#being primarily purple instead of black or yellow like Bass is

[monsterboyblood]

A little fun fact abt the designs for the light siblings for my au, all their colours form sort of a circle with each other (Rock is Blue with green accents, Roll is green with red accents, Proto is red with blue accents) and each of their animal companions has the colours of the sibling who has their main colour as an accent colour :)

Here’s a little visual chart to explain it better

Proto has Tango, who’s green with red accents like Roll

Roll has Beat, who’s blue with green accents like Rock

And Rock has Rush, who’s red with blue accents like Proto!

[thelostandfoundproject]

A brief explanation on the character outfits

Each LAF band member has a different costume based on a different horror trope or horror aesthetic.

TV: modern horror. Very satanic panic inspired. TV dresses in a lot of threatening looking red and black punk clothing. His costume is more to resemble metal and punk horror bands and the panic that surrounds them. TV appears effortlessly cool on stage thanks to the Engineers filters but off stage he's a goofy bubbly golden retriever of a guy. His boots also follow the lace codes. The left boot is purple and yellow, anti fascist and queer, and the right boot laces are blue and pink, pink for feminist, blue because he probably killed a police officer while under the Engineers controls. Also lots of sun and moon imagery. Primarily the moon for him, sun for Movie. TV head mask of course with a variety of different screen settings. Project messages from the Engineer to the band. Red static when blushing. When Tv is being controlled by the engineer directly the screen will fill with static with the Engineers logo. TV is the usual lead singer but he does have a lead guitar that he'll play when Cammie is singing. He also has a guitar pick box that feels oddly familiar to him and a paper rose from Movie that he wears sometimes if the Engineer doesn't notice it before he goes on stage.

Movie: 80's slasher killer boyfriend aesthetic. His character is very much inspired by cheesy 80's horror movies. Movie is very much the tiny weak nerd who goes through a super natural event and becomes this strong handsome protagonist. Movie is also heavily inspired by Orpheus from Hadestown in a lot of regards like being a hopeless romantic fueled by love. He wears his heart on his sleeve. Lots of sun and moon imagery. Analog projector head. A slow turning gear motor spins the magazines and a button running along the sleeve of Movies jacket controls the magazine and the lens so Movie can use his head as a flashlight or a "projector" which would really be a projector from somewhere off stage. The magazines spin when he's thinking. The light also turns red and the magazines spin when he blushes which is a lot. Movie himself also doesn't fully understand the 80's outside of the movies they've found in various lost and found bins or movies that they've "found" so a lot of the clothes that he wears at the asylum and in general is more of the cheesy fake 80's vaporwave aesthetic. He has multiple button ups with movie theater carpet/arcade carpet patterns on it that feel oddly familiar to him.

Cammie: Gothic witch horror. Lots of black and pagan imagery (done respectfully). Painted nails. Occasionally pastel goth when the mood strikes her. Very inspired by movies like the Blair witch project, mark of the witch, The Others. Etc. She's also very tall even without the black boots. Cammie's stage look would also be pretty similar to her off stage look back at the asylum, (with the filters,) just a lot comfier. Polaroid camera head with a circular screen that "shutters"

Tost: Toaster is Midwest Emo. The poor guy went through so much physical torture and is the most resistant to the filters and therefore is constantly freaked out by the horrors that they see in the asylum. They wear a lot of emo clothing of course and would have dyed hair if they still had their head. Tost is also the bass player of the band and sometimes tapes guitar picks to his arms or to their guitar so they don't lose it during a show. Toaster mask with red LEDs and a spring mechanism to pop up fake fabric toast. The slots of the mask turn red when they're embarrassed or angry instead of blushing.

8ball: 8ball's stage outfit is very whimisgoth inspired. 8ball is the genderfluid piano player for the band so his costume varies the most in terms of gender expression. Lots of celestial imagery, lots of purples, 8ball is incredibly flirtatious and loves to make everyone else flustered. 8ball would love things like Sabrina the Teenage witch, Return to Oz, and other cheesy light horror things but he would have no idea what your talking about. 8ball is also very muscular due to the fact that he was a stripper in life. Has a very impressive shoe collection that he's hiding away in the asylum from the lost and found bin.

Tele: absolutely adore her. Supernatural fae horror. Tele is the drummer for the band and the second smallest band member from Movie. She wears a lot of ethereal beautiful clothing on stage inspired by nature and faeries. As the series gets darker so do her outfits however. She's super sweet and soft and beautiful and would never harm a fly... When she's not being controlled. Very much a soft cottagecore gal back at the asylum when she's not on stage. She loves painting her nails with Cammie. But her aesthetic is based on a mixture of environmental horror and Celtic fae horror. She's very much based on the idea of a character being soft and ethereal and beautiful and luring people into the woods with her innocence and kind nature only for them to be killed by their own greed. Some of her later looks are inspired by the idea of nature itself taking over and fighting back with lots of natural elements showcased in her costumes. Definitely the most fun to design for.

