steelhead flies tied with woven copper bodies may require larger quantities of wire on hand.

The best source of craft related materials, and wire, is the ETSY website. Etsy is similar to Ebay in that it is a market of individual vendors, stores, and hobbyists, and sells nearly everything needed for craft making. Like Ebay, Etsy vendors can be long or short lived, so buying small amounts may require different vendors for every sale. I tend to buy the 1/4 lb spools, which ensures that I need only make one purchase per lifetime

Etsy’s search interface is mind numbingly long, and is not very helpful in the results it returns, due to its use of “popular” results versus what you actually asked for … Searching for a specific color may be onorous due to your inability to get more precise in Etsy search. Etsy does have most of the colors and sizes of wire we’re accustomed to seeing at the fly shop, and it has considerably more sizes, most of which are not useful however.

Ebay also features craft wire and overruns of products sold at a discount. Each tier’s unique needs will determine which vendor or source suits them best, but remember to check the gauge to ensure you’re getting the right size as well as color.

Rules for Buying Wire on the Internet

  1. Always buy copper wire from an electrical source. “Natural” colored copper wire is the easiest and cheapest wire you can find. Craft sources sell it for two or three times what the electrical sources sell it for, so select your copper wire using the search criteria, “Magnet Wire” which will only return electrical vendors.
  2. Buy your Gold (colored) wire via the search term, “Craft Wire”. Gold colored wire is easy to find on Etsy or Ebay using the craft designation in your search.
  3. When buying either, ALWAYS double check the gauge you are buying. With simple enamelling, 34 Gauge wire is typically, decimal 0.016, and 32 Gauge is typically, 0.020, if the vendor only supplies the decimal sizes, use this as a reference to what you’re seeing.
  4. Trout sizes of wire are 34 or 36 gauge, large nymph and steelhead, 32 gauge.

Searching for fly tying wire can be especially rewarding when you need colors not stocked by your local fly shop. Many of the jewelry uses require imitations of the different types of gold, yellow, rose, or red gold, and additional colors are available due to the jewelry usage. Most fly shops don’t stock a huge selection of wire, but you can find nearly every color you need on the Internet. Etsy features color assortments from some vendors

Remember that nothing is made expressly for fly tying. The number of fly tiers is too small an audience to command unique products from the huge metallurgy vendors that make wire for real industry. Ultra wire is simply wire, there is nothing special about it, nor is there any unique properties that make it especially good for fly tying, other than its gauge and color.

In summary: Fly tiers have a huge range of sizes available in red, green, amber, and natural copper colors, and have less selection of sizes in nearly every other color. Beading and jewelry requires heavier wire than we use, so typically the smallest sizes for craft wire are in the larger ranges of fly tying wire, 32-34 gauge. (32-34 AWG)

Recommendation

Buy 1/4 or 1/2 lb spools of only GOLD and COPPER colored wires, in 34 or 36 gauge wire. I would buy both if cost is not an issue. These larger spools change with the price of copper, currently around $14 to $20 per spool.

Buy 34 gauge if your nymphs trend to the larger sizes (12 or larger), and 36 gauge if you tie mostly smaller sizes (14 and smaller). Please note that you can use the smaller, 36AWG on any fly size – I’m assuming that 34 gauge is identical to Ultra wire, so choose accordingly.

These represent the lion’s share of all fly tying uses, and will be the spools you reach for time and time again. The rest of the colors are optional – although the gloss black wire. and coffee brown wire did catch my eye … I’m still puzzling over whether to get the five pound spool on those …

Sex and Fishing, like Peas and Carrots

Leave a reply

I’ve always linked sex and fishing and assumed the pair inseparable.

My fishing has always been a curious form of “date rape”, that despite my best efforts at planning an expedition to coincide with a locales peak fishing, I usually miss the best hatch and must listen to how “last week” was epic and now … not so much.

I (We) consult bosses, horoscopes, tide tables, Ouiji boards, psychics, priests, homeless neighborhood shaman, and our shrink, for signs as to when to leave, where to go, what to throw, and despite all the careful preparation we’re forced to relay our lack of success using terms of sex and violence, both intentional and unwitting.

