Inside look at the "guts" of a standard balanced minnow.

Lavender over white is one of my favorite colors.

It's weird to say I'm excited to try a new bobber (OK, "indicator"), but I am with these Fulling Mill "Drop Back Bungs." The large size perfectly floats one of these minnows. I think this style of indicator will be a lot more sensitive than what I have been using.

 

It's weird to say I'm excited to try a new bobber (OK, "indicator"), but I am with these Fulling Mill "Drop Back Bungs."

Have you had a chance to try out these indicators? What do you think?

 

I'd bet a titanic hopper would keep them floating.

Titanic series flies | Amazing Flies | United States

Titanic flies at Amazing Flies are a new concept in dry flies. They allow dry flies to be actively moved without sinking. Learn to have fun with dry flies!

www.amazingflies.com

Rusty used to offer these in hopper patterns. I asked him a few years ago and he tied me a dozen.

Rickerd

 

I'm ready to fish my Cyclops fly. Maybe soon on the big lake.
I didn't use all the deer hair head, but enough I think to get some eats.

What do you guys think?
I did put a slight bend downward in the fly but couldn't put any rattle in it. I will fish it on a sink tip I think.

Tight Lines,
Rickerd

 

It's been a while since I tied anything. I cranked this one out last night.

 

Cream, are your hooks turned up on those?

Rickerd

 

Turned down. In the pic, you're looking at the "top" of the fly.

 

My latest Baby Brown pattern. Untested but ready to fight!

Rickerd

 

Should have swung flies today but I tied instead.

 

I've been busier than normal at the vise the past few weeks. It was looking like a trout trip was in the cards and I was topping off some nymph boxes. The trip fell through because of weather.

I've had this idea for a while, finally put thread to hook(s) on it. Similar concept to my mostly weedless craw.

 

you dawg! mouse fly on a belly bumper hook, great fly!

You know when you miss out on a trip, we miss out on a good story. Hope you get out soon.
Those nymphs and streamers are Killa's.

Rickerd

 

A few more recents.

 

Here's a few recent creations off the vise. For all of the more complex and "fun" flies I tie, this stupid simple little "critter" fly that takes 5 minutes to tie is probably more productive.

I've been playing with different head designs to get a floating or near-neutral buoyancy streamer that will dive. The goal is to have one that performs that way that I can fish without a sink tip line or sinking leader. In a lot of my small stream settings, it's not that practical to fish one of those lines.

This one field tested extremely well a few days ago. Time will tell on the durability but fish will eat it without a doubt. The deer hair "wedge" is actually vertical instead of horizontal (think axe head shape), with the guinea feather made mostly rigid for a diving wedge with flexible UV resin.

And a 55mm spook just for funsies.

 

I've been having some fun tying a few small hair bugs this past week.

 

I've been working on a small spoon fly for a while. It looked great in testing but I wanted to see how fish reacted to it. The body is mostly Chocklett's Gummy Skin. These are size 6, total fly length a little over 2". They hammered the crappie last week. I think it will be really good on bass, also.

Carp slider.

Popper in Florida Gators flavors.

Another "new" pattern, this is a small (size 10) balanced fly for crappie/panfish. I wanted a smaller "second pitch" to use on the river crappies when they weren't quite aggressive enough to go after a larger balanced minnow. This fly doesn't look like much to me, but it roughed up the fish last week. It's only about 1 1/4" long. This color, sort of "smokey gray," was really popular last week. Tons of color tweaks/combos for this fly, so you could go crazy with colors. Tail, hot spot, Ice Dub, Polar Chenille, rubber legs, rabbit collar...lots of options for different color combos. My nickname for it is the "Dirty Little Secret."

 

Your Dirty Little Secret is a very cute bug. I'd love to see a closer shot of it. Is your spoon fly weighted?

I always look forward to your posts -- your bugs are so beautifully crafted and designed.

 

It's really hard to get a good shot of it. There's a lot of little subtleties that you can't get from one angle.

The spoon is weighted. It's a 20* bent shank hook (Daiichi 1730) with a 3.2mm tungsten bead at the bend and 12 wraps of .020 behind that, back towards the hook point.

