Fly tying....getting back into it.

[Fallser]

Thought I was finished with my flies for Ontario.  I went through one of my boxes and removed some colors that haven't worked in a while Tied these up to fill up the spaces.

Three supersized floating mop flies.  Tied on 1/0 Gamakatsu stinger hooks.  I can use them as poppers or sub-surface.

Messing with a couple of articulate flies.  Basically Wooly Bugger bodies on articulated shanks with a Daiichi 2461 size 1.  Head is a reversed soft foam popper body.  I can fish them either on the surface or subsurface of a sinking or intermediate line.

Flies are done and packed.

[flyfisher]

Good loking flies.  I went out today and the hot fly was an articulated popper.  I usually put the hook in the head though, like the action more.  I used the howitzer popper heads though.  

[Fallser]

I don't think I've ever tied an articulated popper, that I remember.  Something to think about over the winter.  I prefer a more subtle mouth on my poppers, but I just stripped down some balsa poppers I picked up a local fishing flea markets over the years.  Great looking poppers but not in colors I would normally fish, so I sanded them down, repainted them and added eyes.  The mouth is round but very deep.  With the eye screw in, I would have had a tough time threading the line and tying them on.  I ended up putting new eye screws in and add a swivel to tie the line to.  Curious to see what action the swivel give to the popper on the retrieve

  One suggestion on the bait fish pattern, if you're trying to push water that's a great tie.  It you're trying to imitate a shad.  Sparser, though shad are wide-body fish, they're thin head on.  More high-tying less V-tying.

[avidone1]

Have a lot of dragon flies buzzing around   Bass will clear the water to grab one   Have tied some facsimiles that work sometimes but am looking for a really effective dragon fly pattern   Anyone ? 

[flyfisher]

14 minutes ago, avidone1 said:

Have a lot of dragon flies buzzing around   Bass will clear the water to grab one   Have tied some facsimiles that work sometimes but am looking for a really effective dragon fly pattern   Anyone ? 

Honestly I have found poppers with rubber legs out the side in the color of the dragon flies that are buzzing around work just as well as any dragonfly pattern.  Around here that usually means a carolina blue or dark green.  

 

If you want an actual drgaonfly pattern there are some easy foam ones out there that are pretty quick ties.  Maybe I will whip some up tonight but basically it is just some foam tied on the hook shank allowed to extend off the back about double the hook shank length, tied in a way to give the segmented appearance, some wings, I use snythetic but anything works really, then you can put eyes, I usually don't and then tie off the head.  Turns out something like this usually but without the eyes.  Don't make them too complicated becuase generally you are casting them, letting them sit or float a little if there's current, give it a little twitch and then lift and repeat.

 

[avidone1]

I saw those foam cutouts on Amazon and ordered the large size     I too have had some success with rubber leg poppers  I use a sharpie to get the color I want   

[flyfisher]

sharpies are a wonderful thing.  Another good paint is the foam flex paint you can get at places like Michaels or other craft stores.  It lasts a little longer, especially if you cover it with some flexible UV like solarez flex.

 

[Fallser]

Figure it's time to bump this forward.  Bass season is upon us.

I've been working on some frogs for bass season. I pattern my frogs after the plastic frogs ya'll use. I have them in medium and large size. Decided I needed a smaller one for the early season.

 

Hook: Ahrex Swim Bait hook, size 4
Body: strip of 6 mm craft foam
Legs: silicone spinner bait skirt layers
Eyes: 6 mm Living Eyes
Color: Permanent markers

I was watching a show this past weekend on one of the outdoor channels. The bass guys were fishing a popping plastic frog. Looked interesting. This is what I came up with.

 

 

 

Hook: Ahrex Swim Bait hook, size 2, size 1/0 and 2/0

Body: strip of 6 mm craft foam

Head: soft foam popper head, cut to fit.

Legs: silicone spinner bait skirt layers

Eyes: 6 mm, 7.5 mm and 8 mm Living Eyes

Color: Permanent markers

I also use a light coat of Flex UV resin to help them float.
I still have 9 more of the small frogs to finish up and three more of the popping frogs. Just need to add legs.

 

While I was looking for some materials I came across this half tied fly. I must have started it last year and decided I didn't like the way it looked. All it needed was eyes, so I finished it up. The bass fly fisherman's answer to the Alabama rig, Bob Popovics "Schoolie Fly"   I definitely need to do some work on this style.

 

 

[PaulVE64]

Ready to go patterns I've been working on. !https://www.instagram.com/p/CuPtelJu1O7/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

[Fallser]

Nothing fancy.  Just some WTH flies.  Maybe the smallmouth in Ontario will like them.

This one is a 1/2 and 1/2 version of an Estaz Bug.  Normally, I tie it with just an estaz body and usually on a size 6 hook.

Hook: Ahrex Traditional Shrimp size 4

Thread: Color to match body, in this case, white and chartreuse 

Weight:  6 to 8 wraps of medium size lead in the center of the shank

Tail: Marabou w/ 6 strands of crystal flash(color to match body

Body:  Small flexi Squishenille twisted with estaz and trimmed to shape

Head:  UV resin(white or chartreuse)

General idea of the original was to imitate a Mr. Twister grub

Another variation of a Mop fly.  Fished as a streamer.  With the tail the flies are about 3 inches long

Hook: Gamakatsu B10S size 4

Thread: Color to match body

Weight:  Unweighted

Tail: Marabou color to match body

Body: long mop piece

Thorax:  crystal or sparkle chenille 

Head:  Stonfo Soft Head #2

Eyes: 7 mm Living Eyes

Color on Fire Tiger pattern, permanent marker

This one was real hard to tie.

