The Maineyak is designed to be an eel fly that gets down and dirty in weedy boulder fields and along grassy banks. With a double weed guard the fly rarely snags. The 4 mm rattle gives this fly the thump to attract large fish in low light and murky conditions.

I rarely use the yak hair that the fly was originally tied with. I prefer now to use EP Sea Fibers. The denser finely textured materials allow you to stack the fibers tighter; this prevents the long hackles from fouling as often. If you want a sparser body mass use the yak hair.

1

• Tie in the back portion of the weed guard. Fold out of way.

2

• Tie in the hackles deceiver style. (I’ve tried them flat wing style but the seem to foul more often.)

3

• Tie in the yak hair, olive on top, white on bottom. Fold the hair around the thread, and stagger the lengths like shown.

4

Before tying off, make sure the short half is in front of the long half, and split each half down the center to balance the fiber count on each side of the hook bend. The total length of the fibers should not exceed 2/3’s of the total hackle length and should not be less than ½ of the hackle length. This is kind of artsy, what you are looking for is to provide enough fiber rigidity to prevent the hackles from fouling around the hook shank and at the same time giving the tail hackles freedom of motion. Taper the body now and once again when the fly is complete.

5

• Tie in the back portion of the corsair, push it back to get a feel for the size and shape of the back of the head.

6

• Pull the corsair forward and tie in the grizzly collar with the filaments facing backwards. At completion I usually fold them back with damp fingers and give a few wraps just to keep them facing back. Tie in the marabou, one on each side of the body, like fins.

7

• Tie in the rattle so when the corsair is rolled backward it will envelope the rattle. Tie off the black thread.

8

• Roll the corsair backward and tie off with white thread. If you can use a soldering iron to melt the frayed ends it looks neater, but it is not necessary. Color with Sharpies if desired.

9

• Tie in the front of the weed guard.

10

• 1st coat of epoxy let dry.
• Place eyes and put on the 2nd coat of epoxy

11

• Voila, be sure to use a rag to hold onto that slimy sucker

The demo fly above is around 11.25 inches long and should cast well with a 9 wt or heavier rod. I tie this fly in ranges from 6 inches to 15 inches and have caught everything from bass and pickerel to stripers on this fly. Eels are universal bait; few fish will pass up an easy eel. I’ve tried all kinds of colors; some of my favorites are olive with a chartreuse underbody, and steel blue with a olive underbody.

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