-
- Species
- Whitetail
- Rut Reporters
- Duck Reporters
- Deer Camp
- Big Game
- Small Game
- Birds
- Special Methods
- Bow Hunting
- Gun Dogs
- Conservation
- Heroes of Conservation
- Hero for a Day
- Outdoor Skills
- Total Outdoorsman Challenge
- Land for Sale
- Deer & Turkey Expos
-
- Species
- Bass
- Trout
- More Freshwater
- Saltwater
- Catchbook
- Special Methods
- Fly Fishing
- Hook Shots
- Conservation
- Heroes of Conservation
- Hero for a Day
- Outdoor Skills
- Total Outdoorsman Challenge
- Land for Sale
Print
Email
Share
Bass Fishing
Quick attach trout and bass flies
Uploaded on March 08, 2013Here was the plan: my wife would play with our Lab while I tried a few casts. A freestone stream flowing through a meadow in the Poconos offered the opportunity. The day was sunny, the wind light. Very little brush reared their ugly heads on the bank.
Almost immediately I needed help:
“Joan?”
“Joan.”
“Joan!”
“What?”
“Can you tie this fly on for me.” I had forgotten how poor my vision was, how unsteady my hands. She was patient, got a small gold-ribbed hare’s ear tied on, and ran off with Lana. After a few casts it snapped off in the wind.
“Joan!” – well you get the idea. She spent an hour tying flies on for me.
“Isn’t there a better way to do this, where they are tied on already?”
That day I didn’t catch anything and lost half a dozen flies. But on the way home in the car, HandiFlies were born.
David Bershtein
handifly dot com
ADVERTISEMENT
Message Boards
Most Popular
Most Viewed
Most Commented
Top Rated
Trout Fishing
- Video: Prime Colorado Trout Watersheds Under Threat from Gas and Oil Drilling
- 20 Secrets To Help You Catch Fish All Summer Long
- 15 Great Lures and Flies for Summer Fishing
- What's the Most Impressive Feeding Event in Fishing?
- An Atlantic Salmon Dispatch from Russia
- Recipe: Chef Edward Lee’s Fried Trout Sandwiches
- Mountain Lion Seen Fishing in Montana
- Fly Fishing in Russia: Step One, Getting There
- Why Hockey Players Are Great Fly Anglers
- Dispatch from Russia: Young American Fly Fishing Guide Livin' the Dream
Trout Fishing
- Why Hockey Players Are Great Fly Anglers
- What's the Most Impressive Feeding Event in Fishing?
- An Atlantic Salmon Dispatch from Russia
- Hey I will be going up to Georgia this june and will be on the Toccoa river fishing for trout from the bank with a spining reel
- Why Do Kiwis Measure Trout in Pounds?
- Judgement Call: Casting at Fish You Might Not be Able to Land
- Recipe: Chef Edward Lee’s Fried Trout Sandwiches
- Fly Fishing in Russia: Step One, Getting There
- Great Underwater Photography from International Competition
- Dispatch from Russia: Young American Fly Fishing Guide Livin' the Dream
Trout Fishing
No ContentADVERTISEMENT
Today on Field & Stream
Loading...
Visit Our Sister Sites at Bonnier Corporation
| Active Interest | SKI | Skiing | Skiing Business | Scuba Diving | Sport Diver | TransWorld Ride BMX | TransWorld Business | TransWorld Motocross | TransWorld SKATEboarding | TransWorld SNOWboarding | TransWorld SURF | TransWorld WAKEBOARDING | WaterSki |
|---|---|
| Travel | Caribbean Travel + Life | Destination Weddings & Honeymoon | Islands | Florida Travel + Life |
| Lifestyle & Epicurean | Garden Design | SNOW | Saveur |
| Marine & Aviation | Boating | Boating Life 360 | Cruising World | Fly Fishing in Salt Waters | Flying | Marlin | Marlin University | Sailing World | Salt Water Sportsman | Sport Fishing | Yachting |
| Outdoor | Field & Stream | Outdoor Life | SHOT Business | Cycle World |
| Parenting | Babytalk | Parenting | Conceive | Working Mother |
| Technology | Popular Science | Science Illustrated | Sound + Vision | Popular Photography | American Photo |
| Entertainment/Events | Warren Miller Entertainment | World Entertainment Services | World Sports & Marketing |
Fieldandstream.com is part of the Field & Stream Network, a division of Bonnier Corporation.
