Poxy-Fox

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:

  • Gamakatsu F314 # 2
  • Mono thread
  • 3D Eyes
  • Marble Fox olive
  • Krinkle Mirror Flash
  • Ice Dub golden olive
  • Felix Cord olive
  • Permanent Markers
  • UV-Resin

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

Fleye Foil Fox Candy – Step By Step

Here’s a Surf Candy style pattern tied with the new Fleye Foils by Bob Popovics. The tail made out of arctic fox wiggles nice in the water. Much better than most synthetics. It’s not just a battern for the saltwater fisherman, you can also fish it in freshwater. Small sizes for trout and char for example, bigger ones for asp. Just give it a try.

Materials:

  • Hook: Gamakatsu SS15/T # 4
  • Thread: Mono
  • Tail: Arctic Fox
  • Flash: Krinkle Mirror Flash Pearl
  • Body: Senyo’s Laser Dub, Bob Popovics‘ Fleye Foils „Silverside“ and uv-resin

 

 

Tie in the arctic fox as tail and 3 strands of krinkle mirror flash, one on each side and one on top.

 

3mm in front of the fox, tie in a bunch of white senyo’s laser dub on the top of the hook shank and one underneath.

 

Do the same with a bunch of laser dub holographic minnow belly 3 mm infront of the white dub.

Now, pick two colors of laser dub of your liking, here it’s light olive and shrimp pink, and tie it in like you see above.

Pull the laser dub backwards, that’s how you put a bit of volume to the head, otherwise it won’t fit to the shape of the foil.

Put a foil on each side. Just tie in the little „nose“ of the foil with a couple of turns and whip finish the fly.

Pull the laser dub and the foils backwards and start to apply the uv resin on the body. The resin should soak into the dubbing, that gives the fly later some translucency. Mostly it’s easier to applicate two layers of uv resin. You got much more control of everything.

If you don’t use a tackfree uv resin, put a thin coating of nail varnish on the uv resin to get a tackfree glossy finish.

That’s it! Ready for fishing!

tl

Holger Lachmann

Baltic Candy Step by Step

 

Everybody knows Bob Popovics‘ famous Surf Candy. A really great pattern to imitate bait fish and sandeels. I always loved this pattern. The only thing I didn’t like was the stiff material, which is used for it. For my seatrout fishing in the Baltic sea, I wanted the pattern to move more like the real sandeel.

I was always a fan of soft materials, so I tried polar fibre which looks fantastic underwater and moves really nice. The big problem: It was wrapping around the hook bend while casting, which was annoying. The solution was to expand the epoxy body behind the hook bend. This prevents the tangling extremely well.

Another important feature is the weight in the front of the fly which causes a strong jigging effect. The natural behavior of a sandeel when chased by a predator is that it swims as fast as it can to the bottom to hide in the sand. The jigging effect imitate this behavior.

I think I tied now over 1000 Baltic Candies and they changed a lot over the last years. The first years I used 5minute epoxy for the body and I developed some tricks to build a perfect smooth body without a lot of efforts. I showed these tricks at a lot of fairs in the last years and there was always an „Aaah!“-effect for the audience and even for some of the other tiers, but I wouldn’t tell you the tricks! ;-)

Why? The answer is quite simple. I don’t use epoxy anymore. I was annoyed by the yellowing of the epoxy after some months. It doesn’t matter which epoxy brand you are using, everything turns yellow! You don’t tie a BC in 5 minutes, that’s for sure, so it’s hard to see your with love tied flies turning yellow. The other important point is, that epoxy is very unhealthy.  So I changed to uv-resin, which means all my nice epoxy tricks were useless….but that was not to bad, because working with uv-resin is quite easy, especially when you are working with „tackfree“-resin.

A Baltic Candy wet and dry

My Baltic Candies becomes smaller and thinner over the years, because of a lot of improvement. It’s harder for the fish to find out if it’s real food or not, when the fly looks a bit blurry in the water. Another advantage is, that a slim sandeel pattern with weight in the front flies through the air like a dart. Even with your hand you can throw a Baltic Candy several meters! Try this little experiment with a normal fly….you’ll see whats happened. ;-)

Bernd Ziesche with perfect baltic silver. You can see my Baltic Candy on the cork handle. ;-)

This sbs is for a „fully dressed“ Baltic Candy. You can use less flash if you prefer it. Personally I got Baltic Candies with different amounts of flash material.

