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Great Fly - Great Fish
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As the popularity of bluewater fly fishing grows, so does the variety of flies tied for this exciting branch of the sport. Once, nearly anything big and flashy seemed good enough for offshore angling. These days though, many of us want our flies to have details and designs that make them more realistic and tougher than the patterns we used years ago.
My experiences as a fishery biologist and commercial fly tier have let me develop and test several ways to dress up my bluewater flies to improve both their fish appeal and their durability. Some of these improvements come from materials, and construction; others are details that might seem small or even silly until you put the fly in the ocean.
The only judges who count, of course, are those with fins and that’s where tying for other anglers is such a big help. When you can call on the opinions and experiences of other fly fishers who have used your flies, you can hardly avoid improving your work. What I’ve learned will make your flies better too.
At the Head
One way to dress up your bluewater flies is to pretend that they’re headed for a night in Las Vegas. Although Liberace might not have endorsed the use of one of his trademarks on fishing lures, there’s no question that flashy sequins add realism to saltwater flies.
I noticed that the heads of many saltwater patterns, particularly hot-glue flies, lacked something. Then it dawned on me that one of the more noticeable features on a fish is the gill plate, also referred to as the operculum or gill cover. A lot of baitfish flies simply lacked complete heads.
Plastic sequins provide a very simple way to add realism and flash to the heads of flies without adding excessive weight. You can buy hundreds of sequins for few bucks at your local craft or sewing store. Putting one on each side of a streamer’s head will give the fly gill plates, while also adding sparkle to the front end of the dressing.
I now use sequins on all my saltwater flies that imitate baitfish such as herring, Pacific sardines, menhaden, northern anchovies, dorado, Pacific mackerel, flying fish and ballyhoo. The heads of my flies look more like the heads of real bait, and that can’t hurt. Plastic sequins don’t add much weight or bulk, and they’re a cinch to attach with hot glue.
Tougher Ties
Durability is a good thing in any fly, but it’s particularly important in bluewater patterns. When you’ve spent hours looking for fish, you don’t want to throw a fly that disintegrates on the first strike. The tougher you make your flies, the less time you’ll spend rerigging while your buddies are catching fish.
Durability comes from the materials you use and the time you spend attaching them to the hook. Thread is the first on the list of materials. I tie my bluewater patterns with Spectra or Kevlar threads. These incredibly strong materials let me apply a lot of pressure when tightening the thread around the materials and hook shank.
Craftsmanship matters. Take your time applying materials, trimming the butt ends carefully and binding them securely to the hook.
I generally apply a drop of superglue at key steps in the tying process, not so much to lock the materials in place as to make the thread wraps more resistant to abrasion. On the heads of flies, I use slow-curing rod-wrapping epoxy rather than glue form the hardware store. Rod-wrapping finish remains slightly flexible when it cures, and, because it takes along time to harden, it seeps into materials, making the front end of a fly very durable. Besides, it looks great.
Seductive Swimmers
Another critical element of tying bluewater patterns is that they must look like baitfish from the side and from various angles. The baitfish appearance comes from the basic shape of the pattern. Think of it as an elongated teardrop. The front is rounded, with the thickest part of the fly about one-third of the way behind the front end. From that spot, the form tapers to a point.
This shape is called fusiform. Not surprisingly, it’s the shape of many fast, powerful offshore fish such as tuna. In fact, the U.S. Navy studied the hydrodynamics of tuna in order to design faster, more efficient, and quieter submarines. It’s no coincidence that the shape of our modern submarines resembles the basic form of tuna.
Good bluewater patterns have that fish shape when viewed from the top and bottom and from the sides. My experience with most patterns tied primarily with synthetic materials is that they’re narrow when viewed from the top or bottom. Natural materials and the right construction methods produce flies that look like fish from any angle.
A bluewater fly also has to swim and track properly whether it’s retrieved slowly or at top speed. Here again, natural materials such as saddle hackles and bucktail help. Except for flashy tinsels, my bluewater patterns are made mostly of feathers and natural hair. They breathe and undulate on the retrieve making for an illusion of a live baitfish.
The fusiform shape further enhances the movement of materials by creating tiny eddies and pockets of turbulence as the fly passes through the water. In effect, the front one-third of a fly produces pressure waves that make the rear two-thirds wiggle.
