Reed, I agree with you completely. I have a 10' Divine that might be mistaken for a buggy whip, but it's very forgiving and a joy to fish. It's just one pick-up and cast. Mending is very easy, and I can hold a lot of line off the water if that's needed. I'm also partial to the look of lots of interm...

CM Stewart, Sounds like you found your niche with tenkara rods. However, if you're still interested in loop rods, you might try "The Fly-Fisher's Craft" by Darrell Martin (Lyons Press). It has sections on making a loop rod and braiding horse hair lines. There's also a lot of great history ...

Hans,

Exceptionally fine ties. I like the sparseness and the angle of the hackle fibers. And there's almost no "head". That is exactly the mark I aim for (and only infrequently hit).

Daringduffer,

Mostly, I fish double tapers or Wulff TT lines. The Wulff lines are very nice roll casters. I fish DT's in silk and Cortland Peach. The silk is nice because it floats higher than a plastic line and lessens the need for "bobbers" when you're fishing upstream.

Hello, Jay. Looks like we fish the same streams. In my experience the SR is not particularly outstanding soft hackle water. I've never had any great success there. Bucktails and winged wets have always worked better for me. The Neshannock, on the other hand, is a wonderful soft hackle creek. On the ...

I tie my own using mostly Orvis Super Strong and following the formulae in Gary Borger's book, "Nymphing". These have long butts, short transitions, and relatively long tippets. They work well for me. I use the old fashioned dropper loop tied right into the leader.