agn54 0 Report post Posted November 7, 2012 A few weeks back there was a thread discussing the action of fish skulls and the topic of sculpin helmets came up. Well, long story short, Paul, aka riffleriversteelheadslayer, was kind enough to send me a couple of his sculpin flies (really beautiful work by the way) along with a few helmets for me to mess around with myself. After playing around with Paul's sculpin in the bath tub (man, that sounds really dirty!), I realized the diving action and shape of the sculpin helmet reminded me of skimmer jigs which are flat head jigs tied with bucktail or marabou that work great on the flats. Anyway, I decided to try to emulate them with the sculpin helmets and this is what I came up with. If anyone has any suggestions on ways to improve this pattern I would love to hear them. I hope to test it out this weekend to see how it works. Thanks again, Paul! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kirk Dietrich 0 Report post Posted November 7, 2012 Those are killer AGN. Only improvement would be a little V weedguard, even though its gonna ride hook point up, some grasses still wound up on top of the fly when it goes down on the bottom. If you're not fishing in any grass, then no need as it looks like the width of the head will keep it from rolling on its side. Looks like an excellent oyster hopping fly! That marabou tail and wool body should come alive real nicely when wet. Good looking fly, I may have to get some of those heads. Kirk Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Panama Red 0 Report post Posted November 7, 2012 Those are awesome Andy. What is the material just behind the head? Dave Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SCOwens 0 Report post Posted November 7, 2012 Panama, looks a lot like the cra-shrimp with more marabou and a sculpin head ... haha Awesome fly Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
agn54 0 Report post Posted November 8, 2012 Thanks guys. Kirk, that's a good idea since I would like to use it over grass beds as well as oyster bars. I guess the best way would be to push the head back a little further and tie the weed guard in right in front of the head? Dave, that stuff is Senyo's Laser Dub. It's great stuff for heads and collars. It's a synthetic that looks kinda like wool with strands of flash in it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Capt Bob LeMay 0 Report post Posted November 8, 2012 That is a very, very good bug. What exactly is the head you've used? As far as a weedguard you might want to do something similar to what I do with real skimmer jigs, picture enclosed (it's simply a piece of #4 wire doubled and tied in with the two ends facing forward, then raised into position (folded back), bent and trimmed to form a 45 degree spread... Tight Lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
agn54 0 Report post Posted November 8, 2012 That is a very, very good bug. What exactly is the head you've used? As far as a weedguard you might want to do something similar to what I do with real skimmer jigs, picture enclosed (it's simply a piece of #4 wire doubled and tied in with the two ends facing forward, then raised into position (folded back), bent and trimmed to form a 45 degree spread... Tight Lines Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666 Thanks Capt. Bob. The head is called a Sculpin Helmet (link) that's used to make sculpin flies. I like the idea of the wire weed guard behind the helmet rather than in front, that way the helmet won't get pushed too far back and the eye won't be crowded with a bulky thread head. Thanks a lot for the tip Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Capt Bob LeMay 0 Report post Posted November 8, 2012 Thanks, have to give those a try... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites