Busy tying

[Matt]

Been tying alot lately. Just started some "pike" flies if you wanna call them that. Big mess is what I call most of mine. Tied a few hundred in the past month, most are ugly but some do come out looking nice!

Tied this last night...hook is probably too big

Some ugly pike ones



I have some nymphs and other streamers I've done I'll try to upload when I have more time. Any tips/advice from you tiers out there? My biggest issue is crowding the eye...

[tiny]

Those flies look really nice. Are those eyes glued on or are they more like dumbbells? Are the pike flies weighted? If not you might be unpleasantly surprised at how hard it is to get that much fluff to go under the water surface. I tied a bunch of really similar bunny flies and put on big dumbbell eyes and a double wrap of lead and they still barely sink. You might also find that the tail gets tangled around the hook. I started putting a loop of heavy mono coming off the back of the hook and that works really well to keep the tail from tangling. That first fly looks good to me, you should try tying the same thing but flip the hook and make it like a clouser minnow.

[Themug]

Matt, you're doing a great job, those flies look nice!! Crowding the eye was my biggest problem for years. You just have to keep in mind that you are securing 3 or 5 or however many different materials to the head and if you try and stack them all at the same place all those materials build up and you run out of room. Start back on the shank a little bit and work your way towards the head with each new material. Also, keep the thread as tight as you can ALL the way around the wrap. Don't be afraid to break the thread a time or two trying it, I know I have! It's much stronger and it takes up a lot less room on the hook to have a few good tight wraps then it does to have 50 loose wraps. Thanks for the look, one of those flies is on the pike menu for sure!

[TUnamas]

Matt - Those look pretty good! If you haven't gotten them wet yet, you'll be surprised how the marabou slims down. Perfect for this time of year. Slow action, suspended in shallow water. Good action, but sometimes especially after it warms up a but, you'll want a more aggressive waking/water pushing head that thumps them. That's when hair and synthetics really come into play. Also, watch that the tail doesn't wrap. As Tiny noted, a mono loop can be used to prevent this. You've picked it up quick. Nicely done!

[Matt]

The pink and red one is stuck in a pikes mouth somewhere..I lost it the day after I tied it! Saw him come up, grab it, and plink...cut 20 lb fluoro like a hot knife through butter. I just ordered some nickel-titanium wire leader and this stuff is amazing! Very hard to kink it, and its pretty durable. Hopefully I'll have the chance to use it soon. Here are some other ones I tied...some of them I didn't have the correct material so I substituted it for something else.








I'm hoping I can look back on these in a few years and laugh...I can already notice a big difference in the quality of flies I tie now compared to the first 100 or so I tied. I already tossed a few dozen ones that look really bad...lol