Please critique this fly...

All about flies Fly Tying
1

I was just playing around with an idea I had and ended up with this fly. The hook is a Mustad 94831 in size 8 and where the eyes are there is a 7/64" or 2.8mm tungsten bead. I painted the eyes on with fabric paint using yellow and then black for the center and then put 3 coats of Sally Hanson over it. Hopefully, I will get a chance to see if the fish like it and how it will respond in the water. I need your professional opinion on what you think, good or bad, before I tie up any more. Thanks in advance…

2

Mickey Finns work, this should too. Nice looking fly. Did you mainly tie it up for, trout, bass???
This could be a great forage imitation.

3

Mojo,

My main target to try first will be trout. Our rivers here have a lot of young fry in them right now and I wanted to make a small streamer but wanted to weight it also and that is why I put the tungsten bead in. The bead is tied in about 1/8" behind the eye similiar to a Clouser. I like Clousers for bass but I did not want this streamer to be very large nor heavy this made for a small profile fly and the tungsten allowed me to keep it all small. Hopefully, I will get to try it out tomorrow or Monday for sure.

4

I agree with Mojo. I like it alot. It should do well. Do you think it will ride upside down with the barbell; that will put the lightside up and the brown side down. That may or may not be important. The fishies will let you know. Thanks for the tie, Warren.

5

mcsteff,

“Do you think it will ride upside down with the barbell”

Since I used a tungsten bead instead of a barbell, I am hoping it will ride hook down as the picture shows. If it does not, then I will tie some up and reverse the colors. I will know more after I get it in the water.

Thanks for your input…

6

It is nicely made. However, I feel the red “gill” section is too wide and is tied too far back. Bigger eyeballs would attract even better. My 3 cents…

Nice pattern

7

that fly would work great here fer bass with 2 or 3 strands of crystal flash on top… it would probably ride upside down because of the barbell eyes, making it even better fer fishin close to bottom… i like it…

8

It looks like it will catch fish. Tie up a couple more and give it a good workout. Let us khow how it does. You make it very clear that you used a bead with the eyes painted on it. I’m not sure why some people think that it has barbell eyes.

9

My impressionable opinion is, it would catch fish. I like it. I think I’ll try a few with olive as a top color as a bass fry. Looks real good.

Kirk

10

I really appreciate all the constructive reviews on this fly and I have made a couple more up and I tied one up with a narrower red band and larger eyes which were suggested by “flymaker2” and enclosed a picture of it. Once again, there is a tungsten bead incorporated into the head of the fly and the eyes are painted on the bead. It is not a barbell eye so the fly should not turn over and ride hook up. We will see after I get a chance to try it out on the river. My main goal was to create a smaller streamer that would come closer to matching the small fry which are in the rivers here at the present time plus I wanted it to go deeper faster and that is the purpose of the 2.8mm tungsten bead incorporated into the head of the fly. I am also hoping that the smaller size will cast better on my 4 weight. I do appreciate the suggestions from all you fly tyers.

11

the fly will ride with the hook point up the way you have it tied which is good, just flip the colors
try yellow and black great color for trout

12

Id eat it.
David

13

You do and it’ll get stuck when you poop. :eek: OUCH!

14

Warren,
I’ll take a copy of the revision on the Delaware ( for smallmouth) here in PA. I like the narrower red band.
Coughlin

15

Warren,
Can’t you toss some of them in the sink with water in it to test how it will float?
Hook up, hook down, sideways, eye down, sink? :confused:

16

They kind of look like thunder creeks. Thunder creeks take fish and so will your fly.

http://globalflyfisher.com/streamers/guest/thundercreek/patterns.htm

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/showthread.php?t=30359

17

coughlin,

I just may send you one to try out, but, it will be after I have had a chance to see how it reacts in the water here first. I may have to do some fine tuning on it. I will get back to you on this.

Sonny,

I already know that it will sink since the head has a tungsten bead in it and I want to test it in the rivers here. Water in a sink or glass is not moving like the river currents do and that is where I need to see how it will work plus a fly with tippett and fly line attached to it will react differently than one in a sink or glass. It does look like a Thunder Creek but the Thunder Creek has no weight incorporated into it like this does.

Hopefully, tomorrow I will get to the river and get a lot of answers to questions on this fly.

Thanks everyone,

18

Now were talkin’ ! That dog will hunt.

19

Thanks, flymaker2, your comments are appreciated. Hopefully, tomorrow, we will see how it reacts to river currents and see if we can get some feedback from a fish!:slight_smile:

20

Hi WarrenP,

I really like the colour combination. I also thought the red section extended a wee bit too far and much prefer the proportions in the later one. I was thinking a few strands of peacock sword added as a topping to the first one would look really nice, a similar suggestion was offered earlier in the thread as well. That being said, I suspect you will catch fish with the original design, and it is always worth giving it a go as data trumps theory every time!

  • Jeff