Effective Fly Patterns Made with Inexpensive Craft-Store Materials
Large flies for bass and saltwater fish are quite expensive: four to seven dollars apiece at online stores and local fly shops. Standard fly-tying materials in the quantity needed for large flies are expensive, as well. Here are two versatile and effective patterns that can be made from craft-store materials for less than 20 cents per fly, exclusive of the cost of the hook.
The first pattern, the Beady-Eyed Double Crafty, is essentially a souped-up Double Bunny streamer, craft style, made with two pieces of craft fur and with a pair of plastic beads from a kids’ necklace for eyes. The second pattern, which I call the Wake-Up Slider/Popper, is made from craft fur and sheet foam. It can be a popper-streamer, a slider, or a somewhat buoyant streamer that will track above the tip of a sink-tip line.
These low-cost crafty flies have been shown to be effective for California bass and stripers and have proven to be quite durable when tested on tropical bruisers such as tarpon and jacks. It would be interesting to try them for large trout at dusk. The patterns can be easily scaled up or down two hook sizes.
The patterns all use craft fur instead of rabbit or expensive artificial hair. Craft fur can sometimes be found in 9-by-12-inch-pieces in Michaels or Jo-Ann stores, but more commonly it is sold at Jo-Ann by the yard or half yard in the fabric department. Since a half yard with a usable width of 46 inches has about 800 square inches and costs about eight dollars, the fur for one of these craft fur flies costs only two or three cents. Buy materials with a strong and tight backing or “hide.” A few materials come with soft-knit backings that can unravel. Another advantage of the craft fur over rabbit is that the “hide” soaks up a lot less water and does not stretch or become weak when wet. Craft-store foam, two millimeters thick, comes in many colors in 9-by-12-inch sheets for about a dollar, or about a penny per square inch. The two patterns here use only a few square inches. The foam is relatively nonabsorbent on the flat surface, but the edges will slowly absorb a little water. Coating the edges with glue or adhesive will prevent this. Some foam comes with a glitter surface at about twice the price.
A good substitute for Flashabou is Metallic Ribbon Floss, made by YLI. It is essentially a ribbon of eight strands of Mylar woven with shiny supporting fibers. It is easy to unravel and takes colors from a Sharpie very well. Most Jo-Ann stores no longer carry it, but you can order a few years’ supply of 100 yards for about six dollars from the YLI Web site, http://www.ylicorp.com. If you team up with a friend, you can split the shipping cost. A substitute for Krystal Flash is Creatology’s Knotting Cord. It makes good ribbing in the cord form (I use it to segment shrimp and crayfish bodies) and can be unraveled with a thumbnail into eight strands of Krystal Flash.
These patterns benefit from the application of superglue to prevent materials from twisting on the hook shank. This glue, however, is relatively expensive and prone to clog or harden. I use the so-called single-use tubes, which come five tubes to a package at many dollar stores. If you carefully plug up the nozzle with a push pin after each use, one of these little tubes will last for a number of tying sessions, making at least a dozen flies at two cents per fly. Craft stores and dollar tores also sell kids’ necklaces and bracelets made out of plastic beads molded onto a string. A dollar or so will get you from 100 to 300 pairs of 6-millimeter eyeballs, on which you can make black pupils with a squeeze bottle of Scribbles — about a buck and a half a bottle at a Jo-Ann or Michaels. Thread also can be purchased from these stores, but many spools will not fit fly-tying bobbins, and the breaking strength can’t be known until you buy some. It’s probably best to stick to standard fly-tying thread.
The Beady-Eyed Double Crafty
This crafty version of the famous Double Bunny has some advantages over the classic: the “hide” is stronger, creating a more durable fly, and the large eyes push a lot of water. This streamer travels medium deep when stripped slowly or at a medium speed. If stripped fast, the fly travels just under the surface, undulating from side to side due to the bulging eyes. Because the backing/hide is so strong, there is no need to tie in the rear of the belly strip. Just impaling the strip on the hook and drawing the hide up to the tied-in dorsal strip is sufficient.
Materials
Hook: Gamakatsu B10S, size 1 or 1/0, or Owner 5115, size 1/0
Thread: Red 3/0, or Big Fly, or Flymaster Plus
Body: Craft fur, dark color for the top, lighter color (gray, white, light pink. . .) for the belly
Dumbbell eyes: A pair of light-colored 6-millimeter plastic beads cut from a molded bracelet or necklace
Tailand “beard”: 2-millimeter metallic ribbon floss, opal (YLI brand, color #10)
Other: Superglue, black Scribbles paint for the pupils of eyes, gold Scribbles for the body
Tying Instructions
Step 1. Cut out a piece of dark craft fur three-eights of an inch wide by an inch and three-quarters long, measured along hide. Taper the last half-inch of the strip to a point.
Step 2. Cut out a rectangle of light-colored craft fur a quarter of an inch wide by an inch and a half long, measured on the “hide” side, which will become the fly’s belly. Clip the corners of the hide at the front end of this rectangle to form a point.
Step 3. Mount the hook in the vise with the hook point down. Cover the hook shank with thread wraps, ending behind the eye with the bobbin dangling. Superglue well.
Step 4. About a quarter of an inch from the hook’s eye, tie in the dumbbell eyes with a dozen crisscross wraps. Occasionally go around the shank on each side of the eyes to make a firm attachment. Apply superglue.
