By Tim Romano & Kirk Deeter

You realize, of course, that when you buy a fly rod with a lifetime warranty, you're already paying for the replacement (at least in part), whether you break it or not. Here's roughly how the math works: Say the purchase price of the rod is $500. Well, the real price of production, including the wholesale-to-retail markup, etc., might really be about $325. So the extra $175 is the insurance policy you buy, whether you want it or not. Say on average, one in every three rods sold gets broken and replaced. That leaves $350 in the kitty (from the other two unbroken rods) to cover the $325 replacement. The rod company wins, just like the insurance company always wins. Now, that's very rough math, but you get the point. And I'm not necessarily saying that's a bad thing... goodness knows I've busted many rods (in my experience some companies are clearly better than others in living up to their replacement promises, but that's another post for another day)... so I'd probably buy the insurance policy if I were given a choice.

But would you? What if you could accept or decline the rod warranty? Like you do when you buy a television or a computer... you can buy the extended warranty, or not. Would you rather pay much less on the sticker price, sans warranty? Or would you pony up for peace of mind?

Deeter

By Tim Romano & Kirk Deeter

KD: Here's another hot tip from Fly Talk's tying guru, Brian Schmidt of Umpqua Feather Merchants:

When trying to match the hatches of small mayflies such as Baetis and PMD’s, a couple things can get in the way of being successful: 1. These insects have very thin abdomens which many flies fail to represent well. 2. You need enough weight on the fly to get in the face of the feeding trout.

Many of the naturals have abdomens that are in fact thinner than the wire the typical nymph hooks are made of; this, right out of the gate, is an issue that can be tough to overcome. Mike Mercer was able to figure out a solution that left people asking, “why didn’t I think of that?” His use of a short shank, thin wire “dry fly” hook was the key to what is now an extremely effective fly on all types of waters. Using the Tiemco 921 as the base for his fly; he started to design around the thin wire a sleek abdomen made of one of the thinnest natural materials available. Peacock herl is no stranger to nymphs, and has been a staple on many of the more famous imitations available. If you take off all of the fuzz on peacock herl, you are left with a durable stem that is light brown and flat. This lends itself perfectly for keeping a thin abdomen on an already tiny fly. As for using enough weight to get in the face of the feeding trout... you can’t use lead wire and keep the fly thin. Many drainages don’t allow for lead to be used either, so a bead head was the answer…to some extent. On such a small fly the standard brass beads just wouldn’t cut it unless you were to use an oversized bead. Which in fact works perfectly with the Tiemco 921 given it’s large gape. So there you have it, the two largest issues solved. All Mercer had to do now was finish the fly in such a way that trout wouldn’t think twice about eating it.

Because the fly has an over sized bead and as thin an abdomen as they come, the thorax had to “fit” in there somewhere. Mercer used a dubbed thorax with an epoxy coat to give it the appearance of the gasses that build up at the wing case of emergent insects. This distended appearance of the thorax, slightly larger then the abdomen was pretty much the icing on the cake.

Mike Mercer has been a long time friend of Umpqua Feather Merchants, so when we saw his Micro Mayfly we know it was another winner. Over time the fly has gained popularity from coast to coast and is now available in many colors to match all the local hatches and in the sizes and weights to help anglers get the upper hand on even the most finicky of trout. Twist up a few for yourself, recipe below.

Hook: Tiemco 921
Thread: 8/0 color to match the fly
Tail: Three Pheasant Tail fibers
Rib: Fine silver wire
Abdomen: Stripped Peacock Herl (use a pencil eraser to remove the “fuzz”)
Wing Case: Pearl Flashabou over Dark Turkey Tail fibers. Coated with 5 min epoxy
Thorax: Buggy Nymph Dubbing color to match the fly
Legs: Pheasant tail
Collar: Buggy Nymph Dubbing, same as thorax
Bead Small: Copper Bead, Tungsten or Glass bead depending on where you plan on fishing

-Brian Schmidt

By Tim Romano & Kirk Deeter

Are you struggling on the slippery slope of fish porn addiction? Did you not find that last "Mr. Take a Photo of Me with a 12-inch Brown" post funny?

Well, the Fly Talk Community is here to help. Here's a testimonial from a guy who suffered, alone for years before we intervened:

By the time "Russell" realized he had a problem, grip 'n grin syndrome (GNGS) had already seized control of his life. "It started simply enough, a photo with a rainbow or brown trout here and there ... but then I grew obsessed with having my picture taken with salmonids. After a while, even the big fish werent' enough. It led to cheap jewelry, role playing, making my own fish lingerie ... I'm ashamed to admit I even took photos with fish under the legal catch limit. Thanks to the guys at Fly Talk, I got my life back. I don't feel 'slimy' all the time anymore. I can even flyfish, just for the fun of it again."

We can help you too. But we can only care if you're willing to share. Please tell us your photo-mania stories.

Sincerely,

Dr. KD, CFFBA
and
Dr. Timmy, CFFBA

By Tim Romano & Kirk Deeter

Some might say this is not the smartest post I've ever done, but what can I say... I've got the sickness. I had the voicemail and the photo. I had to post it, right?

I'm apologizing in advance. Right here. Right now. So when my gorgeous, brilliant, talented wife gets wind of this I won't have to scrub my garage floor with a toothbrush this weekend.

The above phone message was recorded at my own wedding just over a month ago and the photograph was taken at the time of said message by my friend Charlie. Of course I didn't have my cell phone with me and got the message the next day.

I'll give you a nice shiny nickel if you can correctly guess what I was doing. All I'm gonna say is that it involved KD, Nate Matthews (an F&S editor), quite a bit of Maker's Mark, a stashed rod, and some stocked bass ponds that were a stones throw from the tent.

Oops.

TR