If concerned coworkers inquire, or are curious as to the source of a visible bruise or abrasion, I’ll attempt to save face with some petulant comment involving the watershed, my adversary. and sex, where we were the unwilling “bottom” in the coupling, or in the instance of a successful trip, how we raped and pillaged our quarry without thought to his/her feelings, nor the moral consequences of our crime.

I’ve always assumed that backpacking fishermen like their suffering, and their sex, rough … and those favoring “glamping,” select guides and accomodations as they’d choose a hooker and motel room. Regardless of the flavour of your favorite kink, we always blame our inadequacies or premature conclusion on external factors; rain, wind, or insect activity – completely ignoring the obvious … that we rarely practice, and are fumbling our way through nearly every encounter.

With these musings as backdrop, I was recently surprised to read that most forms of sex and fishing are illegal, and the only reason trout streams aren’t echoing of police sirens and whose bankside vegetation masks undercover officers, is that we are licensed for purient behavior, under the auspices of Department of Fish and Game, and the folks being hauled off to jail lack immunity (and a license).

Hallam, from Dolphin Sands in Tasmania’s south-east was charged with two counts of making or reproducing a bestiality product and three counts of possessing a bestiality product

Due to the pending nature of the trial, information is thankfully scant, but we can assume rods, vests, waders, are considered props and/or accessories, subject to confiscation or contribute to additional charges. Ditto for any photograph depicting you and your dripping quarry, no matter whom is assuming the dominant role.

Neither am i sure of the quality of reporting, given the perpetrator was wielding “a live brown trout” in an ocean environment. Looks like my stilted prose and questionable source materials are rivaled by our obviously non-fishing, Jimmy Olsen ..

More importantly, as we don’t yet know the statute of limitations for past offences, it may be time to purge your camera, social media accounts, and accumulated scrapbooks of past sordid exploits.

Phentex Yarn

Fly tying materials in the Wild : Polypropylene Yarn

Leave a reply

It turns out I have quite a bit of time on my hands, given my providing care for an aging parent. While that certainly puts a dent in my fishing itinerary, it hasn’t slowed me down on the fly tying front … not even a little.

Like many other fly tiers, the last person I tie for is myself. For whatever reason, I ensure all my pals have plenty, and my fly box is filled with drab experimentals or gayly colored attractors, too gaudy for even the unconventional angler.

I have been restocking a lot of materials with the plan of tying for my own boxes, and find myself alternately thrilled – when I find that missing box of Puce Guinea fowl I misplaced, and gasping … when I see the current price of what it would take to replace it.

In many cases I had the foresight to lay in a goodly supply of common items, like hooks and tinsels, but after years of tying flies, I have made inroads into that supply and need to get more, or contemporary patterns require colors I lack and failed to set aside. As I discover the current trade names, sources, and locales for these materials, I’ll be adding them here for your consumption.

To wit, today we just confirmed that our old friend “Polypropylene” now goes by a different moniker. While the old name is common in fly shops and fishing venues, most of the garment industry has attempted to move away from unwholesome synthetics in favor of more comforting names and trademarks. Fly tiers have long known of the reluctance of the fashionable types to wearing REAL furs, and how it has cut into our supply of animal parts and furrier scraps. The same is true of trade names … and the movement away from names that sound like they cause cancer, to names that sound more wholesome, natural, and socially acceptable.

Polypropylene is now called “Olefin” and those tiny three yard cards of Poly yarn that sell for three dollars each, can be purchased under the Olefin name for a fraction of the cost of retail.

Skeins of Olefin yarn will look slightly different than the fly tying flavor, but only because the yarn you purchase might be a knitting yarn, a spun four ply, versus the unspun two ply seen in the fly tying variant. Combing the yarn out and unspinning the weave yields the same material and the same coarseness of fiber. Color selection is greatly increased due to the non angling uses, and for some that may be an additional benefit. Most poly yarn is used to wing spinners or dries, and typically used in the white and light gray flavors.