Step 5. Tie in about a seven-inch strip of metallic ribbon floss at the start of the bend of the hook with the backward end about two and a half inches long. Wrap the long front end up the shank, over the eyes, and back to the tie-in point. Tie down and superglue.
Step 6. Part the fur of the dark craft fur strip one shank length from the front end and tie the tapered end in at the start of the hook bend with four wraps of thread in the opening made by the part in the fur.
Step 7. Advance the thread to the eye of the hook. Put a little superglue on top of the shank and between the eyes, then lay down the front end of the fur strip between the eyes and tie it in behind the hook eye with three wraps. Superglue the wraps. Step 8. Use the hook point to perforate the hide of the inch-and-a-half strip of belly fur at a position one shank length from the eye of the hook and — letting the bobbin dangle — remove the fly from the vise and work the belly strip around the bend of the hook into position where the front end of the strip is just behind the eye of the hook.
Step 9. Loosen this belly strip momentarily so you can put a small amount of glue where the belly strip meets the top strip, then pull the belly strip tight and tie the front end in behind the hook eye. If you like, add some one-inch pieces of colored ribbon floss as beard or forehead.
Step 10. Whip finish and superglue the head. Tease out the ribbon floss (an old stiff toothbrush works well). Draw pupils on the eyes with black Scribbles. If you like, fill any gaps between the two craft fur strips with gold Scribbles.
The Wake-Up Slider/Popper
This fly floats, making a wake when stripped slowly or medium fast. If stripped fast, the fly will pop and then travel slightly under the surface, undulating side to side due to the blunt head. The pattern can be tied in many color combinations. The description below is for the Black Death version, which has the advantage of a bold silhouette against the sky (and a great name).
The fly is made with two pieces of two-millimeter craft foam cut into a tadpole shape. Depending on hook size, the head of the tadpole is about seven-eights of an inch to an inch in diameter (slightly bigger than a quarter), and the tail is about an inch long, tapering from a width of about five-eighths of an inch where it joins the head to less than three-eighths of an inch near the tip.
To cut out these foam tadpoles, it is best to make a template of cardboard or plastic (an old credit card works well) in order to trace the shape on the foam. To avoid the foam twisting on the hook, bind foam materials in segments, lifting the material so the thread can go once or twice around the shank before the next segment. This also minimizes compression of the foam. When folding back the foam head, look at the fly from the front to make sure you are folding evenly and symmetrically.
The eyes are made with circles of gold Scribbles. The fish may not care about eyes on surface flies, but fly fishers do, and pleasure and confidence in your flies makes for better fishing.
Materials
Hook: Gamakatsu B10S, size 1 or 1/0, or Owner 5115, size 1/0
Thread: Red 3/0, or Big Fly, or Flymaster Plus
Head and spine: Black two-millimeter craft foam
Belly and collar: Red or glitter red two-millimeter craft foam
Body: Black craft fur
Tail and beard: Opal two-millimeter ribbon floss (YLI brand, color #10)
Other: Superglue, gold Scribbles, red Sharpie pen
Tying Instructions
Step 1. Cut out a one-by-two-inch piece of black foam. Trim it to tadpole shape, with the head about one inch in diameter and a one-inch-long tail tapered from about five-eighths to three-eighths of an inch wide.
Step 2. Cut out a similar tadpole shape from red foam. Cut off the tail and slit this tail about three-eights of an inch from the end. Save the red head for step 8.
Step 3. Mount the hook in the vise with the hook point down. Cover the shank with thread wraps, ending at the bend of the hook with the bobbin dangling. Superglue well.
Step 4. Straddle the hook bend with the slit red tail under the hook shank and bind this belly foam in four segments up to the eye of the hook, using two wraps between each segment. Superglue.
Step 5. Starting at the eye of the hook, bind the black tadpole foam on top of the shank so the tail sticks out over the bend about a quarter of an inch and about three-quarters of the head sticks out beyond hook eye. Bind this down in segments, as well, with some thread directly around the foam-covered belly. The thread and bobbin should end up at the bend of hook.
Step 6. Tie in a strip of metallic ribbon floss about five inches long by its middle at the bend of the hook on top of the foam, which acts as a tail support. Bend backward both halves of the strip of floss to make a tail. Superglue the wraps.
Step 7. Carefully cut a three-eighths inch by two-inch piece of craft fur, taper it about half an inch at the tail, then part the fur one shank length from the front of the strip and tie the tapered end in at the start of the hook bend, wrapping the thread in the opening made by the part in the fur. Lift the fur strip and advance the thread to about a quarter of an inch behind the eye.
Step 8. Spread superglue along the top of the black foam, lay the front end of the fur strip down on the foam, and tie it in with three wraps. Superglue the wraps, put a red foam head on top of the black head and tie it down at the end of the fur with three wraps; superglue.
Step 9. Fold the foam heads back over the fur strip and make four wraps with the thread. The folded edge of black foam should be about even with the hook eye and the head should look even and symmetrical.
Step 10. Cut a piece of red metallic floss and tie it in under the head of the fly.
Step 11. Whip finish and superglue the wraps and the foam edges to reduce water absorption. Tease out the ribbon floss. Draw eyes with gold Scribbles.
Flies tied with innovative materials can be found on the author’s Web site: www.bouncerflies.com.
