Fire Tigers

I had a fellow come into the store the other night and bought 4 Rapala Floating Fire Tiger lures. He said it was the hottest thing on any water that doesn't have a bite going on. Being a fly fisherman and wanting to try these things but unable to buy them, I set out on a journey to make them.
First a friend turned me onto the Copic Air Brush System which I used to paint the bodies. Believe me there was a lot a 'lets build this and not buy it" mentality behind this step.
Next I got them painted and then went to apply a nice gloss coat of Sally Hanson's. WRONG!!! The polish dissolved the paint and I was back to where I started. My neighbor, the painter, suggested I use a water based finish. I had some MinWax polycrylic that went on milky and dried to a perfect smooth shine. This is good stuff!

Last night I got the feathers and flash applied and decided to share these monsters with the world.

SO here is my version of a FireTiger fly:

Attachment 8329 Attachment 8330 Attachment 8331 Attachment 8333Attachment 8332

Those are some really cool FireTiger flies, you will hammer some fish with them for sure.....thanks for sharing :)

Those are fabulous. I'm going to have to get an airbrush.
It is possible to make fly rod rapalas, like this (ugly, with no paint job) Rapalica.

http://montana-riverboats.com/Uploads/Rapalica.jpg

I'm going to have to figure out how to make a lightweight diver (like the above photo) with
an inspiring paint job like yours.

The firetiger colors rock! It works great for smallmouth too!

Beautiful job with the Coptic sprayer. I watch a video with that the other day, looks like a fun toy for small jobs.

Fire tiger is a killer crank bait color for LMB and should work for poppers. Buzzing a fire tiger rattletrap has caught me a good many fish.

WOW! Having made more than one attempt to re-create the Fire Tiger colors, I know that it's not easy to do. Beautiful job! Thanks for sharing.

Jim Smith

AWESOME job! Getting all those colors nice and balanced can be a bit of a challenge.

beautifully done!

They look great! So, how did they work?

I have not had a chance to get out with them. Hope to tomorrow night or this weekend. I tied several different material lengths for the tails to get an idea of what might work best. I am also going to turn them around and try a slider pattern.
I will report back!

I've been tying Fire Tigers for years. Here is my Fire Tiger Streamer:

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n...erBucktail.jpg

I tie Fire Tiger Clousers as well, but I can't find my picture of it. it looks just like the streamer except it's a Clouser.

Another great idea I will have to try, especially the Clouser, thanks for sharing the ideas!
iaflyfisher

Those are great! I'm getting inspired!
Mike

Wow, very nice work. you did a great job on the paint!!!