Recent comments

Martin, thanks for q

Martin, thanks for quick answer. I have seen very interesting muskrat zonker strips too, so I hope it will work.

Pike,

I have tie

Pike,

I have tied lots of zonkers with mink, and it's very good for the purpose. But the seal has an extreme translucency compared. The seal is much coarser and has almost no underfur compared to the mink's very fine and dense underfur.

I do have some gray mink tails that reminds me a bit of the seal, but it's still much finer. It has almost the same shine. Seal is very shiny - almost as glass - as you can see from the images, and that might be one of the keys to the flies' success. I have a couple of patches of sealskin, both light and dark, and I intend to cut some zonker strips and tie up some Strange Christmas Trees for this spring, but darker and denser zonkers are on the tab too. But I prefer nutria over mink for those.

Martin

Martin, have you alr

Martin, have you already tried mink instead of seal? Thanks

Hi Martin, The Gr

Hi Martin,

The Gra Frede was still missing form my arsenal for my coming fishing trip to the Swedish west coast. Looks very fishy.

Maybe some tips for the ribbing and dubbing:

I like some pearl flash in my sea trout flies I discovered long ago that pearl tinsel or crystal flash won't stand up to the sea trout teeth. Some years ago I tried midge diamond braid pearl as ribbing for my PK Mysis. It works great. Nice pearl flash and very strong. The fish can't destroy it.

Dubbing with Marabou is easy when: you make a loop put on some wax, hold the loop open with your finger, stick in a marabou feather (up right to the stalk), close the loop, snip of the half with the stalk and twist. Works every time and gives a great rough dubbing.

Tight lines,

John

yes as near as I can figure

yes as near as I can figure from my reading is the bugger is a leech pattern tied so that on the strips in it undulates like a leech swimming. I f this is wrong on my part will some one set me straight. :)

I tied similar fly b

I tied similar fly but instead of STF I used saltwater SLF dubbing in shrimp color. Same as Vanuz I attached epoxy shrimp eyes. I hope I will test it soon. I like simplicity of this pattern a lot.

Does that mean the whole

Does that mean the whole bugger is the same colour? For instance, black tail, body and hackle.

Hey Chris,Long time

Hey Chris,Long time since Huntly college,how are you,neat page,have fun fishing.

keep it basic? black and

keep it basic? black and olive seem to be the go to colours

Roger,

Most fly s

Roger,

Most fly shops will have Kevlar tying thread - often in different colors. It's usually very thick, and perfect for this purpose. If you can only get grey, consider using a marker to color it.

You can also consider using thick tying thread, like Uni-Thread 3/0, which should be widely available.

Martin

Robert,

You can c

Robert,

You can contact me, and we can work on an addition for the article with your updates.

Martin

Update from Robert L

Update from Robert Logan on Shrimp Pattern - Gentlemen, I have come up with a partial solution to the head portion for the shrimp pattern I have been working and in an exciting new development....I have been experimenting with Enrico Puglasi fibers and have discovered that they become translucent and absorb water well to give a very much a "real shrimp flesh" look when submerged in water! I would like to post my fly tying sequence and photos for you all to see, tie, make commentary and more importantly catch some really large sea trout! How can I do this? I had a chance to tie this pattern at the 18th Annual Texas Fly Fishers Symposium earlier this month and I gave away several dozen of them.

Hi Matthew.

Hi Matthew.

Try this: 47“ 20lbs, 31“ 16lbs, 19“ 14lbs, swivel, tippet (ca. 25-30“).

Important in any way, if you are tying leaders, you need to reduce the length and strenght of the pieces from the butt to the tipp. That´s because the transferred energy of the casting-impulse ties down on the way from your hand to the tip of your leader. So by reducing the strength and length of the sections you support an easy flow from the strongest to the weakest part of your connection.

I guess you need some experimentation to find the optimal tuning according to your fly line and the flies you use. May be you will have a hand full of different leaders for different use (dry, nymph, streamer, short/longer distance) in the end. But in the end you have your individual solution.

T.L. Frank

hi love the buzzers

hi love the buzzers where can i obtain the kevlar for the body. thanks Roger B.

Steve,

thank you

Steve,

thank you very much for your informative presentation at Jax today. i would very much appreciate any information you could send me or refer me to on the salt water minnows you had at class.

thank you in advance.
dennis baker

my email is sixweight@hotmail.com

Thanks for these nic

Thanks for these nice comments...

"Soft Hackle & Chickabou" is quiet rare, as I already wrote in the article. But for example, there are some for sale on eBay at the moment (also in black color). The eBay-Shop is called "1A Fly Materials and Fishing Flies". You have to be a bit careful in shopping these items online, because the quality can be extremely different.

Easily the best tied

Easily the best tied Woolly Bugger I have seen and an excellent article. Just one question; where can you source the black Whiting Soft Hackle w/Chickabou from?
ATB

Bill,

It works ni

Bill,

It works nicely here...

Like this:

You need Flash installed to play it, but that's all.

Martin

The pink-piggy-mania

The pink-piggy-mania has overruled Denmark and the rest of the seatrout hunters owing to enormous marketing pressure... Articles, videos etc. have simply exaggerated dreamy power of this fly for some reason and the fly-fishing enclave has just fell for it :) It's as simple as that.
To be honest, I have never tried one myself as I am too stubborn just to follow the crowd.
I stick to those flies I have had in my fly-box for years, partly because I found myself too lazy to spent hours tying this pattern (it is considerably more difficult pattern to tie than other conventional ones, isn't it?) and I still have been catching fish.
No doubt the piggy may be a successful fly, however, which one wouldn't be, if used by 90% of fly-fishers fishing the Danish coast? Do you remember when nearly everyone was tying a honey shrimp a couple of years ago? Does it sound similar?
I can bet "we" may invent another "catchy" fly this year. And again, it all comes to promotion I guess. Just like fashion!

Where's the video?

Where's the video? I cannot get it to work.

20 ,16, 10 and then most of

20 ,16, 10 and then most of the time my last section 4th will be 6-8 pd mono for bass and walleye or steel for the pike and muskie. I don't use a swivel at all. Ashton is 30 min outside Ottawa.

Nice to talk to you. I have been (lurking) on this site for a couple of years but joined just before you. This has got to be the best site for fly fishing I have ever seen. The articles, diagrams and help offered is unbelievable. Tight line Matthew

Hi,

Hi,

too bad a bout the June meeting. However, make sure to drop me a not once in the area. Maybe we find a time to have a fish together.

Excellent video. Tho

Excellent video. Those boys will (unfortunately) grow up and forget about fishing for a few years. A shame as they're top young anglers. Hopefully, they'll rediscover the real meaning of life later. Great footage. Love the colour of the water. We get nothing like it here in NZ.

Thank you!

Thanks to all for your thoughtful responses. The options are numerous, almost intimidatingly so. One thing is for sure: we won't be bothered by small fish sizes -- we're mostly out to have a good time. We will be there the last two weeks of July though, so I'm sorry to say we'll miss the gathering, but thank you kindly for the invitation.

I'm going to keep doing some research and see if I can narrow things down. I have plenty of new ideas thanks to your posts!

Jon