Toad flies are so cool, since they resemble many things at once: crustaceans, baitfish, squid, worms... I like flies you can fish confidently, letting the fish decide what they look like. I tied these for stripers. Even though originally designed as a tarpon fly, toad flies are becoming popular for many other species of marine gamefish.
5 comments:
Love the flies. Any tutorials of any of your patterns? Would love to learn to whip up better saltwater flies.
Wow... Vlad
Those little alliants are so cute! I would love to learn how to tie them too! It looks like some crab larva too... so cute! : )
Thanks guys!
Here's the quick step by step tutorial...
Hook: SW short shank, like Mustad C68CZ (instructions are for sz 2/0)
Tail: two blood marabou plumes + little flash
Collar: zonker strip in contrasting color
Body: craft yarn (Needloft is my fave brand, you can find it in Walmart)
Eyes: beadchain (faster sink) or mono eyes for hovering imitation
-Start by tying in the bunched marabou tail, wrapping around the marabou to lift the tail and prevent foul hooking;
-Add the flash of your choice along the sides, and wrap the rabbit fur collar. You can use several wraps of cross cut rabbit, or just place a bunch of rabbit in a dubbing loop, and wrap around the shank, stroking fur fibers backwards.
-Now's the time for the body. For this hook size, we'll use six 1.5" pieces of yarn (vary the number, depending on the shank length/hook size.) Place the yarn on the top of the shank and criss-cross it several times. Don't worry about making it super tight-you want to be able to slide it a bit, to compress the bunches. The glue at the end will take care of locking the wraps completely.
-Once you are done with six pieces of yarn, you'll end up with just enough space left for the eyes. Finish that last step, by choosing the eyes od your choice. You can even go for Clouser eyes, but they will invert the fly and make it dive faster.
-Take a rubber cement (Flexament) or even a super glue (be carefull so you don't saturate the fibers too much). Place the glue on both sides of shank, on the wraps and the shank only, and around the eyes.
-Once the glue is dry, it's a time for a haircut. Comb out the fibers with a wide tooth comb. Sculpt it however you like it: either in oval or heart shape, or little more round, in the shape of a coin. You can even use a small coin on the top the yarn body, to help you guide your scissors.
For some interesting flies, you can alternate the colors of the yarn for cool, blended effect. Now that I wrote that, I just reminded myself to get some more yarn in variety of colors.
Have fun tying and thanks again for your comments!
Cool cool cool! Vlad,
Thanks a lot for the instructions! Now I know what I was missing... a comb and glue... great idea! I got to get those tools ready. Many thanks! Mark
you should do some videos your flies are great.
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