EP Style flies for redfish

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

I tied these up for a friend/client for his shallow water and bottom hugging redfishing.

The reds ate them up last year so he wanted some more for this winter.

I used the hollow tie for the two body colors and dubbing loop for the head color.

Don't know how well the camera captured the colors but one is brown/red/tan the other is black/purple/grey.

Kirk

 

Unweighted for shallow water or fish high in the water column.

 

One each weighted with medium and heavy lead eyes for when the fish are deeper and/or preferring to look down.

[iFly 0]

Sweet! I really like the color combo's. Will have to tie some of these soon.

 

 

[DavidR 0]

Me like - will have to give some of them a try around the outside of the grass.

[Panama Red 0]

Great looking flies Kirk, like the use of a dubbing brush for the front portion of the head.

 

Is that a brown body with the red abd tan head? Awsome!

[agn54 0]

great looking flies, Kirk. I love the idea of combining hollow tie for the body and a dubbing brush for the head. Do the the ones with the lead eyes ride hook point up?

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Thanks guys.

Panama, yes it is brown tail/body with red body/head and tan head. These two color patterns worked great last fall and winter.

Agn, not sure about the 1/20th oz lead eyed fly but the 1/40th rides hook point down.

 

Kirk

[Tailn'Jax 0]

Those are awesome Kirk. Are those big winter time reds hard to feed or will the chase a fly pretty well?

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Those are awesome Kirk. Are those big winter time reds hard to feed or will the chase a fly pretty well?

 

They chase pretty well, you just have to get the fly down on their level. They aren't often in the super shallow stuff you normally find reds in. If they are in 18 inches of water, that is shallow and really great. More often, they are in a little deeper water like three feet. Being that deep you don't normally see them until you are less than forty feet away so you have to make quick shots and have a fly that will get down to them fast before the boat gets close and you spook them.

That is the challenge, having a fly that gets down but has enough presence to interest them.

 

Kirk

[Aaron Murnane 0]

how do you make the heads on those?

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Aaron, it is a technique called loop dub. You secure a loop of your tying thread to the shank, place your dubbing material, in this case 1.5 inch length pieces of EP fibers in the loop and then with a twister, twist the loop. Basically you are making a hair rope and then just wrap it on the shank, tie off and trim head to shape.

 

Here is an excellent tutorial done my forum member Steve P. The title of his post in case the link doesn't work is, SBS Pimp Slap.

http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=60986&st=0&p=474301&hl=+loop%20+dubbing%20+head&fromsearch=1entry474301

 

Kirk

[JJD 0]

Kirk, you're an old pro and know most of the tricks, but I've been playing with something you might like to try. I've been wrapping a small pieces of palmer chenille (the stuff that has <1/2" mylar hanging off only one side) with my dubbing loops for nice effect. It seems to be an easy way to add flash to the head area without substantially increasing the effort for a production tier.

 

The flies look great BTW.

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

JJ, I like that idea. I like flash in the head and have cut fine flash and laid it on my track of material when putting it in the loop but never tried the long stuff you're talking about in the loop. I tried wrapping it alongside the twisted dubbing loop but it didn't work very well, twisting it in with the loop could work well.

Thanks, that's the great thing about fly tying and fishing, there's always something new to learn.

 

Kirk

[bowfin47 0]

Kirk, you're an old pro..

 

Hey Kirk,

 

How does it feel to be called "old"?

 

Just remember that your younger than me! Ha!

 

Kyle