Copyright © 2012 Bonnier Corp. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
The first 5 people that post here explaining how they will use handiflies, like handiflies on facebook and send their contact information to david@handiflies.com will receive 6 free handiflies: specify wet or dry flies when you email
I plan on using handiflies primarily when flyfishing for bluegills and other bream species. HandiFlies would be perfect for me, as much of the time I fish from a kayak. It can be difficult trying to tie flies on when in the kayak. HandiFlies would definitely allow me more time casting and less time tying.
Thanks for your comment, Erik
Don't forget to email your contact details and we will send you some HandiFlies™ david@handiflies.com
Tight lines
David Bershtein
www.handiflies.com
Hey David,
I've attempted to email david@handiflies.com but the server is rejecting my email. Am I doing something wrong?
Nothing wrong. I must have had plurals on the brain. the email is david@handifly.com
www.handifly.com
Don't like it. Appears to be gimmickry. Learn to tie a good knot. It is part of fly fishing. If you have trouble threading through the eye there is a tool that makes that easy. I flies connection should be to a knot, otherwise you are bastardizing the sport.
The "tool" does not make it easy for someone with hand tremors which I have from years of chemotherapy. Many of us disabled people have great trouble with this and have had to give up fly fishing. It is not a gimmick for me. I developed handiflies because I could not otherwise flyfish at all.
As far as bastardizing, originally all flies were tied to a length of gut terminating in a loop. Those early tiers might think the new flies were bastardization.
Any approach which helps the disabled and doesn't hurt anyone is a blessing. I am glad that you are not disabled and don't need them - yet.
David Bershtein
www.handifly.com
A nurse that I know, a recent convert to fly fishing, told me that she has trouble tying on the smaller flies. She wants to try handiflies so she doesn't miss out on fishing small dries when the hatch is on. And she isn't even handicapped. I guess those of us that are will have to share :)
I don't like the idea of a loop-to-loop connection just 7" from a tiny dry fly.
With 3 lb test fluorocarbon, it will be light as a feather and invisible to the fish. The length and weight of the tippet are designed to accommodate the fly. HandiFly is trying flies up to #18
If midges are hatching you can't use a #8 wooly bugger. Or perhaps you can. Again, if you are not handicapped and can see to tie on a #18 or 20 fly and your hands don't shake, you don't need them. I am glad for you. Once upon a time I didn't need them either.
Hand fly...fine. I am disabled as well. I have arthritis in all my joints, a floaters in my eyes that make seeing difficult. But until I am forced to give it up, I will tie on my flies. The tool still works fine for me. I would say you have a very limited, potential customer base. But keep up the good fly fishing.
Dear naysayers, please tell a fly fishing pal with vision or steadiness of hand troubles about our flies and let me send him/her a few of our flies. We are not attacking tradition, we are trying to save it.
Sincerely
David Bershtein
President
www.HandiFly.com
barnhilo...I do not either, and have been in the fly fishing business for many a year...loop knots are the weakest of knots, and on the fine tippet end a bad deal...BUT, recently I learned a strong, loop knot that is as strong as any knot you can tie! It is the version of the Bimini, but wouldn't work to loop on a fly. If you double over your tippet say 6" and twist it up tight so you have a very small loop you can create say 12 twists....then at the bottom of the twists do a double overhand knot, (surgeons) that prevents the twists from untwisting, you can make the knot quickly, and it is vertually the Bimini Knot...then you can loop to loop your tippet to the main leader section, but not the fly. If you can get the leader through the eye, then the best is just 4-5 twists, through the big bottom loop, and pull it up....don't IMPROVE your clinch knot. Easier, adn slightly stronger than the improved clinch knot, and will not slip out if it does not slip out in your hand when you pull it tight.
