TheCream

I had to go back and search to find the kind I bought, they are called "Fly Wobbler Blades," I got them through Cabela's. It was something I wanted to try, and found them at Cabela's, I was unable to find them on Feather-Craft or J. Stockard. Then again, my Internettin' abilities are apparently at the Forrest Gump level. Here's the link to the ones I ordered: Wobbler blades at Cabela's

Since they were commercially available, I figured this was nothing new...just not something I see much of, if at all, in places like this or in fly shops/catalogs.

This is the diving lip "fly" I have been playing around with. The lips are very light and easy to use, but do eat some space on the hook shank. I did a little quick trial last week at a local lake to see if they would orient and dive correctly as I hoped they would, and they seemed to do exactly what I hoped. Tied with no additional weight, on a floating line, they went a little over a foot under from what I could tell and had a sweet shimmy when stripped short and fast. -Hook: Mustad 3366 (did both #6 and #2) -Plastic diving lip in appropriate size (can't recall the company name that makes them) -Tail: rabbit strip -Flash: Flashabou -Body: Senyo Lazer Yarn -Eyes: 3D holographic eyes -Head coating: I used enough UV Knot Sense to fill the gaps between the eyes #6 and a #2:

I use the cheap heavy mono on econo spools from WalMart, I think it is Shakespeare 30lb mono. Very stiff stuff and it works well on the bigger bass bugs I tie. Bass bugs are nearly the only flies I tie with weed guards, so I use the heavy stuff. I do looped guards and have not had trouble with missed/lost fish. I used to try using lighter mono and had too many issues with it being too flexible and not doing its job, so I bumped to the cheap 30lb stuff and have been happy so far!

Minn Kota...4WD for your fly.

To me, if I cast it on a fly rod I tend to call it a fly...but I have heard of people slinging bait on a fly rod and that sure as heck ain't a fly! Some of my recent creations may cross that invisible line from fly to lure, though. I have been experimenting with some of those light weight plastic diving lips on streamers. I have tied a few trial patterns with them, very simple ties, and tested them in a lake last week to see if they performed as I hoped they would...and they did. Tied weightless, they would run as deep as maybe 12-15" on a floating line, nice little wiggle-shimmy when you stripped them hard. :headbang:

The last time I went to WV for small stream brookies, about half were claimed by a #16 Royal Wulff and the other roughly half by a #16 para Adams.

Nice! Have you done much with coyote? I have tied a lot of streamers using some coyote tail from a dog I called in last year and a buddy shot him. Fish in Ohio LOVE coyote!

Good point I have done a couple of deer hair poppers (very plain) but they did make a huge mess. I wonder if you could use like a shop vac the way you do on a wood working set up to so every thing that you trim off goes right in to the vacumn? That would be awesome :yahoo: Or if you have a pedestal base vise, take it out on the porch and let Mother Nature dispose of it!

If I had to pick just one, it would probably be this foam disc popper I like to tie: That is generally my best color in that pattern. It's easy and durable, but can be a little time-consuming. The popper body is made of several discs of craft foam that I punch out, glue together into a cylinder, notch it and glue that to the hook shank, wrap it with prism lure tape, add any eyes/paint/marker, then epoxy coat it. Floats like a cork, is still pretty light, and very durable. The rest of the fly is just some marabou and flash for the tail, rubber legs, and ice chenille wrapped behind the popper body. And for a subsurface fly, here's an ugly pic of one of the rabbit streamers I like to use in a lot of colors and sizes: This one is filthy-easy to do. Slide on the cone head, tie in a rabbit strip tail, and either wrap rabbit strip forward to the cone or put it in a dubbing loop, spin it, and wrap it. This is an earlier version when I used to wrap the strip, now I prefer the dubbing loop method because I can clamp different colors of rabbit strip and/or flash material together, spin it, and wrap it for a better look with less "hide bulk" on the fly. In a #6 in the above color, this one is lethal on stream smallies!

Definitely pick up foam at WalMart. If you look in their craft section as mentioned, they have tons of it, and it's cheap. I got a 50-pack of sheets of assorted colors that I have been tying with for over a year, it was like $5. They also have a sparkle foam that is adhesive backed and has a glittery side that makes some killer bass flies. I think it was about $5 for a 20-pack of assorted colors.

Was it this one by any chance? If so, I did that one. I think I did that one on a #10 for the video, I bumped it to a #8 later on. This was also one of my first videos, it was not great.

Ahhhh, a topic near and dear to my heart. I catch some huge crappies on streamers every sprng in the local lakes around me, and last year, even in the local Ohio River trib in some of the back eddy's. Two main patterns claim most of my big crappies: a downsized streamer pattern I saw in a Feather-Craft catalog called the "Bassmaster" and a #6 Clouser tied with coyote tail for the top wing. Why coyote, honestly, I don't know, but I tried it this spring and it outfished standard bucktail Clousers and marabou Clousers. The "Bassmaster" is easy to tie and very effective, I used it on a #8 3X long streamer hook. Pattern is as follows: -Tail: rabbit strip -Flash: Flashabou -Body: ice chenille or similar substitute -Eyes: small brass dumbbell (tied to the back of the shank like a Clouser) -Throat: 2 strands of rubber skirt material (fold over thread and tie in at head, trim to length of tail) White, olive, grizzly, and a grizzly/pink ice chenille mix all produced well. The Coyote Clouser is pretty much standard to the original Clouser, just sub in some coyote: -Eyes: brass dumbbell -Bottom: white bucktail -Flash: copper Flashabou -Top: Coyote tail hair Trophy citation size in Ohio is 13", and fish over 10" is considered big for my area. I caught 11 citation fish this spring, the biggest being a hair over 16" long, on the coyote Clouser. On a 5wt, that fish was a handfull!

