Halford's Ghost

[pittendrigh]

Anybody else have any diving wiggler patterns--light enough to cast with a flyrod?

Wiggler Article

[Steve Molcsan]

Now that there is one I will put in my arsenal for large and small mouth bass.

[gpatton]

That's a very interesting design. Looks like it would work well. I assume you tie the tippet to a loop on the end of the monofilament that is shown above?

Greg

[luckie88]

Don't know looks like you need a spin rod and some worms, you could sell those to the bait and tackle shops easy next to the Panther Martins.

[ScottP]

A home-made Flatfish; that is very cool.

Regards,
Scott

[pittendrigh]

RE> tippet to loop?

Actually I keep a small box for an assortment of split shot, beads and bare hooks...and other such misc hardware. I keep a few wiggler bodies in that box too, and rig them at streamside. Plus toenail clippers. If a diver doesn't track straight--if it has a tendency to wiggle off to the left--I trim the right side corner of the diving bill. Tiny wigglers are absolutely deadly trout lures. Large brown trout will refuse 2,3,4 times in a row. And then come out from their hiding spots one more time to nail it.

You can easily make these heavier--heavy enough to cast with a spinning rod if you want. But I prefer smaller and lighter. And I do prefer the flyrod. If you want to fish real divers you do have to put a small (#12 is the smallest) barrel swivel 18-24" up the leader, because the flure will turn all the way over occasionally--enough so to twist up the leader if you don't use a swivel. Is it fly fishing? Some people care about categories, boundaries, rigidly-defined definitions and rule sets. I don't. I like to catch fish with stuff I made myself. The diving bills here are made from plastic vegetable containers
from Costco. And a little sand paper and CA glue. Weight below (the low-slung hook and bead) combined with buoyancy above (closed-cell foam) keeps the flure wobbling from side to side, instead of spinning around in a circle. I remember years ago a well-known fly designer (in an article in Trout) complained that flyrod wigglers were "impossibly difficult to balance properly."

But it's easy. You just have to work with weight below and buoyancy above. Then it works. You can make floating divers that only dive when you pull on the leader. Or you can make them neutrally buoyant. Or you can make flures that sink even when you aren't pulling in the line. The lower down on the bill you thread the leader the better the lure dives, but the tighter the wobble. If you thread the leader higher on the diving bill you get a wider, slower wobble with less tendency to dive.

Skue's Revenge:


Halford's Ghost (again):


Spotshot:


Hulagan:

[Buddy Sanders]

Pittendrigh

Here's a couple of designs that I use with success.

The wiggle minnow style dives quickly and has a decent crank bait style wobble to it. It has some weight on it, so it will maintain it's depth better than unweighted types. Comes through brush well and I've caught some huge largemouth bass on it. It will track straight once tuned and won't roll. It can be fished to about two-three feet down on a floating line, deeper with sink tips or sinking lines.

The foam divers are more topwater baits that dive a few inches on strip. These will roll over on a long pull. I usually give them a solid strip to get them to dive, then let them pop back to the surface. Deadly smallmouth lures.

Buddy

[luckie88]

You walk a really fine line with "Fly Fishing" The powerbait worm tied to a hook damn near threw me off my chair. I certainly know a State Trooper or two who would be more than happy to take your gear and give you a huge ticket if you ever dare use those on a Fly Fishing only river!!!

[quivira kid]

I may have to try a few of these ideas out... I'm sure the white bass would tear something like that up below a dam in some current!

(I had a big long message typed out to address the nay-sayers, but decided it wasn't beneficial...)

[mnklagoon]

I would think the state troopers in Oregon would have more important things on their hands to do, ie. the horrible meth problems etc. Each state views what is fly fishing differently so I'm sure some of this can be useful to members who dont live in the great state of Oregon....