It’s not surprising that most of the Olefin yarn consumed in the US originates under Chinese manufacture. As there are so many uses for the Olefin yarn, everything from heavy ropes to gossamer garments, you need to select a form that is conducive to your fly tying.

Phentex was the brand of Polypropylene yarn purchased in the late 70’s, and the Phentex company still makes the yarn in its many forms today. Phentex markets the yarn under a variety of styles and types, many of which are available on Amazon. The “Slipper and Craft” yarn is a loose Olefin weave and will likely work well for your tying.

Most fly tiers will have a lifetime supply of Polypropylene (Olefin) yarn with only a single skein of the white and one additional in gray, I have found uses for turquoise blue, damsel dries, and brown – for Calibaetis parachutes. At six dollars a skein, you’re getting several decades of materials for the price of two of the small fly shops cards.

Jump on it.

Berryessa Redux

Conditions: Air temperature 55 degrees in the AM, 77 degrees in the afternoon. Light northerly breeze, 5-10 mph. Water temperature measured at Oaks Shores of 62 degrees (AM), measured at Big Island 64 degrees (PM).

I retraced my earlier Berryessa outing and noted the last couple of weeks of warm weather is reflected in the water temperature. In the last two weeks, surface temperatures are up three degrees, and the lake has dropped an additional five feet, consistent with tomato production.

Yep, all that Ketchup has to come from somewhere …

The last couple of weeks the valley has been planting in earnest. Bell Peppers, Tomatoes, and new Almond orchards are materializing as fast as the tractors can plant them, and the canals brim full of water  necessary to get plantings to take root, so water use is up.

The talk in the parking lot are how fewer Kokanee are biting and the casual trolling anglers are starting to thin as well. Less lake volume and warmer weather and we’ve got the recipe for the Kokanee to head deep and the bass to come shallow, and yours truly gleefully stomping the daylights out of anything fool enough to eat an artificial.

Three degrees meant the Smallmouth bite is akin to Indian Valley. “Smallies” were in the shallows and giving chase, with nary a Largemouth to be seen. The same flies were dominant, and only the terrain mattered – as Smallmouth tend to prefer rocky areas and are largely absent on the muddy or sandy parts of the lake.

BerrySmall500

No Catfish this time, but I did manage to land a big “Chunk” of a Crappie. These are always welcome given they’re a scrappy fighter with a soft mouth, and also great table fare if you get into a school of them.

BCrap500

The Gray Wooly Bugger is quickly becoming the “go to” pattern for all of these lakes – and it’s not terribly surprising given how the predominant food source is Threadfin Shad.  I am casting downwind to increase distance, waiting a bit (to unravel tangled running line) and then stripping the fly back in pulls ranging from six inches to a foot. I have 20 turns of two amp fuse wire on the fly with a 4mm bead, and the combination gives it an aggressive sink rate … likely about six inches per second.

My leader is also assisting a bit, as it is designed for these heavy flies. I have a short butt section (about 40”) comprised of equal segments of 50, 40, and 30lb monofilament. I tie a Surgeon’s Knot at the end of the 30 lb to make a loop to attach the tippet. I use about five foot of 15lb fluorocarbon (Seaguar –I am testing it this season), to aid the sinking fly. The long tippet allows the fly to sink very quickly as it is  thinner and offers less resistance to the fly pulling it under. This is similar to many of the leaders I make, and takes its inspiration from the Golden Gate Angling & Casting Club’s tournament leaders used in ACA events.

The combination is allowing me to consistently get five or six feet into the water column with a floating line – an important option considering the top water bite is synonymous with Spring Spawn and the ensuing festivities. Flopping between the deep and the surface is a lot easier when limited to fly change only – versus spool swap or second rod.

Stony Gorge Reservoir Scout Trip

Conditions: Air temperatures 65 – 76, water temperature 60 degrees, light afternoon breeze.