What I was thinking after I got done was "Dang that thing's going to be heavy." All the rabbit, marabou, Lazer Dub, and the weight of the Skull will make it heavy when it gets wet.I think it will look good in the water, but I might need a hard hat to cast it.

Or at least new to me, if there's one thing I've learned in fly tying, it's that just about everything has been done before. :wallbash: I combined bits and pieces of some of my favorite streamer patterns and favorite materials. -Hook: Orvis 4X long Size 4 streamer hook -Thread: white 70 denier Ultra Thread -Tail: white marabou -Flash: pearl/pink Krystal Flash -Underbody: white crosscut rabbit spun in a dubbing loop and wrapped -Wing: barred chinchilla rabbit strip -Collar: Lazer Dub, gray on top, red/white on the bottom -Head: medium silver Fish Skull

I just made a trip 2 weeks ago to WV to chase brookies and did well on small dries. I caught about half on a #16 Royal Wulff and the rest mostly on a #16 para Adams. When the fish are in slow flows and pools, I always do very well on a #20 Griffith's Gnat, too.

I like that pattern Cream one question. What hook is that? Mustad 3366? Yes, it is a 3366. The one I posted pics of is not a great example to show of this pattern, I know I have better pics somewhere and can't find them! That white one was an early one that I didn't tie as well.

Here's another one you might want to try, similar to one of your patterns above but bulkier for bass. I saw this one online and made a few slight modifications. This is my favorite view of the fly:

Very nice! I fish the Ohio tribs when I get time to run up (I am almost 4 hours south of Cleveland). Is that the Steelhead Hammer pattern in bottom-right of your pic? I've tied a lot of egg patterns, sucker spawn, small Clousers, leeches, Ice Man Minnows, and lots of other patterns to use up there. Last spring all white #6 Clousers and white/olive in the same size were big producers.

Never too early to start preparing! These last few years I have the timing down about right to hammer those crappies, it's probably my favorite 10-day stretch of fishing here in SE Ohio. Good crappies here are 10" are bigger, I catch a lot of them in one particular lake 12" or more, some pushing 16-17" long. And on a fly rod, they actually fight pretty good. I had one that was a hair over 16" pull my kayak a good 15-20' this past spring! :yahoo:

Crappies this spring, beware! :devil: I wanted to add some weight to the Ice Man pattern made famous by Greg Senyo. I tied the Lazer Dub in a little bulkier and to both sides of the hook, and fit the front with a small silver Fish Skull. A local lake near me with MASSIVE crappies has a few shallow bays in the pre-spawn that are on fire every year, and I know this pattern will kill 'em. On a #6 hook, total length is right at 2". -Mustad 3366 #6 -Baitfish mix Ice Wing fiber -Lazer Dub (black back, "minnow belly" silver, and red) -Small silver Fish Skull

If it is a bad fly I tied, I'll razor it and re-use the hook most of the time. Most new patterns I start tying, the first attempt almost always has something wrong with it or something I want to do differently. I give a lot of flies away to friends, but always give them good ones, no "rejects." One of my buddies lives near Lake Erie and just started fly fishing for steelhead last year, so since he is my guide when I go up there, I always take him an assortment of flies to help cover my "guide fees."

I've been using my 9'6" 7wt rod from my kayak a lot and have not had too many issues with rod length. The biggest issue is being dragged around every time yu hook a big fish! The rod I have been using is a 9'6" Cabela's Traditional. It's not a real pricey rod, which is why I bought it. The intended use was Erie steelhead, but it quickly became my bass rod, too. It has been a great rod for me, I have no complaints. It has all the backbone I have ever needed on bass, and I have landed several over 3lbs on it. Last fall, I also hooked an 18" smallie on it in the middle of a run on a stream near my house. I had zero issues landing that smallie, and she fought like a cornered pit bull. The Erie steelhead I hooked this past spring didn't give me many fits, either. The length might not be exactly what you want, but make no mistake about it, the rod has plenty of power.

I can't lie, it has crossed my mind a lot to stop and gather some materials off of roadkill. I think most states have laws against it, though. I was on my way to Cleveland last weekend and saw a GORGEOUS fresh coyote kill. I've also seen fresh groundhogs, squirrels, and some other animals that would provide some dandy tying materials. Has anyone else ever had this run thrugh your mind...or even better...done it?

What I really like to do with these is wrap the foam body in prismatic lure tape before epoxy coating them. I have that prism tape in green, gold, and pearl. Here are pics of the green and gold. If you do them this way, the only foam discs that matter, color-wise, is the front and rear disc. The inside discs can be pink or yellow or any extra color foam you have that isn't used much. Glue the foam body to the shank, wrap with tape, add eyes and epoxy, and bam: Here is the URL for the video I did: Don't knock it to hard, this was before I made some changes to the pattern, mainly bumping the hook size!