The Engineer: cybernetic body horror/mad scientist. With the filters the engineer appears to the band as a silly mad scientist with a big white labcoat, big white hair, and a very silly skeleton mask with scientist goggles over the eyes. Without the filters (and how the audience at stage shows would see it) the engineer is a tall threatening figure in a dark room illuminated by a wall of TV's. The engineer wears a dark black cloak, a terrifying demon mask, and has a much more threatening voice. The engineer also has part of his face caved in. Some of the scarring around his left eye can be seen if he gets too close to the camera.

I'll explain the Gizmo's costumes in a later post. Sorry that this is very messy but I'm writing this in a hurry and just want to get it out as soon as possible before I have to go back to work.

[panfishonthefly]

Fly Tying Friday - The Pumpkinseed James Wood Bucktail

This week's Fly Tying Friday post will discuss a variation of one of my favorite warmwater fly patterns, the James Wood Bucktail. I have written a bit about this pattern in the past, so I will only give a brief overview. 

Harry Murray of Murrays Fly Shop in Edinburg, Virginia, designed the James Wood Bucktail as an imitation of a baby sunfish. It is impressionistic at best, as it doesn't look like any sunfish I have ever seen, but the fish strongly disagree. Harry used it primarily for smallmouth bass that roam the large rivers in his neck of the woods. I stumbled upon the pattern many years ago, and it has been a staple in my fly boxes ever since. I have shrunk the pattern down in size and found that it is a deadly fly on all species of panfish and the larger predators it was initially designed for. 

I tie and fish this fly in over a dozen color variations. One of my favorites is a version I call the Pumpkinseed. This version of the JWB is a kaleidoscope of colors just like its namesake, the pumpkinseed sunfish. This subsurface pattern works well on all species of sunfish, including crappies. I have racked up impressive numbers of largemouth bass and chain pickerel on this fly as well, despite its diminutive size. 

Like the original James Wood Bucktail, this is an easy pattern to tie. However, this variation has a few extra steps/materials because of the three different chenille colors (opposed to two) for the body and a mix of colored bucktails for the wing/collar. You can probably make a solid argument that the three colors in the body may not be necessary, but I like the addition of the bright red hot spot that simulates the ear tag on the actual Pumpkinseed.   

When folks attempt to tie the James Wood Bucktail, the most common mistake I see is using too many bucktail fibers to create the wing/collar. The most important thing to remember when tying this fly is to keep the wing sparse. I probably use no more than 20-25 individual hair fibers when creating the 360-degree wing/collar. This sparsity is essential to get a proper sink rate and produce the right movement and action in the water. I have a step-by-step tutorial for tying the fly on the website, and a short video on my YouTube channel, if you need help tying the pattern. There is an older video on YouTube by Joe Cornwall that illustrates the techniques used to tie the pattern as well.

I fish this variation much like the other versions of the JWB, including the original. I prefer a slow, steady hand twist retrieve instead of a stop and go retrieve, which is often the result when you traditionally strip the fly. The goal is to have the fly slowly glide through the water.

In addition to actively retrieving the fly, I often fish this pattern like a drop bait. It has a slow sink rate, and it maintains a horizontal posture when it drops. This is a killer presentation for fish holding tight to cover. Most of the crappie I catch are caught using this method. I cast the fly to crappie holding structure like the edges of a fallen tree and allow the fly to sink without retrieving it. I keep the rod tip low to the water's surface and keep the line as straight as possible. Takes are often challenging to detect, and I am sure I miss more than I see or feel as crappie can inhale and expel a fly on the drop without the angler ever knowing. To prove this point, I often find a fish on the line when I pick up to cast or start a retrieve without ever detecting a strike! 

I like to swim the fly along shaded banks, and other places bluegills like to congregate. I will often retrieve the fly parallel to the bank instead of casting towards it, something that is easy to do when fishing from a float tube or kayak. This method allows you to cover more fish-holding water with each cast.

Bluegills and other sunfish tend to take the fly aggressively, but the take of a bass is often quite different. More often than not, they seem to swim up behind the fly and inhale it without disturbing the water. This type of take feels like heaviness on the line as opposed to obvious jerk or tug. If you feel anything unusual, set the hook and hold on!  

On a recent trip, I decided to tie on a fresh Pumpkinseed JWB and keep an accurate record of its performance. The fly pictured above caught thirty-six bluegills, nine crappies, four bass (ranging from 12 -16 inches), and one small pickerel before being inhaled and promptly bitten off by a second larger one. It was the only fly I used the entire afternoon. After losing it, I decided I had enough fishing for the day and paddled my way back to the truck. 

Pattern Recipe:

The Pumpkinseed James Wood Bucktail

Hook:  Allen S402BL size 8 (use an Allen S402 if you prefer barbed hooks)

Thread: Semperfli 6/0 Classic Waxed Thread

Body:  Variegated chenille in colors that imitate the Pumpkinseed. You have several choices here as variegated chenille comes in over a dozen color combinations. I use variegated usually use chartreuse/black for the body, but other bright color combos also work well.

Wing:  A mix of green, yellow and blue bucktail. A combo pack is a great way to get a selection of different colors without spending a lot of money. Remember you should tie the wing sparsely, and it should wrap 360 degrees around the hook shank.

Head:  Bright red and dark purple (or black) medium chenille.

If you are in need of fly tying materials for this fly or any other pattern please consider purchasing them from our shop. Your patronage allows us to keep the lights on and continue to bring this type of content.