| Fly
designs should duplicate the forage and movement of the quarry.
When I do want to produce a fly that bests simulates the motion
and hues of naturals; Angel Hair comes to mind. Angel Hair
captures the brilliance and iridescence of the underwater world.
Mixtures of material and light set off by motion make these
flies truly ignite. In the past, most of my work has been done
on smaller size profiles. I had on occasion tied larger
varieties, but longer than four inches or so and the material
lost its profiled shape while sinking.
And I really hated to lose Angel
Hair as a primary material on these larger profile flies. Using
only for accents just didn’t seem like the right way to go.
What I needed to do was sit down and roll up my sleeves and see
where I could make some design changes to better suit my needs.
That’s the neat thing about designing your own flies to suit
your own areas. So I did some tinkering here and there,
substituted different materials and modifying my tying
techniques and came up with this result. So here is what
transpired.
Bucktail as a tail was
substituted for the usual Ultra Hair. This is used to separate
the top and lower halves of the Angel Hair profile. The now
internal bucktail itself, acts like filler to prevent the Angel
Hair from minimize its’ size during the retrieve process. Most times the bucktail used will be white, but any color will
do if it becomes part of the lateral lines of a baitfish. Mirage
Flashabou was added above the bucktail. The Mirage material now
becomes a belt of glitter to offset the other wise bright
backgrounds. This also added some contrast to the side profiles
of the fly.
The first bunch of Pearl Angel
Hair was placed right above the bucktail tie. Subsequent shades
of colors were added all along the shank mostly on top but some
bottom. Placement of these ties lay just ahead and in front of
previous ties. I found the buildup of materials has to start
first at the bend of the hook and using 2X type shanks hooks
does not leave much area for buildup. Also, the shorter shank
hooks help minimize snagging of the material when fished. Be
careful to leave space toward the front to add the bucktail
collars to the eye of the fly.
What I came up with is a very
large profile glitter fly with some material stability. The
bucktail skirt acts like a restrictive cage to prevent the Angel
Hair from extending past the desired profile. The fly itself is
basically a sparse tied, larger profile fly that accents the
dominant markings of any baitfish. All missing materials of the
fly that would add bulk are naturally absorbed and camouflaged
into the ambient environment. For that reason, these flies are
easy to cast.
Angel Hair is a marvelous
material that fly tyers have had for a number of years now. This
synthetic material has both the seductive motion and
color-changing properties needed in fly designs. Over the years,
the material has proven itself as a fish catching magnet.
Patterns with Angle Hair have become mainstays in the arsenal of
many a fly tyer. Now it’s time to cage the material with
bucktail hair. Big fish eat big tantalizing bait. Now it’s
time to go fish’in. - Unleash the beast. |
Spiral the thread
around the hook shank starting at the eye and finishing near the
bend. I use the word spiral because I never completely cover the
shank with thread as you would a rod wrap. Leaving open spaces
between thread winds creates crevices for laying slippery
materials along the shank after you fasten it down.
