If you start searching on the internet for pike flies, sooner or later you’ll end up somewhere in the Baltic. Which is understandable, because there are a lot of great fly fishermen over there, and they’re not so narrow minded as a lot of other fly fishermen in the rest of Europe.
And there is this one pattern that you’ll find with a lot of those guys.
I think it all started with a pattern Niklaus Bauer tied, called ‘the Hoover’ (but don’t shoot me if I’m wrong). Anyway, you see (more or less) the same pattern coming back by (just to name two big shots) Ulf Hagström and Simon Graham. And they catch a lot of pike on that fly, so I figured, if it works over there, why wouldn’t it work over here. So I’ve been experimenting a bit, and finally came up with this pattern, which I like a lot.
All these flies are about 15 cm long, tied on a Gamakatsu Worm 36, size 5/0, and they’re all tied the same way (just different colours).
- I started with some flash material (full length of the tail).
- then some Yak Hair.
- chenille
- Yak Hair (but shorter than the previous)
- chenille
- bucktail
- flash material (but shorter than the previous)
- chenille
- bucktail
- marabou (2x)
- some of Rich Johnson’s Realistic Flyz Eyez
- Epoxy for the head
The reason I use chenille and bucktail, is simply to have more volume with a lot less material, and to give the marabou a nice pulsating action while retrieving. Usually I don’t like marabou for pike flies, sure it looks great when dry, but once it gets wet, it just sticks together and doesn’t give a lot of action. But with some bucktail underneath, that’s a whole other story.
Materials used:
- flash: cosmic pink Vampire Flash FX
- yak hair: white
- chenille: pink
- bucktail: white and pink
- marabou: pearl and pink
- flash: light green Polar Flash
- yak hair: white and chartreuse
- chenille: chartreuse
- bucktail: white and chartreuse
- marabou: pearl and chartreuse
- flash: light green and light yellow Polar Flash
- yak hair: yellow and chartreuse
- chenille: chartreuse
- bucktail: yellow and chartreuse
- marabou: yellow and chartreuse
- flash: copper/green Polar Flash and dark green Flashabou (from TOF)
- yak hair: red and black
- chenille: red
- bucktail: red and grey
- marabou: Bordeaux and anthracite
4 comments:
Hi Stefaan.
Awsome flies as usual.
I have noted that we Scandinavians tie different looking patterns then Americans or rest of Europeans.
I´ll have to say that your latest flies look very "Scandinavian" and would absolutetly work very nice here.
P.S Next week --->SEASON OPENER :)
I like those a lot Stefaan,look very similar to my Bangers.And yes they will work very well in your waters.
Thanks! And it is a fact that your main pike patterns, in Scandinavia, are very different than the rest of the world, so I’ll be checking your blogs very often.
Awesome flies! I especially like that last one, with the Bordeaux marabou. Great blog you have, lonesome piker! I am really happy to have found it and be reading. I caught my first pike on a fly last week....quite the experience, and I'll be going back for more! Cheers!
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