Two important tips: First, strip the Baltic Candy really fast through the water with some stops. You could never, really never(!), strip the BC too fast. We could never reach the speed of a spin fishermen, so there is no „too fast“.

Secondly, it could happen that the polar fibre is a bit disarranged after you caught a fish. Just use a velcro on your jacket or vest as a comb to brush the BC.

At last, I have to thank my buddy Bernd Ziesche (great guide, superb casting instructor and owner of the fly fishing school www.first-cast.de) for his tests and comments over the years!

 

Materials:

  • Hook: Gamakatsu SC 15 # 2 or 1
  • Weight: Lead Wire
  • Body: Twisted Flash silver/pearl
  • Bite Point: UV-Thread orange
  • Wing: Polar Fibre (white, misty blue, olive), Angel-Hair holographic-silver
  • Flash: Krinkle Mirror Flash pearl
  • Eyes: Stick-On-Eyes
  • UV-Resin: Bug Bond
  • Thread: Uni-Mono

 

Wind the lead wire around the hook shank and secure it with super glue.

 

 Tie in the twisted flash.

 

Twist the flash and wind it to the front and catch it with your thread.

 

Tie in a little hot bite point at the end of the shank.

 

Tie in a bunch of white polar fibre on the underside of the fly.

 

Tie in the angel-hair.

 

Tie in bunches of blue and olive polar fibre.

 

Tie in two strands of krinkle mirror flash on each side and do a whip finish.

 

Pull the fibres with your left hand and apply the Bug Bond and cure it with your uv-torch.

 

Put the stick-on eyes on each side and apply the second thin coating of Bug Bond. The Baltic Candy is tackfree and now ready for fishing. If you are a crazy fly tyer like myself, you apply a third quick coating of Bug Bond, which gives really a smooth high end finish („black“ photo)!  ;)

That’s it, the Baltic Candy, my modified version of Bob Popovics‘ famous Surf Candy.

tight lines

Holger Lachmann

Mini Sculpin Step By Step

 

I was invited to tie at the Dutch Fly Fair last weekend. A small Mini Sculpin pattern was lying on my desk in front of me while tying. It was less then 5 cm long. A lot of people liked it, especially Walter Bayer from Ireland (great flytyer) and Roger Enger Lie (great caster) from Norway and I had to promise to them, that I will do a step by step tutorial of this little guy.

So guys, this one is for you! ;-)

 

Material:

  • Hook: Gamakatsu SC 15 # 4
  • Weight: Tungsten Bead
  • Tail: Pine Squirrel Zonker
  • Pectoral Fins: Pine Squirrel Zonker
  • Head: Senyo’s Laser Dub
  • Eyes: 3-D Eyes

 

Put a tungsten bead on the hook.

 

Tie in a piece of pine squirrel zonker as a tail.

 

Put some pine squirrel hair in the clamp, then split the thread and put the hair in the gap.

 

Rotate the bobbin to twist the hair and the thread. Put a litlle bit of water on the hair, so it’s easier to wrap it around the hook shank.

 

Tie in bunches of Senyo’s Laser Dub. Remember, this is a up side down pattern, so tie in the bright color on top of the fly and the dark color underneath. You can create different shades by using different colors. Finish the tying with a whip finish behind the tungsten bead.

 

Now, start the cutting to create a sculpin head. The easiest way is to begin with the flat underside.

 

Before the cutting is finished, use some superglue to fix the 3-D eyes on top of the sculpin head and press the eyes into the Laser Dub to give the head strength. Now, you can do the final cutting.

That’s it! A small sculpin which swims down on the bottom of the river, because of the tungsten bead.

Note: Please press down the barb of the hook! Trouts will take the sculpin very aggressively!

tight lines

Holger Lachmann

PAPS – Pink Articulated Pike Streamer

 

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.

