I wanted to tie some mini-Crease Flies, but I thought you had to have the cutters. I was just messing around and cut this one freehand to go on a # 6 streamer hook. You don’t need the cutters. This was easy. It made a beautiful #6 minnow popper. I can’t wait to try this out on the water.
Hook: Cabelas Model 40 Streamer Hook sz. 6
Thread: Black Kevlar 3/0
Tail: Red and White Punisher Craft Fur
Body: Silver Metalic self-adhesive 3mm foam. Glued with Zap-A-Gap.
Eyes: small doll eyes from Wal-Mart
Details: Red and Green Prismacolor Markers
Could you elaborate a little bit more about how you produced that scaly metalic effect. Are those metal flakes or clear flakes glued on to the body after coloring in the detail? Very nice job. 8T
Nicely done. I fold a piece of paper in half, like the thickness of a business card, and make a “pattern”. I’ve done some Crease flies and Enrico’s divers with pretty good success. Unless you’re mass producing flies, those cutters seem way too expensive.
The cutters are nice, but as you’ve dicovered, not required…in fact, I think you can get a better ‘profile’ without the cutters (and I own a few sets). You can size the bodies to the hooks you have and you can make ‘taller’ or ‘slimmer’ flies as you want too. But…
What Normand said…
You really want the hook shank to be as clsoe as possible to the BOTTOM of the fly body as possible.
The hook eye should exit the face of the body at it’s lowest possible point (it has to be up a bit to accomodate the gluing of the foam…just keep it close as you can).
This does two things…opens the ‘gap’ so you hook more fish…and keeps the fly floating properly…with the hook high in the body, the fly tends to lay on it’s side in the water.
Put that fly in some water and see how it floats before you make more, just in case…
And, remember, ALWAYS attach a Crease Fly to your tippet with a LOOP KNOT.
Believe it or not, this is the way it comes from Walmart. I just added a few details, like the red lips, gills, and OD green back with Prismacolor Markers. It has a self- adhesive back, but I still use Zap-A-Gap because I dont trust it.
My only complaint is that you can’t buy it there in individual colors. It only comes in a mixed pack with 2 sheets each of Silver, Gold, Green, Red, Purple, Blue, Black and White…all Metalic. But it’s only around $4.00 a package, so it’s dirt cheap. Each sheet is around 5" x 10" and near 3mm thick. It is proving to be a good buy.
I guess it would depend on what you call a ‘big’ fish. Since posting the picture, I took this fly to Carters Lake and caught 3 LG Bass, and 9 Striper/Hybrid/White Bass (I call them Sand Bass, because I have a hard time telling the difference, except for size). The largest LG Bass was just shy of 4 lbs, and the largest Sand Bass was near 3 pounds (on a Zebco Scale). I didn’t lose any fish, and all were hooked solidly in the jaw, mostly the lower. I did miss one strike, but I think it was a bluegill too small to get the size 6 hook in it’s mouth at all.
The gap may be a bit small for Tarpon, large Stripers, etc… but I wouldn’t be fishing for them with a size 6 fly anyway. Just my opinion, but I believe the hook gap is adequate for the size fish it was tied to target. But I do intend to make more ‘field tests’, as soon as possible, and will make modifications as needed.
I took it out fishing. You probably read the post just before this one. But just to be sure, I checked it out.
I set the shank of the hook right at the center of gravity on this one and as you can see, it floats great. But I got to thinking about your suggestions, and on larger flies, with more foam vs hook weight, you are probably right. The hook may need to be lower on, say a sz. 2 and larger. maybe even a sz 4. I got lucky on this one. I also have the hook angled ‘down’ towards the tail so it rides more ‘head-up’, creating a larger ‘splunk’ when popped.
I would’nt care if it rode slightly to one side, or the other. Real wounded and sick minnows are almost always more on one side or the other.
Better tie up a dozen of those and send them to The Island Nation of Ohio for some serious field testing. Between Fat Bill, The Vice Thief, The Doughgod and myself we can give them a real work out.
That’s not a bad idea. Maybe I could host a Creasefly Swap. I was thinking of tying some up in all black for night fishing, and a cricket imitation for panfish.
I think that’s really a nice tie! Yeah, I thought about that hook gap too but it seems to not be much trouble for you as noted from your outing. I think I’d like more but that’s just prefs. isn’t it.
I like this fly. I’ve never tied one and have read much. I think your foam material adds a nice variation to what I’ve seen on other flies.
Maybe I’ll give them a try. I have fished with a friend who uses them and he does quite well. To me they just looked a bit “clunky” in the water but we all know what that means to predators…
As a (shot in the dark) suggestion, would a larger gapped (I hate that word “gape”) hook like a TC 8089 bass-style hook work with it’s shorter shank? Too short? It’s a fine wire hook so maybe the slightly shorter (??) foam body would work…dunno just guessing.
I like this guy. Thanks for posting your results. I need to tie more and soon. I’ve been in a real funk this past winter!