I fished Stony Gorge Reservoir for the first time today. Stony Gorge is yet another Interstate 5 impoundment that everyone rockets past enroute to elsewhere. It’s west of I-5 near the small town of Elk Creek, Ca (take the HWY 163 West out of Willows).

StonyGorgeRes450

The lake is smallish, no more than a couple miles in length, and boasts outstanding water clarity (up to 20-30 foot), numerous encounters with Bald Eagles, no trash, few humans, and absolutely no hungry fish – which is likely the reason our small group had the lake to ourselves.

We split up and covered both sides of the lake, I fished alternating deep plunging shoreline interspersed with shallow flats enroute to the Southern end, which hosted a lot of brush and timber in the water.

I saw only six middling size carp in the shallow water, and nothing in the way of bass or crappie in any of the areas that were visible.

The 60 degree water is a might chill to trigger much in the way of spawning debauchery – and I was surprised the lake was as cold as East Park, as we’re in the grip of a warming trend that will culminate in 90 degree temperatures this weekend.

StonyGorgeBass450

With nothing visible in the shallows, I ran a quick test with drop shot in the deeper portions of the lake’s center. Picked up a pair of fish in as many casts, so the fish are still sulking in the deeper water.

Like East Park Reservoir, Stony Gorge access is seasonal. The Bureau of Reclamation is the Dam operator and is the best source of information as to the gate being unlocked to allow anglers into the campgrounds and launch area.  I think the season is roughly April to October, but call the Bureau’s Shasta (Redding) office to verify they are open (530) 247-8500.

I was much taken by what I saw of the lake. The combination of scenery, wildlife, lack of trash, and the unique light coloration of the bass – will likely have me returning soon.

If the choice is sex or fishing, the fish will get screwed

Ask your average angler whether he’s contributing to the steady decline in fish numbers and you’re liable to get a supersized serving of righteous indignation.

Most fishermen agree that hooking and landing fish generate some  mortality, but they’re just as likely to rationalize the money they donate to conservation organizations, licensing, and taxes paid on outrageously expensive terminal tackle, more than make up for it.

Likewise for the angler that eats fish. As fishermen are keenly aware – our sporting fraternity is among the few groups anxious to see fish propagate, and while we admit to our kill (although understandably quiet about what is freezer-burned and tossed), we’re just as apt to quote similar avenues of compensatory dollars that lessen the impact of our hammy feet on the environment.

Unfortunately those dollars are outweighed many times over by the angler’s yearly outlay on Doritos, Ho-Ho’s, double-decker Bic Mac’s (dripping with plasticine GMO Cheddar), greasy Chili Cheese fries, great slabs of charred red meat, and the butter necessary to slide of that mass down his gullet.

While anglers protest with a pathetic bleat, “… at least we get a little exercise,” – the reality is that we’re fat, and growing fatter by the minute.

And as a by-product of all that questionable gastronomy, our collective diabetes medications are accelerating the feminization of male fish downstream of every sewage outflow.

Estrogens from birth control medications in wastewater treatment plant effluent have been cited as the likely cause, but research has shown that endocrine disruption is not solely predictable based on hormone receptor interactions. Many other non-hormone pharmaceuticals are found in effluent at concentrations orders of magnitude higher than estrogens, yet there is little data indicating the impacts of these other medications. The widely prescribed anti-diabetic metformin is among the most abundant of pharmaceuticals found in effluent and is structurally dissimilar from hormones. However, we show here that exposing fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) to a concentration of metformin found in wastewater effluent causes the development of intersex gonads in males, reduced size of treated male fish, and reduction in fecundity for treated pairs.

fishmore

Given that anglers are never prone to accept blame for more than a few milliseconds, and based on what the medical profession insists we do to correct our behavior, it appears as the act of fishing is now a life saving measure, and should be advertised as such to any spouse insisting on lawns being mown or chores being done …

It’s important we do our part to minimize the effects of our diabetes meds mixing with the existing slurry of birth control and female hormones in wastewater. While we can agree to sacrifice an occasional cheeseburger, we’ll waive any chastisement of female additions to wastewater, as we can all agree if the choice is between fishing and “tail” to save a watershed, the fish will definitely get screwed.

