The Orb, by Switters B

I have been following a couple of fly fishing blogs for the past two years. I love "The Trout Underground" by Tom Chandler over on the Upper Sacramento River. He is the best all around and most interesting blog, covering the most niches of fly fishing. He also draws from some other great blogs such as "Moldy Chum" and "Singlebarbed", two that I recommend. I like Singlebarbed because he ties and ties and has a new pattern up on his blog at least four times per week. However, this post is about Switters B, a huge fly tyer and innovator. I have been trying to find the materials to tie his fly, "The Orb".

Evidently, the author at Switters B was swimming subsurface in a lake when he saw a callibaetis hatch emerging. He stated that the emerging nymphs appeared to Glow when near the surface. He then created "The Orb", a size 14 nymph that has a large clear plastic bead, under wrapped with tinsel, at the head of the fly. I have been trying for a year to find the floating plastic beads he uses. Recently, I came across 1000 4-mm plastic beads on ebay and bought them. Unfortunately, they don't fit on a size 14 hook, but a size 10. I also picked up 6/0 clear glass beads and 5-mm plastic pearl beads from Michael's, and am having trouble getting them on the hooks.

I finally used my barb-mashing pliers to bend out a 2x short curved nymph hook, size 14 -- got a 4-mm bead on it, and put gray ostrich herl for the tail, the abdomen, and the thorax. My first attempt ended up with too large a thorax, but thought I'd put it up in this post. I'm looking forward to tying this pattern and giving it a thorough test this summer, as requested to all by Switters B. I'm sure I'll get this pattern figured out, and it gives me a use for the small left over tips from tying the ostrich callibaetis in the previous post.

My apologies for the blurry photographs. I'll edit these posts and get better pictures up asap.

Take care,
Shane

Summer Soon, Time for the Orbs

I am trying to become a "professional" fly tyer, starting with inroads at my local fly shop and the marina a Pine Cove on Lewiston Lake. I have 6 patterns in the shop at Lewiston Lake, and have an order for 4 dozen flies at the Eureka Fly Shop. I know Mike is being nice to me and throwing me a little work. Mike is a world class tyer who ties up most of the flies in his shop. As a high school student he shocked the world at fly shows with his skill.
As I'm filling my order, I also want tie some flies that will help me out at Lewiston Lake. There is a callibaetis hatch on the lake that I have never fished. Now that I have figured out midges and leeches on the lake, I think it is time to learn how to fish the callibaetis hatches (which I hear are FUN). Searching for patterns online, I didn't want to tie something really complicated so I settled on a mix between Rickard's Callibaetis and Mercer's Poxyback Callibaetis. I tied up a couple flies with mallard wood duck tails, gray ostrich body ribbed with gold wire, thick ostrich thorax with turkey shell and mallard wood duck legs. It was a pain and takes me twice as long as a "normal" wet pattern.
I tied up a half dozen and took them in to Mike. I told Mike that I was trying to find an easy pattern to tie as the ones I was making took too much time. He looked at them and said "These are Perfect. I want them. Tie me up 4 dozen!!!". Aaarrrgggghhh -- I've doubled by career orders but have a fly that takes me 5 to 6 minutes to tie. I have to laugh, though, that I've come up with something that Mike likes -- and another order. Now, to tie, tie, and tie.
I've tied about 2 dozen of these flies, and all came out as seconds that I'll personally fish with. The mallard wood duck feathers are hard to work with for the legs of the fly -- not at easy as partridge because the tips of the wood duck feathers are separated and not "full" like partridge. However, I think I've figured out a method for tying in the legs and should get production rates of 12 to 15 per hour (I hope).
Now, only two more weeks of school and then I'm at Lewiston Lake for the summer ( 4 days per week) and I'll see if this pattern is something I have to tie dozens of -- I hope!!

Take care,
Shane

It is getting time to get time: To Fish

Well, the flows out of Trinity Lake are ramping up this week until next Tuesday, May 3, when 10,000 cfs will flow through Lewiston Lake and down the Trinity River (well, half of it -- the other half will be shipped over the hill to southern California.

