Washington Fly Fishing Forum banner

Baitfish pattern

Pattern 
1K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  Randy Diefert 
#1 ·
These are the ones that I tied up for the "saltwater swap".

Recipe:
Hook: #4 Daiichi 2546
Tail: few strands of silver mylar
Underbody: white chenile
Overbody/outer tail: braided pearl mylar tubing
Wing/topping thing: thin rabbit strip
Eyes: 3/16ths witchcraft sticker eyes

I tied them in 3 stages.
Stage 1: The tail and the under body first for all hooks that I'm tying. That part takes about 45 seconds per fly.

Stage 2: Slip the mylar tubing on to the chenile, reconnect your thread, lash down the mylar tubing at the head with a couple turns, lash down rabbit strip at head and whip finish. Cut strip to length. Gently pull tubing toward rear and reconnect thread behind the chenile lump over the tubing. A couple of turns to snug it down. Figure out where the tie in over the strip will be and split the hair (forward and aft) to expose the hide. It helps to lightly wet the hair going forward to help hold it out of the way. Lash down the hide and whip finish. Fray the tubing behind the rear tie down. Repeat for all flies. Takes about 2 minutes per fly once you get the hang of it.

Stage 3: Put the sticker eyes on. I put a drop of superglue between them once they are positioned to help them adhere. Once super glue is dry, coat the whole head with a thick cement. I used a couple of coats of Loon Hard Head, but epoxy would work great too.

You can vary the color of the thread and the rabbit depending on what you are imitating. I tied them in pink and chartruese for the swap as those are my favorite salt colors.

Enjoy,
Trevor
 

Attachments

See less See more
2
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top