salmobytes 0 Report post Posted November 30, 2018 https://montana-riverboats.com/?robopage=Flies/Sandy-Pittendrigh/Wigglers/Riffle-dart-howto/&layout=slideshow Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikechell 0 Report post Posted November 30, 2018 Interesting pattern design. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Philly 0 Report post Posted November 30, 2018 I may have to give that a try, again. I did something similar to that in foam several years ago. Based it on a lure called the Flatfish or maybe it was the Canadian Wiggler. Problem was that it needed to be fished in a fast current to get it to dive and wiggle and half the time it wouldn't dive or just twisted in the current. Did catch a few smallies and pan fish on it when it did work. I think I didn't have enough weight in the front to get it to dig into the water. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
salmobytes 0 Report post Posted November 30, 2018 It's important to balance buoyancy at the rear with weight underneath. All crankbaits are made that way. The opposing forces of weight below the bill fighting against buoyancy higher up and behind help to keep the flure from flipping over. I do use a barrel swivel 12" inches up the leader. I live in cold water country in Montana. I wish I didn't have to travel so far to fish for Smallmouth Bass. Wigglers are special purpose flures. But they are deadly. The wiggler in the following vid is a good diver--scraping the bottom of the bathtub in 3" inches of water. https://montana-riverboats.com/?robopage=Flies/Sandy-Pittendrigh/Wigglers/wiggler-vid.htm Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Philly 0 Report post Posted November 30, 2018 That does have nice action, Salmobytes. I'm assuming that you used double sided carpet tape. It looks like the stuff I have. How did you attach the hook? My initial instinct would be to poke it through the foam lip. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
salmobytes 0 Report post Posted November 30, 2018 Double sided carpet tape? No not sure what that is or how I would use it. I use closed-cell buoyant foam snipped to shape with a diving bill glued to the foam with CA glue. Small diving bills come from a Costco tomato container. Bigger diving bills come from soaking a small rectangular patch of fiberglass fabric with thin 20 minute epoxy or ZapAGap. I glue feathers to the foam with fabric cement. Or sew fronds of fuzz using a wide-eyed sewing needle. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fshng2 0 Report post Posted November 30, 2018 I agree with Philly....it has some great moves. Is this a pattern you came up with? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
salmobytes 0 Report post Posted November 30, 2018 Yes that my pattern. I've been at this a long time. There was a May 1986 article in Fly Fisherman called Flies or Lures written by John Gierach that featured my flures along with others by AK Best and John Betts and maybe one or two others. None of us knew each other way back then. So we came up with what we did in a vacuum, on our own, not in any way influenced by the others in that group. I used to work hard at publishing in the magazines. I've had a good 20 publications in glossy fly fishing magazines over the years, mostly back in the 1980s. I never did succeed in getting any wiggler articles published. Well that's not true. I did have a early-to-mid-1980s wiggler piece in Salmon Trout Steelheader. Does that magazine still exist? They targeted a more not-so-purist crowd. The easiest way to get a fly tying article published in a glossy fly fishing magazine used to be by making it all about Mayflies. I'm not sure that's still the case but it used to be. At least if it was about a cold water context. Anything goes in the big Salt. Even then. But if it was trout fishing it had to be done in certain hermetically sealed ways. Wigglers tend to make magazine editors nervous. One such editor told me "I'm afraid the readers would rebel," when he summarily rejected my wiggler article. It's not clear why but they get nervous but they do. Actually it is clear why. Wigglers remind people of spin fishing and spin fishing is on the other side of the fly fishing culture wars. It's all about tribal loyalty. I just like to fish. I like hand line fishing too. And tickling. I have tickled quite a few trout over the years. I've never tried catfish noodling but I'd like to. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fshng2 0 Report post Posted December 5, 2018 Great looking flies and action; lives up to it's name. A few months ago I tried to do this using angled foam to no avail. I will have to experiment with this concept. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites