PT On Blue

I believe I have either painted, drawn, or tied this little bug more times than I can remember and it still remains a constant contender in my go-to box of tricks.  Variations abound with the good old Pheasant Tail but the classics never die.  Every nymphing fisherman has fished it and I venture to say nearly every single one of them has had a bite on one.  It continues to be one of the all time top flies in any top fly list.

As for the sale of this little bug, It is for sale for a reduced price of $15 plus $4 s&h.  Normally most of my daily flies go for $25 ea (and if you desire any of the past flies please contact me for info) but I have decided to reduce the cost of some of my flies for a short time.  This one is a bit more than 4x6 inches and comes mated in a black and white archival mat suitable for framing.  Please email me for details.

Check back on Monday for a one day only sale of some of my prints at a reduced price.

White Wulff

A White Wulff fly in watercolor measuring @ 4x6 inches and for sale.  Not much to say today except enjoy the weekend.  Look for a PT watercolor on Sunday.

Casual Dress For Sale



Cacual Dress

 Casual Dress wet fly done on in high quality watercolors and light resistant ink on 100% acid free paper.  Measuring slightly less than 5x7, this work is for sale at a reduced price of $15 plus $4 s&h and comes mated in a white and black mat and backing board.  Please Email me for details.

Silver Rat & Selling Flies

Silver Rat

I love these salmon flies.  The Silver Rat is a variation of a type of hair fly common in the salmon fly world.... or so I have read.  Having no opportunity to fish them much less tie them, I can only speculate how effective they are.

Here is another item I will be selling at a reduced price.  Small Fly On A Trout Skin is mated in an acid free 5x7 inch two tone mat with backing board.  I have placed it in a frame to show you how it will look framed but due to shipping costs it does not come in the frame.  Cost for this piece is now $15 plus $4 s&h.  Please email me for purchasing information.

SOLD

Klinkhamer & Fly Sale Special

An inked fly colored on the computer.

Here as promised is a special offer for a few past paintings I have decided to sell as a pair at a reduced price.  Both of these original paintings are roughly 5x7 inches and placed in acid free white mats cut to be framed in an 8x10 frame.  They also come with an acid free backing board.  The price I am putting on the pair is $40 plus $6 s&h.  I picked these two paintings to be paired together because of the green backgrounds on both.  I also think that they would look good hanging on the wall together.
If you are interested in this set please send me an email and I will return an email to you with a paypal bill.  Once the payment is received, the item will be shipped.  I will be selling this pair to the first person to send me an email.


Hooked Brown

 

EHC On Green

Keep an eye out in the coming days for more deals on flies for sale.

Irresistible

 Here is a new inked irresistible and a variation on the fly I posted a few days ago.  This one is tied by Brk Trt at SmallStream.  I like his take on it and it looks like a fish could really take it. 

PT Inked & tying The Fly

 Here is a PT Nymph done first in ink then uploaded to a paint program and colored.  the black and white sketch looked good but the added color makes it.

Here is the tied version of what Josh - AKA Bigerrfish - calls Triger Happy and BRK Trout calls No Mystery.  This is the version Josh tied...

As a side note, keep an eye out this week for a posting for a special deal on some paintings from this past year. Why, you might ask? Truth be told I need a new tying vise and need to raise some funds for this hobby of mine. If I can use one hobby to support the other and not invade the old bank account then I'll come out even. My current vise is a table top clamp style beginner vise that works for big flies but cant give my fingers enough room to tie the small stuff. I doesn't rotate and is cumbersome and I am sure that if I get an easier to use vise, my tying will not only improve but become more frequent.


That's my hope anyway.

Ginger Dry

Ginger and yellow dry fly done on acid free watercolor paper. Hopefully this coming week I can come up with more substance in my writing posts but for today (and probably Monday)  A daily fly is all you are going to get.

Name This Fly

3.5x5" water color and ink fly done on acid free paper and available to purchase.

I need your help to name this wet fly.  I just couldn't find a name that worked for it.  leave a comment if you have any suggestions.   Otherwise, Nothing new to add to this post today.  For those headed out to do a bit of weekend fishing - Good Luck.

Badger Spider

I have never fished or heard of anybody fishing this little guy so if you have please post a comment.  I suspect it would be a good dry fly for Tenkara fishing.

Blue Dunn & Wine

 Okay I cant be positive but I believe I have done the Blue Dun before but I like how this one turned out.  365 days and I'm bound to repeat a few flies but everyone is unique.

