Something I threw together over the weekend and have NOT actually fished with yet…Its probably been done by others?
Here’s the idea behind it…the large beadchain eyes placed close to the hook eye, with large hackle tied behind it, so the fly will sit somewhat “tail-up” on the bottom of the lake/pond/stream. The rubber has excellent action in the water, and the fish should hold onto it fairly long. The ball of dubbing at the hook bend keeps the rubber from sliding down the shank.
The 2nd picture shows the “yellow” rubber lit up under UV light, while the purple stays subtle.
Cool, MNK!
Unweighted and weedless would be another option, for sure. If unweighted, the hackle might keep it somewhat weedless, but a monofilament weedguard would probably ensure you don’t lose it to a snag.
I have some other types of “toy rubber” I might try that may be a little thicker in diameter. I (er…my kids, yeah) have a toy with flat rubber, too. Not sure what I will do with that yet, though.
I definetly like those rubber tail baits… think i can picture the toys they came from also - those squishy balls? May have to buy one to mess with, think they are pretty cheap. Am really wanting to target the bigmouths on my fly rod this year more and looking for different stuff than just top-water bugs to throw. One option - instead of making the dub ball on the hook bend to keep the rubber tail in place you could tie a bent staple to the hook shank to create a barb similar to what lead jigs have. Have done this before for putting plastics on jigs that do not have a lead collar… be able to change tail colors out on the water too.
Russ, that’s GENIUS with the staple idea! I hadn’t heard of that before, but LOVE those jigheads for plastics that have the extra metal barb along the shank that keeps the plastic in place… The staple would be perfect for that…Thanks for that idea! I will have to try that on some rubber-body patterns! This will come in handy for some ice-fishing patterns too.
OK, I tied this one up with a thicker rubber “leg”, and used the staple idea to help keep the rubber from sliding down the shank while fishing.
Blue and black is a very popular color combo for bass jigs.
i hope that you have better luck than I did with your porcupine ball worm. About 3-4 years ago, several tyers at the Gulf Coast Council EXPO were tying porcupine ball worms, so I gave them a try… with out any luck.
Of course, I just tried two times…
Here are a couple of other very similar mini-worms:
I can’t take credit for the smaller worms…First time I saw it was here on FAOL…can’t remember the exact name it was given…something like “rubber weinie”? But I have caught plenty of bluegills on those, as well as occasional bass.
And I’ve done really well using those same small rubber legs on ice-fishing lures I’ve tied. When ice-fishing for bluegills and crappies, even with live bait, the fish will spit out the hook very quickly and so can be difficult to catch. The fish definitely hold onto the ones with rubber bodies longer.
Years ago when I targeted largemouth bass more with spinning gear, plastic worms were one of my better producers. So, that was the basis for tying these.
I’m not sure when I will give these a shot. Most of the public ponds I fish have bass, but they can be few and far-between since there is no size limit, and local kids sometimes take home everything they catch to show their families. Most of my bass are caught while targeting crappies and bluegills. When I do target bass specifically, it is usually with topwater foam poppers after dark. Still, I tied these up with the idea that I WOULD target bass with them at some point.
Also, I’ve used rubber ringworms on jigheads to catch walleyes in both lakes and rivers. These might work in those situations too.
Stocked trout will impale themselves on these rubber worm flies.
The thinner the profile the better. The hackle is not needed. Yellow seems best. As in bass worms, something that imparts some action will work better.
If you wanna catch a lot of stockers, fish 'em. They don’t seem to work very well on streambred fish.
Just my experience and thoughts.
Nice looking, and looks fishy, give us a report later this summer!
Ellis, in "Bassin with a Fly Rod’ describes using rubber worms on a fly rod, and mentions that Nixon wrote about rubber worms on a fly rod, in his book (I remembered it when I read the book), and in Waterman’s book, which I have not read.
Ellis likes the 4" variety of rubber worm, and described fishing them on a single hook.
Tom Nixon used to regularly attend the North Toledo Bend Rendezvous, which is a gathering of fly tyers held on Toledo Bend every Nov. When this subject would come up, Tom used to say that the very best “fly” for catching bass was a 4 inch rubber worm, fished weightless.
Purple is the hot color for steelhead patterns this year (my neck of the woods anyhow). Supposable and I guess it makes sense, that purple is the last color in the spectrum when things go to black. So the theory is purple is more visible when the waters are muddy and are clearing.
So far we have been having a very wet spring and purple material of any kind is hard to find but you guys have given me some ideas. I think I will take Barney fishing.
Glad the staple thing works for you. Originaly saw the idea on a jig tying forum for keeping plastics on jigs - it does work well for the tiny ice jigs!!! I also make them on jigs for live bait rigs… good for nightcrawler but not so hot for waxies! lol.
Favorite bass worm colors for me: purple/silver, green/pumpkin & ALL black. Good luck with them!
