Archive for Tying Patterns
Tying a Bait Fish Fly with Enrico Puglisi (EP) Fibers: FAS Video Tutorial
Posted by: | CommentsHey folks, the first FAS video tutorial is now up. This video highlights my version of the Enrico Puglisi (EP) Baitfish pattern and was shot in 1920×1080p, full HD resolution. Because of the large file sizes involved with this format, the sequence had to be cut into three parts. I hope you enjoy the presentation and learn a few new tips and tricks for tying this wonderful streamer pattern. It is a foundation pattern, which means that it is a “style” of tying that can be extrapolated to many other patterns to suit the specific waters you are fishing.
Important Note! This video highlights my method for tying a quick EP Bait Fish variant. THIS IS NOT the way Enrico Puglisi ties his flies.
If you want to learn how Enrico Puglisi ties his own patterns, I strongly recommend you visit his site at http://epflies.com/index.php/ (click the picture below to visit the site). For a small fee you can gain access to his personal videos and watch him tie various patterns with expert commentary, tips, and tricks. By joining you also have access to direct ordering of materials. I highly recommend that you check it out.
Wool Head Minnow
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The wool head minnow is one of my favorite baitfish patterns. It is not a new pattern but over the past two years I have varied the profile to the current form. This fly is best fished on a fast sinking line to imitate an injured bait fish. However, the wool head soaks up water and adds weight to the fly in a manner that makes it possible to fish on a floating line. This is one of my most productive warm water patterns for smallmouth and largemouth bass. It is also great for redfish and snook. This is one streamer pattern that is always in my box.
The Wool Head Minnow
Hook: TMC 811s, size 2
Thread: Ultra Thread 140 denier, white (back)
Thread: Gel Spun, G.S.P 200, white (front)
Tail: Craft fur, white on ventral/bottom and various colors on dorsal/top (see below)
Flash: Mirage flash or Flashabou
Body: Crosscut Rabbit, various colors (see below)
Head: Sculpin Wool (e.g. Orvis Sculpin Wool), various colors (see below)
Eyes: Plastic Eyes, size 6.0mm
Cement for eyes: Quick Grip (all-purpose adhesive) or Goop or Aquaseal
The Seaducer Fly
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The Seaducer Fly
Homer Rhodes introduced the Seaducer fly in the 1940’s and it is still as effective today as it was back then. For warm/salt water fishing there are three basic foundation patterns that should be mastered. They include the Seaducer, Clouser’s Deep Minnow and Lefty’s Deceiver. I would also include the modern Enrico Puglisi baitfish patterns in the must-tie category as well.
The Seaducer is easy to tie and master, but the trick is selecting the correct hackle for the intended application. With that in mind, the following tutorial will be separated in two parts. First, we will discuss hackle selection and then move on to the technical aspects of tying the fly correctly.
Before proceeding, let’s first discuss the purpose of the Seaducer in general terms. This is primarily a light weight top water fly, originally designed to attract Snook in shallow water. It is nothing more than a few feathers on the tail end and a few palmered wraps on the front. The tail feathers may be tied concave out (i.e. kicker legs) or concave in (i.e. baitfish style). Traditionally, the kicker legs are employed to give movement and life to the fly and that is the preferred style of the author. It is generally fished with a floating line and moderate length leader in a stealthy site fishing manner. It is also very effective for Tarpon, redfish, largemouth bass, and almost any warmwater species. However, it is also deadly when fished on a sinking line with a shorter leader in a strip-pause-strip fashion at depth. The Seaducer can be tied with a large profile on hooks as large as 3/0 or conversely it is very effective with smaller profiles on hooks smaller than size 10.
The Toad Fly
Posted by: | CommentsThe Tarpon Toad
The Toad fly was invented by Gary Merriman (owner of the The Fish Hawk in Atlanta, Georgia). It is a light weight, slow sinking fly designed for Tarpon fishing in the flats. The original version employed a rabbit strip for the tail. Later, the fly was changed by Captain Tim Hoover when he tied some toads with marabou for Andy Mill. The marabou version is now more popular than the original.
I recently spent some time with Gary and learned about the history of the fly and the proper tying techniques for success. In the coming weeks I will provide a full write-up of our conversation on Fly Art Studio and incorporate some shots of Gary tying the original Toad fly. For now, here is a tutorial on how to tie the original Toad.