I hear stories about the docks at Pine Cove Marina almost getting washed out a couple of years ago when the release was 8000 cfs. IF there are no problems on the 3rd of May, then the flows will be increased to 11,000 cfs for the following 3 days.

Wow -- looks like all the good vegetation spots in Lewiston Lake may be scoured -- we will see. At least this year I will spend most of my 10 weeks at the Lake, figuring it out again.

BUT, I am getting excited about the California Heritage Trout Challenge. I'm spending time on the Internet trying to figure where to go in northern California. However, it looks like late July and early August will be the times to go because of ALL THE WATER in northern California. Oh well, that just gives me more time to figure out where to go (most people offer me free advice on where to go -- I didn't know that there were so many cities in the US called "Hell").

Take care,
Shane

Wow, People are actually Fishing

Thanks to the social networking of the Internet, a person new to fly fishing contacted me about fly fishing at Lewiston Lake. As I'm one who couldn't figure out how to send a text document through Facebook, I'm posting a picture here of a handout I created related to using flies with spinning gear (on the way to learning how to throw out 75 feet of line perfectly straight (which I can't do lol)).

As a note, I've started three business to get me through my retirement: 1) a sports photography business, of which I have no sales; 2) a tennis academy of which I have trained and have become a certified tennis professional, of which I have no sales; and 3) the Lewiston Fly Company, my fly tying business, of which I've sold thirty dollars worth. So, above is a picture of a document that I hope is readable for all who would like to catch more fish with flies while developing long enough casts for lakes. (double-click on the image to enlarge -- then enlarge in your browser and it actually is sort of readable -- my apologies for no cool colors :)

Tight Lines,
Shane

My Boat is Sinking, My Boat is Sinking

Well, I just got my monthly bill for my trailer "home" near Lewiston Lake. There was a nice note that I need to contact them because my boat is sinking--Sinking I say.

Rain water flows through the storage hatches and collects under the floor. In the past, Craig, the marina jack of all trades, would pump water out for me. This year I set up a sump pump, running off of a 12 volt battery, that is connected to a trickle charger that is plugged into an outdoor electrical outlet.

Evidently, the sump pump isn't working and Craig hasn't been able to help me out by pumping out water. There is nothing I can do until Sunday when I can get over there (something about work, tennis matches through Saturday, and bad weather so I can't get over the mountain. Oh well, I may find my boat sitting on the bottom of the lake when I get there. Bummer. I knew I should store it out of the water but I hoped to head over a couple of weekends this winter and get right out on the water. Perhaps I'm now under water.

Oh well...nothing I can do about it now.
AAARRRGGGGGHHHHH
Shane

High School and Fly Tying: Karma and Growth

I went to high school for two reasons: to chase girls and to play sports. It turned out I was not very good at either, so I went to college after high school because I didn't want to work full time. Karma got me and I'm in my 27th year of teaching high school.

What killed me was "falling in love" with all the beautiful, awesome, girls of my youth. There were so many and I was lucky to get two girl friends throughout high school. The killer part was years after when more than one and close to ten women told me "I had the biggest crush on you in high school. All you had to do was say 'hello' to me and I would have been your girlfriend'". AAARRRGGGHHHH.

The same thing has happened to my fly tying. I learned how to tie flies back in 1979. Sure, there were decades when I didn't, but by now I can dub a tapered body, about half the time, and tie simple patterns at a rate of about 15 to 18 an hour. But, there were years and years of frustration and hares ears that looked like sausages.

Then, I buy a copy of Don Ordes rope dubbing technique. I sat down and watched it and it was like a woman telling me she had a crush on me in high school -- why was I not taught that when I first started? I'm tying mostly wooly buggers and midges these days, but would have loved to have known how to make segmented flies, and more importantly, be able to make corrections after wrapping (since most of my flies had reverse tapering lol).

I haven't mastered all the techniques, or really gotten the time to use them (again, buggers and midges). However, I have just entered the professional fly tying world with my first order for $50 whoooo hooooo. Our local owner of a fly shop, who is a master fly tier, gave me a small order for some peacock bodied flies. He was Very Specific on how he wanted the peacock wrapped around the hook -- very specific, stating that it was the way to make the strongest peacock bodies. The punchline? He described exactly Don Ordes' rope dubbing technique.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated and have never been affiliated with Don Ordes and his business(es)-- I purchased his DVD at full price.

