capt.nasty

While I'm sure this topic of creating shrimp eyes has been hashed out over and over, I think I've found a neat way to make very realistic, bad-ass shrimp eyes. I have recently started tying flies, mostly saltwater, and I have devoted some considerable time and thought into shrimp, both fly patterns and recipes in the kitchen. After seeing everybody's different methods of making the eye and also researching a little about the shrimp eye anatomy( a reflecting superpositional eye), I think that creating eyes that stand out on the pattern, are durable and easy to make, and display the reflective, sometimes colorful nature could be an important aspect of imitating these tasty treats. Whether or not fish hone in on shrimp eye reflection is debatable, but why not add a little flash anyway? A little field testing might be in order later on, but for now, heres the tale: Burn the end of monofilament, allowing the melted pool to gain size for larger eyes. Color them a little near the stalk with a little permeant marker(easiest), or dip the whole eye in some black paint, which can also add bulk. This darker coloration makes the eyes stand out a little more from the stalk. Dip the eye in some CA glue, a few drops in a small thimble-sized bowl made of foil makes this easy, then dip the front part of the glue covered eye in some fine craft glitter. I used gold glitter here, but I have also tried red glitter and it looks neat too. wait a minute or two for the glue to dry, then coat the eye in some epoxy and rotate until dry. Thats it: easy-to-make colorful eyes without glass beads, gluing on any reflective sequin, and also size adjustable by longer mono melting, paint addition, or more glue-n-glitter. Haven't tried them out yet but for now I think I will be making all my shrimp eyes this way for a while. The pic is from some of the first ones I made, so I'm sure anyone with any real skill at fly tying who tries to make them will produce some way better than I have, and will also see how awesome they look in real life. a link to a close-up pic of some real shrimp eyes:

Kirk, Fished with Jacques Touzet, a friend of mine who doesn't really guide anymore. Actually fished on my boat out near Delacroix. He says he knows you and that he won 50 spoons of yours at a tournament once, almost a lifetime supply for him now maybe. I'm definitely hooked now, any calm weekend will make me think first of poling around the grass flats and duck ponds tossing flies. Also dying to try to hook up a big bull red or jack from one of those huge summer-time surface churning schools I see out in bay eloi and breton sound. One day maybe... quote name='Kirk Dietrich' timestamp='1340076786' post='508320'] Nasty, congratulations! Who did you fish with? Capt Dave Marino? There are only three guides down here that I sell my spoons to and Dave is one of them and it looks like that may be his boat. So, are you hooked now? Panama, that Kirk is the one that ties flies and dreams about fishing one day with the renown Red of Panama. Drop me an email and let me know what your plans are. Hopefully the Tropical storms and hurricanes stay away this year. Lykos, I was wondering why I had to go around the corner to scratch my ear... Seriously, that spoon I've been told is the best shallow water spoon, that's fine with me - but that and twenty five minutes at the vise to make one will buy me a cup of coffee. I say shallow water spoon as that is what it was designed for and down here there are several types of water to target redfish in and when I worked on its design, it was for the first fly rod only guide for redfish in Louisiana, Capt Bubby Rodriguez. His stomping grounds were shallow, grassy duck ponds. He field tested it and I made adjustments with amount of weight and the positioning of it. I used Jon Cave's method to construct it but it is really different and with Bubby's design, which took almost a year of back and forth, he/we came up with the perfect spoon to fish his shallow grassy ponds. Now, in deeper water, it is still effective but if extra weight is added but some of the all epoxy ones and Cave's are better designed for those fish. Chef, thanks. Kirk

After many years of catching panfish, bass, and even a few trout excursions in the mountains, finally got started in the salt here in LA with this nice lil red. Great day even though is was blowin around 15kts! (gonna have to tighten my loops I think to get into that wind) Fished using a spoon fly tied by a member of the forum - Kirk D - also from LA. His mylar spoon flies are easily the best in the biz, or so says my friend who has guided for many years down here. Looking forward to many more trips as well as getting started on tying a lot my own flies (fresh and salt). Im sure I will be hanging around here more often.