Bass Shad

Here is a very simple pattern to tie and only takes a few minutes from start to finish. By using a worm hook. I like the Mustad 38105 Ultra-Lock™ Soft-Plastic Hooks because of the longer than normal beak on the hook. It makes tying in materials very easy. Any hook that you can get two wraps of material on will work. This fly is super light weight and is about as weedless as you can get without adding a weed guard. The hook keels itself and rides hook point up. Sorry for the gray over white, defiantly not the best for pictures. The material is SF flashblend, however EP fibers and other synthetic materials will work great.

Start with a worm hook.

Pick your bottom color and split it around the 

hook shank.

Take your top color and tie it in. Also splitting 

it so it folds back evenly.

Your going to end up trimming the fly, but as 

your tying in your material you will 

want to taper the fly in the 

general spade shape.

Next tie in one more set of materials on the top 

and bottom. 

Fold back and build a mound of thread to make 

the material hold back. Don't wrap on 

to of the material because it will 

make the fly have a flat profile.

Whip finish and remove from the vise.

Use some long blade scissors and

start trimming the fly 

to profile.  

Add some eyes.

A black dot for a threadfin shad. 

Chartreuse over white.

Ostrich, Marabou, Bucktail, and Ice Dub. 

SBS coming soon. 

Beavers Bend Trout Fixing

Just north of Broken Bow Oklahoma lies Beavers Bend state park. Its a beautiful little tailwater that holds good trout fishing throughout the entire year. Being within 3 hrs of Dallas it is a great place to get your trout fix when long vacations aren't able to be planned. The crowds can be a little over bearing at times but if you are willing to walk there is plenty of fishable water. In the fall it is one of the prettiest places to be. They have great camp grounds from RV spots, state park cabins to tent spots all along the river. Being so close to the metroplex its makes quick trips convenient and just what one needs before they start the weekly grind again. The river gets stocked every few weeks with rainbow trout. There are a few brown trout mixed in the river also. 

I took a vacation day and made a run up there Thursday night and fished all day Friday before returning home Friday evening. With this polar vortex the morning started off pretty brisk with the rod guides freezing up. I was landing fish after just a few drifts. most the fish were taking an olive WD40. I caught several typical stocker rainbows and one smaller brown. I found one good rainbow of roughly 20" in a pool but never could get hook in her. Over all it was a decent day of fishing and a good day on the water with great fall foliage. 

Average fish today.

The cold weather had them pretty feisty.

 Lots of cypress sporting their fall colors. 

The old park dam.

Lots of these little spunks around.

Watch that lead fly when a fish is still attached

to the trailing fly. 

Half and Half; Not what you think

So everyone is familiar with the Half and Half fly; part clouser/part deceiver. This is a little different based on Jonny Kings Kinky Muddler and his Hoo fly. I think he already kinda makes a fly like this or very similar. The cigar body of this fly is perfect for mullet imitations and it has great darting action when stripped in. The rattle adds some fish attracting noise that can be very beneficial at night and in low light conditions.

Like most my flies I'm gunna add a rattle. 

Attach the rattle using some EZ Body. This material 

has a good combination of flex and stiffness to 

allow the rattle to shake.

Use some Marks A Lot markers to 

color the EZ Body to the color 

of choice,  

 Tie in a little bit of SF Flash Blend.

Then cover it with 4-6 hackles.

Then using Jonny's V-Tying technique work

your way up the shank of the hook.

Less is more is the best advice

I can give you when tying

this fly.

When you are roughly an 1/8 of an inch

from the eye tie in some 

Senyos Lazer Dub.  

Put your eyes on. 

You can pick this stuff up at most craft

stores for less then half the cost

of liquid fusion and its

the same thing.

Casey Smart did a good write up on this stuff.

Check it our here

You can add a few drops of water to thin it.

Using a small paint brush to paint the Fabric Fusion

onto the head of the fly. Let the fly 

sit aside and dry.

3 Hog Day

The morning started off with a fish smacking bait in a seam. After several cast with a crease fly this nice striper got his lip pierced. Rainy's Taco Pescado is my favorite crease fly, they are very durable and the fish like them. After that the fish just didn't want to cooperate. I did sight cast to a nice size drum that I broke off on the hook set. Its always cool spotting a fish and watching him take the fly. I had 3 hogs step out of the brush about 50 yards away, they stared at me for a few minutes and then walked back into the brush.

Its been a while since I've caught a buffalo, man what an incredibly dumb fish these things are. I can respect almost every fish out there. But these things are just beyond saving. They don't fight, their slimy as all get out, there so dumb you can practically just sit there and poke them with your rod tip. I think alligator gar like to feed on them so at least they have some purpose. 