Original – Rabbit tail with marabou body
White Balance Correction Techniques – And The HL Midge
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“Y’all have created a monster. I’m pretty impressed with this result, considering it’s a waterproof snapshot camera.” – Abe Mathews -
This is a guest host fly tying tutorial and also a lesson on how to correct white balance using computer software. The guest, Abe Mathews, shows us how to tie the HL Midge. This was originally posted on The Itinerant Angler (www.itinerantangler.com). It is a great looking midge pattern and Abe does a great job detailing the tying steps. He used a Pentax Optio W60 waterproof point-and-shoot camera for this series. We had been discussing white balance and the challenges of getting truly corrected color out of a point-and-shoot camera for on-the-bench tying instruction. As you know, those incandescent and fluorescent bulbs can really throw off the auto white balance. However, there are some good techniques to help combat this situation before shooting and some even more powerful tips and tricks to correct color in the computer once the shoot is over. With that in mind, let’s look at Abe’s great tutorial and my follow up comments on white balance correction.
***The original Tutorial***
***The HL Midge (Hobby Lobby Midge)***
The Hopper Juan
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This is the first guest host tutorial on Fly Art Studio. The Hopper Juan, by Juan Ramirez from Coloradao Springs, Colorado. It was first posted on the Itinerant Angler blog under the fly tying section.
These pictures showcase great fly photography from a point-and-shoot camera and upon seeing them I didn’t hesitate to ask Juan’s permission to show them here at FAS. He used a Canon Powershot A720 to take these exceptional macro pictures of his Hopper Juan pattern. Notice the rich colors, good white balance, unique and interesting composition, clarity, and lack of blown out highlights and shadows. Even professional photographers are commenting on Juan’s tutorial. Here is a quote from Ben Cochran, “. . . Great [tutorial] and very good photographs. It is so much easier to study a [tutorial] when the images are crisp and show good detail, VERY well done!! This illustrates that the camera is secondary to how the photographer uses their equipment. I hope this also encourages others to learn their P&S cameras so that they too can see that no one has to purchase expensive DSLR’s, just to get the same quality shots that you did.”
Mini Hopper Juan
Lightning Bug Nymph
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The lightning bug has become my favorite nymph attractor pattern. This is certainly a well recognized pattern and often found in the go-to fly box. However, not everyone knows how to tie it properly. Sounds like a good reason to do a tutorial.
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Hook: Scud hook or curved hook of choice, size 12
Tail: Pheasant tail fibers, about 6 total, three-fourths-hook-length
Bubble Head Popper
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Hook, Freshwater (shown below): bass bug hook (e.g. Orvis 8810 size 1/0)
Hook, Saltwater: Owner Spinnerbait, or TMC 911S, size 1/0 or 3/0
Thread: 3/0 heavy thread
Tail: Wig hair (Kanekalon) shown below, or flash fiber or Super Hair or Kinky Fiber, etc.
Flash: Flashabou (bluegill flash used below)
Body: Closed cell craft foam (non-adhesive back shown below but the traditional crease fly uses adhesive back foam with mylar sheets; I glued on thin wing material instead)
Eyes: Mylar stick on eyes or rounded eyes
Adhesive: Super glue
Tube for the bubble head: Thin drinking straw. Here I used IV tubing; you can get it at any specialty pharmacy store
Sealant: Tuffleye
Instructions
Start a thread base the length of the shank
Braided Worms
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Tying braided worms is easy, inexpensive and a lot of fun. These flies are effective on lakes or streams. You can fish them lots of ways but it is most effectively fished on a sinking line and retrieved with short pulse-style quick strips. On rivers, I consider these to be the “poor-man’s” sex dungeon because they have a similar life-like action. The advantage is that you tie up many of these to fill a box in all sizes and colors. If you add a foam triangle at the tail you have a Gulley Worm (do a Google search on John Gulley from Arkansas who invented this pattern).
Basics: braided worms only require one material – chenille. However, the kind you choose is very important. There are many kinds including standard or sparkle but what you want is the pre-braided ice chenille or pearl chenille or Estaz. My personal favorite is the “Tri Lobal Fiber” chenille with either crystal or holographic blended at 1 1/4″ – this is also known as Crystal Tri-lobal Hackle or pseudo hackle. You can get this stuff at any fly shop or online – it’s not rocket science. If you use these sparkle/Estaz chenille’s the advantage is you fly will turn out weightless and they shed water immediately upon picking up the fly for the back cast. Thus, you can create a big profile while being able to manageably cast the fly with a 5-6 wt rod. However, nothing beats an 8-wt rod for the bigger worms on sinking lines.
Here are some examples of chenille variants (I typically use the kinds shown on the right).
Calcasieu (Calcasien) Pigboat
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This is pretty much the final recipe I came up with. Honestly, this fly looks so good I went ahead and tied up a dozen. I am going bass fishing in Iowa in a few weeks, hopefully I can post some pics of the pigboat with a fish attached.
Recipe (variant)
Hook-Gamakatsu size 1 Bass Stinger hook.
Thread-Use a THICK thread, size 3/0 preferred, color to match fly. The thick thread allows you to build up the head. Ultra thread 140 works fine but 3/0 Uni thread is best.