 

I've been fishing twice in March. Middle of the month, air temp was 70 deg F, water 41. One fish, a shiner. I tied up about 10 of these marabou clousers in early March. I went fishing on Saturday March 29. Air temp was about 60 and water was 49 deg F. I caught about 10 fish,rock, small and large mouth bass were caught. I used this marabou clouser. I tied up these 4 a few days ago to replenish the ones I lost. The pic shows how they should look in the water. I call these emerald shiner imitations. They are about 2 1/2 inches long. I read a catching report by Sonder and subsequent comments and saw the term Sparseness mentioned so I thought I would detail my technique of tying these. I have been fishing these flies for about 3 or 4 years. I learned about them from Gar who used to post regularly. What I found was that when I fished these flies and caught fish, I continued to catch fish after multiple fish on the same fly, even when the feathers thinned out to almost nothing. So now I try to tie them wispy.

I tie in the feather when it looks like this, both the Grey and white feather. I don't like those hackles at the bottom with the fuzz on them. Its hard to get feathers that are wispy. Most of the marabou I buy is junk. Perhaps its all junk. You have to pick through about 4 or 5 to get one that will work. Maybe I'm too particular. But the wispy sparse flies work best.

This is what I use to tie in marabou. Its a wet sponge in a container. It makes it easy to tie in the marabou. I learned this tip from Kelly Galloup.

Another tip, tie the eyes about a 1/3 shank length back from the eye. This will allow the fly to swim more like a minnow then a jig. Tie them closer and they will jig. Make sure you glue the dumbbell on. Use a liquid glue that sinks in to the threads. If you don't glue them on they will start to rotate after a couple fish. I use Sally Hansens hard as nails.

Does anybody have recommendations about getting good marabou?

 

View attachment 551974

I've been fishing twice in March. Middle of the month, air temp was 70 deg F, water 41. One fish, a shiner. I tied up about 10 of these marabou clousers in early March. I went fishing on Saturday March 29. Air temp was about 60 and water was 49 deg F. I caught about 10 fish,rock, small and large mouth bass were caught. I used this marabou clouser. I tied up these 4 a few days ago to replenish the ones I lost. The pic shows how they should look in the water. I call these emerald shiner imitations. They are about 2 1/2 inches long. I read a catching report by Sonder and subsequent comments and saw the term Sparseness mentioned so I thought I would detail my technique of tying these. I have been fishing these flies for about 3 or 4 years. I learned about them from Gar who used to post regularly. What I found was that when I fished these flies and caught fish, I continued to catch fish after multiple fish on the same fly, even when the feathers thinned out to almost nothing. So now I try to tie them wispy.
View attachment 551975

I tie in the feather when it looks like this, both the Grey and white feather. I don't like those hackles at the bottom with the fuzz on them. Its hard to get feathers that are wispy. Most of the marabou I buy is junk. Perhaps its all junk. You have to pick through about 4 or 5 to get one that will work. Maybe I'm too particular. But the wispy sparse flies work best.
View attachment 551976
This is what I use to tie in marabou. Its a wet sponge in a container. It makes it easy to tie in the marabou. I learned this tip from Kelly Galloup.
View attachment 551977
Another tip, tie the eyes about a 1/3 shank length back from the eye. This will allow the fly to swim more like a minnow then a jig. Tie them closer and they will jig. Make sure you glue the dumbbell on. Use a liquid glue that sinks in to the threads. If you don't glue them on they will start to rotate after a couple fish. I use Sally Hansens hard as nails.

Does anybody have recommendations about getting good marabou?

I had a lot of headache finding good marabou without extremely high amount of waste. I use the waste marabou feathers like a dubbing material or brush on some of my patterns with great results.

 

18inch, I like the sparseness and the natural color scheme. Sometimes, simple is better and the clouser is a nice, simple pattern. Good tip on the barbell eye placement too - I think I sometimes crowd too close to the eye. I think over time I have kind of settled into the same place you have - for me it's about halfway between hook tip and the eye which I think is generally about 1/3 the shank. What size do you tend to tie these - guessing mabe a #4 B10S?

Do you think the marabou stringiness matters much in the water? I ask that only because wet marabou is much different than when it is dry. Is it a matter of what you like to tie/see in dry form or do you think it makes a difference in the water? I have never paid too much attention from a "name" standpoint, but I believe there is blood quill marabou and wooly bugger marabou. Hope I'm getting those two types right? Have you ever compared those two types to see if one is closer to your liking than the other?

 

I use a size 6 B10 S for this fly. I want to imitate small minnows which they are in April & May. I fish bucktail Clousers tied on a size 2 or 4 B10 S and I make them about 3 to 4 inches long. The 1/3 back from the eye is what Bob Clouser uses in his videos. This fly looks like a small emerald shiner. A crazy thing happened 2 years ago or maybe last year, I caught a emerald shiner with this fly and I posted a pic in a report in what are you catching. They looked alike.

