Busy at the bench

[tugboat]

Been busy at the bench to stock up my fly boxes. Don't have a lot of time at any one time so I pick them off a couple at a time. First up is something I conjured up. I've always loved woolly buggers and the infinite variations you can tie of them. They look like nothing in particular, yet they can pass for just about anything. The fly fisherman's version of a tube jig or other soft plastic. You can tie them with any material you like, with a bead head, a cone head, add rubber legs, tie them big, tie them small, whatever. They'll all catch fish. I like tying them with dumbbell eyes to have them ride hook up but I've always thought they looked goofy when tied with dumbbell eyes. My hunch is that I'm being picky and that the fish don't care but to satisfy my OCD I tied this thing up. I used marabou for the tail and 4 strands of pearl krystal flash, a pre-made EP shrimp dub brush in Pearl to dub the body, dumbbell eyes, and then I made a dubbing brush and dubbed around the dumbbell eyes with white sculpin wool. It looks better to me and once wet I don't think the sculpin wool will affect the sink rate any. It might even help push a bit more water, but whether it would be enough to affect how a fish sensed it I have no clue. We'll see when we get on the water!



Second is another variation of something to satisfy my OCD about wooly bugger style flies with dumbbell eyes. On this one I added a wing of 3D EP fibers on top after I added the dumbbell eyes. Instead of krystal flash I added a couple grizzly legs on each side and used a permanent marker to add grizzly lines to both the marabou tail and EP fiber wing. The intent is something to imitate a white shrimp.



The same type of fly using all EP fibers instead of marabou, and using a tan tail and wing with a pink body. Another shrimp imitation.



Finally, a crab fly to try to tempt a tailer.

[snafu]

Nice looking flies. I've been looking for a "barb up" shrimp fly pattern that I had the material to try and tie. Seems most are based on the wooly bugger or the clouser.

I love tying, but I don't make pretty flies haha. But they still catch fish.

[tugboat]

Thanks snafu! Most are. I've seen some where people tie a wing of some sort on top of the shrimp body but tie it in on both the back and front to imitate a shrimp shell. I myself tend to prefer flies with more movement like woolly buggers and clousers. I'm sure the other style with the hard backs work too.

[cottonchop]

Great looking flies, that,s something that I want to try my hand at, but have been scared to attempt. Keep up the good work and pictures

[tugboat]

It's not as hard as it may seem to tie flies. Especially saltwater flies. Join the dark side!!

[snafu]

Start out with panfish flies. Bluegill will eat pocket fuzz. Plus it's like batting practice for fighting fish. And just work your way up to bigger fish.

[snafu]

Those middle two flies. Do you swim those like a clouser or more like a shrimp/DOA?

[tugboat]

I've almost always stripped in clousers and other weighted flies so they end up with a jigging action like a soft plastic, but that's mostly because I fish from boats drifting with the current most of the time. Most everything I fish I use a stop and go retrieve of some sort. The only exceptions being rattletraps, spinnerbaits, and buzzbaits.

If fishing current from a stationary point I'll sometimes swing them through the current like a trout nymph, with a strip or two at the end of the swing. That would probably work as well in certain circumstances, but normally I strip baitfish, shrimp, and crawfish patterns across current.

[tradbow]

Good looking flies.