Dear Clinchknot,
We are not out to deprive you of tying a fly on your line with any method you like. I know that the HandiFly approach IS not ideal.
It is an approach for someone without the manual dexterity of you or Mr. Barnhllo. Please fish with me anytime and tie my flies on for me every time I get hung up in a branch, on a rock, whip one off or lose it in the fish that got away. I can no longer do it myself. I can't afford to hire a guide every time want to fish. I have been fly fishing for 55 years. Am I no longer entitled to fish.
There are many of us seniors, handicapped, men and women veterans who have been injured. We need these blessed flies and I am making them for myself and anyone else who needs them.
I hope that I have the occasion to fish with you both. Even after 55 years, I learn something new every time I fish in a river, a river tells me something new every minute it passes by.
Clinchknot, I have the floaters too: mine are from macular degeneration. Where do yours from? Cancer treatment gave me the arthritis and shaky hands. It has made my fishing a struggle since 1995.
Before my bone marrow transplant, I made a farewell visit to an English chalk stream, the Avon. I thought it would be my last fishing trip. A friend tied a small gold ribbed hare's ear on for me and I caught a 6 lb brown. I would have been happy to kick the bucket then and quit while I was ahead but the damn transplant worked so here I am, 10 years later. Still getting chemo and still fishing. I can't wade any more, I am too unsteady and fall on my butt every time. So I am exiled to fishing from the bank.
David Bershtein
www.handifly.com
You have more of a handicap than I do. I am 70 now, and still hunt upland birds using a cane, and do rather well with two fine bird dogs. But I can only go for an hour, or so at a time. My foaters more than likely came from a blow on the head...I slipped on the black ice, and wacked the back of my head on the pavement...out cold. A year later blood hit one eye, and then soon after the other, and had lazer surgury in both of them. I am an X athlete, 3 sports in college, and just can not give up by hunting and fishing very easy. I row a driftboat on the river all the time for my exercise. I've been in the fly fishing business in all kinds of areas for a long time. I taught the first Sage Rod Flyfishing School with another guy.
Post a Reply
The first 5 people that post here explaining how they will use handiflies, like handiflies on facebook and send their contact information to david@handiflies.com will receive 6 free handiflies: specify wet or dry flies when you email
I plan on using handiflies primarily when flyfishing for bluegills and other bream species. HandiFlies would be perfect for me, as much of the time I fish from a kayak. It can be difficult trying to tie flies on when in the kayak. HandiFlies would definitely allow me more time casting and less time tying.
Hey David,
I've attempted to email david@handiflies.com but the server is rejecting my email. Am I doing something wrong?
The "tool" does not make it easy for someone with hand tremors which I have from years of chemotherapy. Many of us disabled people have great trouble with this and have had to give up fly fishing. It is not a gimmick for me. I developed handiflies because I could not otherwise flyfish at all.
As far as bastardizing, originally all flies were tied to a length of gut terminating in a loop. Those early tiers might think the new flies were bastardization.
Any approach which helps the disabled and doesn't hurt anyone is a blessing. I am glad that you are not disabled and don't need them - yet.
David Bershtein
www.handifly.com
A nurse that I know, a recent convert to fly fishing, told me that she has trouble tying on the smaller flies. She wants to try handiflies so she doesn't miss out on fishing small dries when the hatch is on. And she isn't even handicapped. I guess those of us that are will have to share :)
Hand fly...fine. I am disabled as well. I have arthritis in all my joints, a floaters in my eyes that make seeing difficult. But until I am forced to give it up, I will tie on my flies. The tool still works fine for me. I would say you have a very limited, potential customer base. But keep up the good fly fishing.
Dear naysayers, please tell a fly fishing pal with vision or steadiness of hand troubles about our flies and let me send him/her a few of our flies. We are not attacking tradition, we are trying to save it.