On another subject - Wine.  My wife and I took my in laws and a few friends a few days ago out to a very small local winery specializing in fruity, very tasty wines.  I had never been to this place before and had it not been for GPS and the Internet I doubt I would have ever made it there and man would I have missed out.  The proprietor broke out every wine he bottles and two he just got out of the secondary.  After about 15 or 16 tastings we all came to one clear opinion; These are the best tasting and smelling wines we had ever come across.  As an novice wine maker and enthusiast this excited my interest and wine making mind.  The only thing is that their releases are small which also added to the uniqueness of the flavors.  City Scape Winery even has the Greenville downtown Falls Park on their label.  And as an added bonus - they sell wine making supplies.
Needless to say we left there with a lot of wine, and some new wine making equipment.  I cant wait to try my hand at another tastier batch of wine.

Quick Fly & Hunting Blue Lines

 This is mostly a fishing report since the fly is lacking it quality, but its a good fishing report so I hope it makes up for it. 
    I got up early without much of a plan of where to go, all I had was my gear (Tenkara) my jeep loaded with gas, a full cup of coffee and a need for native trout.  After a 50min drive I hit many different spots in the upstate that looked promising including one great looking spot that got me in trouble with a local. 
    I am fairly sure he was just protecting his secret hole since there was no 'no trespassing' signs posted and it was just off a county road.  He did give me some advise on other waters to fish full of stocked trout - I suspect he thought I was one of the many bait fisherman that rape the stocked fish right out of the streams.  When I asked if he knew of any native trout around he looked puzzled then I told him that I'm strictly a C&R fly fisherman hoping this might ease his stance on me fishing his stretch of river.  It didn't and he told me once again that there is no fish in this water.  So, without even unloading my rod from the jeep, I decided to move on.  I have known people to be shot at for fishing a guys secret water and no fish is worth getting shot over.

 After about two hours of hitting blue lines near the county road and coming up with nothing I decided to park the car, load my pockets and do a bit of hiking for hidden trout.  After a mile or more I began hitting small pocket water with my Tenkara USA 12ft and the Sawyer Killer bug I got from Tenkara Bum.  As you can see I hooked up.

 The action was not fast and furious but I did hook some native fish with clean looking fins and great colors.

 Notice the Killer Sawyer Bug in his lip...
Overall A good day despite more searching for fish than catching them but the clean bright colors of the fish that found my fly made it worth it.  I only wish a brookie would have showed up.  It seems it is getting harder and harder to find these native fish in the waters I normally fish.

Red Stripe Rainbow

Red Stripe Rainbow

Here is a 8x10 rainbow I decided to paint the other day.  As always it is painted on acid free 100% cotton Arches Watercolor paper and high quality, light resistant paints.  Available in 8x10 prints as well as the new 5x7 size, this print can be purchased using the BUY A PRINT button on the top of this page.
This painting is also available in its original form for the LOW price of $80 plus S&H

For those of you interested in the process I have added a progressive record of this work. 

I have also added a few other paintings that are available as prints.  A few of the originals of these paintings are also still available for purchase.  Please email me for information.

On the fishing front - i plan on hitting the water this morning so expect a fishing report in the coming days, as well as a few pics of some trout.

Orange & Black Plus a Table Project

Here is an orange and deep purple wet fly of my own creation and a little note on a project that kept me fairly busy last week. 

 This table is my own design and goes great in the breakfast nook I made last year.  After many sandings as well as many hours on the table saw this table came together nicely.  I put three coats of poly on it but think a few more couldn't hurt.  Total cost for materials in this project is less than $60 and is primarily constructed out of good old southern pine which kept costs low.  The top is a butcher block pine I constructed with the aid of my new dowel jig tool and the rest is ripped pine 2x4 selected for their lack of knots and bows.  With the help of my father and father-inlaw, it all came together nicely.  The kids love it since its bigger than our previous table, my wife if afraid to damage it with hot dishes and I just like how it turned out.

I make alot of stuff with my hands since I am really cheap but I also like the satisfaction I get when the project is complete and turns out looking so good.  The knowledge one receives from such a project is invaluable and the pride one has in the accomplishment is lasting.  I know this has nothing to do with flyfishing but I just wanted to show it off.

Little WD40

Here is a variation of the trout killing wd40 for you. This week I am planning on getting a bit of trout fishing in, painting another quality fish watercolor, as well as posting a few pics of a woodworking project that has occupied most of my time last week. Before I do any of that I need to figure out why my Blogger dashboard won't let me upload photos dispite me enabling the cookie function on both me computer and AntiVirus software. Does anybody have a solution for this problem?

