great start on the pilchard. that blue polar bear is exactly the right color. get those doll eyes glued on. a drop of 'Zap' gel will hold them until you can epoxy the heads. i'll be interested in your experimenting with stinger hooks or not. the only time i now use them are on really long, 12" streakers, that i troll for dorado. but most of my saltwater flies are less that 6" so only one hook but 5-6mm doll eyes. i do believe attacking fish key on those eyes as the target. so far i have not experienced the short strike problem so long as i have incorporated eyes of some sort.
Inherited the family bucktail kit - what's your favorite??
- Thread starter Andrew P
- Start date
Dave S
Active Member
I don't know much about bucktails as you know AP, but I would save those hooks only for the front hook. It seems to me that those are some good hooks and it looks like they have a long shank, which makes them ideal for tying. I'd just run a smaller octopus stinger as a trailer. Those big trailers will surely affect action. 40lb leader will help with the whip action behind a flasher. Just my thoughts.
Are those glows strips robbed from some hootchies?
Are those glows strips robbed from some hootchies?
Andrew P
Well-Known Member
Dave, I was thinking of changing out the back hooks too. I have the same hook in 2/0 as well. 100 of each. The stinger is attached with just a loop coming off the back so the hook can be changed up. Or tried without hook.
The glow stuff is kids glow lace from Michaels. Similar to hootchie but a bit more rigid.
The glow stuff is kids glow lace from Michaels. Similar to hootchie but a bit more rigid.
Andrew P
Well-Known Member
Reel fast, thanks for the tips. I'll try a range of hooks. I have these ones though and lots.
Anyways, I have a go at more of bait fish buck tail. This one looks great for Constance to me.
Materials:
Upper: Green polar bear hair and brown deer hair
Body/tail:Glow hootchie tentacles(second use for a trashed hootchie) green sparkly stuff and crystal flash
Head: Red and silver thread head.
Under: White tail deer under
3/0 main hook with 2/0 stinger. When stinger leader is trashed I'll see how it fishes sans stinger.
Dry and wet pictures
Anyways, I have a go at more of bait fish buck tail. This one looks great for Constance to me.
Materials:
Upper: Green polar bear hair and brown deer hair
Body/tail:Glow hootchie tentacles(second use for a trashed hootchie) green sparkly stuff and crystal flash
Head: Red and silver thread head.
Under: White tail deer under
3/0 main hook with 2/0 stinger. When stinger leader is trashed I'll see how it fishes sans stinger.
Dry and wet pictures
green is good. i believe the hootchie is #254 which is 'hot' from time to time. it also incorporates, white, black and pink, an interesting one to mimic. i have 2 drawers full of hooks so it is one the things you will start to accumulate. the SC15 has become my standard hook and i have used it for flies used for tarpon to pacific sails. 3x strong is the key and steel so if you get cut off the hook is going to rust out pretty quickly. get your stinger inside the fly body not haning out the back, is a tip i would pass along. visit your local emporium such as 'micheals' and find some doll eyes. l'll post up a couple of jpegs of epoxied heads later today.
Jencourt
Well-Known Member
Here is a couple from lots of years ago. All have caught many a large Rainbow over 10lbs on Okanagan lake as well as a few coho out of Bamfield.
Key for us was to find real polar bear hair and always add the red. Also front hook is wrapped with lead. Tried no lead and had not much luck compared to the ones with.
Blue was best as evidenced by the shape it is in,green and yellow close seconds.
Key for us was to find real polar bear hair and always add the red. Also front hook is wrapped with lead. Tried no lead and had not much luck compared to the ones with.
Blue was best as evidenced by the shape it is in,green and yellow close seconds.
Andrew P
Well-Known Member
Jencourt, those look nice. I tried a couple similar.
Here is a summary of what I've got so far; a few needle fish and some anchovies sized bait fish style. All of them have some glow tied in with either shredded glow hoochies or kids glow lace.
I had a bunch of trashed and under-used hootchies....which make a great head to finish them off. Pretty stoked how well that worked out. I figure tying in some hoochie tentacles into the core adds a bit of mass to it(like a real bait fish?).
Dry and wet pics.
Now just need to get out and try them.
Here is a summary of what I've got so far; a few needle fish and some anchovies sized bait fish style. All of them have some glow tied in with either shredded glow hoochies or kids glow lace.
I had a bunch of trashed and under-used hootchies....which make a great head to finish them off. Pretty stoked how well that worked out. I figure tying in some hoochie tentacles into the core adds a bit of mass to it(like a real bait fish?).
Dry and wet pics.
Now just need to get out and try them.
Attachments
Seafever
Well-Known Member
Thinking I'm going to get into making sand-eel flies. I've never tied or made a fly in my life before though.... My first question is :- Hooks. I was thinking of going absolutely no smaller than 2/0 and might go bigger at times up to 4/0. I would imagine I'll need long shank in these. Who makes such hooks? And also, which epoxy is best for saltwater? Is a straight-eye on hooks good? Or do I need hooks with offset eye?
all good questions:
hooks - i tie exclusively now on Gamakatsu SC15's, you don't need long shank hooks. sizes 1/0 to 8/0 depending on what i am fishing for.
glue - superglue, exclusively, as i have found it is the only product that holds together in constant salt water use.
epoxy - gorilla 2 part epoxy for doing beautiful heads.
very cool, thanks for sharing. are those spinner blades and clevises? when do you use those?
medherring
Member
A spinner in front of a bucktail is absolutely deadly when bucktailing for coho. And a mother of pearl spinner can be even deadlier if it doesn't spin your bucktail too much.
Andrew P
Well-Known Member
How is wolf hair for bucktails?
The reason I ask is because my mutt is a husky-shepherd/coastal wolf cross and has awesome looking fur. I don't know how stoked he would be about me coming at his tail with scissors, but he sheds enough that you can basically pull it out in the summer.
Here's a little video to show what he looks like.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qE1rrqkZUg
The reason I ask is because my mutt is a husky-shepherd/coastal wolf cross and has awesome looking fur. I don't know how stoked he would be about me coming at his tail with scissors, but he sheds enough that you can basically pull it out in the summer.
Here's a little video to show what he looks like.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qE1rrqkZUg
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