60deg eye

[Joel Stewart 0]

Is a 60 degree parallel eye hook make a fly a jig? Dumbell eyes? Is it fly fishing or using a fly rod to chuck a jig?

[Mechanical Advantage 0]

My personal opinion is that a jig is a hook with the weight molded onto it. If you tie on dumbell eyes with thread, it's a fly. Same goes for beads and cone heads. Not sure if that's the "legal" definition in terms of fishing regulations or whatnot, though.

[JSzymczyk 0]

It does not matter, compadre. People are always going to get wrapped around the axle about what is and is not a "fly". There are so many different variations of "Fly Fishing" anymore that unless you are in a special regulations area which clearly defines what types of tackle you are allowed to use, there is not much to say about it.

 

Tell me that any of the big articulated streamers full of synthetic materials folks use to catch trout these days are any more of a "fly" than something tied on a jig hook with dumbell eyes. Hell up through the 1950s and 60s, it was completely common for trout fly fishermen to use small spinners and even small plugs on their fly rods. Now that bass, panfish, and big predators like pike and musky are commonly fished for on fly tackle, (not to mention saltwater fish) and those fly styles have influenced even the Holier-Than-Thou trout purists, no one really has room to make a solid stand against what is and is not a fly.

 

Take a look at some of the monstrosities which people take to Asia to fly fish for Taimen.... they all call themselves fly fishermen, and the groupies back home are all too eager to hold them in some kind of idolatry.

 

I say, if you are casting it on fly tackle and you are catching fish within the scope of your local regulations, then be thankful you have the opportunity to be out there doing it. I also say, if you want to fish flies tied on 60 degree hooks with dumbell eyes, maybe add a squirt of attractant scent to them like the entire rest of the fishing world does... Sometimes I do it, and boy does it piss people off!!

 

(also Joel S. ... )

[mikechell 0]

+1 with JS.

Based on all the information I can find ... and my own interpretation of that info ...

All artificial lures are ... lures, this includes flies.

Fly fishing is using the line to cast the lure. With conventional methods, the lure is cast by it's own weight.

So, if you throw that lure and it gets to the fish under it's own momentum and inertia ... it's not fly fishing.

If you throw the line, and that delivers the lure to the fish, then you are fly fishing, and what ever lure you delivered is a "fly".

[utyer 0]

Enough said, throw it with a fly line, and its fly fishing, if you have to use other gear, then its not. I can and do fish my flies with spinning gear on occasion. I use drop shot weights on spinning gear, but my "lure" is something I have tied. When I cast the same lures with a fly rod (using the line to deliver it,) its fly fishing. When I cast the lure with weight attached and use light (weightless,) line, then its spin fishing.

 

There is a sort of gray area, when folks add weight to the leader. Some times people add a LOT of weight, and even use leaders that are 100 feet long. They use a fly rod, and cast using a single back cast. The weight is delivering the fly, and keeping the fly on the bottom in heavy current. Stripping is done in the normal (fly fishing,) manner using the hands. Call it what ever you want, it works.

 

I cast the lure pictured with a fly rod, and its only weighted with a strip of lead on the bottom of the hook. Its a gig hook, but it can be cast by itself.

[Crotalus 0]

It makes it whatever you want it to be. Want a jig? then call it a jig. Want a fly? then call it a fly.

 

 

A 60 deg hook will usually give the final product a "jigging" action in the water.

[flysmallie 0]

Call it whatever you would like. I get tired of the purist rhetoric in fly fishing. I go to catch fish with a fly rod. Mostly bass. I don't call my flies lures even if that is what the resemble because you cast lures with gear.

 

 

So is this a fly or is this a jig? I know what it resembles, thats why it looks like that. I just call it a fish catching mofo.

 

[Panama Red 0]

Enough said, throw it with a fly line, and its fly fishing, if you have to use other gear, then its not. I can and do fish my flies with spinning gear on occasion. I use drop shot weights on spinning gear, but my "lure" is something I have tied. When I cast the same lures with a fly rod (using the line to deliver it,) its fly fishing. When I cast the lure with weight attached and use light (weightless,) line, then its spin fishing.

 

There is a sort of gray area, when folks add weight to the leader. Some times people add a LOT of weight, and even use leaders that are 100 feet long. They use a fly rod, and cast using a single back cast. The weight is delivering the fly, and keeping the fly on the bottom in heavy current. Stripping is done in the normal (fly fishing,) manner using the hands. Call it what ever you want, it works.

