Finn Raccoon is an awesome material for big pike flies. The long, soft hair moves really well in the water. It’s also very durable. If you don’t use too much of the leather it’s also not so difficult to cast, because the hair will not soak as much as water as rabbit fur for example does. You can cast it with your 8weight and a pike taper line with no problems.
The color combination ist just an example. To be totally honest, for this fly, I used the materials from another old fly with a damaged hook. Recycling the fly tiers way! 😉
The hook is a good topic! I got some samples from the danish company AHREX hooks. They got my attention, because they brought some really nice hooks for streamer and especially for sea trout fishing on the market. Now, they also got a Predator line with big sized hooks for predators like pike. The hook I’ve used is really nice. A white gap, a not too heavy wire and a small fine barb. You can also get it as a barbless version. That’s a pretty cool thing!
For this SBS, I tied the fly with a head of Senyos Laser Dub to give it more volume. It pushes a lot more water. On the other hand, it’s a bit harder to cast. There’s another way to tie it. Just some eyes with uv resin between them to secure everything like shown on the first picture with the black collar.
- Hook: AHREX PR 350 Light Predator # 4/0
- Flash: Krinkle Mirror Flash orange
- Ribbing: Mono 0,50 mm
- Main Body: Finn Racoon Zonker orange
- Body: Kaktus Chenille and Polar Chenille twisted
- Front Collar: Finn Racoon white
- Head: Senyos Laser Dub white mixed with orange
- Eyes: 3D Eyes orange
- Thread: Veevus GSP 100 D white
- Bug Bond UV Resin, if you don’t want to tie it with a big head
Put a drop of super glue along the hook shank and do a spiral wrap back and forth, back and forth, back and…. to create a solid basement for the other materials.
Tie in some mono for the ribbing. I’ve used 0,50 mm.
As “tail flash”, tie in some krinkle mirror flash in different lengths.
For the body, I’ve used one strand of orange cactus chenille and two strands of white polar chenille.
Twist the strands like shown and wind it around the hook shank and catch it with your tying thread.
Take the Finn Raccoon strip and tie it in at the front.
With the mono, rib the fur strip from the back to the front with very high tension, so it won’t be destroyed by the pikes teeth.
Put some white Finn Raccoon in a material clamp or like I prefer in the Vosseler Clip Tool. Cut off the leather strip.
Make a thread loop and put some wax on it. Then put the Finn Raccoon hair into the loop.
Twist the loop with your dubbing twister. Don’t do it too fast and clear the hair from tangling from time to time with your dubbing needle. Wind it around the hook shank and stroke the hair back after every single turn.
Tie in some Senyos Laser Dub in the color of your liking. How you work with the Laser Dub is shown in several step by step tutorials in this blog. Just type “Senyos Laser Dub” in the search field.
The finished Finn Raccoon Streamer for pike. Easy to tie, very durable and awesome in the water. I wish you a lot of fun tying and fishing it!
