A few recent ones

[agn54 0]

Finally had a little time to tie and get pics of some.

 

I wanted something that would push some water and came up with this. It's mostly hallow tied rams wool.

 

Messing around with flex cord

 

Gibby's DT special

 

Foxy half 'n half

 

shrimp fly for the shrimp swap. Basically a combo of a sili shrimp and a big ugly

 

I have had some good luck on trout with long tailed flies like the DC wiggler so I figured I would try to vary the concept. I stole the basic idea from some sand eel patterns the northern guys tie for stripers and changed it up a bit

[SCOwens 0]

I like the Foxy Half n Half

[Chefben4 0]

Love the shrimp for the swap!!

[Peterjay 0]

Good looking flies Andy. Regarding the flex cord minnow: a friend of mine makes a floating version that he's had a lot of luck with. He puts foam inside somehow or other and coats the whole thing with Liquid Fusion.

[agn54 0]

Thanks guys. Ben, the flies are done, I just need to get a chance to get to the post office and send them. Unfortunately I can't do it until Tuesday but they should still be in on time.

 

PJ, that's a great idea. Did he tie the foam to the shank or just stuff it in there? I was also thinking of doing one with some lead wraps near the eye to make it nose dive like a jig. The stuff is easy to work with and can be colored with a marker but I'm curious how durable it is. I'll try coating with something to strengthen it. It's fairly stiff material so probably doesn't have too much soft action any way.

[Peterjay 0]

Andy, I'm not sure exactly how he did it. All I saw was the finished fly, and I was mostly interested in the coating he used. That's how I got turned onto Liquid Fusion. Unfortunately, my friend is one of those scaredy-cats who can't use a computer, or I'd ask him. I'm gonna see if I can whip up a few - maybe fold some sheet foam over the shank, sort of like a crease fly, but shaped to fit the tubing. Putting some big hollow doll's eyes on the fly might also help to keep it up in the surface film. I've done that in the past to give a fly that "injured minnow" look. BTW - I bought some Flex Tech tubing on Ebay and it's very rugged stuff. The tubing I bought was 3/4 inch for pulling over big game poppers, but I'm gonna get some smaller sizes for minnow flies. I'll be sure to post the results.

[P.G. Beckett 0]

REALLY NICE FLIES- more about Flexi- cord floaters-My Passion flies (see database) are floaters that have the foam tied up vertically only on the top side of the hook, wrapped with chamois similar to a crease fly (using GOOP full strength on the entire surface that covers the foam) and then finished with Flexi-cord which is then finished with a coat or two of lacquer or flex- a- ment. All this creates a very durable fly and the chamois is also sealed and prohibits the chamois from soaking up water. I also use chamois as the base for Flexi-cord on all of my sinking flies tied in ths fashion. Note: You can finish the chamois with any color combn.by using markers or "cheap" fabric paint and the Flexi-cord will only enhance the look.

[agn54 0]

Thanks for the tips guys, it seems like there a ton of possibilities. PG. Do you just color the chamois and let that show through the Flexi-cord? I colored the flex-cord with a sharpie and it took the color well, but I would like to see it with the color on the inside. I may try that with some colored foam as well. By the way, where do you get your chamois? is it the stuff at the automotive stores?

[tidewaterfly 0]

Andy, that's a really cool looking group of flies! I like all of them, & the Half & Half a lot! That last one is really a great looking fly too!

 

Look familiar? Rabbit strip tail instead of the grizzly!

[agn54 0]

Man that is an awesome half n half, great idea with the barred zonker. I decided to copy your idea but didn't have the right color zonker so I used a red fox zonker instead. It came out pretty decent but I still like yours better. What color is the rabbit there?

 

[tidewaterfly 0]

Not sure the exact color. I think they called it tan with brown bars. It's been awhile since I tied that fly. I'm not even sure of the brand, think it was Hareline, but could have come from Ray Rumpf.

 

The rabbit half & half was certainly not my idea, I saw it some place so don't give me credit for it! I've been tying bass jigs with rabbit strip tails for many years, so it makes sense a Clouser version should be good. I agree with you though, the bar dyed rabbit does really look good. I like your fox version too. Nice color to it. On my monitor it has golden tan color to it.

 

If you have some with more of the natural salt & pepper coloration, I think that would look great. On my fly the top hair is dyed coyote.

[agn54 0]

The fox zonkers I have are very gold in color, not the nice molted fur. They were also obviously cut by a guy with a xacto knife and no straight edge since the hide is totally uneven. They still work, but I would love to get a fox pelt and cut some of my own. I like the idea of coyote, it's one of my favorite furs. I was also thinking of maybe doing one with badger. I may end up with some ridiculous variations of the foxy clouser when I am done

[tidewaterfly 0]

I bought several pounds of badger pieces back when I was tying commercially & used it as a substitute for calf tail on Bonefish flies. I actually liked it better because it was finer hair & I could tie a lot more flies with a piece than I could with a calf tail. As long as I removed the black tipped guard hairs & some of the underfur it still looked like calf tail, but had better movement. The underfur makes a good dubbing. On some flies, those black tips look good too. Same with using Opossum. I have a tanned Opossum pelt, but have yet to cut strips from it.

 

If you have Badger where you can cut strips, it should tie some real nice looking flies. I never tried it, and anytime I've seen a full hide, it was more than I was willing to pay. I think it would make great Zonkers.

 

I don't know how ridiculous they'll be, but IMO tying with all these different hairs & furs is interesting & a lot of fun too!

[agn54 0]

Unfortunately all i have are badger patches as well. Badger zonkers would be pretty awesome. I actually love the black tips of badger and other furs on a lot of my flies. One of my favorite flies is a deceiver variant with finn raccoon topped with the long guard hairs of silver fox instead of peacock, just because of he black tips. I tied that way to imitate mullet which have black tips on their tail fins. I use live mullet on occasion and sometimes have to wade out around thigh deep or so to cast net them. I just wait until they come by and usually notice the flash but sometimes only spot them by the black tips of the tail. I figured, if I catch notice of them by the black tips then fish might as well. I don't know if that is really the case but the fly works great around mullet schools.

[tidewaterfly 0]

Andy, I agree with you about the black tips. That's one reason I like the Opossum. Unfortunately, it's not long enough for some bigger sizes. I've used it & other hairs, like Kit Fox, that have black barring or tips on some flies I tie for bass. No mullet here, but there are other baitfish that have prominent black spots or barring, and I like the contrast the black provides with any other color.

 

Here's some flies I tied a few years back, before going to the SC coast for a week. My thought was the same as yours about the mullet, or even Mud Minnows. The black really draws attention to them. I don't remember exactly what the white & black hair is. Could be Kit Fox or coyote, or even Red Fox tail tips. I just recall I had some hair with the black so that's what I used. I've posted these flies before I think. Any of these could have had a strip tail added to them too.

 

IMO, all kinds of really cool looking & effective flies can be tied just using combinations of some of these natural materials. They don't even have to imitate a particular prey species either, and can imitate many.

 

I'm going back to SC the last week of March. Don't know if I'll get much chance to throw flies, but these will be going with me just in case!