try this www.eflytyer.com
From: Wes Wada <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Subject: [VFB] A flytyer's trip to Portland Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 14:13:44 -0800
Hi VFB,
Will take a stab at getting back onto the list. My ISP still is blocking email from the VFB server, and the only way I can participate with any assurance of success is to use a web-based email account for receiving the mail.
Feels kind of like doing ice sculpture with a screwdriver, but whatza guy to do?
Back from a recent trip to Portland, Oregon, and made a special effort to visit a couple of flyshops, one of which I had never seen. The first was Kaufmann's Streamborn located in the town of Tigard. It was nice, but smaller than I remember it being on last visit. Then I visited the River City flyshop in Beavertown (just west of Portland).
This place has been talked up a lot on the Oregon flyfishing board, so I had to do a look-see. Wow. More tying stuff than I have ever seen in one place in my whole life. Walls and walls stacked floor to ceiling five inches deep with packages of familiar and very unfamiliar materials. My meager wallet was beginning to glow white-hot.
I have been particularly interested in dyed pheasant rump, dyed peacock herl and sword, and this place had all the colors. If you have never laid eyes on orange dyed peacock herl and sword, make an effort to get some. This stuff is very buggy/fishy looking. The dyed peacock is available in red, purple, orange, and bright green (your basic high wattage peacock). These are distributed by Wapsi.
Some of the most interesting materials I have seen in the past have come from Raymond Rumpf and Sons. This company has been around for 30 years but only deals with retailers, and their coverage is woefully limited, at least out here in the mountain West. Their fluorescent dyed products are incredibly 'hot', some of the most knowledgeable dyeing I have seen anywhere.
My find from Rumph at the River City flyshop was a soft Antron sparkle fiber product called Canadian Brown. It is the perfect sparkle material to use in combination with Canadian Brown mohair yarn.
Canadian Brown is legendary in the Pacific Northwest (wish I knew more about its background). This is a yarn that has five different colors: a bronze brown, soft yellow, green, red- violet, and black. Seen from a distance, the yarn is a rusty brown. What the fish see is all those above colors. And the combination is a proven fish catcher often used in leech patterns.
Having a matching Antron flash product is heaven sent, and this is the only package of the stuff I have ever seen. *worried look*.
So #1, if anybody knows additional sources of Rumpf materials, please send word.
The Canadian Brown Mohair yarn has been marketed for years by a guy in Utah, but he isn't into too many flyshops. The only place online I have found the material is at www.flydesk.com (click on fly tying materials, then 'yarn') The item is Canadian Brown Mohair at $1.98 per 2 yds. (Canadian Series Mohair - brown, is NOT the same yarn, go figure...)
The best way to use it is to cut a five inch strand, then remove the three core threads from the yarn. Use carding brushes or pet slickers to separate and soften the yarn. Then spin these into a uniform dubbing loop. The results are much better than trying to use the yarn itself.
Is the effort to get this stuff worth it? Last season in June I caught two large eastern brook trout in a high Cascade lake with a Canadian Brown pattern. One brookie was 19-1/2" and the other 17-1/2" and both were built like Governor Arnold.
Biguns for these waters, and amazingly the lunkers took the same mohair pattern in the same day, a memorable moment in fishing.
Will be kicking my 2005 fishing season into gear next week. Really looking forward to it. Hope your season will be a rosy one!
Wes Wada Bend, Oregon
