Jim, I think the pig fly is great, but why’d you have to put it in the article? Making my own poppers sounds interesting, but since I don’t own a dremel, I’ve never been tempted to actually try making any of them. But the pig looks too funny not to try making one of them. Let’s see a dremel tool with accessaries $75(?), a drill press another $75, other assorted supplies $20. Gee, this could be an expensive pig…
You did a great job on the article.
Rex
Hey Rex,
Don’t feel bad buddy. I don’t have a
pig either.G I’ve tied around 2,000 pigs
in the last few years. Some for guides who
buy 1 or 2 hundred at a pop, some for shows
and fish ins and many for swaps. When I get
back into pig mode this fall, I’ll post an
individual pig swap. I swap pig flies for
a favorite fly from your fishery. No matter
how many I tie, they are soon gone.G
Warm regards, Jim
Rex,
When I was a kid my grandmother used to go out on the beach near Ft. Myers, Fla. where she lived and gather shells. Not always whole shells sometimes it would be pieces sometimes a crab claw or a starfish.
She would then take the stuff home and clean it and glue it together making all kinds of figures out of the stuff. She would also buy doll eyes and all sorts of things at the five and dime store to go with it.
After looking at Jim’s pig I bet a well supplied tackle shop with a large bobber selection would have the basis for getting started on a pig without a lot of hand work on your part. Granted it wouldn’t look like Jim’s pig but the idea would be the same.
Think craft store,
Rusty <><
if you wanna catch something ya gotta get a hook in the water
I’m in for the pig swap!!
Trouts don’t live in ugly places
Just thought i’d share this pic… some of my herd, “daydreaming about flying!!”
Andy
"My fishing is no longer an obsession, an addiction, or a mania; it’s much more than that!
" - Dave Micus
JC,
That’s a thought for sure. A foam
oinkicator. When he sticks his curly
tail in the air, you know to do a hook
set. I think I’d leave the full hook up
his butt however as I’ve had many reports
of pork loving fish of many species. Warm
regards, Jim
Ascott - nice - Danish Landrace’s ??? lots of chops off her off-spring.
Rex - I’ve done some by hand on sand paper - takes a bit more time … but results are the same (ok - near the same … )
Darrell,
Large White crossed with Landrace/Duroc, these are a few of my breeding sows due to give birth any day now. Pork chops will come from the progeny in around 200 days.
Jim, I gotta try tying some of these… most of my regular clients ask after the pigs when they order flies, or stop into the office for a chat, so it will be entertaining to see the look on their face when they see a litter of dremel pigs on the tying bench!!
Andy
"My fishing is no longer an obsession, an addiction, or a mania; it’s much more than that!
" - Dave Micus
thanks for the memories … dad ran a farrow to finish for quite a while … hmms, have you tried using some of the shoulder / neck hairs for clousers ? Nice, stiff - should give some good action … throw a couple on a dremmel pig for a tail - voila !
Ahhh Darrell,
Tis but one way to tail a pig fly and
it’s not with the hair of the swine. As it
turns out, one of our sponsors, Hedron,
makes the perfect material for the curly
little appendages. It’s called “Perfect
Rubber” and comes in colors to match
virtually every foam color known to man.
This material can be threaded into a
needle and applied in just the right spot
along with a wee drop of CA adhesive. Then
with the application of heat, it can be
stretched to the proper taper and twisted
to a curl that would catch any pig fanciers
eye. Anything worth doing is worth doing
right!G Warm regards, Jim
PS, this miraculous material is also well
suited for legs and skirts on your more
traditional dremel bugs.
[This message has been edited by Jim Hatch (edited 24 August 2005).]
That’s another one for Jeff Foxworthey. Ya just may be a redneck if you use a pig fly for all your fly fishing !!! Forget the pork rine trailer, & I’ll take my bourbon straight !!!
Jim - just shows the twisted ways my mind wanders and turns when tying flies … or even talking of it. I tend to … deviate (no I don’t follow recipee when I cook either) … should see what happened one day when I was tying #18 parachute GRHE’s … 
sounds like interesting mat’l … should see if I can locate some up here to try … always up for tying something different.
(and drain that danged bourbon cast already will ya - we gots some fine malt here for some scotch ready to go …)
[This message has been edited by darrell (edited 24 August 2005).]
A pretty good thing to have in your box considering the eastern belief that pigs and likenesses of them bring the owner good luck. I have tied some good luck pig flies before only I just took little plastic pigs and zapagapped them to salmon hooks.
When tying at shows I ask the Kids if they have ever seen a pig fly–Of course they answer"Pigs cant fly" Then I show them Jims fly. The adult send others to my table just to see the pig–
Bill
Oh no! Now I know how to do the tail! I was wondering how that was done. Yep, at this rate I’ll be the proud owner of a dremmel tool before the weekend gets here. 
Rusty, I was thinking about the fact that I could probably buy all the stuff to make it, but where’s the fun in that? I guess I’m a sucker for a challenging fly pattern.
Bill, I’m not sure that I want to admit to this, but while I thought the pig was hillarious… I completely missed the “pig fly” joke.
Jim, 2,000 of these??? I guess I’m not the only person that liked this fly.
Betty, a pig swap already? But I haven’t even found a source of pink foam yet…
Thanks everyone, the humor in the responses sure helped brighten Tuesday afternoon! Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go dremmel shopping.
Rex
Hey Rex,
I was surprised when you didn’t pick up
on Bill’s humor. But then I noticed your
reference to Tuesday, and perhaps there in
lies the problem. Your internal clock is
24 hours slow. Tomorrow afternoon when for
no apparant reason you start chuckling, just
know that it is in response to Bill’s funny.
Warm regards, Jim
Cool! The weekend is one day closer than I thought!!!
Of course, now I’m real worried about what I may have typed into the report that I have been working on this evening.
Oh, I understood Bill’s joke, but I was suprised that I didn’t think of it when I first saw the fly, especially with the subtle hint on FOAL’s front page this week.
Rex
Hey Jim, I just turned my first popper today. It was fun!
I still don’t have a dremmel, but I do have die grinder and an air compressor. It was not a very graceful setup, but it worked. I am still a long way from making a pig, but I was surprised at how quick and easy it was to turn a foam popper.
Thanks for the article on how to do this!
Rex
[This message has been edited by RexW (edited 27 August 2005).]
Hey Rex,
Yes, turning foam is not hard work.*G*
Once you can spin the foam in a controlled
manner, it’s childs play to hold an emery
board against the foam and shape it much
like on a lathe. Even the excess foam
being removed is easy to control with a
simple catch tray. I’ve used jewelers files
with mine to turn tiny little #20 bodies.
Could probably go smaller if I didn’t have
to look twice to see the little bodies once.
G I guess my favorites though are the
classic bass lures in gill and trout sizes.
Particularly flies like Fred Abergasts hula
popper. The foam version is all but
weightless and does not make that scarey
whistling sound as it goes past your ear like the wooden or plastic originals do.
Warm regards, Jim
Jim!!
Thanx, … I gotta try this!! You know, … they’ll most probably work very well on our big bruisers at dusk.
I can’t wait to “spin up” some.
Hmmm. … Pig swap, … I wonder if Dept of Agriculture will impound my “flies” if I sign up for a swap with y’all
Edit:
p.s. … Think if we use this as a banner at the FishIn’s the admin will understand:
Christopher Chin, Jonquiere Quebec
[url=http://pages.videotron.com/fcch/:81a6f]Fishing the Ste-Marguerite[/url:81a6f]
[This message has been edited by fcch (edited 28 August 2005).]
[This message has been edited by fcch (edited 28 August 2005).]