Soft Foam Floater

Hook/Body:  Soft Foam Body, size 2

Thread: Color to match body

Weight:  Unweighted

Tail: Marabou w/ a couple of wraps of small crystal chenille to cover shank.

Originally brought the bodies to use for walleye on my Ontario trip. Normally fished behind a sinker with either a leech or piece of night crawler attached.  Keeps the bait off the bottom.

Figure I can use them as top water or fish them off an intermediate or sink tip line.  If they don't work as flies, we'll just use them like they're supposed to be used.

 

[PaulVE64]

Last year I copied these notes about fly designing and totally forgot about it until I found them last week. I read the notes and discovered matching ties in my box. I tied these flies recently so something in those notes stuck.

[PaulVE64]

Wicked fast to tie and smallies love them.

[Fallser]

Last few flies for my Ontario trip in two weeks.   These are patterns I haven't used in a couple of years.

This one is called a "Bead Belly".  A guy in my saltwater fly fishing club showed it to me many years ago.  I used it for a couple of years as a silverside imitation, but moved on to unweighted baitfish patterns. 

Generic bait fish

Perch

Hook- Gamakatsu Straight Shank Worm hook, 1/0
Thread - clear polyester thread
Body - Flash blended Mirror image
Belly - Two large silver bead heads in front of a piece red Mirror Image
Eyes - Living Eyes, 6 mm
Head - UV Resin
 

This one is a Short Floating Woolly Bugger.  I usually tie them on a long shank and larger hook.  I'll fish it like a gurgler across the top.  It has a big enough head to use it as a popper.

Front View

 

 

Hook- Kona XS Stinger, size 2
Thread - 3/0 color to match body
Body - Crystal chenille and wrapped saddle hackle
Head- 3/8" Foam cylinder
Eyes - Living Eyes, 8.5 mm
 

Crease Fly(modified).   Crease flies were one of my go to flies when I fished salt water, but I moved away from when I fished fresh water.  Normally tied on a single straight shank hook, I think the action is better "tied" this way.

 

Hook- VMC 9648 BZ barbless treble
Thread - only to wrap on the hook shank or in this case the articulated shank as a base to glue the foam
Body - Large articulated shank with 2 mm craft foam, cut in a triangular shape, folded in half over the shank.  Halves glued together then trimmed to shape                                                        

Eyes - Living Eyes, 8.5 mm
Tail - Dressed treble hook

[JacobB006]

On 8/4/2023 at 11:38 AM, PaulVE64 said:

Wicked fast to tie and smallies love them.

Awesome looking craw. What hook is that tied on?

[WRB]

According to the Smallmouth anglers Marabou 1/16 to 1/8 oz jigs are the hot ticket. The Northern anglers call these feather jigs hair...but we know Marabou is feathers.

Tom

 

[PaulVE64]

These ties, a craw and a goby/darter,  are both on the mustad 1/0 wet fly hook. Its 2xhstd. They are 1/8 oz each.

See pic and thanks!

[guidoStow]

 

Squimpish hair, strung fuzzy fiber and a little bit of holographic flashabou...

[flyfisher]

11 hours ago, guidoStow said:

 

Squimpish hair, strung fuzzy fiber and a little bit of holographic flashabou...

I love that style of fly. The action is crazy.  Do you have an articulation in yours?  I have tied similar flies with one articulation to increase the action a little more but they produce about the same as ones that I don't so I stopped tying them that way.

[guidoStow]

3 hours ago, flyfisher said:

I love that style of fly. The action is crazy.  Do you have an articulation in yours?  I have tied similar flies with one articulation to increase the action a little more but they produce about the same as ones that I don't so I stopped tying them that way.

Thanks! I really like building the fly design into the brush. I have been really happy with the way these kick with a strong strip/pause retrieve so I haven't joined to articulated movement. 

[flyfisher]

29 minutes ago, guidoStow said:

Thanks! I really like building the fly design into the brush. I have been really happy with the way these kick with a strong strip/pause retrieve so I haven't joined to articulated movement. 

What is funny is I started fly fishing seriously around 2000 and I was making articulated flies by cutting hooks.  I then got into other stuff and occasionally fly fished but was more into conventional.  Fast forward to about 5 years ago and I got back into fly fishing pretty much exclusively for warmwater species and started tying and I see all these beautifully made shanks to make my life easier.  

I got into making brushes a little bit but stopped because pretty much all my needs are met with commercial ones.

[PaulVE64]

Want to try MFC Gallups Fish Feathers.

[flyfisher]

2 minutes ago, PaulVE64 said:

Want to try MFC Gallups Fish Feathers.

Those look pretty cool.  I know when I first started tying his Belly Bumper pattern he was creating this same look by gluing a grizzled hackle on a solid base.  This new stuff looks way easier to manage.

[Bdnoble84]

Trying my hand at spinning deer hair. Its definitely a learning curve. Cant wait for the summer frog bite.

[thinkingredneck]

I had trouble with the rabbit strips pulling it under when I tried that

[Fallser]

Looks good.  If you're thinking of it as a top water fly, I agree with the above that the rabbit strips will pull it down.  I've caught bass and chain pickerel on sub-surface frog patterns.    An option would to use marabou for the legs.  Again, if you're shooting for a top water,  pack on as much deer hair as you can, and pack it tight.