Karma caught up with Me and Bit Me on the Butt

Well, the weather is good but I'm staying in and tying steelhead flies. Trying to stay away from the weeks of back-logged grading I have to do and it is never pleasant on the water when hours of grading has to be done. It has been a nice Thanksgiving but one with an upset stomach and I guess it is karma catching up with me.

First off, I built a dubbing brush machine using the plans from willfishforwork.com and it works great. However, rather than making a "beat up old one" I bought maple and purple heart for the wooden parts of the machine. It works great, but after adding up the costs I would have been better off spending the money to purchase the commercial spinning dub machine because I spent 50% of that cost and made something that is less than 10% as good (can't get the right size channel). Since I finished the machine on Thanksgiving day I understand part of my stomach ache is more than just the normal Thanksgiving feast.

So, it is Saturday night, I'm just farting around tying up some flies and enjoying the heater and the television, when I opened up an email account that I don't normally use (and the one attached to this blog) and was shocked to get a note from Don Ordes. He was cordial and polite. I was shocked that my mindless ranting in an earlier post was read by anyone other than my one subscriber (Thanks Gini). I reread my post and realized that although I was trying to make a case for the "old ways", or what I hoped they were, I actually was criticizing another human being, and not some mindless corporation (although people are now considered corporations, it isn't the same).

Don was nice enough to post a reply on this blog and I recommend that you read it. As this is a two-posts-a-month blog I hadn't read his post until tonight. Yes, I didn't do my research. Yes, I was railing "against the man" and the fact that the world was not working for me the way I thought it should. However, picking on an individual trying to make a living in the world, without ever corresponding with or researching in detail was wrong. I thought I was picking on a corporation, forgetting that it was a one person corporation, and a human being that deserves the same respect that I demand from others.

I should have known that something was karmicly about to bite me in the butt when a day or two after the original post I asked the best tyer and fisherman on the north coast (in my opinion) who also (he and Don, not me) makes a living through fly fishing. I asked if he knew of the technique and he said yes, and told me nice things about it. When I told him that I couldn't find any information about it online except through a video, my local guru stated "more power to him." At that point I realized that I was off base and thought "crap, I can't take back my ranting".

In my younger days I would try to come up with some excuse to explain my actions. Fortunatly, I've grown up. I screwed up. I owe Don Ordes an apology and this is my public apology for posting against his right to distribute his technique in any manner that he sees fit. In fact, he does give it away for free as he freely allows others to teach his technique and has demonstrated it for years. The fact that he gave his first two CD's away for free to all really makes me an blank-head and a dumb-butt. I also apologize for implying that the information on his CD is not worth the price. With a little more research I found several public postings from commercial tyers who are discovering new and better ways to use the technique, as the technique is not static but is evolving. I'm sure I can write several more paragraphs about my stupidity. Okay, I was an ass. I can only hope that my actions fall into the old "act like a donkey once: Okay; do it again and you are a donkey" (please insert "ass" for "donkey").

Don Ordes, I screwed up and was wrong to print my post. Opinions are fine and expressing them are fine, but unresearched accusations are not (I thought they were opinions, but in re-reading I see my former words as accusatory). I did not mean to make it personal, just a rant -- and it came out as a personal attack on you. Please accept my apology for not doing the minimum of research for I would have come up with a much different conclusion -- a positive one. You have contributed good karma to the flyfishing community for almost a decade and nobody ever has yelled at authors for writing fly tying books after showing their techniques at shows , so why should the modern equivalent of CD be a different situation. It isn't.

BTW: I am not receiving any endorsements or products for this post and have not received anything from Don Ordes except a cordial personal email and his blog comment to the post.

As I like to say, I may be wrong. Well, in this case, I was wrong. It has led to embarassment and a stomach ache. Embarassment and stomache aches do go away. I just have to keep my stupidity away because that seems to hang on for a long time.

I can see a lot of wind blown flies heading for my face until I earn back my karma. I'll make sure that I wear eye protection at all times when on the water, and take some pepto for the stomach. I hope that I'll someday meet Don in person and wish him well.

Good luck all,
Shane