 

I cast the lure pictured with a fly rod, and its only weighted with a strip of lead on the bottom of the hook. Its a gig hook, but it can be cast by itself.

 

I'm not a purist when it comes to flies, if you tied it and throw it on a fly rod that works for me. I just wanted to say that this jig fly looks just looks like a beetle spin minus the spinning blade. I see a few of those going in my box for crappie and bream, will also tie one on a larger scale for some saltwater flats fishing.

 

Thanks…dave

[SILKHDH 0]

Who cares. If fly fishing is going to be limited to some standard then I want out. That's what creativity and advancement is all about.

Why do people care what is on the end of there fly rod. If it works then the main objective is accomplished. TO CATCH FISH!!!!

I will put a hook with a friken worm or a piece of bread on it if that's what catches the fish that day. I win, you lose. I eat, you starve.

I will tie a fly out of anything I want. If there are rules to this fly tying gig then I WILL be a rule breaker. A fly rod is a tool......not a standard of limits......use it as such!!!!

[SILKHDH 0]

Call it whatever you would like. I get tired of the purist rhetoric in fly fishing. I go to catch fish with a fly rod. Mostly bass. I don't call my flies lures even if that is what the resemble because you cast lures with gear.

 

 

So is this a fly or is this a jig? I know what it resembles, thats why it looks like that. I just call it a fish catching mofo.

 

amen!!!

[Panama Red 0]

I was going to use a 60* hook, then I realized it wouldn't be a real fly Thanks for the inspiration utyer.

 

Hope the speckled trout like the idea as much as I do.

[mikechell 0]

Utyer ... when you tie that beetle spin imitator to your leader ... are you tying to the bend in the mono, or to the hook eye?

If you tie to the hook eye, does the leader pull the fly side ways enough to swim it to one side or the other?

 

You could almost make that swim under an over hang or dock if it does.

[JSzymczyk 0]

I've never been "grabbed" by any of those spinnerbait looking flies with the puff of krystal flash where the blade would be.... but if they work then I'm missing out. To me, the blade provides sound and vibrations at least as much as flash, and that is something we are largely unable to reproduce in flies. I KNOW, I know, there are flies with spinner blades, I make a few of them too, but it's just not the same. (big blade = difficult to cast on fly tackle) I've seen some lightweight plastic spinner blades in tackle-craft catalogs lately...... those might be suited to fly fishing.... great now I have something else to spend money on. Wow wouldn't that piss off the high-and-mighty types!

[Steve P 0]

I tie all of my meat whistle flies on 60° bend jig hooks add well as many others. The biggest thing I rule in fly ting is there are NO rules. It makes me happy to see a purist get their panties in a wad.

 

Steve

[flysmallie 0]

I've never been "grabbed" by any of those spinnerbait looking flies with the puff of krystal flash where the blade would be.... but if they work then I'm missing out. To me, the blade provides sound and vibrations at least as much as flash, and that is something we are largely unable to reproduce in flies. I KNOW, I know, there are flies with spinner blades, I make a few of them too, but it's just not the same. (big blade = difficult to cast on fly tackle) I've seen some lightweight plastic spinner blades in tackle-craft catalogs lately...... those might be suited to fly fishing.... great now I have something else to spend money on. Wow wouldn't that piss off the high-and-mighty types!

 

100% agree. While these flies may very well catch fish, they in no way mimic a spinnerbait. The most important parts of a spinnerbait are flash and vibration. Putting a little poof of flash material in no way replaces the flash that is created from a spinnerbait blade that is spinning. And there is zero vibration from that poof. Not to mention the fact that you can't retrieve a fly like you retrieve a spinnerbait, it just won't happen.

 

I have seen guys use a small spinnerbait blade on a fly to try to get that vibration, but everyone of them has a major issue. The weight that is needed to keep that blade from rolling the fly is typically just too much to be cast on a fly rod. Even if you use a plastic blade you still need that weight to keel the lure and keep it from rolling. And even if you do you still won't be able to retrieve it properly.

 

Now that's not to say that these flies don't catch fish, I'm sure they do. But it's not the same as catching a fish on a spinnerbait. If you have never experienced an awesome day of spinnerbait fishing you need to do yourself a favor and try it out. Nothing beats it.