Building large flies that track straight depends on the right hooks (I’m partial to Gamakatsu’s Trey Combs big-game hooks) and distributing materials properly. A very tall, very skinny fly with al the water resistance and weight on top of the hook is more likely to misbehave than one with a fusiform shape.
On a recent fishing trip with my father and brother out of San Diego, I was talking with the captain as we headed out after yellowfin tuna and Pacific bonito. I told him that I had a fledgling fly-tying business and that I’d like his feedback on my patterns. His response was, “They look great, but do they swim?” I was a little nervous as I cast and retrieved a fly before his critical eye on our first stop near a kelp patty. The fly swam perfectly. The fish agreed: that day, my brother caught the current world-record Pacific bonito for 3-kilogram tippet.
This method of tying produces flies that catch fish. Among the species that have fallen to my fusiform, sequin-equipped patterns are Atlantic blue marlin, yellowfin and skipjack tuna, wahoo, dorado, striped marlin, Pacific sailfish, many species of Pacific and Atlantic jacks, pompano, striped bass, bluefish and false albacore.
Tying Vegas-Style Flies
The basic formula for my flies follows the designs of the Sea Habit Bucktail Deceivers of Trey Combs and hot-glue head patterns like those developed by Steve Abel. These versatile constructions let you develop your own patterns to match specific baitfish.
Let’s use my Northern Anchovy pattern as an example. This is the fly shown in the step-by-step photos (not reproduced for this article). Remember to pay attention to the shape of the fly as you construct it – think fusiform.
Start with a size 2/0 Trey Combs big-game hook or something similar. Attach white thread near the tail end of the shank. Tie on six to 12 strands of pearlescent Flashabou just before the bend. The Flashabou should be about three inches long, though you can make the fly longer or shorter to match local bait.
Attach four to 10 white saddle hackles. Using eight or 10 feathers produces a denser fly; using four to six makes a slimmer pattern. The hackles should be slighter shorter than the Flashabou.
Let’s skip ahead to the dorsal surface of the fly. For the dorsal surface, tie in some olive or green bucktail as long as the white bucktail. Add a couple of strands of olive holographic flash material, and then tie in several strands of olive Krystal Flash as long as the entire fly. Top the fly with a few strands of peacock herl. (On larger mackerel and flying-fish patterns for billfish, I use paired peacock swords for the topping.)
Slide a ½-inch-long piece of E-Z body tubing over th front of the fly. Reattach the thread behind the hook eye and tie down the front of the E-Z body tubing. Tie off the thread again.
Seal the head with water-based cement. Before the cement dries, sprinkle the top of the head with green glitter (I use holographic Fly Flakes). After the head cement has dried, use a hot-glue gun to add the 3-D eyes (3 mm for this pattern) and the sequins on each side. You can also add one sequin to the underside of the head to give it some extra flash. Let the hot glue cool before proceeding.
Coat the head with rod-wrapping epoxy. Some flies require three coats to produce a hard, thick finish, but two coats will usually suffice on a fly this size. Since you have a lot of working time with rod wrapping finish, you might as well tie a bunch of flies and apply each coat of epoxy to all of them at one sitting. You will need a motorized, low-speed wheel to turn the flies while the epoxy cures.
Hot-glue Heads and Other Options
Hot-glue head flies, while less elegant, are simpler to tie because the heads are easier and quicker to finish. You can add the eyes and sequins and build up the head at the same time. Don’t forget the glitter on top of the head. You can either sprinkle the flakes on the hot glue before it cools, or apply the glitter when you seal the head with a water-based cement; I find the latter method easier.
Essentially, one of these flies is a Deceiver with a lot of extra touches. Color schemes are infinitely variable. Use more feathers and hair to make a fatter fly, and fewer feathers and less hair for a slender pattern. At each stage, tie in as much or as little Flashabou and Krystal Flash as you think the fishing will require.
The biggest improvement is at the front of the fly. A short piece of E-Z Body tubing gives the fly a big, tapered head to which you can affix large 3-D eyes and plastic-sequin gill plates. Coat the head, eyes, and gill covers with rod-wrapping epoxy, and your Vegas-style fly will seem to come alive.
Reprinted with permission. Article originally published in Saltwater Flyfishing, December 2001/January 2002; p. 38 – 41; http://www.flyfishingmagazines.com/magazine
The photos and step-by-step instructions are included under the Basic Pattern page in this website. |
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