Tightline Fly reel

I was poking around on line and came accross this interesting reel called the Tightline fly reel.Looks of course like the famous Ari Hart Remco reel.I really like the look of this reel, and it's avaiable in custom colors and the price point is very tempting! The company website is thightlineflyreels.com I hope that's correct, I think so.

True loss.......

I know this is coming in as a pretty late posting.I found out quite late, couple months ago that Shane Stalcup had passed.I know he was having some surgeries some time back and I had wondered in the back of my mind if it was anything serious?I was shocked to here of his early passing.I think he is one of the most innovative tiers in the last couple decades. I loved his design,all of his flies had a very realistic look and profile to them and were very durable as well.The materials he used, mix of synthetics and natural and they were all relatively easy to tie.I wrote him in 1999 to request a copy of his catalog, I was really impressed with alot of the flies in it, there were some patterns for bass that I really loved.I called him to place an order for a couple of them.The"Fly Rap", I believe it is called and a foam frog pattern, the name escapes me at the moment.I asked for a custom color for two Fly Raps, purple and yellow, a popular local lake color.I have fished the Bass colored ones a few time and have caught several bass on it.I kept these in my bass box, after I heard of his death I decided to pull them out and I plan on framing them or something special.I thought I'd post these to share with others and you just don't see these patterns very often.

Contact info.

I'm not sure why but I can't seem to post a comment/response to comments you leave for me.You can email me direct to fourstringgod@yahoo.com any questions about these rods or otherwise, thanks,Brian

Lilly Pond Bass Bug rod.

This has been a bit of a journey for me, the idea started actually last winter.I live in the burbs of Chicago and as such I don't get to trout water as much as I would like, always been this way. I spend most of my time on the water chasing bass.I love glass rods for there ease of casting, it fits my casting style very well.I have owned a number of heavier rods that I fished for bass but wanted something I thought is somewhat bass specific.The idea came and went last winter and then popped back into my head this past spring.I needed to get the blank made for this rod, the first thought was glassmaster Mike McFarland .He had said last fall he was not selling blanks anymore so I thought this was a real long shot.I wrote him with my idea, a rod designed for bass fishing, throwing big deer hair bugs,lead eye things etc..maybe eight to nine feet in length and an eight weight if possible.I sent that email off with the thought of no response.A few days later Mike wrote back and said he'd like to do this project, he thought it was a cool idea and he had an idea for it.He asked if I would be interested in having them rolled in black S glass, he said he had enough material to do a limited run of these, I thought it sounded awesome.I had the blanks getting started and was thinking of the reel seat, I wanted exclusive to this rod line. I talked to Joel Lemke of Lemke Concepts to do this seat, I like his hidden thread design alot and asked if he could do it in all metal, he agreed, some photos and design adjustments later I had my seats.I have finally got the finished rod together of the viewing public to see.I'm call this the Lilly Pond Bassbug rod. It's 8 1/2 feet2 piece, 8wt and a cannon! It will serve the needs of bug fishers and alight saltwater as well, yet to be tested there though.I hope you like this rod.

Finally, they arrive!

I have not posted anything new recently because nothing was happening, nothing new anyeay. I hatched an idea last fall and it fell by the wayside during the winter months and resurfaced again this Spring.Being in the North suburbs of Chicago I spend most of my time chasing Bass.I'd love to get up to the driftless more often but can't afford to do so.I've been fishing glass rods for years now, and this season having sold my primary Bass buggin'rod I've been fishing the old Loomis GL3 9 foot 7 wieght, nicerod but not close to my old Vintage Scott yellow glass!I spoke to Mike McFarland of the McFarland Rod Co.to see if he would be interested in taking on my project. Some months earlier he said he was not going to be selling blanks anymore, I thought for sure I'd get shot down,a few days later Mike wrote me back and said he would like to help me out, I was pretty happy with that! We worked out some details and he agreed to start amking the blanks for a Glass Bass rod.
The Blanks are made of Mikes stock of S Glass he had form his purchase of the old Daimondback blanks making equipment. He thought it would be a good match for a rod of this type, I agreed.I also wanted to dress the rods a bit different to set them apart from alot of what's seen out there. I turned to Joel Lemke,a fantastic reel seat maker,formerly with Struble.I explained what I was looking for and he said he had a design already made and he'd send me pics of them,they were just what I was looking for.He said he had a few small tweaks to make in the design and they would be ready for production.I recieved, after a long wait the blanks from Mike today, and the reel seat last week. I'm offering the rods, they will be 8'6" 8wt.2 piece configuration. I'm going to wrap them in Black,REC Recoil guides.I'm not doing a full custom rod to try to make these an affordable rod.Any questions please feel free to email me.

