Any of y’all ever hurt yourself tying? Back in '93 at Luden’s, I was packing hair on a Dahlberg when the hook suddenly broke. My thumb jammed into the hook point still in the vise, ramming it deep under my thumbnail to the bone! It was on a Saturday and I had about half a dozen people watching in horror as sat there impaled to the vise in shock. Blood was gushing to the point it was dripping off the vise! I pushed up hard to keep the barb from catching and ripped it free. I learned the hard way to be very careful packing hair with a bunch of force and no hair-packing tool.
I like this fly in the winter. When I tie it right it suspends and I can fish it slow without it bobbing up and down. It think it kinda resembles a mud minnow. I change up the colors, but the basic pattern is the same.
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good looking flies Ben…are the eyes lead or stick-on’s?
almost did the same thing but the barb didn’t go in thankfully. now i have a packing tool that has a protective flange.
strip…strip…FISH ON!
quote:
are the eyes lead or stick-on's?
Lead. The lead keeps the packed hair from making it float. You can't pack it too tight or it will float instead of suspend. With the eyes below the shank and the majority of the other material above it, it stays hook point up.
whats the tail made of? I use a lot of streamer hair for tails on toads and such. Stuff has great action.
Funny you mention it, I was just telling my little brother how I used to love to go into ludens and watch you or Bramblett tie, when I was young.
very nice fly Ben! Ive had the same injury and it as very painful. thankfully i didnt have people watchin me… i would had to duck out “excuse the screams from the next room, please…”
my worst injury involved a night of bartending, some haze, and superglue. 2am is not the best time to tie, esp not in the state i was. i was making dragonflies and tying the extended bodies out of red bucktail, stacked and trimmed atop brown and tying them together with a series of x wraps. i used a few drops of glue on the top of xtra stiffness. i was way to close to the vice trying to focus, and i flicked the tail to check the rigidness and a huge drop of zap-a-gap hit me square in the eye. it instantly closed. as i was running to the sink, i fell head over heels over a barstool left in middle of kitchen…costing several seconds. i forced my eye open, thankfully the contact lense got the majority. i rinsed for 20 minutes before the tackiness was gone. and a whole saline bottle. it sucked. funny now but very scary in the stupor i was in.
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holy sheet scotty. That was a great picture you just painted.
I used to love tying up some crazy stuff when I got home from the bar, provided there wasn’t further partying that needed tending to…
wow… just wow… can’t say I can’t picture it though 
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Tarpon 160os
Dang! I wonder if anyone has stabbed themselves in the eyes with a bodkin while picking out some palmered fibers or something. Glue sounds pretty bad too!!!
I’ve done the deer hair packing injury before and like to stick a part of a cork over the hook point these days. In 8th grade I was organizing a tacklebox on the living room floor, a rapala was stuck in the carpet so i pulled on it hard as possible. Treble hook jammed in my thumb to the bone and the other hook was stuck to the carpet so i couldnt move. Dad had to cut the hook off the carpet and met the doctor at his office at 10 pm to have him rip the hook out. That sounds scary scotty, in college I cut my eye with a kitchen knife, definitely not fun. luckily everything turned out fine
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Tarpon 140
Knot the Reel World Fly Fishing LLC
the worst i heard was not tying but itll make ya think. my buddy was a kid and got his mirrolure stuck in the anchor rope as he dropped it. it grabbed him as it went by his leg and knocked him in. he now only fishes mirrolures, knowing how well they work. so far only have hurt my feelings seeing how far mine diverge from my concept.
he’s pretty white for a fly guy
I was making some eyes for a shrimp pattern by burning 80# mono, well needless to say the open jar of softex just happened to be a little too close… It caught and immediately ran to my door and threw it outside… well then the flaming softex spilled everywhere so then my front porch is on fire,tried to beat it out with the front door mat and it caught on fire… threw the mat in the front yard and grabbed a nearby fire exstingusiher… had a good laugh afterwords… ruined a good tying session though. Softex is too expensive to be doin that with! I now close the lid and put it in the drawer before striking any open flame! hahahahaha
TFO signature edit.9ft 9Wt.