Some New Flies

[mkwerx]

Winter lasts far too long. Spring cannot get here soon enough, and passes by far too quickly. So with little opportunity to chase my favored fish in my favorite weather, I am tying flies.

I hardly touched my baitcasters last year, save for carp fishing (but I was stylish fishing for carp with a Loomis rod and Curado reel) - I am on a streamer (fish imitating fly) jag.

I have also watched waaaaaay too many videos of guys fishing Bull Shad and Huddleston swimbaits catching big bass. And then theres the Musky fishery close by I have yet to try, so I have been tying flies. BIG flies.







These are fly rod swim baits. Big nasty articulated swimbaits. For the big guy - the 11 incher, I need to buy a new, heavier rod. I can cast everything else on an 8 weight. Not pretty, but I can bomb the 6 to 7 inch stuff out to about 75 feet with my 8 weights.

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[No_Regerts]

Flip one of those out the back of the boat during ocean coho season and hold on!

 

[mkwerx]

Flip one of those out the back of the boat during ocean coho season and hold on!

Maybe. Still think I'd rather tangle with a 40 inch musky or 10lb largemouth. I still can't get over the two behemouth bass that chased my 6 inch shad swimbait all the way to the bank a couple years ago. Biggest bass I have seen in person. At the time it made me shake from both excitement and a bit of terror.

 

[No_Regerts]

Maybe. Still think I'd rather tangle with a 40 inch musky or 10lb largemouth. I still can't get over the two behemouth bass that chased my 6 inch shad swimbait all the way to the bank a couple years ago. Biggest bass I have seen in person. At the time it made me shake from both excitement and a bit of terror.

Im a bass/walleye guy myself. Ive just been amazed on how aggressive coho are at sea.

We have several lakes in this area that have tiger muskies. They are as bad as dogfish when it comes to tearing up tackle.

 

[mkwerx]

Nice. WDFW likes diversity more than ODFW. If its not a rainbow/steelhead or salmon, they want nothing to do with stocking or managing it.

 

[No_Regerts]

The way I see it, bodies of water age and change. They become less suitable for some fish as the water warms and slows with sediment buildup. Why keep forcing and supporting a stressed species when other species would thrive. The Columbia is the perfect example. We dammed it up, slowed it down, and warmed it up. Its now a smallmouth and walleye mecca despite DFW best efforts.

 

[mkwerx]

Yep, 20 years ago the Big C was on every smallmouth and walleye angler's bucket lists. Then the DFWs screwed up and decided not to embrace and manage those fisheries.

There are still fish, but sizes have decreased, and I would not rank either fishery in the top 50 in the country, let alone top 10 or 20.

Oregon really one has one bass sanctuary, oddly enough from illegal plantings. Its Davis Lake in central Oregon. Fly fishing only. Used to be epic rainbow trout fishery. Then largies were introduced. They ate the trout. probably the best consistent shot at 3 to 5lb+ largemouth in the state. Best fished by boat.

 

[Timbertodd]

Nice work Mark!

 

[ArtBrownSr]

I hate Introduced fish we have lakes up here we've had to reintroduce the prime sport species, Two or three trouts, Char, and Grayling because Northern Pike were introduced to our waters THEY ARE NOT AN INDIGENOUS SPECIES TO Alaska!

 

[Mikej]

I hate Introduced fish we have lakes up here we've had to reintroduce the prime sport species, Two or three trouts, Char, and Grayling because Northern Pike were introduced to our waters THEY ARE NOT AN INDIGENOUS SPECIES TO Alaska!

I kind of get a kick out of posts like this. I can agree with you in some ways....I mean, if the pikes are murdering the entire industry then yeah, it sucks. On the other hand YOU are not an indigenous species either. Your/our species has been destroying things for several hundred years!