At some point we’ll see stability, but not yet

I’ll call this site “Singlebarbed Too” in honor of my horrid punctuation skills.

As we speak two sites exist due to my migrating the content from one account to another. Site “one” has a BASS graphic as the header image, and “Too” has the tied fly header.

So far this morning the DNS update has made the default site Singlebarbed One, and now at midday it has become Singlebarbed Too.

I’ll assume all this will quiet down within 48 hours, but it may prove a little odd if you comment or post, and it appears to vanish – as it has done twice already.

No worries, it will stabilize at some point.

Brief Hiatus nearing completion

Been a bit reluctant to add more to the site as there was the potential to move it onto another vendor. Naturally I didn’t want to confuse the issue any – after exporting all of my past blather and saving it should the move prove less than advertised.

To hell with that … given the sudden parting of the Heavens and the deluge that resulted. While the drought (both writing and water) has taken a couple of wicked body shots, we need a bit more weather and time to ensure next year’s fishing is a sure thing.

Back shortly.

Dumpster diving, sloth, and the sweet song of glass

dumpster_diveIt was an involuntary wince when I felt the resistance to my pulling an armload of fishing tackle from the back of the rig. Instinctively I’d bowed like a tarpon angler whose seen his quarry come airborne on a taut line, yet the crack of rod tip impacting something in the bed as it released lacked the rattle of broken –  yet sounded violent enough to trigger a burst of self loathing and profanity.

Only a dental visit makes an angler more repentant … a dangling fly and momentary sloth meeting something damp, oversized and heavy, with a prized rod thrust into Harm’s way and an armload of supplies making its peril invisible.

I got lucky, the overly loud snap of tippet and accompanying violent reverb off the truck bed merely disrobed half a snake guide of thread, and altered the tip top from spherical into ellipse.

… which didn’t slow my swearing any, just made the muttered epithets blanket North America, rather than the World at large…

After a year reacquainting myself with fiberglass, and my renewed pleasure causing me to move numerous rods from the back of the pile to the front, I could scarce afford to start trimming their number with carelessness.

Especially since I’d made the mistake of cracking a catalog and asking myself, “what’s the latest generation of glass going for?”

A house payment, Natch … silly question.

… and whether it’s got a couple of vowels or simply a consonant preceding “glass, “ it’s alternatingly a sharp intake of breath or a headshaking giggle.

After viewing a couple of contemporary catalogs, I figured the “S” meant “Super” or “Superlative” – yet just as quickly changed to – “Stupid”, “Simple” or possibly its owner merely a “Spendthrift”.

“Sudden Chastity” being part of the Mean Old Guy mantra, as we knew a good rod lasts a lifetime and saved the old gear, only occasionally upgrading our tackle with more fashionable contemporary fodder. Naturally, once heeled we feel free to comment on others and how their manhood comes cheap …

Yet from my Ivory pedestal, as I attempted to straighten what was now a damning ellipse, I realized its source was just as damning, as this was proof of my Urban Urchin youth, the unloved pristine Fenwick Feralite, Model FF807, that I’d spied in a curbside dumpster along with a worn Mad Magazine (Issue #50).

The gay colors of the comic book cover had me teetering precariously on the lip of the dirty container, brushing aside rancid can goods, broken lathe and plaster, and with comic in one hand, spying the cork grip of someone’s failed attempt at Gentile …

I ignored the angry screams from the second floor, figuring the same spinster was likely the cause of the rod owner’s premature death, and he wouldn’t mind my repurposing his tackle – nor my thumbing nose at his spouse.

Now some thirty years distant (and suddenly blushing from snooty commentary), I find this rod proof that I was never “to the manor born” – rather I was an ardent gutter snipe angler intent on killing stuff smaller than me.

Boxers

… which is why I prefer sub-hundred dollar glass from eBay, and never turn up my nose at the creek’s bountiful offerings, including bullet riddled teapots and free shorts.

… and here I was thinking the Jigglicious video was the penultimate found thing …