The Calcasieu Pig Boat was named after the Calcasieu River
in southwest Louisiana. The fly was created by an innovative
fly tier by the name of Tom Nixon. Nixon created his Calcasieu
Pig Boat to imitate the Hawaiian Wiggler, a conventional lure
that was a "hot bass producer" at the time and a early
predecessor of today's spinner baits. Tom also was an
advocate of attaching his Pig Boat (or any other fly) to
spinner blades (in-line and off-set) and/or adding pork
rind to the hook as a trailer.
Materials: Calcasieu Pig Boat
Hook: - Mustad 3366, #2.
Thread: - Danville Flat Waxed Nylong.
Tail: - Black Rubber Hackle.
Body: - Black Chenille.
Hackle: - Black Saddle.
Collar: - Black Rubber Hackle.
Tying Instructions:
1. Pinch the barb and mount the hook in the vise.
Attach the about 2/3's down the shank from the hook's eye.
2. Tie in about 8 to 12 pieces of rubber hackle.
The tail should be about the same length as the hook shank.
3. By their tips tie in two black hackle feathers.
4. Tie in the black chenille, as pictured I'm leaving
about a 1/4 of the hook shank exposed so I'll have
room to tie in the collar.
5. Wrap the chenille forward and tie off.
6. Palmer the hackle forward and tie off. Remember leave
plenty of room to tie in the rubber hackle collar.
7. Start tying in the rubber hackle. The hackle
should extend pass the bend of the hook and should
be about even with the tail.
8. It takes lots of rubber hackle to complete the fly
but to a large mouth bass it looks like groceries!
9. Notice what a terrible state the head of the fly
is in, but here you can see how I tied in the hackle
collar buy doubling over each hackle strand. This
will make a more durable fly.
10. Now let's use a LOT of thread by completely covering
the rubber ends with the flat waxed nylon. Try to make
a tapered head.
11. Cover the thread head with black fingernail polish.
12. Use white fingernail polish to put the white part of
the eyes on the fly, then using a dubbing needle and the
black fingernail polish put a drop in the white center to
make the pupils.
12. Wait until all the fingernail polish dries then coat
the entire head with Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails.
~ Mike Birdsong
