I made two short videos how the articulated pike streamer move in the water. The blue streamer is the same as the white/olive one, just another color. Due to the big head made from uv-resin, the craft fur keep its volume in the current and moves really nicely!
[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/52331026[/vimeo]
[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/52330517[/vimeo]
When I first tied this pattern, I used epoxy for it. That’s why there’s „Poxy“ in the name of the fly. Today I use uv-resin for it, but I didn’t wanted to chance the name. ;-)
When you tie this pattern, it’s very important, that the resin soaks into the braid at the end of the fly to fix the marble fox, so it won’t tangle around the hook bend while casting. The materials used are:
You can also tie in some lead wire if you want, to create a jigging effect for example.
The Poxy-Fox looks really massive on the picture, but in the water it got some translucency. That’s the reason, why you should dub a thin body before slipping the flexi cord around the hook shank.
tight lines
Holger Lachmann
Lutz Schepers from www.theflypeople.com asked me some weeks ago, if I wanted to test the new Fleye Foils by Bob Popovics. I always liked the flies and ideas of Bob Popovics, so I surely wanted to test his newest idea. The foils imitate the eyes, the gills, the silver belly and flanks on one side of the fly with just one simple tying step.
I don’t know the reason why, but when I got the foils, I didn’t felt the inner drive to test them immediately. Maybe I didn’t wanted to do the normal Sury Candy with it.
This morning, I did the first tests with the smallest „Bay Anchovy“ foils. The fly you see below is the first try. It’s a really simple fly made out of a hook, mono thread, different colors of Senyo’s Laser Dub, Fleye Foils and uv resin. It doesn’t look to shabby for a first try, I think.
The Fleye Foils are easy to use. You just have to tie in the „nose“ next to the hook eye and push the sticky backsides of the foils against the flanks of the fly. One or two coatings of uv resin and you are done.
After tying some patterns with Fleye Foils, I have to say, that if you want to make Surf Candy-style flies as fast and easy as possible, the foils are an enrichment. The only thing I would suggest to improve is, to give more expression to the eyes.
tl Holger Lachmann
Sometimes it is just fun to tie such kind of a monster fly. This pike streamer with a length of 27 cm is articulated to give the fly the maximum of flexibility.There is just one hook in the middle of the fly.
It’s a combination of natural hair and feathers together with synthetics, which creates a big shape and the effect of mass without being to heavy when wet. It’s still possible to cast it with a 8 weight + rod and a pike taper line or a shooting head.
I added some pictures of different Magnus to the gallery. The Magnus is a very popular pattern for seatrout in the Baltic Sea, especially the Polar-Magnus in the winter time.
A ‚must have‘ in every fly box of a coastal fishermen. I’m sure it will work for other fish species, too.
Polar Magnus
Olive Magnus
Brown Magnus
I tie and fish with Fish Skulls since fall 2011 now. When I first saw them, I wasn’t really sure if I like them or not. They looked very massiv and heavy. I thought they were to heavy for my kind of fishing. I was wrong.
The Fish Skulls are not made out of tungsten or brass like other metal heads on the market, they are made out of aluminum.The weight of the aluminum is big enough to give the fly a nice jigging effect and bring ít down to the fish, but light enough for easy casting.
You can buy them in different sizes. For my fishing, the small Fish Skulls work great with wide gap hooks like Gamakatsu F 314 # 6 or #4.
The biggest weight of the Fish Skulls is on the lower part, which works like a keel, so the fly always swims straight. That’s the reason, why it’s really easy to tie up side down patterns, just switch the head.
Every package contains 10 Fish Skulls and the eyes, which you just fix with a small spot of super glue on each side. I like to „pimp“ the Fish Skulls with other eyes, like fluo eyes.
It’s easy to tie with the Fish Skulls. Just tie your fly and leave a little space next to the hook eye. Apply a drop of super glue and slip the Fish Skull of the hook eye on the fly. You can create a little „thread dam“ between the Fish Skull and the hook eye, but I think you don’t have to, because the super glue will secure the Fish Skull really tight. Sometimes I like to give the fly a hot spot by using fluo thread for the „thread dam“.
As you already know, I’m a really big fan of zonker stripes, so the first try with Fish Skulls where the combination of zonker stripes and Fish Skulls and it works perfect! I fish them since then in this combination.
I haven’t used the Fish Skulls for seatrout fishing in the Baltic Sea yet, but I think they will work there as good as for my freshwater fishing.
In my opinion, the Fish Skulls are worth to give them a try.
tight lines
Holger Lachmann
Last night I wanted to tie a CDC-Shrimp. I’d just done the first few wraps with the tying thread, when my cell was ringing. My buddy Aik was calling. So, what to do? Stop tying? No way! :-) I clamped the cell between my ear and my shoulder and continued tying with this „special“ posture…. When I finished the telephone conversation, the fly was finished too, including the back with Clear Cure Goo.
To be honest, I was concentrated on the call and was wondering, that the fly looked no too bad either. I should always tie without thinking! :-D
Played with some colors, which worked pretty well in the last years….
At noon, I decided to do a little walk next to my home river Weser. It was – 7°C and it was snowing. A lot of ice floes were drifting down the river. It looks pretty impressive. I passed a little creek which flow into the Weser and my thoughts were flying into the future summer month, where hungry trout and grayling were rising constantly….
Back home I tied some quick dry flies size 12 with duo colored CDC wings and quill bodies, secured with uv-resin. Looking at these little creatures, I can’t await casting a dry fly to a rising fish again….
The principle of articulated flies is very old. I don’t really know the reason, but it’s not really common to fish articulated flies for seatrout in the Baltic Sea. I always like the movement of fox tail hair in the water, but there was always a big problem. The tail was raveling behind the hook bend when casting in many times. It was annoying to strip in the line, to see on the last meters, that the flies doesn’t swim correctly.
One and a half year ago I had the the idea to tie articulated flies with long hair from a fox tail. After some tests, I realized, that the flies swim perfectly in the water, without raveling during the long casts you do.
The movement of the long tail together with the joint gives the fly a maximum of flexibility. Especially, when you put some weight into the fly at the front.
I would recommend to retrieve the fly quiet fast with some stops .
Wiggle Fox for Seatrout fishing in Argentina
tl
Holger Lachmann
Some month ago I started playing around with Senyo’s Laser Dub.
I don’t really like it for the normal dubbed bodies, but for creating 3-D heads and bodies of flies, it’s really cool stuff.
You can put it in a dubbing loop, brush it with a velcro-brush and wind it around or stack it like you do with deer hair, which works best for me do get really compact bodies.
The combination with a zonker stripe works really great. The flies got a lot of volume and the zonker stripe moves really nice in the water.
I gave some friends baitfish patterns tied with Senyo’s Laser Dub for some tests. The results were really good. Perch, trout, asp, chub and seatrout (biggest one was around 70 cm) were caught. When you fish those patterns in strong currents, you should put some weight in the fly or fish with a sinking line.
Here are some examples.
