Weedguard help?

[Skeet6 0]

Can anyone point me to a way to tie a nice easy mono weedguard for some bass flies I am working on? Thanks much!

Mike B

[flytire 0]

many ways to do weed guards

 

heres some

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=weed+guards+for+flies&biw=1280&bih=728&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjr7OSL4arMAhXKMj4KHU71AeUQ_AUIBygC

[Skeet6 0]

Yeah! Thanks!! I also found this one - easier than I thought. Thanks for the help.

https://youtu.be/Q74woOkzyE8

Mike B

ETA: yup, the same guy with the fuzzy brown beard, LOL.

[tidewaterfly 0]

Mike B, it may depend on what type of snags you intend on tossing the flies around. I've yet to find a single type that works on all snags. The pics that flytire has linked shows the various options.

 

I've gotten away from using those single mono loop guards simply because they tend to hang up if tossed into brush or tree branches and once they get kinked really become ineffective. A doubled mono loop is a better choice, but still hang a lot in those type of snags. If you're fishing grass, or some types of pads they're both fine.

 

For grass I also like a two prong hard mono guard that's often used on saltwater patterns.

 

In the worse stuff, I go with the double looped wire that folds under the hook & rest just behind the hook point. It's not perfect & I sometimes miss fish because of it, but it doesn't get hung as often as the mono loop. Plus if it does get deformed I can usually bend it back to a usable shape.

[Li'lDave 0]

As mentioned above there is a huge range. Personally i dont like wire.

 

i do like hard monofilament. Not fluorocarbon, but a nice stiff mono. 60lb is about as hard as i go for single or double spikes (or a forward loop)

 

i like the spikes for weedy flats etc rather than in the timber.

 

30 or 40lb is good for the standard single or double loops, but of these i prefer the double.

 

Another idea might be to experiment with worm hooks....

[bellevue.chartreuse.trout 0]

Saw this site - http://www.flyfishdiary.com/121/weed-guards/ - about weed guards... thought it provided several alternatives. I hadn't seen the tube version before.

 

BCT

[Guest]

Some popper guard pics might help? 20# in lil stuff 25# mono on the bigger ones.

[tidewaterfly 0]

Dave, I don't like wire either, but it's the only thing that holds up for me in some nasty stuff I've thrown flies into. I like using the offset shank worm hooks too and add a single mono guard to some of them, but it's not a loop. I tie a lot of my bass flies on straight shank worm hooks, and if I add a guard, what I use still depends on what type of snags I may intend tossing them into.

 

Dendukes examples with the doubled loops are what Li'lDave & I was referring to above! (Great looking poppers BTW! )

 

I use 25 or 30 lb hard mason mono for most weed guards. Again, is depends on your conditions.

[Henrik Thomsen (DK) 0]

If you ate ok with a wire version, then have a look at my instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEqf1CsK1uV/

[bellevue.chartreuse.trout 0]

Some 'guy' came to a TU meeting a few years ago 'espousing' the virtues of the wire weed guard. I really do NOT know if they are so much better than the double mono version but....... something to look at for sure.

 

BCT

[tidewaterfly 0]

I had heard Lefty Kreh mention using a single wire guard as his preferred type. He bends the wire in an "L" and puts it thru the hook eye, ties a section down to the shank before tying the fly. The other part of the "L", the wire underneath is bent at an angle as a single prong, but he also bends a section on the bottom so it's parallel with the hook shank. This parallel section is also under the hook point. Makes a long guard that shrouds the hook and really just deflects off of snags. This is a very good guard around large, hard objects like pilings, rocks or tree trunks. Being a longer piece of wire a slightly heavier wire can be used & it still springs far enough to not prevent hooking. I've used it sometimes and it works, but again it's not a guard I like in snags with a lot of small "catch points", like brush.

 

I bought a big bag of ready made wire guards from a Ebay seller a couple of years ago. I think there was 1000 in the bag. The wire is .014 diameter stainless, which is a good size IMO. I use .014 or .015 diameter for single wire guards on jig heads that are molded in the lead. Even on small jigs it springs enough to not block the hook point, but still deflects most snags. Some guys that fish places like the upper Potomac or Susquehanna like this type jig as the wire keep it from getting snagged in the rocks.

 

IMO, wire works well, but its also going to cause some missed fish, particularly smaller ones or those that bite light & just mouth the fly, and don't really commit to taking it. I know I've missed fish when I saw them dart out & grab my fly as it landed, but didn't turn away & I pulled the fly out of their mouth. Wire guard still in place.

 

I started using wire because I got tired of trying to retrieve snagged flies, even those with the mono guards. In MD, the tidal rivers I fished most had a lot of briars & thick brush growing around the edges. Also poison ivy. Much of the "shore" was flooded & swampy, so when getting snagged it wasn't just a matter of going to shore to get loose. Flies would get badly tangled & there was no where to get out of the boat. The river bottoms were deep, black muck too, so wading was not possible. Wire was the only type guard I found to deal with those conditions. There was also Spadderdock pads, and mono worked OK around them, but wire worked a bit better. Often my leader or tippet would get in the "fold" of the Spadderdock leaves & that's where the fly would hang up. Mono too often wasn't rigid enough to pull thru without the hook sticking those pads. Unfortunately, wire is sometimes too rigid & I did miss strikes because of it, as the majority of bass in those tidal rivers were 2 lbs or smaller. I missed a lot Crappies & other panfish too that would strike bass size flies, as they often took them much lighter than the bass. Still, it was better than spending so much extra time trying to get flies off of snags. Those bass I did manage to hook where usually better size fish, so not completely a bad deal with wire.

 

Here's the type of guard Lefty uses, except that bottom section is longer and extends well past the hook point.

[Henrik Thomsen (DK) 0]

If you ate ok with a wire version, then have a look at my instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEqf1CsK1uV/