2012 Fantasy pike fly challenge – by Simon Graham

Legendary pike fly fisherman and pike fly tyer Simon Graham starts a really cool challenge in 2012.

Rules

Players pick 4 flies for the season 12 flies to choose from (Found in the left sidebar)
6 tubes
6 hooked
6 substitute flies (3 x tubes & 3 x hooked) 5 flies will be tied for each specific fly design, and will be used through out the season. Once each fly becomes unusable to fish with, it will be replaced with a new one until all five are finished. Flies will be regularily photographed to show their condition throughout the Fantasy league challenge.

Points tally

Points will be tallied up at the end of each week and added to the league table in the sidebar so players can see where they are standing 1 point will be given for each fish caught
2 extra points will be awarded for a fish over 75cm (2,46 ft)
4 extra points will be awarded for a fish over 85cm (2,78 ft)
6 extra points will be awarded for a fish over 1 meter (3,28 ft)
I will alternate between using tube flies one days and hooked flies the next and each fly will be changed after each fish caught which will even out the playing field so to say!

Substitutions

1. Substitutions will be submitted as and when I feel the need to change the playing field. for example certain flies will perform better during different times of the year.
2. 3 x substitutions will take place throughout the course of
the season.
3. Each player gets to choose one tube and one hooked fly they would like to change. The flies that get the most vote for that specific substitution period get used!

Play offs!

1. On the 30th September all the points will be tallied up and the top 10 players will go into the October play offs which will end on the 31st October.
2. All the flies will be brought back into play for each of the ten players.
3. Players can then choose to either keep the ones they have or change to other models during the play offs.
All entrants need to be submitted by the latest 15th May. Send your entry name to uivelon_kierros@yahoo.co.uk with (2012 Fantasy pike fly challenge) as a header

 

Please visit Simons challenge website: http://fantasypikeflychallenge.blogspot.de/

 

Mayfly Flex Stretch Nymph – Step By Step

Here’s the step by step tutorial for a mayfly nymph pattern, to imitate the BWO for example. This pattern is durable and looks quite like the natural, when drifting through the river. Don’t use too much material when tying these kind of nymphs. You should always keep the slim original in your mind.

This pattern is another example, how usefull uv-resin could be, when tying even small flies for trout and graylig. For this fly I used Clear Cure Goo Hydro, which is highly fluid like water. It’s perfect for smaller patterns and is soacked up by dubbing and feathers, what makes the flies really durable.

 

Materials:

  • Hook: Daiichi D 1270 # 14
  • Weight: Flat Lead
  • Tail: Pheasant Tail Fibres
  • Abdomen: Flex Stretch Olive
  • Wing Case: Pheasant Tail Fibres & Clear Cure Goo Hydro
  • Thorax: Oliver Edwards Masterclass Dubbing & Clear Cure Goo Hydro
  • Legs: Partridge

 

Put the hook into the vise and wind the flat lead on the hook shank. Do a second layer of lead on the front part like shown on the foto.

 

Tie in three pheasant tail fibres to imitate the tail of the mayfly.

 

Tie in a small piece od stretch flex and wind it aroung the hook shank.

 

Cut a piece out of a pheasant tail feather and tie it in for the wing case.

 

Take a partridge feather and cut a little piece out of the tip. Then tie the partridge feather in with the tip first.

 

Dub the thorax, then fold the partridge to the front and catch it with your thread next to the hook eye.

 

Put a little drop of Clear Cure Goo Hydro on the stem of the partridge feather to join the dubbing with the feather. Cure the CCG Hydro with the uv torch. The hackle stem and the dubbing are joined together now. Nothing will ever slip and the legs will stay as shown on the photo.

 

Fold the pheasant to the front and catch it with your tying thread. Put a little drop of Clear Cure Goo Hydro on the wing case and cure it with the uv torch.

 

The wing case is now very durable after curing the CCG Hydro. If you want a shiny wing case, that’s what I prefer, put a second drop of CCG Hydro on the wing case and cure it. Now, the mayfly nymph is ready for fishing.

tight lines

Holger Lachmann

Quill Body CDC Emerger No. 2 – Step By Step

It’s the end of April and the trout and grayling season will start soon.