Pen to Paper.......and flies!

Just thought I'd post these up, every now and again I get around to a little drawing,I do most of these in my car,waiting to start work, I have to wait occasionaly for co workers to arrive so I do some scetching while I wait.A couple of trout and my first Smallmouth Bass.I tied a few interesting sub-surface Bass flies, new designs, hope to test 'em out soon!

More Bass Bugs.

I have gone sort of off the deep end with the bugs!!!I've rerally been enjoying getting re aquainted with deer hair,trying different color combos and skirt materials,I have many ideas for more bugs just need to find the time to tie 'em!

I must be insane!

Went north on Saturday for one of only a few trips to the Driftless each season.I got on the water around 6:30 am, beat the heat a little bit.I found the fish to be very easy to bite the fly, the Pink Squirrels and Copper Johns were the ticket, the Pink as usual did very well. I don't know why I go up there with my pack full of everything I could need, I fish the same three patterns the whole time I'm there, I jusy need a Sucrettes box with 6 of each pattern and tippet material.I fished one stretch of water that I frequent and took around 20-30 fish there,like I said they were very agreeable! Met up with my father-in-law on another stretch of water around 10:00 am,caught several Browns there then moved on to a spot further downstream, I was only able to land one nice Brown on a hopper pattern.The sun was getting high in the sky by this point and I was on FIRE!!!!I called it quits for the day, time to get out of my waders and into my street clothes and chug a lot of water.I thought I must be insane to be out there boiling, no water, in waders!!!!

More bugs.

Spent some of the last couple days fooling around with the deer hair, as I said in my last post I don't spend a lot of time working with deer. I'm really starting to lov working with it, I finally got it down so I don't have a huge mess on my table after all the bugs are trimmed.I'm gonna fish some of these soon. These have no eyes on them yet as I want to get a cautery tool to burn some eye sockets for some nice eyeballs!!

Stackin' n' Packin'!!!

I was asked by Cameron Mortenson of the Fiberglass Manifesto if I could tie a bass bug in a red,white and blue theme for his 4th of July post on the Manifesto, I was happy to tie something up for him and send it off right away.I don't do a lot of deer hair bugs, I usually keep them simple on ly one or two colors and don't reallt do anything complex. After doing Camerons fly I started playing with a bit more complex stuff than I normally do.

Blast from the past (kinda)

Well seeing I'm home form work this week I thought I would post a bit of past tying. I was at a tackle shop buying some materials one afternoon and was thumbing through some tying books and stumbled into Paul Ptalis' "Century End" a book on classic and contemporary salmon flies, the big fancy fully dressed kind. I was blown away by this. I had left the shop and the pages of that book haunted me for weeks until I went back and picked up that book.

I was hooked so to speak, I started accumulating books and materials like I was going to die soon!I had been tying for a long time by that point but tying these gems is an all new discipline in fly tying to say the least.It took me a while to churn out a decent fly probably a year or two. At this point I was on a layoff so I was working on these flies for five or six hours a day! I think I tied nearly nothing but these patterns for a good five years, it's a slippery slope indeed, the hooks are hand made, not by me, though I have a made my own, they are pricey as well as the materials needed to dress these beauties.Here's a few examples of my acceptable dressings. I have sold,donated and giving almost all the patterns I've dressed away, these are all I have to show for my efforts!

Leapin' Lizards!!

