Fire Tigers

[iaflyfisher]

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:

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[popperfly]

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

[pittendrigh]

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.



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.

[bbrothe1]

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

[Uncle Jesse]

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.

[James Smith]

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

[quivira kid]

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

[gpatton]

beautifully done!

[BlueDun]

They look great! So, how did they work?

[iaflyfisher]

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!