Here’s another very good emerger pattern, which imitates some different may fly species, depending on the colour and size. It’s tied on the new Daiichi 1167 Klinkhamer hook, designed by the famous dutch fly tyer Hans van Klinken.

The Daiichi 1167 got a stronger wire compared to the Tiemco 212Y for example, which makes sure, that the abdomen hangs deep in the surface. That’s really important and that’s the reason, why this pattern got no tail or a trailing shuck, to make sure, that the abdomen is hanging deep in the surface.

The quill body is covered with a thin coating UV Resin.

 

Materials:

  • Hook: Daiichi 1167 # 14
  • Abdomen: Polish Quills &Tack Free UV Resin
  • Thorax: Oliver Edwards Master Class Dubbing
  • Wing case: CDC
  • Wing: CDC
  • Legs: Partridge

 

Put the hook into the vise, do a layer of thread and tie in a stripped peacock quill. Wind the quill around the hook shank and catch it with the tying thread.

 

Put a little drop of Tack Free UV Resin on the stripped peacock quill and spread it on the abdomen. Cure it with your UV torch.

 

Tie in two CDC feathers for the wing case. Then tie in the tip of another white CDC feather as a crippled wing.

 

Dub the body and tie in some partridge fibres to imitate the legs. Fold each CDC feather to the hook eye and catch it with the tying thread. The CDC wing should be exactly in the middle of the feathers.

 

Cut the CDC feathers for the wing case and do some turns with your whip finisher to create a little head. Varnish the head, if you like. That’s it, ready for fishing. ;-)

tight lines

Holger Lachmann

Grey Magnus Step By Step

 

This pattern is so famous….no more words about it, let’s start tying! ;-)

 

Materials:

  • Hook: Gamakatsu SS15/T # 4
  • Tail: Grey Grizzly Marabou / Chrystal Flash Pearl
  • Ribbing: Mono
  • Body: Hare’e Ice Dub Hare’s Ear from Hareline / Grizzly Hackle
  • Front Hackle: Dun Grizzly Saltwater Hackle
  • Eyes: Bead Chain Eyes

 

Do a layer of thread on the hook shank and tie in the grizzly marabou as a tail.

 

Tie in two strands of pearl crystal flash on each side of the marabou and fix the mono for the ribbing.

 

Spin some dubbing around the thread and dub the body. Don’t dub the body to tight, because we want to brush it later.

 

Tie in a smaler grizzly hackle and wind the hackle from the front to the back around the dubbing body. Rib the dubbing body and the hackle turns with the mono from the back to the front and catch the mono with your tying thread. Give the body a nice brush with your velcro-brush.

 

Take a dun grizzly saltwater hackle and prepare it like shown on the picture. Tie it in and wind it around the hook to create the front hackle.

 

Take some bead chain eyes and tie them in. After some turns around the eyes, put a drop of super glue between the eyes to secure them, then keep winding the thread around the eyes. That’s how you create a strong bead chain head. If you fix the eyes with loose turns of thread, they will slip around the hook shank. That’s it, the Grey Magnus.

tight lines

Holger Lachmann

Some Magnus-Flies for the Seatrout-Flies gallery

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.

Magnus

Polar Magnus

 

Olive Magnus

 

Brown Magnus

A closer look at: Fish Skull by Flymen Fishing Company

 

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.

great upside down pattern for deep hunting perch

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

Zonker-Fish step by step

 

Zonker stripes are one of my favorite materials for tying streamers. The Zonker-Fish is a really simple pattern made out of a zonker stripe, which is very durable and, most important, it catches fish.

You can find a lot of color examples in my photo album Streamers.

Materials:

  • Hook: Gamakatsu F 314 # 4
  • Weight: Lead
  • Ribbing: Mono
  • Body: Flash Dubbing
  • Wing: Zonker Stripe
  • Flash: Krinkle Mirror Flash
  • Head: Flash Dubbing, Clear Cure Goo
  • Eyes: Clear Cure Eyes Solar Flare

 

Wind on some lead wire and secure it with super glue.

