Fly development

Fly development is something I'm always playing around with and have been looking for a fly for some years now that could do a number of things for me. It should be totally snag free (Over rocks & through thick weed beds) & light enough to cast either with a single handed rod or a double spey set up. Steve Silverios hightie method was somthig that interested me a lot so I tied up these for starters. They have worked fantastic and have caught me some nice size fish over the last month. Unfortunately this design has some flaws with my synthetics that needed to be improved. Tying the materials onto a streight up turned hook like this was fine but as with all synthetics no matter what you try, once wet they always pencil out and I was finding firstly that the materials were clumping up a lot around the hook point, which although still allowed the fly to move freely through weed beds it still had the tendancy to get snagged often & secondly was mainly hindered hook ups. Coupled with the beaded wire counter balance (Which actually isn't necessary) I lost a lot more fish than I liked.

I then decided to try the same method except this time onto a bendback style hook and the the rest is history really. The Ultimate weedless weed guarded fly. By changing the angle of the tying platform its improved the performance of this fly 100%. Firstly its stopped the synthetics penciling out and improved the overall profile of the baitfish pattern, which in turn has allowed the hook point to be less clogged up. Secondly changing the angle of the hook point has for some reason also improved the amount of fish I have hooked & thirdly the bendback has now given me a fly I can fish over distance while wading that rides over every rock and snag and can be chucked into the thickest weed or lilly bed without ever getting snagged. Trust me I have been testing these flies the last 3 weeks,chucking them into some of the thickest reed beds and retirieved the fly back without a single snag up.

I've also found through trial and error that its also benificial to have an epoxied head at the front. A couple of eyes bug bonded works a treat. Not only is this fly awesome for wading and thick weedbeds but am positive it will be the perfect fly for my double handed spey endevours. Anyway this fly I used fluoro yellow vibrant chenille to attach the seperate clumps of blended misty green deadly dazzle and natural belly mirror image.

This perch pattern I used hot orange vibrant chenille to attach the blended clumps of misty yellow deadly dazzle and steelhead silver mirror image for the 1st four clumps and then placed a final clump of of chartreuse slinky fiber ontop. the chin is red arctic fox.

This one comprises entirely of white and olive slinky fiber and a chin of red arctic fox again. I'm busy doing a tutorial whic I will post next week for anyone who wants to give them a bash.