I'm not sure what it's like now because its been 35+ years but where I grew up in Utah we were blessed with what they call now, "Blue Ribbon" trout streams. Some not much more that ditches, actually some were ditches, called 'em "Borrow Pits". That was in Montana though. A lot of plants that grew healthy, feisty and tasty, in beautiful settings. As far as I know, or I desperately hope anyway, those fisheries are still supported. From what I hear though a lot of it has gone away due to private property, a lot of guides and general dickishness. Or/Wa has been over run with the greenies wanting nothing but "native", no such thing really. So"Wild" will do, petting zoos. Too many fisheries I used to enjoy have been canceled. all the while we have to pay more for the displeasure.

These are fly rod swim baits. Big nasty articulated swimbaits. For the big guy - the 11 incher, I need to buy a new, heavier rod. I can cast everything else on an 8 weight. Not pretty, but I can bomb the 6 to 7 inch stuff out to about 75 feet with my 8 weights.

Lovely flies! One of those looks like a baby bass. You should get some of those down to Cottage Grove. We had decent success there with baby bass crank baits.

 

[gesasky]

Those are money

 

[mkwerx]

Cottage Grove is on my list of places I need to fish. It fishes best from a boat, from what I know of it, which I don't currently have. Maaaay try to get a canoe this year though - my wife landed a job with a sporting goods store and gets discounts on almost everything soon

 

[Timbertodd]

Cottage Grove is on my list of places I need to fish. It fishes best from a boat, from what I know of it, which I don't currently have. Maaaay try to get a canoe this year though - my wife landed a job with a sporting goods store and gets discounts on almost everything soon

NICE!!!!!

 

[2DaMtns]

I hate to burst your bubble, but I've already conquered the biggest bass in these parts.

 

[Flymph]

Yep, 20 years ago the Big C was on every smallmouth and walleye angler's bucket lists. Then the DFWs screwed up and decided not to embrace and manage those fisheries.

There are still fish, but sizes have decreased, and I would not rank either fishery in the top 50 in the country, let alone top 10 or 20.

Oregon really one has one bass sanctuary, oddly enough from illegal plantings. Its Davis Lake in central Oregon. Fly fishing only. Used to be epic rainbow trout fishery. Then largies were introduced. They ate the trout. probably the best consistent shot at 3 to 5lb+ largemouth in the state. Best fished by boat.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but they killed off Davis' population like 3 years ago... always wanted to fish it before that. Unless I'm wrong and they canceled the die off, I never followed up post-op... too depressed over it to pay further attention.

You should really take those to the Metolius and fish for Dolly Varden, they're exactly what's on the menu.

How many hooks are on those? What are you using for the articulations?
I've only been successful with two hooks with rabbit strips tied together with backing. Wire is too stiff... seems like you're using spun bucktail, which is pretty high skill on an articulated pattern.
Are you doing it spey style?

 

[mkwerx]

Articulation is via Flymen Fish Skull Fish Spine (long name) shanks. They are snap together shanks made specifically for articulating flies. Gives an unbeatable wiggle action. Some of the pictured flies are tied with one big hook, others 2 or 3. Big Bertha 11 incher has a size 4, 2, then 2/0 buried within plus a few shanks behind. A few have no shanks and are just hooks joined by Beadalon wire (nylon coated multistrand beading wire - buy it at Michaels or Jo Ann Fabrics) - its 40lb test.

The buck tail is stacked rather than spun. I do some spun bucktail stuff, but these I want tall and narrow. Front on profile us very thin, while showing broad sides. The head is stacked and brushed out dubbing.

 

[mkwerx]

As far as Davis erradication, last I knew they cancelled it. The regional bio says Davis is the ODFW bass rookery now. They use those fish to stock the handful of lakes and ponds that are lucky enough to still get bass plants.

 

[Flymph]

Found them online at NWFFO, I'll have to get some along with some new bucktail. I'm probably going to tie Atlantic salmon flies and stone fly models with them. Have you ever tried segmenting the spin to creat that effect? It's a good skill to develope, but i'm curious how you secure it. Two wraps over one wrap under then cover; or one/two wraps over and two wraps around the Bucktail then tie off?

