John -

If you are going to be in Montana during the stonefly ( salmon or golden ) hatches or the hopper season, the FEB patterns might be an interesting experiment on the cricks you fish ??

If your offer from a few years ago to ride along still stands, I might be able to bring along a supply of flies for you and your friend to work out.

Bruce -

Thanks for the link to the FEB Hopper. Also, I got your PM regarding the "remember me" thing. Glad to hear that it works for you.


One of my priorities in fly tying, especially since I don't much like fly tying and I'm not very good at it, is DURABILITY.

The FEB is a really solid platform for durable flies. Last Wednesday, I tied on my standard salmonfly with the elk rump hair wing. Three hours and a couple dozen fish later, I put it back in the fly box for my next outing. On Sunday, after another three hours and about twenty more fish, I lost it while in the process of retying the tippet to continue fishing with it. Yeah, it was kind of beat up, but the fishies were still going after it regularly and with gusto.

John