The Artistic flies of Mark Romero

[willowhead]

Thankx Bill.....heads are VERY important to me, and i'm a real stickler about them.........to me they are everything.......now. This fly had a much better (smaller), head originally........but something happened to it overnight while it was drying, and it took on a weird shape on the bottom where the dark green color is..........and i was PISSED. So i had to take my thumb nail and reshape it a bit and then give it two more coats to get even half way decent.....as it is now, it's much to big. i fret over heads like crazy........and i spend a lot of time trying very hard to get every one the best it can be..........you win some, you loose some...........but for me, there is nothing more important than heads. In the end, i very happy with maybe 20%......and it just goes downhill from there........ Heads are everything.....and very fun when you get 'em, right. And not every head is the same......they have to "go" with whatever particular fly they are a part of..........anyway, thankx again. i have to get a third coat on one right now. i just finished a new fly, that took most of the night.
It's on a white Lucas Noble D XXL 9/0 with a brown, tan, & white bead, and a trailer hook on the trailer hook. This fly came out fairly wacked.....lot of problems.......but that's what fly tying is.....problem solving. i tried something different, and succeded to a degree.....very good experience. Some day i'll actually be happy with the results of tying on a $25 hook.......... if ya know what i mean.....
btw, there's a different pic of that fly at my site or at the streamer list site..........

[letumgo]

Vicki - I have the same impression of the fly (Lifesavers/childhood/joy).

Mark - This fly resonates with me. Happy, happy, joy, joy...thanks for brightening my day.

[kanutripr]

If you're really freaked about the head you could let it get really hard and sand out the offending bump then you don't need as much cement to cover it. Don't ask how I know.


Vicki

[willowhead]

Thankx Ray......that fly was bout 95% good until the head got screwed up...........oh well, kaka happens. at this point i'm just to damn old to be sweatin' that much anymore.................life's just to short...........prolly 95% of the time, if there's something i can't stand........nobody else even knows.....
course that's never the point...........but damn.............i have so much work to do..............ocne a fly is done..........the solo is over..............on to the next one. There's always tomorrow night...........you always do your best...............just that sometimes you best isn't the best you've ever done......ain no big deal.............nobody pushes themselves any harder than i do............of that, i'm sure.

frickin' baseball player is called a g**damn star ( ) and makes a fortune if he gets a hit 3 or 4 outta `10 times.........we sposed to hit a hommer every damn time..........wass up with that............. .........fortunately, i aint braggin' or complainin'

Vicki, the surgery is already completed...........the pics you saw were post surgery...........you don't wanna see the pre-surgery pics......... undoubtedly my screw up was not keeping an eye for a bit after the original "last coat" went on......so it sagged.....when if i had paid attention just a bit longer, that would never have happened..............don't ya just love when you know you've been an ass.............

[willowhead]

Well, finally here's a pic of the fly i did on the 4th.......and which should of been posted by the 6th. The pic suckx.......i've been up just short of 30 hours with a little over 2 hour nap in there somewhere..........
This is the one on the Lucas Noble S XXL 9/0..........

[willowhead]

Just did this last night.......this morning actually......sun came up shortly after beginning the fly. First time i ever put a trailor on a trailor....... but why not. Only stuck myself once. The story of how this dang thing ended up exactly the way it did, is to long and nutz to go into here and now.....i gotta get some sleep PRONTO! But to say the least, it is REALLY fun trying to solve problems, more and more and more.........it's almost got to the point that if a fly goes just to easy.....it's like DAMN, wass up with that? It's not that all problems get solved as best the could be nessessarily..........but that they pop up, and you just take the challange and go for it........that **** is FUN! The wing is Goose of some kind.....i got a bunch of the feathers off ebay.....they came from England. And i off set-them just a tad........always tryin' new things. Hadda do some serious trimming of the guills to get them mounted. They're beautiful feathers. Hard to see the tag as it's Lagartun white Mini Braid. Throat is Rhea again. Two different shades of Brown Ostrich herl in between the wing feathers along with a spakle synthetic. And the bead is veiled on top by Golden Pheasent tail fibers. Tail is natural Amhearst tail fibers. Butt is white Ostrich herl. Rib is an orange/copper antigue flat metal tinsel. Front portion of the body is just some synthetic white sparkle dubbing that was laying around. And this is one of those rare times i did not paint the eye.

[letumgo]

Wholly smokes! That last fly is incredible. My new favorite.

[Kelly L.]

Outstanding work there Mark...love it.

[tie2fish]

IMHO, the fly from the 4th was more than worth waiting for; reminds me of a phase I went through when I was just out of college, during which I had nothing on my Christmas trees for a few years but blue lights and silver tinsel. I also played Miles Davis records a lot in those days . The goose feather wings on the new dressing took me a minute or two to get used to, but now I feel that they work very well providing shade for that bead and tail combo, especially the way they're balanced by the rhea throat/beard.

[willowhead]

Thank you folks.....i hate to stick any fly tyed on a Lucas or Reinhold, etc. hook in a cock for photographing......the points and barbs are so beautiful, they need to show. Although this pic did not do a good job of that, and the two trailor hooks sorta get lost in the shffle as well. However, i expect to see ALL of you here at the house at some point anyway. So you'll get a chance to really check out the flys then.