I'm usually committed to soft plastics for bass...
However, I may need to tie a few chub and trout patterns for Davis! Still a 25 5lb bass a day lake?

I hope you're using owner hooks for such beautiful flies!

 

[Flymph]

You can tell how I like to fish, and probably where... and yes, half the time i'm smoking while fishing. lol
Articulations are new fangled, but help with modeling!

 

[mkwerx]

When stacking bucktail, I prefer to a technique a bit different than what I see most tying videos show. I cut the bucktail to the finished length I want it, as measured against the shank and tail. I always try to build a taper to the profile, so I will use shorter fibers in back, lengthening to the head.

I cut the butts flush, not angled. This allows me to lock all the fibers in with maximum thread tension. For these flies, where the hair is standing up rather than laid parallel to the shank, I position the fibers at the angle I want, give a loose wrap over, then cinch it up. This is known as a lock wrap. From there I bind all the fibers down with firm wraps to the shank. I only give about 1/16th or so of an inch for this - I don't want to build too much bulk at the hook shank and keep tying bucktail on top of bucktail. And by cutting to length before tying in, I do not have to worry about accidentally cutting the thread when trying to trim the butts short, as I have before I started doing this technique. I see a lot of guides and professional fly designers tying in full length fibers and trimming after securing to the shank, but that's too much work and too much risk of cutting the thread and ruining everything you just did. I'm also a fan of saving one's work, so after ever few clumps of hair tied in, I throw in a couple half hitches or whip finish, and depending on the fly, I will also add head cement or CA type glue (super glue).

I don't do a lot of spinning of bucktail, generally when I do I use a sparse clump and I'm looking to do more of a hackle rather than a compact head. When I spin up deer body hair it depends on the fly - if I'm going for a high floating popper, I try to pack the hair as tight as cork. On sinking flies I pack just enough to get the profile I'm looking for, but leave it sparse enough for water to flow through the head, with a couple exceptions.





On the fly pictured above, this is a subsurface fly intended to be fished on a sink tip or full sinking line. It's an articulated pattern I call the Soccer Hooligan - it was inspired by the Game Changer and Drunk & Disorderly fly patterns.

This fly has a fairly desnse deer hair head trimmed into a wedge. It's packed tight enough to cause the fly to swim to the surface when you pause the retrieve, on a jerk strip retrieve the wedge shaped head causes the fly to dive and dart side to side. The articulated body wiggles seductively as well while swimming. I typically fish this on a full sinking line because the crazy action it gives this fly. The sinking line causes the fly to dive and dart downward on the strip, and when you stop retrieving and let the fly rest, the fly slowly swims upward wiggling the whole time. Very erratic action that gets the bass' attention. It would work on big meat eating trout as well. The two variations above are the prototype flies - one has a marabou body the other has a synthetic craft fur body. The marabou body has better action in the water - but it casts like a wet sock with a lead weight in the toe, while the craft fur version only casts like a wet sock, as the synthetic body sheds water on the first back cast. I use an 8 weight rod and a 250 grain line to throw them. it is not pretty, but it works.

These guys on the other hand...



These have a sparser deer hair head - they are a muddler variation. They also have lead eyes in the head. The sparse head pushes some water, and gives a little noise on the strip (a swishing sound) but it's not packed tight like a lot of store bought muddlers.

Another way to use bucktail or deer body hair is to spin it up in a dubbing loop style. This allows you to make a hair hackle that is more durable and gives a different action and sound than typical feather hackles. I have a bunch of woolly bugger variants I've tied up that use this technique - deer body hair is typically softer than the bucktail, so for hair hackles I prefer body hair. Bucktail, being stiffer, is better for streamer tails when I use it to support a soft or limp material, such as flashabou or crystal flash, and its great for building profiles for streamer bodies.