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Capt Bob LeMay

Bendback patterns - notes on the Prince of Tides

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In a conversation with a forum member I went over some of the things about bendback patterns I thought important.  Here's an excerpt from that conversation.  Hope it helps any tyers looking to explore these kinds of patterns... 

 

As far as that Prince of Tides... it was originated by Flip Pallot and my own version of his pattern varies a bit from the original (which, in fact, I've never seen a sample of....).  Mine starts with a Mustad 34007 hook in size 1/0 that's been hand-bent into shape.  The biggest complaint I've had with any commecially available bendback style hooks is that they're usually bent too much.. Here are a few different bent pattern photos that might show what I'm referring to - all are on 1/0 hooks with the exception of the last one meant for bonefish.... 

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My own Big Eye Bendback (one of my royalty patterns with Umpqua - until they didn't sell well enough).  This is only one of the three colors it was done in... 

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my own version of the Prince of Tides, more about it in a moment

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my own version of Chico Fernandez's Snapping Shrimp pattern, with black bear wing for the dark version and cinnamon phase bear for the lighter version - these are on #4 hooks and come with an "outrigger style" weedguard.... Once again I bend my own hooks - commercially available bent hooks just don't work well at all... 

Here the recipe for that Prince of Tides...

Hook:     Mustad 34007, 1/0 bent slightly less than 1/4" to the rear of the hook eye (using two pairs of pliers...).

Thread:  Danville's flat waxed nylon in brown

Body:      Six strands each of gold and dark brown or black Flashabou, tied in along the body starting at the front bend, secured the full length of the desired body - then wound back over itself as a unit being careful to allow the flash to show gold then brown with every turn as a unit.  All of it over-wrapped with medium sized clear V-Rib from the rear to the front... 

Wing:  Three modest bunches of bucktail, almost twice the hook's length starting with bleached white, then 6 to 10 strands of pearl Flashabou Accent, then dyed brown bucktail with 6 to 10 strands of gold Flashabou Accent over, then dyed green bucktail over all.  Since all of this will build up very quickly try to use only two or three turns of thread for each part of the wing (and all of the bucktail should be cut on the bias before tying in place to allow a tapered head).

Head:  Built up with tying thread then super glued after whip finishing (I prefer the original Krazy Glue commonly available everywhere..).  Once the head is dried thoroughly then a dot of yellow paint on each side, allowed to dry for a day - then the center black dot and again allowed to dry thoroughly... The final clear finish coat is FlexCoat - a rodbuilder's finish...

 

Note:  In the past I've used less body materials with good results - and this fly will produce without the painted eyes as well... Remember - when Chico first brought the original bendback patterns to market he noted that he'd never been able to catch tarpon with them at all... He believed that bent patterns simply weren't well suited for a tarpon's mouth.  As a result I've always used them for snook, redfish, and speckled trout... 

Bob

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Outstanding flies. Thanks for the recipes and photos. I'm thinking of them for carp fishing.

Edit- Noticed the forceps to hold the flies.

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Forceps were the solution I came up with years ago to be able to photograph flies that were designed to ride hook point up....

Whenever I see a photo of those  kind of flies poised upside down it bothers me.

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Capt Bob, your tying and advice is always inspiring!  I'm sure we've discussed bendbacks in the past here. Your comment about how the commercial hooks are bent, seems to me it's been mentioned. I agree wholeheartedly. 

I tied some last year for a fellow in TX, and didn't bend the hooks at all. I did however, weight them along the shank so they would ride properly with the combination of bucktail in the wing. He wanted some flies that he could fish over deeper oyster beds, for both trout & redfish, didn't want barbells as he said they hung up too much, so I suggested bendback's and with epoxy bodies. 

These are what I came up with for him.

 

 

1119.jpg

1120.jpg

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Those will work just fine... In the past I’ve gone that route as well, just reverse tying without a bend at all (but with a 1/2” of .040 square lead wire as a keel for a 1/0 hook).

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I am a big fan of bend backs around mangrove shorelines and oyster beds.  My first ever redfish was on a bend back along the southeast shoreline of Tampa Bay.  There are always a few in my saltwater boxes.  Been tying these Myakka Minnows bend back style on the new Umpqua bend back hooks.  Just moved the weight back toward the bend as much as possible.  They worked fine last trip on snook moving along mangroves my last trip to Tampa.

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Wonderful ties..

May I ask if the original bendback design was architecture primarily intended to be weedless? If so, is the weed guard necessary? I just listened to the Mill House interview with Captain Steve Huff and he does not use weedguards, so of course I’m wondering about that feature of fly design.

 

Has anyone tried a pattern like this for freshwater species? Bass in particular?
 

Also, I was just looking at my copy of Aaron Adams’ book on saltwater prey and he suggests a layer of 20 lb mono over his braid bodied mangrove muddler..in your opinion would that work for the Prince of Tides?

 

Thanks for your time and wonderful contributions Captain Lemay..I save your fly photos for a bench side  reference..

 

cheers

 

Mark

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Welcome to the site, Mark.  I do not have answers, as I don't tie that type of fly.  But, I'm sure you'll get answers as soon as people start getting up and/or getting home from Sunday go-to-meeting places.

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Those "outrigger style" weedguards were originally meant for very specific conditions in parts of Biscayne Bay where you have, at times, fish over very thick turtle grass that will snag up any fly with something not quite as effective as that outrigger... Years and years ago I taught fly tying classes (both formal, at night at our local community college, early eighties.. and informally with tying nights for local fishing club members) and the test I suggested back then was simply to tie up whatever pattern you were going to use and drag it slowly across your lawn - if it snags up - try something else... or a different weedguard...  One of the nice things about this kind of weedguard is that if it's not needed or wanted, it's a simple matter to clip it away and do without...

The presentation I came to favor for big bonefish was pretty much gambling.... I'd lay the fly out at least ten feet from a big tailer or cruising fish and note very carefully exactly where the fly landed in relation to the fish - then allow it to sink motion-less.   Over turtle grass that meant that the fly was down in the grass... The gambling part?  Pretty simple,  you were gambling the fish would move to where your fly was - and not move it until the fish was within two or three feet... Bonefish never tail in the same direction for very long -at least not where we were fishing -  so fairly often that "gamble" failed and I'd have to pick up the fly and make another presentation.   The problem with the fish we were on is that they were terribly spooky and most close presentation just spooked them entirely - and that was that...

 

Remember as well that back when I was fishing bonefish a lot  - the average size of a bonefish in the Bay was 8lbs - and the tailers we were working were considerably bigger....  Hard to believe that all these years later when an 8lb fish is hard to find in those same areas....   If I remember correctly the original bendback type flies were in fact meant for bass in freshwater.  Chico Fernandez took that style of fly and came up with his own version -then popularized it with a feature article for saltwater and the idea took off from there.  As far as the design's weedless characteristics so much depends on the actual conditions you're fishing - and how you're going about it.  Over in the Ten Thousand Islands area weeds are rarely a problem - but working around mangrove shorelines and downed trees something relatively weedless is a great idea....  Hope this helps...

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