Need a little help. :? This is one of my crease flies. .
It was tied without adding any weight. Problem is that it doesn’t always float upright. 
If it lands upright, it will float upright. If it lands listing to the right or left - it floats listing to the right or left. So I need to be educated a little here. Should the fly upright itself if properly tied? If it lists to the right or left does it really matter? If it matters what suggestions can you give a novice tyer as to how to remedy the problem
That was the way the Crease Fly was originally designed. To float on on it’s side to imitate a stunned or injured bait fish. I thought I was tying it wrong because it landed on it’s side the first couple of times I tied one.
I prefer them to float upright because I like to fish them on a intermediate or sinking line. Now I tie Crease Fly style pattern.
A couple of ways to get them to float upright. Lower the center of gravity. If tied in the original style, the bulk of the foam on a Crease Fly is above the shank. On mine the bulk of the material is below the shank. It works out because mine are intended to imitate narrow profile baits like minnows and silversides.
It’s tough to do if you’re trying to imitate a wide profile bait like a shad or peanut bunker.
Still if you want the chunky style of the original, try using a heavier hook. A wide gape, straight shanked heavy worm hook should work and get the fly foating upright.
You can add weight to the bottom of the shank, but you’d have to experiment to find the right weight. I would tie it in the center of the shank.
Experiment with the suggestions, but there’s nothing wrong with the way the fly’s landing.
Ditto to Philly. I tie mine with light wire Aberdeens in sizes 6 and 4 but I fish them on a floating line. They do tend to lay on their side occasionally when at rest but with a narrower profile minnow type body, it doesn’t matter that much to me (or to the fish apparantly) and is more of a good thing since the body flash on the sides is more visible. Wide profile bodies might be more of a problem (the one in your photo has a much wider profile than mine which are as slim and narrow as I can make them). If I were to fish them on my sinking line then I would probably change to a heavier hook and move the hook further down so more foam is above the shank.
Take a look at Mark Delaney’s Crease Fly to give you an idea since mine are like his (link below):
[url=http://chemprof.tripod.com/crease.htm:e8ac5]Crease Fly[/url:e8ac5]
I couldn’t see the picture before. Definitely a shad pattern. I’d loose the hackle, but then I tie mine for salt water, then use them in fresh water. At one point I tried tying wide bodies on a standard wide gape worm hook,not a straight shanked one. I’ll have to dig one out and see how it floats. Don’t remember ever using one so I don’t think it worked. I’ll see if I can take a couple of pictures of mine, and post them up.
Okie,
I really want my Crease Flies to sit upright on the water. They seem to work better that way, at least for the bass and pike that end up eating mine.
To get them to do that:
First, use a ‘heavy’ hook. That will get more weight to the bottom center of the fly.
Second, make the body ‘lower’ (use a narrower piece of foam. All the foam extending above the shank doesn’t do you much good, as far as the presentation goes. You just need enough for a good profile. About 3/4 to 1 times the hook gap is about right. Any more than that, and the bait will tend to lay over.
Third, keep the very bottom edge of the foam at the shank level. You want as much of the body as possible ABOVE the shank. If it extends much below after gluing, trim it flush. Any ‘floatation’ below the hook shank will tend to flip the bait onto it’s side.
Forth, keep the bend in the foam as ‘open’ as you can. It should appear from the front more as a narrow elongated ‘O’, rather than the sides being close together.
Also, the epoxy coating is important, not just for durability. It adds weight and makes the fly sit lower in the water. This creates the crease fly’s unique ‘sound’ by getting the open oend of the fly to grab the water as it’s moved.
You could, of course, add some weight to the hook shank as well. Not an optimal ‘fix’ though, as it effects both the movement and the casting of the fly.
Good Luck!
Buddy
Heres a tying tutorial
I tie mine for freshwater to imitate minnows so I’m not after a wide profile for shad or shiners and the open ‘O’ part on the foam above the shank doesn’t work on my super narrow minnow creases that do not have enough foam to work them that way. It does not matter on my minnow creases anyway as most of the foam is above the hook and only occasionally will they lay on their side (the fish still bite them anyway). If I tied Crease Flies for saltwater or tied them to imitate shiners or shad then I would probably use a wider profile and an open ‘O’ space so they would always ride upright.
Thanks for the help. I’ll tie a narrower profile and see how that works. Good excuse to spend a lil more time at the bench. Sounds like the ones I have tied are probably doing what they are supposed to do. They do give me a good pop and action. Like I said - just needed a little education. I have been using a crackleback for a dropper sometimes. Does that work or is the crease best fished by itself?Thanks again!
I don’t know what others do but I usually fish my minnow creases alone. When I strip the line, they dart just under the surface but I get most bites when it is at rest on the surface in between line strips. I use droppers mostly off of pushers, poppers, sliders, hoppers, and other types of surface flies.
Here’s a few of the Crease Flies I’ve tied up over the years. Some are bad, some OK.
If they show up these are some of the smaller ones I tie up. I’m now using layered Razor Foam for the small ones
The top one is one of my first attempts. The one below it is tied as a tube fly.
These are some with offbeat colors. The black one is a night fly. The brown one I like for smallmouths.
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Applied all the help you gave me and here’s the result. Looks kinda lika a minnow, casts well and floats upright. Thanks again. You folks are the greatest.
Hey, Larry, that looks great :D. The bucktail for the tail is a nice touch 8). Looks a lot like the minnow creases I tie. I use black shag (long) craft fur (brand: Darice I think) for the tail and tie some in white (like yours) and also green chartreuse. I also use textured iridescent gift wrap paper applied (CA Superglued) to the cut foam body, CA Superglued plastic black half round eyes after creasing and CA Superglueing the 2mm foam body to the hook, and overcoat the whole body with Sally. All that matters is that it does what you want it to but most importantly that the fish bite it 
. I have real good luck on minnow creases.
Larry:
That looks real good. Try fishing it off of a sinking line or a sink tip if you get a chance.
It doesn’t show up that well, but if you want to get an idea what the iridescent gift wrap paper looks like, in the second picture that I posted the fly to the right and the one on the bottom have it applied to them. One is flat and the other one is textured. I use a foiling glue to put it on the foam.
Going around the horn on the third picture. Some ways to add a bit of flash or iridescence to the flies
Top left has a Mother of Pearl transfer foi over silver transfer foil. The black one is tied with black foam and has Mother of Pearl transfer foil on it. The brown is tied on orange foam with a copper leaf applied. The tiger stripe is done with the wrapping paper.
Some other ways are to use clear nail polish with glitter added. I shy away from nail polish, even the Hard as Nails because there seems to be a lingering odor to the fly that never fades. If you’re going the epoxy route, You can pick up a fine or extra fine glitter at a craft store, or from a catalog, like Barlow’s, that sells lure making stuff to mix in before applying.
You can pick up transfer foils at some craft stores, or on line, google “Jones Tones”