Thank you, but you do a really good job. I didn’t know you could tie those on such a large hook. That gives me some ideas for summer fishing on lakes and ponds.
Big Pig Stickers and Wire Worms are great tailwater flies, especially during periods of high flows and when runoff from tribs flushes more crawlers into the system.
They all are very nice flies. Can you show me how to tie them, Liljoe? If you are going to have some of these tied up Sunday, we will be able to see how they fish.
I used to tie these a lot, then there was a lot of talk about how those hooks might penetrate the brain or eye - anyone hear if there was a study or something about that?
I am knocking on wood as I type. In the 40 years I have been fly fishing, I have never had the misfortune of braining a fish with a fly. I have never even had a fish take a fly in the gills. On a couple of occasions the fish have taken a fly to the back of the tongue. In which case I cut the fly off at the knot.
I have not heard of a study on the matter, but it would not surprise me if one existed.
Braining: I’ve caught atleast 3K Trout, 4K Bass and numerous other fishes over the years. I have “brained” 2 bass on 2/0 and 4/0 EWG plastic worm hooks tied into big shad patterns. I’ve gilled 4 Bass and a Striper bad enough that I believed they wouldn’t survive, and 2 of those Bass proved me wrong after putting them in a fish cage overnight. I’ve gilled 3 Trout on tandem hooked streamers bad enouh to kill them. Since I have gone to keeping the front hook and cutting off the tail hook on big nasty streamers, I haven’t had any fatalities and I generally hook fish in the corner of the mouth from the inside.