Got out today after work for a bit,went to a pond I've been given permission to fish a few years back.The weather was pretty lousy but went anyway. I went mostly to try some new bass patterns that I had come up with recently, I'm going to be adding them to the Lillypond FlyDesign web page soon. It turns out they were a success! The Lizard pattern is actually the second season it's being fished and it's a killer!! Also fished a new marabou twister tailed pattern and caught a couple on it as well.I really looking forward to the weather warming up and the action to get better, have lots of patterns to try out and add to the web page.

Wind,cold and Pink Squirrels.

Had my first trip of this year up to the Driftless region, the cost of gas these days is going to be quite prohibitive for my getting up there to fish, I only for see one maybe two more trips this season, kind of a bummer but I have a family to take care of.

I got up there Saturday morning at 7:30 and hit one of my favorite streams, lots of Browns and Brookies in there. Fished the section upstream from the bridge I park at, no luck there,unusual in that I normally hook and land a dozen fish in the first hour but nothing at all. I went back and fished downstream from the bridge for the first time, very nice stretch of water, walked to a section warning people of the private property a short distance away, I got in the stream and started working upstream.

Fished through a large pool,had a lot of takes and landed a half dozen small Browns 10 inch range.These were all caught on the Pink Squirrel, very popular pattern up there, rightly so, I've caught more fish up there on that fly than any other pattern in my pack.I'm not sure why I have a pack around my waist, I could get along just fine with a shirt pocket box with Pink Squirrels and leech patterns!I fished up a bit further came upon a bunch of downed branches and stuff like that, nice deep hole, tossed my leech into the pile of dead tree below and on the second drift hooked a good Brown maybe 18-20 inches, a big fish for this stream.I fought it for 10 second or so and the fish got tangled up in the mess below and snapped off the leech.I didn't actually think I was going to land it in that tangled mess did I? NO WAY.

Fished my way back to the bridge landing a few more,couple Browns and a Brookie about 10-11 inches.Moved onto the next spot, Got on the stream and hooked up with two Browns that were in the 12-14 inch range, both were able to throw the fly and swim away. Worked my way downstream further than I've been before, was able to hookup and land a number of smaller Browns again in the 10 inch range.They were on Pinks Squirrles and a Copper John, small, maybe size 18. The water was crystal clear and the fish were fairly spooky.I made a couple short stops after leaving this spot bot like a switch was flipped,the fish were turned off.All and all a decent day albeit windy at times,cloudy and intermittent rain,was a good first outing of the year, I look forward to getting back of course but that wont be until well into summer.

New site up and running!!!!

I've been trying to get aroung to this for the last year or so and finally started today."Lillypond Fly Design" is now my flies for sale site. I'm now offering my bass patterns for sale with nice pricing! It's just a tadpole for now but will be adding in the coming days and weeks.

Sand country weekend.

This past weekend, me and the family went north to visit my in laws,They're up in the Wausaw, WI. area.This gives my father in law and I the chance for some Trout fishing in the streams of Central Wisconsin.We started off fishing some somewhat well known irrigation ditches with no luck.We decided to try Lawrence creek at the suggestion of an acquaintance of mine who said there was good fishing there. We arrived almost mid morning to a small sandy bottomed stream with a lot of Brookies. I'm still cutting my teeth on these sandy streams and still find them a tough nut to crack.After slogging through some wet marshland we got to some nice sections the stream, I was able to hook one in a small pool that quickly shook loose from the leech pattern it ate. A short time later I was able to land one small Brookie,beautifully colored on a black and Grizzly Wooley Worm. My father in law Jim,after getting stuck in the Marsh landed a very pretty Brookie that was lured out from a deep undercut bank.

The Following Day we went to investigate the Tomorrow River around the town of Amherst. We found a nice stretch of river with abundant insect life but no fish.I did see one small-ish something dart under some rocks.The Tomorrow is a beautiful place to fish and I look forward to future visits to this stream.

New Bass flies.

Had some time to tie up a couple ideas I had for some small clear tubing.I got it at work, I know I couldd do something with it but did'nt know what, I figured out what to do with it.Check out these bugs.They should work pretty good for Large and Smallmouths!