We've touched a little on flies that can be used in saltwater. The
Clouser minnow is one of those great saltwater flies. In fact, you
already have most of the skills and techniques needed to tie saltwater
flies. There are a few techniques we need to cover, but you are an
accomplished tyer already if you've mastered all the techniques we've
covered in this series so far.
One of the techniques we haven't covered is working with braided mylar
tubing for bodies or heads. This is the tubing that gives the bodies and
heads of streamers, especially saltwater flies the flash and glitter that
attracts predator fish. The braided glitter looks a lot like the flash
of fish scales in the water.
Although mylar tubing is used a lot in saltwater flies, I usually use it
for pike flies. This week's fly is one of my favorite pike flies for
clear water and sunny days. Big toothy critters find it hard to resist
any fly that looks like a tasty minnow that's about to expire.
Largemouth bass also have a hard time resisting this look.
If you live in lake trout country, this is a great searching pattern for
the first couple of weeks after ice-out. You'll probably wish you had
learned to tie this fly earlier after you fish it for ice-out lakers.
They don't pass up an easy meal very often, and any fly with the flash
this fly has will be a prime target in springtime shallows when the lake
trout are shallow and hungry after a long, cold winter.
I'm not an expert on saltwater flies. I don't know everything about
which flies work for which species of fish. What I do know is there are
some techniques that are commonly referred to as saltwater tying
techniques that also work very well for freshwater fish. One of those
dynamite techniques is applying epoxy (Angler's Choice soft body here)
over a mylar tubing head or body.
You can use the techniques shown here to create many different flies.
Change the body colors and materials to anything you like. Use different
colors of mylar tubing if you like. The important thing is that you
learn how to use mylar tubing and epoxy style finishes. Add any good
pattern book, and you can proceed from there if you know the
techniques.
I like to use pearl mylar tubing because it provides all the flash, but
lets the colors of the fly body show through. The addition of prism eyes
adds a little more flash. Use a lot of crystal flash, holographic flash,
and other flashy materials to achieve the fish catching look you like.
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