I am working on a LMB variation on the plastic worm using twisted cactuse chenille. Took prototype to a local river thats open and all the blade wants to do is lay along the side of the hookshank. It spins freely by hand ,but not in the water. Tried to bend the blade to no avail. Any suggestions.
Hi Coach Robb,
I’ve tied that type of fly for some of my customers and I always put at least one bead in front and two beads behind the blade/propeller. Take care & …
Tight Lines - Al Beatty [url=http://www.btsflyfishing.com:a64e0]www.btsflyfishing.com[/url:a64e0]
Try mounting the blade using a small barrel swivel bearing. This helps pull the blade away from the fly body and reduces friction.
I got my barrel swivels from Jann’s NetCraft.
I place one eye of the swivel on the hook shank between two small beads, the other end of the swivel uses a split ring to attach a small aspen or colorado blade.
They spin fine on many streamer bodies, even wooly worms.
Hey you guys,
After you tie these up do you use a spinning rod and reel?
For sure you’ll need to use a few beads, a clevis and the right size blade for the speed of the retrieve or current. Netcraft has all the goodies even down to size “o”. I make spin flies using a plastic clevis of theirs the blades spin pretty well. I favor the “Indiana” style blades, as they spin easier than the Colorados. Pretty sure anyway… Hope this helps.
Rich
ducksterman,I fell in love with fly fishing around age 40. SE Wisconsin is not the hottest place for stream flyfishing. Most of my fishing is done in ponds and small lakes from a belly boat. I teach the flyfishing and fishing merit badge for scouts and introduced the kids to fly fishing two years prior to there being a specific merit badge. At the risk of being defensive I think there is a place for all who care for the resource and passing on our passions. I still bait cast for Muskies, and use a spinning rod for Walleye. I’ve never met better people than fly fisherman to exchange ideas, and welcome new advocates.
I know Coach,
I just couldn’t resist…wasn’t being judgemental …an attempt at humor…
I too have checked out Netcraft for some of the components mentioned …for flies…and I do make my own spinners and have done my share of spinning and trolling…
My brother has a resort in Minn. and I can’t get him to try flyfishing for pike ,etc. so we use his "bobber down " technique for Northerns.
I applaude your work with the scouts…
Coach Robb, I believe know what the trouble is. Your imitation worm probablly has dumbell eyes on it making the “fly” part of the rig a lot heavier than the spinner blade part. Try leaving off the eyes, but I’m afraid an in-line spinner is not the best combination for a worm fly. Think about the rigs of our lure/bait casting brothers and sisters. I’ve never seen an in-line or off set spinner rig for a worm. I’m sure they do exist but I believe the action would greatly suffer with such riggings. If you want a bottom bouncing worm fly with some spinner flash I might suggest a propeller with the weight before the propeller. I’ve add a crude drawing of the rig I’m talking about.
If you have any questions please feel free to e-mail me at: idabelangler@hotmail.com
I have a little bit of experience in making fly rod lures.
Mike B.
Coach, (et.al)
Just a note, … on Quebec (and elswhere), spinning or undulating metal parts are illegal on Fly only rivers.
Depending on the regs in your jurisdications, such flies can’t even be in the box stream side.
I have some weighted nymphs in a separate box, … that way, when I load up the vest on a fly only river, I don’t get illegal flies mixed in. I know I wouldn’t be using illegal flies, … it just makes the Game Warden’s job a bit easier.
Christopher Chin
Jonquiere Quebec
[This message has been edited by fcch (edited 11 February 2005).]
Final prototypes . . . what do you think?
[This message has been edited by Coach Robb (edited 20 February 2005).]
Coach Robb,
Just to add a bit of my own experience with a bit of physics thrown in.
An offset spinner blade (waht you’ve designed) needs a combination of oposing forces to function as intended.
One of these is the ‘pressure’ or ‘resistance’ of the water itself. The water passing over the 'excentric (what the blade actually ‘is’) causes the blade to try to move in a direction other than the direction of travel. The ‘speed’ of the retrieve (or the fly moving through the water) is what causes this resistance or pressure.
For a spinner blade to actually ‘spin’ though, it has to ‘turn against’ something. On most heavy bodied spinners designed for conventional tackle, it’s the weight of the body. Even so, on the majority of in line spinners used for spinning or casting chores, line twist is a by product of their use. This is because the resistance to twisting by the line itself is LESS than the rotational force applied by the spinning blade. Swivels don’t help much, but the length of the line allows it to absorb a lot of twist before it becomes too bad to allow casting.
Your flies have little body mass, and really can’t have much if you are to be able to cast them with a fly rod. Tippet/leader material will twist pretty easily, and since there is usually only five to fifteen feet of it, the spinning of the blade, IF it spins, will quickly make a mess of the leader/tippet section of your line.
And, to get the spinerblade/clevis arrangement to ‘spin’, will require ‘speed’. That speed through the water is what provides the ‘resistance’ that the blade needs to ‘bite’ and begin to spin. Most blades can be ‘started’ spinning by a quick, short, rapid ‘acceleration’, but will then remain spinning as long a certain speed of retrieve is maintained. Absent current, trying to keep such a blade rotating is very difficult with a fly rod. The neccessary and unavoidable ‘start/stop’ of stripping requires that you keep ‘restarting’ the blade repeatedly, and it won’t maintain a steady spin or rythym.
Now, if you are throwing these into a current, then they may spin well, but you’d still have to deal with the line twist.
If it’s for ponds/lakes, they will wobble and flash, which will make them efffective, but they aren’t likely to actually spin much unless you develope a two hand retrieve method to keep the speed up.
You’ll get better results with a propeller style, since it is more blanaced, if a ‘spin’ is what you require. But, just the blade wobbling nad flashing, no spin required, will still entice many bass to your offerings.
So, what I’m saying in a nut shell is that I don’t think the flies will work in the same fasion as, say, a RoosterTail or Shyster, but will still catch lots of fish.
Good Luck!
Buddy
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As I sit here looking at the 7 additional inches of snow the only open waters I have to test these is a local river. The large one with the spinner casts pretty well with my 9’ 8wt., but I’ve never gotten to try them yet in still water. I tried cutting a 40’ by 2’ trench in a local lake but it was just to tedious with 10" of ice. I’m tring to get flash, the propeller is probably the best bet. I know from experience that without the spinner I would cast the worm into the pads two or three quick strips and let it settle. The bass would usually attack on the drop. Thanks for your input, half the fun of this obsession is the tinkering. RH