I got some new material (new to me, not sure how long its been around?), and was playing around tying with it over the weekend. Its Wapsi Palmer Chenille. Its a reflective mylar material that comes in various colors, and is sold in a form somewhat similar to boa yarn. That is, the mylar strands are all secured on one end to a stiched seam.

See what you think.

Here's a minnow fly that is made by simply palmering the material up the hookshank, and then adding eyes and coloring with markers:


Here's another baitfish possibility, that has a little more "body" to it:


And then theres using it like hackle on a woolly bugger-style fly. I think these will work great for crappies, so I've bestowed upon them the name of "Crappie Buggers":


And here's a pattern I came up with that sure looks good in the water, and I think it will be very effective on the fish around here that feed on shad, especially largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, walleyes, wipers, white bass, and big crappies. I'm calling it "White Bass Wasabi," and could put together a FOTW on it if anyone is interested. Here's the dry and wet versions (no, I didn't mean its a dry fly pattern) :