Hardtail Harley flies

[James Smith]

I enjoy fishing for Bluegill with my 8 ft 3 weight fly rod. With the warm weather we've been having, I decided to tie up a couple of flies that will go a bit deeper after the big bluegill that live in the lake I fish. I added a blade tail to these flies to give them a bit more movement and flash. Dumb Bell eyes with stick on eyes attached with UV epoxy and dubbing brush bodies. The dubbing brushes are made with copper wire so these flies are pretty much indestructible. Typical of the flies I like to tie, they are easy to tie, last a long time and work well for me.

[Rick Z]

I like them. I tie a few with blades at the end.
One with the blade at the front with a mono loop.

Rick

[James Smith]

Rick,

Thanks. My intent was to have the blade "flutter" on the drop as I fish this pattern with fairly fast 6-8 inch strips with a 1 - 2 second pause between strips. Works great so I guess I managed to get the effect I was looking for.

Jim

[oldster]

Very nice Jim.Hard Tail Harley. I like the name too.

[James Smith]

Considering that the only time I ever drove a real motorcycle was when I was 14, and that lasted about 1.5 seconds. My brother and I would take on a winter fixer-up project every fall, usually old dope and fabric kayaks that we'd replace rotten ribs and recover them to use for the summer, then swap for something else to work on the next winter. One year we swapped and Old Sears 90cc Moped we had fixed up the year before along with something else we had for an old German Zundap 250. We fixed it up, got it running and I hopped on. I had driven the Sears 90cc okay, so I thought the Zundap would be about the same. I reved the engine, popped the clutch and promptly fell flat on my butt as the bike took off down the road without me. We actually never told our parents about our projects that we worked on in secret, either in the basement or the old barn that was used for storage. When I think about the stuff I did as a kid, I can't figure out how I lived long enough to get out of my teens. I picked the name of the fly because the metal blade is sort of like a hard tail on a fly. A bit sacrilegious to Harley fans, but I hope they can forgive me

[ggmiller]

Nice looking flies! Thanks for posting - and giving me some ideas.

[James Smith]

My pleasure. Best of luck.

Jim