I use small yellow barbell eyes on size 6. The water is no more then 5 ft deep. I tie them sparse because of experience. I have strung bugger, blood quills and x-select marabou. They are equally poor for selecting the wispy type feathers. They are from 2 manufacturers. I tie a fly called a Barely Legal. A articulated fly tied on either a 2/4 or a 4/6 B10 S pair. I haven't tied any in a while and I might tie some up with sparseness in mind. Kelly Galloup has a video and he always stresses don't use to much marabou. It's the motion in the water you want.

Brother I really don't know if how I do it is the best way but I think it is. That gives me confidence in the fly and maybe that's the most important thing.

I also use a rainbow crystal flash , cut in half and tied such that 4 strand run the length. This imitates the lateral line.

 

18 IB,
Your fly and description encouraged me to adjust a marabou fly I was given. So I call this Vosmiky Finn because the gent who gave it to me is a local legend, George Vosmik (sinced passed). I met him once because I invited a friend of mine to fish steelhead on rocky river. He asked to invite his FIL and that was George and I said of course. So its about this time of year and river is prime. We meet below Rockcliff ford parking lot and walk in at the bend below. This water has a heavy flow and George said he would fish below in the slow stuff. Jay and I wade into the fast water and fish down into the plunge pool below. Jay hooks up and lands a fish in less than 10 minutes which I netted for him. We meet George at the bank to show him the 26 inch bright steel beauty. George thanks us for sharing the day with him. He gives me this fly and says its one of his favorites. I thanked him and put in my box.

I continued covering water downstream while Jay and George stayed around there. I was just swinging now and after an hour nothing. So I tie on this fly and keep swinging for one. About 100 yards downstream in the middle of a slower chute I hook a nice one. She jumps a few times and takes some drag and eventually she gets away within leader length of my net. I could see she was bright and a 30 inch plus fish. I continued and caught a smaller one from the same lie she was in. Then I headed back upstream as Jay and George were leaving. I thanked George again for the fly and told him it worked for me. I never met George again although Jay and I try to fish together once or twice a year.

So this is the fly George gave me. It has worked in clear water but I usually drag it out when water is off color.

I don't fish this one but have tied them in this color scheme, white/ olive, and black and blue.

Your discussion made me think I can palmer the marabou and get it to stay whispy. So now here is my improved Vosmiky Finn.

The yellow tail is hard to see but that is the only marabout I tie down flat on top. I tie silver pearl braid around the shank and 11 turns of .25 lead wrap under it all. The orange and red marabous are palmered. I also noticed today that George's fly seemed to have a couple turns of red schlappen or similar at the head. So I added that also. I cannot wait to see it in the water.

Thank you for the inspiration,
Rickerd

 

Another thing I noticed going through all my marabou colors, many of them show in UV light. I don't think this is good because the trout I have fished don't seem to like too much UV. The yellow and red in the fly above are regular marabou. The orange has UV in it. Hope this still works.

I was disappointed to see both my packs of white marabou are UV as well as many others. I must take my UV flashlight now when buying materials. I think UV catches more fisherpersons than it does trout in rivers. But they may work well for bass and other species.

Rickerd

 

Another thing I noticed going through all my marabou colors, many of them show in UV light. I don't think this is good because the trout I have fished don't seem to like too much UV. The yellow and red in the fly above are regular marabou. The orange has UV in it. Hope this still works.

I was disappointed to see both my packs of white marabou are UV as well as many others. I must take my UV flashlight now when buying materials. I think UV catches more fisherpersons than it does trout in rivers. But they may work well for bass and other species.

Rickerd

That fly looks like the marabou trailer on the old “Philips 66” weight forward spinner.

 

here are other recent ties.
black stone riffle nymph

olive stone RN

black ESL (I caught 2 on this fly last weekend)

tight lines,
Rickerd

 

DRM50, probably not, they would have used tips of hardy feathers dyed to color. This marabou gets chewed up easily. Even ostrich herl lasts longer especially in salt water flies. But nothing else moves in the slowest water like marabou.

Rickerd

 

This is Barrys Carp Fly. I have used this fly for about 8 years since I retired. In the beginning I bought some. In 2016 they cost about 6$ each. I had success with them for everything but carp. You lose them easy so I started tying up my own. They are tough to tie for me but they are very successful in the spring. You tie on a set of medium dumbbell eyes. I paint them red. You tie on a dark brown rabbit fur tail.

