Monthly Archives: April 2014

Here is another cool pattern from Brian Smolinski of Lunds Fly Shop.

This 3” brook trout inspired streamer is based off of Dave Pinczkowski’s “Bad Hair Day”. I haven’t fished a whole lot of larger flies for trout yet, but this one definitely makes me want to put in some time in learning how. The craft fur body is super light and moves like crazy in the water. The long tube allows you to rig this fly with a hook secured at the back by pulling the eye of the hook up into the tube which should take care of those pesky short strikes without the use of a super long shanked hook or the need to add a stinger hook. I plan on fishing this with a floating line, a Fast Sink Airflo Polyleader, and some fluorocarbon tippet.

Materials
Base: 1.8mm Heritage Angling Euro Tube – Clear
Tail: Olive Craft Fur
Body: Dark Olive Craft Fur mixed with Copper Wing N’ Flash
Collar: a mixture of Burnt Orange Craft Fur and Bright Orange Craft Fur
Head: a mixture of Dark Olive Craft Fur and White Craft Fur

Instructions:

1 –This tube fly is tied on a clear 1.8mm tube about 1.4” long with the ends on the tube melted slightly with a flame. This flares the ends of the tube and helps prevent the thread from slipping off the end when finishing the fly. The entire fly is tied with 5 layers of craft fur, all cut to the same length as the tube.
2 – Cover the tube with thread wraps from the front of the tube back to the halfway point, and then wrap the thread forward 1-2 turns.
3 – Lay the first clump of craft fur (olive) on top of the tube with the butt end of the material just past the midpoint of the tube and the tips facing the rear of the fly. Loosely secure with two thread wraps and roll the material around tube until it is evenly distributed.
4 – Make few tight wraps around the tail clump and wrap thread forward covering the ends of the craft fur. There now should be approximately a half inch of thread covered tube left in front of the tail. The rest of the materials tied into this fly will be tied in reverse (butt ends of materials facing the back end of the fly with the tips going forward to the head of the fly).
5 – Tie down a few strands of Wing N’ Flash and at the same tie in point lay down the next layer of craft fur (dark olive). Roll craft fur around the tube, secure with a few tight wraps. Then push the clump of craft fur back and make several wraps in front, making sure to wrap tightly up against the craft fur without wrapping directly on top of the fur.
6 – Advance the thread to about 1/8” in front of where the previous clump was tied down and add another layer of flash and dark olive craft fur.
7 – The next layer is the brightly colored wing or collar. Advance the thread again and tied down a small amount of the bright orange fur. Then cover with a full clump of the burnt orange craft fur.
8 – The final layer of craft fur is similar to the previous one with a small amount of white layer down first, then a larger clump of the dark olive. When these two tone layers are “reversed”, the lighter brighter layer acts as a highlight for the darker fuller layer.