You'll be seeing a lot of these raccoon tube bunny's over the next week in a multitude of different colour combinations and styles. 
Yellow tail mixed brown,gold n black thin tinsels and a brown dubbing looped raccoon fur head
Grey tail with 10 grizzly microbarb saddles and a sea blue arctic fox dubbing looped head.
White tail, then added 30 or so Olive Ostrich hurl feathers then dubbing looped yellow raccoon fur for the head. A very simple set of flies to tie that would be great for Spring & Autumn time.
They are really cool Simon!
ReplyDeleteDo they fish alot different being tied on a tube compared to a standard hook?
Also,will you be selling the Raccoon fur in your shop?
Cheers..Rich
Actually they do Rich.I like to use a large cone head with these to give the fly a little weight up front. They really give it a nice undulating movement. And I don't care what people say if you tie this fly its extremely light even once its been in the water sometime.Just give it an extra false cast and jobs a good en!
ReplyDeleteI'm tying more and more of my flies onto tubes these days for two reasons. The first being they drastically improve the life expectancy of your fly and secondly I use extremely short shanked hooks in them which also cuts down on the overall weight.
I like to heat the tube up in hot water then slide the hook into the end.this softens the tube and allows for the hook to come out once you have hooked a pike.The fly then runs free up the line away from the pikes teeth. Which is a god sent with all the feathers I tie with. To give you an example I have still got flies in my box that I caught several pike with last season that still look practically brand new.I think in the next couple of years more and more blokes will be tying onto tubes.
And yes I will be selling Raccoon & Arctic fox fur as well for a hell of a lot cheaper than fly shops sell them, in a multitude of colours. I'll also be selling a new range of pike tube accessories Ive been designing, developing & testing from the shop with larger tubes and coneheads.
Excellent news!
ReplyDeleteI have the tubeology pro kit that I got sent to try but to be honest I have been so busy with other things I simply have not had time!
I will have to purchase some tubes from you when they go on sale, I love to try new things!
I use alot of arctic marble fox and arctic shadow fox myself,that fly you commented on earlier is tied using arctic fox, I also am a huge fan of himalayan sheep. I think it is a very underated material for Pike flys.....
I love Himalayan sheep.....just hard to get here thus I haven't tied with it for a couple of years. I can understand why some chaps prefer to use synthetic materials either through principal or the weight issue but naturals are by far.....(well to me) a far more effective material to use. Blokes need to work through the weight issue and change their style of casting to allow for the slight weight differences these kind of flies posses. Then and only then will they enjoy the benefits Furs and feathers have over synthetics.
ReplyDeleteSimon... I think that folk are only now switching onto the Raccoon.. it is a fantastic fur that is almost a replacement for marabou... watching the fibres work whilst the fly is stationary is amazing... and like you I'm tying more on tubes! I wonder where the influence came for that??
ReplyDeleteSpeak soon... David