Big Fish Day

My original plans were to go out and catch bass with some buddies this morning. Everyone bailed on me so I changed my plans and ran to the river. I wasn't really expecting much this morning, but wanted to get out and fish. I almost slept in this morning, good thing I didn't. With just a few hours to fish it turned out to be a great morning. The fish of the morning was a nice 8lb striper on a crease fly. Fumbling around trying to get pics and the hook out I snapped the tip of my 7wt. I figured that would have been the fish of the trip. All I had left was my 5wt with a craft fur clouser on it. Got back to fishing and just a few cast later I hooked into something big. The fish quickly took me into the backing, with the boils and thrashes near the surface I spotted the dorsal fin of the big fish then knowing I had a striper on the end of my line. I got my drag tightened down and the battle of the fish pulling line and me gaining a little line went back and fourth for several minutes before I was finally able to get the fish up into some shallow water were it beached itself. I immediately realized how long this fish was and how big her head was. I could tell the summer had been hard on this old girl, she was holding her own but the low flows this year had left her with an empty stomach and thinner then I would have liked to see her. Judging by the healed injury to her right eye this isn't her first time to survive rough times. I didn't get a tape on her, but I would guestimate her breaking 40". She went 24lbs on the boga and is my biggest striper to date. And of course she was released to fight another day and continue her life in the river.

24lb Striper 

Landed using a TFO TICR 5wt 

on 12lb leader

Big Ol' Head

She bent a 1/0 Tiemco 811S

Caught on the Dub'n Duane Craft Fur Clouser

A nice 8lb fish on a crease fly

A nice 17" smallie.

 Love the dark/rich colors

No Shoulders

Today was a beautiful day to sit out on the back porch and tie flies. This fly should work good on the largemouth bass. It has alot of steps, but I think over all it is a pretty simple fly to tie. It is and should be fished very similarly to a Texas rigged worm.

No Shoulders

Start off with a 2/0 gammy worm hook. Tie in some 1/4" black/chartreuse I-Balz under the hook shank, up next to the 90 degree bend. 

Next tie in some flash. I picked up some new age holo flash from Orvis the other day and I really like this stuff. You want the flash to be the length you plan on making this fly. 5-7 inches should work. 

You'll make a weed guard out of 60lb wire. This wire will also give the bunny strip some rigidity when the fly is wet.

Take about 8" and bend it in half. By leaving one end about an inch longer then the other it will make threading the bunny strip onto the wire easier. Take the wire and tie it on top of the hook shank, right on top of the eyes and flash you already tied in.

Take a 6-8" bunny strip. These need to be magnum (1/4") or Texas (3/8") sized strips. Not many shops will carry the Texas size bunny strips, but Bears Den does.

Start at the end of the bunny strip that you are going to tie down onto the shank of the hook. Punch 2 holes on the outside edges of the strip. Go down about a quarter of an inch and do the same. Then go down past the bend of the hook and punch 2 more holes. You should have a total of 6 holes.

Now thread the wire through the holes that you punched. Start skin side and make sure the right wire goes in the right side hole and the left wire into the left side hole. You want the hook to sit between both wires. Then go ahead and pull the strip all the way down the wire and prepare to tie it to the hook shank.

I tie the bunny strip down with an x pattern, the same tie down technique you used to secure the eyes. Make sure the wire is exiting the fur side. you can see the wire sticking out the back behind the hook shank. 

Now flip the fly over and pull the flash out of the way. Add a line of goop where the wire first begins on the skin side and continue about a half to one inch past the hook shank. The goop will hold the bunny strip to the wire, it will also add some rigidity to the body portion of the fly. By extending the goop past the hook shank it will act as a tail loop and keep the bunny strip from fouling around the hook shank. You can set the fly aside and start another one while the glue dries. Typically it just takes 10-15 minutes for it to dry. During the winter it may take longer.

  

Now that the glue is dry, take a knife or a razor blade and cut a small slit through the glue and between the wire. The slit just needs to be slightly past the hook point and hook bend. This is going to allow the bunny strip to move down and out of the way for good hook sets. Notice how when a fish bites down on the fly the hook point will be exposed. You will also want to cut the excess wire that is on the fur side sticking out past the hook shank. i cut it down to about a quarter of an inch.

The last step will be to finish the head of the fly off with some Senyo's laser dub.

Take a tooth brush and comb it back and into place. 

This step is optional but I like to do it. Take a craft brush and paint some Liquid Fusion onto the head of the fly. I think it makes the laser dub a little more durable. 

No Shoulders

Alaska: Recap

After a full day of travel to get back to Dallas I had a lot of time to reflect on the trip. First I'd like to thank my wife for always giving me the freedom to pursue my fishing passion. I am very grateful to have such a great wife and mother to our daughter in my life.

The whole trip was great and I would like to thank the whole Midnight Sun crew for putting together such a great trip and doing whatever it took to make sure their customers have a trip of a lifetime. I would say I was probably their easiest customer this year, haha. The accommodation, the meals, the scenery and the fishing were all superb. If you are a pike fisherman you defiantly owe it to yourself to check out Midnight Sun Trophy Pike Adventures. This trip was by far the best freshwater trip I have ever been on. If you have never had the opportunity to chase pike you should take a serious look into it because they are a great game fish. They hit a fly with such tenacity that a lot of times we would get them to the boat and they weren't even hooked, they just had a gator hold on your fly and would't let go. The whole trip, from getting to the lodge, the wildlife, the crew is what made this experience a trip I will never forget.

Before Pike

After Pike