[pittendrigh]

The Bankrobber

....the white spot on the top side of this fly is uncured Tear Mender. It will turn
transparent and disappear as it dries. The Bankrobber rides with the hook up,
while the semi-flexible head in front of the hook eye encounters any branches
before the hook, which causes the hook to jump up and over the branch without snagging.

 

[Jergens]

That's a really cool tie, but do you feel like eyou miss fish running that smaller hook with the extended body?

 

[pittendrigh]

Good question. But no, I don' t (think it misses strikes).
And you could use a longer shanked hook if you wanted.

When I first started tying these I tied them on long-shanked
hooks, where I bent the shank with pliers first, and then attached
the leader with a slip-knot tied around the bend in the shank instead of into the eye.

Those flies were "so perfectly weedless," my buddy Fran said,
"they never hooked anything, including fish."

That was a bit of an exaggeration, because I caught a lot of fish
on those older flies. But the hooking problems disappeared completely
when I started making the front end of the fly stiff enough to jump over
a branch, but soft enough to flex a bit when you set the hook.

You really can cast these flies into the branches, and get them back
most of the time.

 

[xdog]

What of the eyes? Tell us about the eyes..... and the foam and the technique. Out with it man!

 

[pittendrigh]

RE> "out with it"

Ok. I think of a bankrobber as any jig like fly that rides with the hook up,
that has a leader mount point set a bit back from the front end of the fly.
The leader mount point helps the fly to jump over rocks and braches.
And yet it still hooks well in the "fish mouth" context, usually in the upper jaw.

So a bankrobber doesn't have to look like this one.
I tie minnow-like bank robbers on down-eye hopper hooks,
with a length of solid core solder (flatted at one end a bit, and then
dented length-wise with round wire forming pliers) glued and
lashed on, so the solder protrudes forward a tad at the front. Then you get
a streamer that rides with hook up, that has a stump-jumping
bulge just in front of the eye.

This one (pictured earlier) looks more like a stonefly nymph.
I knot a length of 17lb (or so) monofilament to barbell eyes.
Then I snip out a brown dyed foam body blank (cheap open-cell mattress foam dyed with rit dye).
Slit the front end of the body blank somewhat. Make a ruberleg needle....by heating
the eye of a needle to cherry red, and then push it down onto the point of another needle,
which makes a fat eyed needle). Now use the rubberleg needle to sew the monofilament
down through the length of the foam body blank, so the barbell eyes get buried in the
slit in the foam at the front end. Push the foam back on the mono (at the rear end) so you can cut the mono
shorter (it had to be long to sew it, but now you want to shorten it).

You want the mono knotted to the barbells, and then extending back into
the foam the length of the shank, but not so long it becomes part of the extended abdomen part of the body.

Put an ultra-thin "beading needle" (from the ladies sewing store) into a vise
horizontally. Skewer the foam body blank onto the beading needle.
Dimple the body with thread. Lash on an upside down hook. Whip finish
in front of the barbell eyes, so the foam gets pulled around the eyes to form
a nice head.

Sew some rubberlegs into the thorax part of the fly.
Put some water based fabric cement on the shank, where it touches
the thorax part of the fly. (Tear Mender, etc).

Now you done.