Back to pike flies!

Next month, I’ve been asked to give a tying session on pike flies. So the first fly that came into my mind was a ‘Lonesome Tom’, which I will do, but I have to keep the sponsor of the club in mind. So I’ll have to tie it entirely with materials he can provide (and people are able to buy afterwards of course). That way, the polypropylene fibre that I usually use for the head is out of the question, and so are the hooks and the flash material. So the last couple of days I’ve been experimenting (and testing) with other stuff, and I’m actually quite happy that I had to, because it has improved the action of the fly.

Hooks are a personal thing, and flash material may have another name but it’s usually the same stuff, so that wasn’t any problem, but the head was something else.

So after trying out several synthetic materials, I ended up with Slinky Fibre (or Flash’n Slinky in this case). This stuff is thicker and stiffer than polypropylene, but that also makes the head less dense, which allows the water to penetrate the head more rapidly and therefore sink faster. This way, I was able to make the head bigger (read higher), so the fly swings even more (left, right, up and down) and gives it a very lively action.

I’ll probably use a more classic colour combination (white/chartreuse, white/pink or a classic redhead), but tonight I felt like tying some other colours for myself.

I’ve also started to tie a tandem version, and the action of that one is even more spectacular, so you can expect more of these in the future…