 

Tie in a piece of mono for ribbing.

 

Mix two colors of flash dubbing.

 

Split the thread and put the dubbing in the gap. Then spin the bobbin to twist the dubbing.

 

Wind the dubbing around the hook shank and brush it with your velcro brush.

 

Tie in a zonker stripe at the front and rib it with the mono from the back to the front.

 

Tie in a strand of krinkle mirror flash on each side and form a little head with flash dubbing.

 

Use some super glue for fixing the Clear Cure Eyes on each side and fill the space between the eyes on top and bottom with Clear Cure Goo to create a durable head.

tight lines

Holger Lachmann

Matuka Streamer

Here’s a step by step tutorial for a matuka streamer. This type of streamer is very old and you don’t see it to often in the fly boxes of the fishermen today, but the truth is, that the feathers move nicely, especially when you put some weight in the front of the fly, which causes a jigging effect.

Materials:

  • Hook: Gamakatsu F 314 # 4
  • Feathers: Keough Saltwater Grizzly Hackle, Keough Saltwater Hackle
  • Body: SLF Saltwater Dubbing white and ginger
  • Eyes: Deer Creek Gator Eyes
  • Flash: Krinkle Mirror Flash
  • UV-Resin: Deer Creek Diamond Hard Tack Free Resin
  • Weight: Lead Wire
  • Ribbing: Mono

 

Wind some lead wire around the shank and secure it with super glue.

 

Create a little dubbing ball at the end of the hook shank, tie in a saltwater hackle and wind it around. The dubbing ball pushes the fibres to the sides.

 

Tie in a piece of mono for ribbing. Split the tying thread and put the dubbing mix in the gap. Spin the bobbin to twist the dubbing. Wind the dubbing around the hook shank and brush it with your velcro .

 

Take two feathers and pull some fibres from one side as shown on the photo. Tie in the feather at the front and secure them by ribbing them with the mono. Catch the ribbing with your thread.

 

Tie in some strands of krinkle mirror on each side and do a whip finish with your thread. Take two gator eyes and put them on each side. You should use super glue to secure them. The fly is nearly finished. Just take some Diamond Hard Tack Free resin and let it run between the eyes, then cure it with your uv torch. Repeat this till the gap between the eyes is filled. This makes the fly very strong and durable.

tight lines

Holger Lachmann

Cellphone Shrimp

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

 

 

The Soft Brown Grizzly

 

Another all around seatrout fly. This pattern is inspired by the famous fly „Omøborsten“. This fly is mainly tied out of soft Keough grizzly saltwater hackles, which pulsate strongly in the water. I made a little video at the end of the tutorial, where you can get a slightly impression, how the fly mowes in the water.

Materials:

  • Hook: Partridge CS 54 # 6
  • Weight: Lead Wire
  • Tail: Dubbing & Keough Grizzly Saltwater Hackle
  • Ribbing: Mono
  • Body: SLF Dubbing & SLF Prism Dubbing, Keough Grizzly Saltwater Hackle
  • Front: Keough Grizzly Saltwater Hackle
  • Hot Spot: Fluo Thread

 

Wind the lead wire around the front part of the hook and secure it with super glue. Then create a little dubbing ball at the end of the fly.

 

Tie in a really big and soft hackle.

 

Wind the hackle around the hook shank.

 

Tie in some pheasant tippets.

 

Tie in the mono for ribbing. Then split the thread, put the dubbing in the gap and spin the bobbin to twist the thread and the dubbing. Wind the Dubbing around the shank.

 

Tie in another hackle…

 

…wind it towards the end of the fly. Secure the hackle by ribbing the it with the mono. Then brush the body, so the dubbing strands are mixed with the hackle fibres.

 

Tie in another big hackle at the front. This big front hackle pushes the water and creates much turbulance.

 

Create a nice little hot spot with your fluo thread and varnish it. That’s it!

tight lines

Holger Lachmann

click to play the video[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/36655237[/vimeo]