Flies = the Rubber Worm

[Wild One]

I spent Friday afternoon fishing a new pond with my father in law. He had found it behind the mall here when his wife was tanning and decided to give it a shot. His first trip there he caught 11 LM's that were in the 2 to 3lb range. I didn't beleive him so I asked him to show me. Friday produced similar results for him including 4 in a row and one 5 to 6lber that got off. I put a measly three fish to his 15 or 20 in about 2 hours of fishing. Two of mine were sunfish (that were personal best sunfish for me which was exciting) and one was a decent 2 lb LM. I caught both sunfish on a Halloween bugger (first fly I tied this season!) and the bass came on a blue gill imitation-clouser style. My father in law was fishing with a black and chart. rubber (or is it plastic) worm. He was absolutley killing them. I tried similar colors in clousers and buggers but they just weren't going for it. What a disappointing day for me! Plus I'm trying to convert him to the celestial-style of fishing (aka fly fishing) and this day did not help.

My question is this: Have any of you ever seen or tied a fly that matches a rubber worm? I'm especially concerned about size here. Even my 1/0 flies aren't as long as those worms. I think that size it what really made the difference here, b/c I had the colors right on. Thanks for your help!!

[Joe Billingsley]

Many times a long zonker strip of rabbit fur attached to the hook looks a lot like a plastic (rubber?) worm. Also chenille or long saddle hackle feathers. The real problem may be depth, or lack of it with a fly. I seldom fish anything but floating line in a pond and even weighted with a long leader the fly many times won't get down as deep as spinning or bait casting equipment.
Joe

[Big Bad Wulff]

yup. need some weight and time to let it drop. watch it as it drops. many times they will hit it on the way down.

[Richard Komar]

Hello,

If you need a fly that looks like a worm, try the Hard-Hackle Worm here on FAOL:

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytyin ... 5fotw.html

The eyes are plastic christmas tree garland, but you can subtitute metal bead eyes if you want. I never weight my HHWs; preferring the slow sinking effect. If I was going to weight them, I would use a metal beadhead slid down the tippet, if I wanted them to be nose heavy. Otherwise, I would wrap some wire on the hook shank.

I have made them as long as 8 inches or so on a 2/0 hook. Just depends on how long the saddle feathers are. You can also add a mono weedguard if you will be doing a lot of lily pad fishing. The HHW is so light that you can just drop it softly on top of the lily pads (with a weedguard of course) and then slowly drag it off the pads and let it slip into the water. Works for me.

Most effective colors: black, red, brown and purple (the best).

Hope this helps in ypur quest for the "perfect" worm fly.

Cheers,
Richard in Plano TX

[Wild One]

Richard, that is perfect! I must have just overlooked it when I was searching yesterday. I've had another thought too. The worm my father in law was fishing had a black body and chartruese tail. I'm trying to think of a way to add another color onto the end of the tail. I suppose I could die it, but I don't want to wait a week while it dyes. Any other ideas for a two-colored tail?

[Extremely Low Budget FF]

I've been searching for the fly equivelent to a rubber worm for years.

This winter I came up with the top fly as shown on my web page:

http://www.edengelman.com/MGBeadSwap/Ma ... 20Swap.htm

It is a new creation of mine and I haven't fished it yet.

It would probabbly be more effective with beaded chain eyes than with the plastic eyes shown.

PM me with your address and I'll send you one for testing.

Ed

[BassYakker]

Not too long ago, I had a worm fisherman kick my butt and I was using flies that matched exactly what he was using. If I had it all to do over again, I wouldn?t have used worm flies that day, I would have stuck with small Clousers in baitfish and crayfish patterns, on a fast sink tip line. In fact, on subsequent outings, I have done much better.

A wise ole? warm water fly fisherman once told me that when a fish takes a fly, he is expecting shrimp cocktail, but ends up with something that tastes like the ash end of a cigar and will spit it out immediately in disgust. Let's face it: Unlike flies, bass find rubber worms tasty and will frequently swim away with a worm in its mouth making the even the gentlest take detectable. You can make a cigar look like a fish, but the burnt end will still taste like an ashtray. You have to be alert, rubber worms are far more forgiving than fly rod worms.

My recommendation is to play to the strengths of a fly rod: land worm flies on the pads and glide them off and catch that fish that would spook with the splash of a lead weight, take advantage neutrally buoyant flies (you know, the flies that just sit there and drive a fish batty and will get pounced with a small twitch), use floating flies on sinking lines, etc. Every time I try to make a fly rod into something its not, I don?t enjoy it as much. If I am sharing a boat with a worm fisherman and he is having success, I am definately using a sink tip line.

You?ll get him next time!

-Phil

[Greg Hunsicker]

Look up the "V-Worm" via Google. I'm tying some up now. Send me a PM and I'll send you a couple.

Greg

[Wild One]

PM's sent!

thanks a ton for the advice and the offers of flies! You guys are great!

[Richard Komar]

Wild One,

If you want to add a chartruese tip to my Hard Hackle Worm, I suggest ou tie the saddle feather tips together and then tye n a tuft of chartruese poly yarn. Add a little liquid glue to cement the deal.

You could also try using one black saddle feather and one chartruese feather?

Cheers,
Richard in TX