It is tied on a size 6 Tiemco 200R bent 3x long hook. You turn it over and tie in some brown thin skin and wire.

You then tie in rusty brown angora goat dubbing using a dubbing loop. The goal is to get the body bushy and the best way is to spin up a dubbing loop

You dub it up 2/3 of the way, pull up the thinskin and wrap the wire to give a segmented body 4 or 5 segments. You then tie in a soft hackle. I use Whiting Coq de Leon hen saddle.

You then dub it forward with another dubbing loop. You don't have to use a dubbing loop but angora goat dubbing doesn't stick to the thread even with wax. Wrap the feather and end up with the top pic. These are very successful on bass. I never tried fishing for trout with them. You can add lead wire behind the eyes but that makes them too heavy. This fly looks like a juvenile crayfish or I think perhaps a hellgrammite. There are days when I turn to this and catch a dozen bass, Rock and SMB. Rockbass love this.
There are videos out there of guys tying this. I apologize for the pic quality but I used my phone. This has been a very successful fly for me since 2016. I get away from it but it will save the day for you when minnow patterns aren't working.

 

I'd love to have another goto bass fly. Looks like it can work for brown trout as well.
thank you for sharing,

Rickerd

 

Above you will see 4 swimmin jimmys. That's what I know them as. They are also known as swimmy jimmy. It is an articulated fly. The front hook is a Gmakatsu B10S size 2 and the rear is a size 4. The rear size 4 is easy to tie.

After you get the rear size 4 tied you have to attach it to the front size 2. I show the final attachment. I use two glass beads form Michaels and senyo intruder wire to attach. I superglue it down. You need to pull the wire tight enough to minimize the gap in front of the size 4. The pic below shows what you do the size 2 front hook.

This pic is looking down. You bend the size 2 down and slightly off center. The gap between the horizontal and the wire is about 30 deg.

You then wrap marabou and put collars on the hook on the flat before the bend. This is important. It took me a long time to find this out. You then pack in deer hair to complete the head up to the hook eye.

This is a close up and it looks like a mess. You next trim the hair. I use a double edged razor blade and good scissors.

This is the way it should be cut according to the original design. A flat head looking to the side. It is supposed to imitate a dying fish. Another view of the head is shown below.

The curve of the hook and the deer head makes this fly dive and rise when you strip in in. You do not have to continuously strip. You can let it set and then jerk. There is a lot of movement. The great thing about this fly is the takes you get are unbelievable. The fish will attack it with violence. It doesn't always work. I use it when my other flies don't produce. Also when you are on the water and you see bait fish jumping. You know when the big fish are eating them and they are fleeing. All big fish hit this on the head and most of your hookups are on the front. Some times the big fish will swallow this whole. I don't get the heads right. Kelly Galloup ties this online but you will learn more from Josh Varner. Another thing this is a 10$ fly if you buy it.

 

Thanks for sharing that 18IB! That looks like a cool concept. Looks like one of those that could take a while to tie though. Appreciate the tip on best YT to learn from as well.

 

FlyTyer, it can take about 30 minutes for a fly. I take at least 30 minutes but I'm not good with the deer hair. If you can do the hair it will be no problem. It's also messy. You can tie up all the rear hooks. They are easy, maybe 5 minutes. You can also use 30# test instead of the wire. In 5 years I have never hooked a big fish(>14") on the rear hook.The fish attack from the head. That's something I've found out from fishing with this fly. I've never caught a trout on it They prefer the barely legal. Watch Kelly Galloup's video to see how he does it. Josh Varner gives more info and detail in his video on it. You can fish it on the surface or you can put on a splitshot about 6 " above it to get it perhaps a foot down.

I don't fish it every time because other flies catch more fish. I fish it because of the strikes you get. Fishing it on top I have had 16" SMB attack at , coming out of the water to get it, like a great whit
e taking a seal. If I can tie it anyone can. It's just something different. You will mostly restrict yourself to larger fish(>14") so you won't catch numbers unless there are only big fish where you are fishing.

Oh yeah, it's not hard to bend the front hook. Just heat the shank with a lighter with the hook in the vice. Take small pliers and holding the hook in the vice, bend it. The heated spank is easier to bend then the cool shank. Josh Varner has a video on bending hooks.