Sincerely
David Bershtein
President
www.HandiFly.com
Dear Clinchknot,
We are not out to deprive you of tying a fly on your line with any method you like. I know that the HandiFly approach IS not ideal.
It is an approach for someone without the manual dexterity of you or Mr. Barnhllo. Please fish with me anytime and tie my flies on for me every time I get hung up in a branch, on a rock, whip one off or lose it in the fish that got away. I can no longer do it myself. I can't afford to hire a guide every time want to fish. I have been fly fishing for 55 years. Am I no longer entitled to fish.
There are many of us seniors, handicapped, men and women veterans who have been injured. We need these blessed flies and I am making them for myself and anyone else who needs them.
I hope that I have the occasion to fish with you both. Even after 55 years, I learn something new every time I fish in a river, a river tells me something new every minute it passes by.
Thanks for your comment, Erik
Don't forget to email your contact details and we will send you some HandiFlies™ david@handiflies.com
Tight lines
David Bershtein
www.handiflies.com
Nothing wrong. I must have had plurals on the brain. the email is david@handifly.com
www.handifly.com
With 3 lb test fluorocarbon, it will be light as a feather and invisible to the fish. The length and weight of the tippet are designed to accommodate the fly. HandiFly is trying flies up to #18
If midges are hatching you can't use a #8 wooly bugger. Or perhaps you can. Again, if you are not handicapped and can see to tie on a #18 or 20 fly and your hands don't shake, you don't need them. I am glad for you. Once upon a time I didn't need them either.
Clinchknot, I have the floaters too: mine are from macular degeneration. Where do yours from? Cancer treatment gave me the arthritis and shaky hands. It has made my fishing a struggle since 1995.
Before my bone marrow transplant, I made a farewell visit to an English chalk stream, the Avon. I thought it would be my last fishing trip. A friend tied a small gold ribbed hare's ear on for me and I caught a 6 lb brown. I would have been happy to kick the bucket then and quit while I was ahead but the damn transplant worked so here I am, 10 years later. Still getting chemo and still fishing. I can't wade any more, I am too unsteady and fall on my butt every time. So I am exiled to fishing from the bank.
David Bershtein
www.handifly.com
You have more of a handicap than I do. I am 70 now, and still hunt upland birds using a cane, and do rather well with two fine bird dogs. But I can only go for an hour, or so at a time. My foaters more than likely came from a blow on the head...I slipped on the black ice, and wacked the back of my head on the pavement...out cold. A year later blood hit one eye, and then soon after the other, and had lazer surgury in both of them. I am an X athlete, 3 sports in college, and just can not give up by hunting and fishing very easy. I row a driftboat on the river all the time for my exercise. I've been in the fly fishing business in all kinds of areas for a long time. I taught the first Sage Rod Flyfishing School with another guy.
Don't like it. Appears to be gimmickry. Learn to tie a good knot. It is part of fly fishing. If you have trouble threading through the eye there is a tool that makes that easy. I flies connection should be to a knot, otherwise you are bastardizing the sport.
I don't like the idea of a loop-to-loop connection just 7" from a tiny dry fly.
barnhilo...I do not either, and have been in the fly fishing business for many a year...loop knots are the weakest of knots, and on the fine tippet end a bad deal...BUT, recently I learned a strong, loop knot that is as strong as any knot you can tie! It is the version of the Bimini, but wouldn't work to loop on a fly. If you double over your tippet say 6" and twist it up tight so you have a very small loop you can create say 12 twists....then at the bottom of the twists do a double overhand knot, (surgeons) that prevents the twists from untwisting, you can make the knot quickly, and it is vertually the Bimini Knot...then you can loop to loop your tippet to the main leader section, but not the fly. If you can get the leader through the eye, then the best is just 4-5 twists, through the big bottom loop, and pull it up....don't IMPROVE your clinch knot. Easier, adn slightly stronger than the improved clinch knot, and will not slip out if it does not slip out in your hand when you pull it tight.
Post a Reply