The Artistic flies of Mark Romero

[willowhead]

Thankx Ray.....here's a bit of a different angle on the fly. Btw, there are 6 feathers in that wing.

[willowhead]

Here's a fly i did night before last bout 4:00 a.m.
As i sometimes do, i purposefully did not level the thread in front of the tag, so as to keep the tail lowered and more in line with the shank.....there are times when i like them "cocked" a bit.....this is one of those times. The rib is the same as the tag (material), vintage tinsel from a women in N.Y.C. who has a shop right off 5th Av. in mid-town.....you ALLLLL deserve or maybe better saId, "owe" it to yourselves to visit that shop or at least email her or go to her website. Her stash is REDICKALUS!!!!! She has a booth at Somerset every year both the Nov. show and the Jan. show.....i've been buying it from her for 5 yrs. or so. SO many different colors and styles.....all antique/vintage French metal tinsel.......INCREDABLE stuff. The collar on this fly is just some nicely dyed Whiting saddle hackle.....kind of a light honey color. The abdomen area is 2/3 colors of Seal fur, blended with SLF.....the throax area is just the SLF. i did this on an old antique Mustad 3301 short shank hook. Next fly i will post is on the same hook, but the long shank version. i wanted you to see the hooks with the eyes still attched. From now on any flies i post using either hook will have had the eye chopped off, and a gut eye attached.

[Roadkill]

Willowhead

That is one fine soft hackle! Sometime i will get the address from you for the tinsel shop. It will be something to do in the Big Apple next time I am in the city-probably a few years. I picked up an Urban Angler cap this summer.

PS The Handle is Bill. Didn't want to confuse the issue on the Christmas beads post.

[willowhead]

Before this fly (below), would get sprayed and go in a frame, i'd obviously pull that top portion of the wing down just a tad and bury it in the fold of the dyed Amhearst.....no biggie at all. My wife may have messed with the wing before she took the pic.....i had it POIfect.
The rib on this fly is the same material as the tag.....something i often do, even though the tag end of the tag has to be snipped off, and the material re-attached after tailing and or a butt have been accomplished.....no biggie. i will cheat and just contine with the rib using the same piece if and when i can.....but that's usually just a fishin' fly, and when you have no tail. This fly has two different colors of sparkle dubbing.....one for the abdomen area and one for the thorax area...........funny how those terms don't even seem to apply when your tying simply artisticly, but we keep the terminology we learned with. Now, i'm glad a made a classic mistake on this fly.....something we've all done a hundred or so times along the way. i actually forgot to tye the ribbing material in when i should of, and had to use an old technique to save the day with this fly. i had already done the dubbing portion of the body when i realized what i'd done. So, as one might and as i have so many times.....i tyed in the material up front and did an X rib, down and back. When this happens and if your going to pick out the dubbing.....you MUST be VERY carefull NOT to break your ribbing when your picking out the dubbing. So, most of the time the picked out dubbing effect is not as pronounced.....but at the same time, because of making that mistake of not tying in the ribbing material when one should of.....good things CAN happen. Part of my over-all philosophy about my flies, is that mistakes can very often be a good thing.....i spose to the degree of the mistake and all according to how you deal with it. The standard rule is to always go back, correct the mistake and then continue.....so as NOT to compound mistakes. But in order to truely discover wether or not that was the right thing to do in any one particular case, you must be willing to forge ahead and see what happens.....even at the risk of having to completely "chop" the fly and begin anew. In other words, you gotta have HEART! And artistic fly tying is ALL ABOUT Heart.....as all art is. This fly is on the long shanked version of the same hook the fly above is tyed on. You won't see another fly i tye on these hooks, with the original eye still in tact.
As people are not perfect.....artist are not perfect.....ART is not perfect.....not even nature is perfect.....that's gotta tell you something.

[willowhead]

Thankx Bill.....i use to teach classes at the Urban Angler.....GREAT fly shop and John knows his ****. i've been goin' in there since 1992 when they were in their other location further down town, when John's father was the owner. He gave it over to John in the late 90's, once he was rich. They have scads of millionair customers.
If and when i find the info for the tinsel lady.....(you'll FLIP when you go there).....i'll post it here, somewhere obvious. i have it "somewhere." .....So, now you get it when i say there's no such thing as hackle that's to long.....aint no way Jose'.

[willowhead]

Just as a side note.....it often pays to go back and re-read my replies.....i so very often have to edit them for a myrid of reasons.....good, bad and the ugly.

[letumgo]

Love the x-rib design. Best I've seen actually and the heads display the careful craftsmanship. Very well done.

[willowhead]

Thankx Ray.....the tag and ribbing tinsel is from the same lady in Manhattan who has all the "Vintage" stuff.....i'm tellin' you Bro. It'd DEFINATELY be WOURFF it to go there, if for no other reason (but once your there.....hehehehehehehehe), than to cop tinsel. i'm frickin' serious.....get a cheap flight......and go score.....then take in a game or two, four/five Jazz clubs, a couple museums.....you know, business as usual........
You won't believe the selection the tinsel lady has.

[GlassJet]

Hi Willowhead - as directed

they are amazing creations. Do you - or does anybody - ever fish them? I could imagine salmon taking some of them, given the flies I know they do take - not that I have ever done any salmon fishing.

What's this about cutting off the eyes?

Andrew.

[willowhead]

Hi and Thankx. i have fished with some occassionally.....for Steelhead.....but it's very rare.....by "some" i'm refering to whatever might be found, likened to these throughout this entire thread.............i have hundreds here that have never been photographed or posted anywhere.
At shows it's halairious to listen to the people sometimes.....i get allllll kinds of statements bout what this would be good for and what that one would be perfect for...........everything from Walleye, to Tune, to Bass, to Salmon, to Sailfish, Tarpon, Muskie, you name it..... Funny thing is.....i'm mostly tyin' for the pure joy of tyin'.....to simply express the artform.....
As far as the "cutting off the eyes" goes.....it's just one more way of creating more blind eye hooks to tye on. i prefere to tye on blind eye hooks, and while i have a few thousand already.....over two thousand are already dedicated to a specific bead to go with them.....so they wait to be tyed as i get to them. Of the other blind eye hooks i have, (which will not be used with a bead), many are quite expensive or of a higher quality than some of my eyed hooks. But of my nice eyed hooks (nice meaning pretty to my eye), i prefere to get rid of the factory eye, and use gut to make an eye, thereby turning what was only a nice hook, into a MUCH nicer hook. And don't misunderstand.....my very BEST and most expensive blind eye hooks, are the ones that WILL be used with a bead for the most part.
For a fishin' fly.....i'd just as soon tye on, and use, an eyed hook. For me, blind eye hooks are for show flies.....artistics. And eyed hooks are for fishin'.