Odd Wet

White Fin Brookie

I had a few hours free yesterday and felt like doing a bit of higher quality painting so I began work on this "White Fin Brookie".  Roughly measuring 8"x10.5" and done with high quality watercolors on 100% cotton acid free paper, it comes with a yellow fur scud for the fly.  The original is for sale for $90 plus S&H or if you prefer Prints are available in 8x10 for $11.50 as well as the new smaller sized 5x7 for $8.50.  As always paintings and prints come in acid free archival quality mats and backing boards.

 I do love fishing these brookies.  The colors of the high mountain brookies and native fish are truly amazing.  When I hook into these its like hooking into a work of art, fighting it, and then releasing it back to isolated pools from which it was born.  The deep colors of the oranges and reds are only matched by the stark white fin ridges of these brookies.  In my opinion the a brilliant colored brookie is the best looking of the char species.

I was a bit focused on this painting and once again completely forgot to take some pictures of the process until it was nearly completed.  So here is one photo of the Whit Fin Brookie all but done.  Next time I promise to spend a bit more time taking pictures for those of you that enjoy seeing the colors layer up to the final painting.

Pale Color Soft Hackle

Not much to blog about today but check back on Friday for a special painting of a Brookie in full fall colors.

Midgemans Tribute JC 'Green Thing'

Josh over at WWW.bigerrfish.blogspot.com asked me to paint Midgemans Green Thing - now named the J. C. Midge after nonother than Josh.  WWW.midgeman.blogspot.com has done countless flies and is a joy to read but I am usually hesitant to duplicate his flies because its hard to truly reflect his great ties. I am still not to happy with this one and will be trying to improve on my attempt.
If you got a chance, please visit both these great flyfishing bloggers.

Bead Belly Hair's Ear

My photography problems continue with this photo as now there is a purple tint on this one instead of yesterdays blue tint.  Aggravating but I'm dealing with it.  I do like how this one turned out and even though I hate tying these (they give me fits for some reason) I like fishing them.  The weight of the bead gets it down to the fish and the active hair's ear attract the fish just as much as the three wraps of ribbing.

Patridge Wet

I haven't had a lot of free time to keep up with the blog as a should or as I have in the past but I have still been able to post a daily fly.  Today I spent most of the day in the garage building a kitchen table then broke free in the afternoon to do a bit of fishing.  Unfortunately we were unable to get any bass to bite and so I have no pics to post of big fish. 
I hope to have the construction of the table complete by tomorrow and maybe we can break away again later in the week for a bit more fishing.  Until then here is a Partridge Wet Fly and for some reason the photo has a blue tent that does not accurately reflect the true nature of the painting but its now around 9:30 and the game is on so its as good as its going to get.

BH Hair's Ear Orange

Here is a late day post of a Bead Head Hair's Ear Orange bug full of fibers that might just entice a trout to hit. 

Luck Of The Irish

In honor of the first Saturday I've had off work since the beginning of the football season as well as an Irish victory over Pit, here is an Irish fly quick sketch. I'm hoping to be able to post some quality stuff here in the next week so bare with me as I complete other tasks I have been occupied with lately.

Rainbow & Reel

Just a painting for today.

By-vis

A quick fly for today and that's about it for today.

Random Wet

Just a random wet fly still wet & just in time for a daily post to keep the streak of flies going.

Mouse & Fishing With Kids

Here is a mouse for those bass fishers out there that love the rise of a big bass to a top water fly.

So I took the kids to a local pond for a bit of fishing blue gill and sunfish.  I mentioned to the kids the other day that I wanted to take then trout fishing but due to school and other chores we were limited to the sunfish pond.  I took my new Tenkara rod and though I am unsure whether it is sacrilegious to take this rod for the lowly sunfish, I did it anyway because.... well its my new toy, and it is easy for the kids to handle.

 FYI.  there is few other things that are as frustrating and at the same time, rewarding as taking a four year old and two year old fishing.  I constantly had to remind them that we are fishing not throwing rocks or sticks into the pond.  Thank goodness the little pond I took them to was LOADED with bluegill and sunfish.  Over all, in less than an hour, we caught and released over two dozen fish.  That is about a fish every 2-3 minutes.  Non of them big by any stretch but fun for the kids and me - absolute FUN.

The Tenkara rod is a great Bream fishing rod.  I still prefer the trout and would have liked to hook a good bass to test it out but the kids had a blast and for me it was all worth it.