After Bill reminded me about the red "tuft" OW's I got busy modifying my jig design. One with a red marabou tuft and one with claret filoplume.
I can find the slotted beads in several colors online but not red/orange. Would be fun to play with some if they were around.
Those things look deadly! I agree with B-D (also an awesome smiley), I used to powder coat steelhead and salmon jigs to get the look I wanted.
You'll have to send some over here for on the water testing when the lakes open up in a month. But.... they may be "rod crackers".
I've never had any luck with OW. Not for lack of trying. I used to use Carey specials a long time ago, especially for brookies. The Carey was eventually replaced by the Six Pack. The six pack, especially with a oversized black beadhead is still one of my top three patterns. One season I experimented using only the six pack on stillwaters throughout Washington. I did really well that season. When I first spotted the olive willy, I thought wow. That may outfish the six pack, but I could never get the fly to produce better than a six pack or even a Carey. I
Love the ties! This my go to lake pattern and I've meet William Servey who came up with this fly and watched him tie it along with the Drunk Dragon!!
I always find it interesting how for some people one pattern may be their tried and true, go to pattern, while other folks never find success. I fish simi seal leeches in stillwater a majority of the time, and always feel very confident. When I tie on flies such as the OW, I don't have such confidence. Others, as is obvious by this thread and many others, have a complete opposite experience. Just goes to show ya, there is more than one way to skin a cat.
