Neal Osborn
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Tim . . . I fish the TWM primarily with a floating line because that’s just what I have on most of the time. However, a clear intermediate would probably be an option in the saltwater (but again, most of the time you will have floating line and just want to throw this on the leader).
On the river, a 15 foot sink tip line cast over and across will pull the TWM right under and the holy commotion that goes on during the swing is like a circus show. Lots of fun.
Honestly, this fly is just about perfect and is good with any setup. One tip if you tie your own – the more obtuse you make the head angle the deeper the fly will sink on the pull.
The shad schema is the most effective for saltwater. Check out this bluefish and if you look closely you will see a TWM in the upper lip. In general, fish will pull a 45 degree turn and chase this thing down once they see the action. Unfortunately, they get chewed up quickly.
Adam, are you familiar with Ward Bean’s site, http://www.warmwaterflytyer.com/welcome.asp? It is one of the best repositories on the net for warmwater fly fishing tips and tricks and patterns.
I fish the Todd’s Wiggle Minnow (TWM) very often for bronze backs. That pattern has single handedly become one of my all time favorites for bass of any kind and also saltwater surf species. Its movement is fantastic.
I also use a big sloppy Hellgramite pattern (HellCraw by Anthony Hipps) and brightly colored streamers.
Anthony Hipps is one of the finest fly tiers in America IMHO. We are fortunate to have him in the SouthEast council. His soft bodied poppers with HellCraw droppers are a deadly combination. See link below.
90% of my smallmouth flies include the combination of 1)TWM, 2)Slider/Popper, 3)Hellcraw (Hellgramite), 4)streamer.
Note: there are two great podcasts on AAFF about smallmouth. My favorite is Torrey Collins’ podcast http://www.askaboutflyfishing.com/speakers/torrey-collins/torrey-collins.cfm. The other is by Harry Murray http://www.askaboutflyfishing.com/speakers/harry-murray/harry-murray.cfm.
FYI: the “Tequeely” pattern by Orvis (http://www.orvis.com/store/product.aspx?pf_id=002C), which is mentioned by Torrey in the podcast, is very similar to Hipp’s Hellcraw 😉
Hipps HellCraw http://www.warmwaterflytyer.com/corner.asp?page=10Hipps Soft Body Poppers http://www.warmwaterflytyer.com/corner.asp?page=4
Todd’s Wiggle Minnow. The yellow/orange/green fire-tiger schema is the most effective for smallies.
Black body and chartreuse tail/eyes also work well in low light.
First off Will – ANYONE who documents a their pipe collection is good people. That is cool.
Second, I agree with David – the card is valuable on many levels. Honestly, it just looks professional and sometimes is probably more of a gimmick. However, the gradation of values is the primary interest. For example in ACR you can manually profile your white point, black point and grey point and then apply that to all the per-session shots under similar lighting. The color squares are good for spot calibrating hue and saturation. For example, under my particular macro studio setup the green channel tends to blow out and using ACR I can custom correct hue/saturation for the greens with the card. If you look at my bluegill box above you will see that the uncorrected photograph shows the off green and the corrected photograph shows a true green/chartreuse in the marabou.
The ColorChecker card is most valuable when doing prints.
LOL, cows in the road always catch my attention. Looks like you had a good time. The last two shots are keepers.
The “starburst” effect is created by an interference pattern due to diffraction. The light coming into the lens diffracts off the edge of the shutter leaves. Amplitudes of diffracted light which are in phase add together and show up as the bright spokes of the starburst. Amplitudes of diffracted light which are out of phase cancel each other out and this creates the space between the spokes of the starburst.
It does not only have to be diaphragm blades – example: when you clean your lens in “circular”, you may create streaks. These “streaks” would act like a “starburst” filter. Anything that causes diffraction will cause the starburst effect – this includes dust particles, diaphragm blades, shutter blades (leaf shutters), cleaning streaks, glass imperfections etc.. Light spreads out (diffracts) perpendicular to a surface, with star spikes at right angles to flat/straight edges.
So (if you really care) a 5-blade iris will give a 10-point sun star, a symmetical 6 blade iris a 6-point star (because opposite edges are parallel, their points overlap), 7-blade iris a 14-point star, etc…
Since you have noticed the unique starburst pattern in a particular lens we should look at the pattern. Below is a blown up view of your starburst pattern. I count 14 starbursts . . . therefore, without knowing your particular lens, it is likely a 7-blade setup. Furthermore, it is probably different than your other lenses and that is why you are noticing the unique starburst pattern? That’s my bet anyway.
David and David – I too like the X-rite ColorChecker mini card! It is invaluable for small product fly shots. I mostly use it for white balance and black point correction and the per-shoot batch processing is a snap in ACR or Lightroom (under RAW of course). David King, that sounds like a major project shooting carpet or any such project where color is critical, good tips.
Ben really hits the point I was after when he asks the question about Snow Leopard. I too have noticed a significant brightness change in my 24″ Cinema Display since upgrading. The internet chatter is not leading to a solid conclusion but there is certainly an improvement in the graphic card relationship with the monitor. This is great but has me rethinking how to process pictures for the web (i.e. final conversion to sRGB at 72dpi but I might need to tweak the brightness before sending to SmugMug). BTW, my prints are spot on after the upgrade – so this appears to be an issue with brightness in relation to web viewing only.
Example – My bluegill warmater fly box with the min ColorChecker card in ambient light. Great little tool.
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Mike, congratulations on CS4! It is a very powerful tool indeed. If you haven’t done so already, check out http://www.kelbytraining.com/ 😉
BTW, thanks for the props above.
Long exposures are flat out tough to master. I struggle – still haven’t got any keepers.
This image is always on my mind when considering long exposure. A while back it was circulating as one of the best examples of long exposure airplane photography. The photographer planned out the shot and executed flawlessly.
“N306UP (cn 27759/622) Cleared for takeoff with a southbound turnout. Runway number and piano keys visible! [Canon 20D, 50mm f/1.8 MK-II] Taken @ Des Moines – International (DSM / KDSM)”. at http://www.airliners.net