I am sure that a wider gapped hook would be fine, because you cut the foam to fit the hook. I just used a streamer hook because that’s what I have right now. You could use a shorter shanked, wide-gap hook if you wanted.
I also think it would be possible to place a wire weight on the top of the shank, and tie it hook-up, for fishing in heavy cover for LG bass. You could also probably tie it with a weed guard.
I am just beginning to explore the possibilities of this pattern. I think I will try a frog-colored, hook-up version next. I tied up a #6 all-black one for night fishing, and the bass loved it.
Bluegills think it is a cricket during the day, and attack it with abandon, although few get hooked on this size. A # 8 or # 10 size would most likely be a very effective panfish popper.
Here is a ‘hook-up’ bluegill version. I put 4 lengths of .035 wire on the top of the hook shank so it would float straight up and down, with the hook point ‘up’, to make it fishable in heavy cover. It’s almost heavy enough to cast with an ultralight spinning rod, but it does well with my 6 wt, and floats great. It caught 2 bass (around 2-1/2 Lbs. each) in 15 minutes near the lilly pads, and around the cattails at Carter’s Lake this morning.
Thanks for the information on the foam that you are using. It looks like a great material and is certainly far cheaper than Loco Foam. I’ve been making freshwater Crease Flies for a couple of years and they remain one of my warmwater, go-to flies for LMB. BTW, I don’t trust the adhesive on foam sheets either and always glue Crease Flies with Zap-A-Gap. 8T
Nice Bluegill hookup fly! You do a nice tie, much nicer than I’ve done in my efforts with these. I do a lot (LOTS) of deerhair now but would like to get better at some of these foam jobs.
Did your bluegill fly turn over as expected/hoped? I can see maybe adding some lead near the bottom of that belly if not. Just thinking out loud…
With the Zap-a-Gap, do you use the thin stuff or the gap-filling glue? I’m not too familiar with it.
What I’ve found for bass is that I get more hits when I use some marabou in the tails because it adds to the movement in the fly as she sits still and a bass comes up behind it to inspect it, if they’re wary. And I’ve seen them be really cautious in clear water and even then nervously swim off…nice bass too. LM’s here. And oddly enough even on my pike flies with marabou, I don’t seem to lose much material to teeth, as I thought I would.
Hopefully I’ll try some of these soon. I could use some in larger pike sizes etc. I appreciate your input on that foam and these pictures!
Jeremy. P.S. Unrelated…this winter I acquired an '07 Taylor GA-8. I’m a new guy (tablature) and I’m trying…really hard…acoustic blues stuff.
The crease fly is a topwater ‘minnow imitator’ mostly used for gamefish that feed mainly on smaller fish…
I’ve tied them as small as #12s for panfish and small bass, and as large as 5/0 for large bass and pike…it’s originally a saltwater pattern, I think tied for striped bass and/or bluefish?
I’ve caught a couple of trout on them while fishing for other species, but not regularly.
I’m a little hesitant to answer this question since neither the thread nor the fly under discussion are mine, but modesty and caution have never been among my strong points. I tie two sizes of Crease Flies for freshwater. My small Crease Fly is tied on a size #1 Mustad 34007 hook. Its foam portion is a 2mm Craft foam rectangle measuring an inch and an 1/8th long by 3/4 of an inch wide. This is folded in half before gluing and trimming A slanted cut for the head and two cuts in tail area (to give a fish shape and increased hook clearance) make it fit the hook perfectly on the hook. I normally use a Z-lon or Antron tail equal to the length of the foam body. Any synthetic or hair works well. The length of this small Crease Fly is right around two and a three-quarters inches long. I will sometimes cut the tail down to one third that length if fish are small or short striking which makes the fly as small as an inch and a half. In the interest of castability I will never fill the hollow center of the fly or epoxy coat the outside.
The large Crease Fly is a 2mm foam rectangle which is one and one-half inches long by one and one-eighth inches wide. It’s tied on a size #2/0, Mustad 34011 hook which is long shanked and really increase the length of the finished fly. The foam rectangle is folded in half before cutting and gluing. I tie a tail on this fly with is a least three inches long, usually thick bucktail. The finished fly is generally 4 and a half inches long. Again no interior filling or epoxy coating—too heavy.
I use both sizes of Crease Flies for large-mouth bass, freshwater stripers and hybrids. They’ve also taken some stray catfish and pickerel. The smaller size has gotten me some very nice trout around dusk. Hope this confused response helps. 8T
I found your Glitter Foam today at Walmart which is not surprising since we live pretty much in the same area of the country and Walmart stores carry uniform selections. Boy that is great stuff. Twelve sheets of Glitter Sticky Back Foam for $6.99. Just about all the colors are vibrant and useful looking but I really like the white/pearl foam and the black foam. What I don’t use for Crease Flies, I will use on Gurgle Pops. One word of advice to anyone who likes the Glitter Foams, buy a bunch. This stuff looks like the type of product that will disappear completely in a year or two. Gig, you have a great find here, thank you for sharing. 8T
