The Jolly Roger

[pittendrigh]

It's almost the fall streamer season.
This one is beyond deadly. One of the best streamers I ever tied.

The body is semi-clear plastic worm resin poured out flat in the bottom of a glass dish surrounding a bit of spawn sack netting. And then cooked in the microwave just long enough to turn the worm resin from milky white to clear. But not so long you melt the spawn sack netting.

Then cut out a minnow shape. Sew in a tail. Thread a snelled hook through the front end a few times. Press on some stick-on eyes. Then goober a fat bead of UV glue around the edges of the eyes. Kick off the glue with a UV light. Put a tiny drop of thin CA glue at the butt ends of the tail fibers, right where they sew into the soft rubbery body (but not where they leave). CA glue does not stick to many plastic materials. But it sticks to plastic worm resin like paparazzi to a film star.

This streamer has a good end-to-end wavy action in the water. It also has a nicely-semi-transparent look the fish seem to find irresistable. Making the worm resin sheets is a bit of a flap. But one session with the microwave and glass dish does make a whole season's supply.





....interesting footnote: Someone else (on another forum) pointed out they make the same flies in New Zealand using silicone caulk rolled out and shaped between two layers of cling-wrap. I'll have to work on that. Although they do tend to make the New Zealand versions a lot fatter. Embedding spawn sack into the clear rubbery body allows you make a much thinner, more flexible body, still stout enough to hold together.

Transparency Matters
The importance of transparency is a new discovery for me. But matter it does. I can see some new sculpin patterns down the road a bit. Combining traditional fly tying techniques with moldable resin--or with sculptable silicone caulk--opens a door to a whole new realm out there. I have an idea about making flexible, fuzzy-edged abdomens with spawn sack, combed-out dubbing and a thin narrow bead of silicone, pressed to shape between layers of cling wrap.