Monday 6 February 2012

Stinger variations

If you don’t know a ‘Replot Stinger’, then you should check out the tutorial on Simon Grahams blog (http://pikeflyfishingarticles.blogspot.com/ ). It’s an easy to tie fly, with a fantastic action in the water. But Simon uses Finn racoon. And don’t get me wrong, racoon is one the best moving natural materials out there, but over here in Belgium it isn’t very cheap. And now the price has gone up with 50% (apparently racoon is getting scarce in Finland), so I figured that it was time to use something else.
I’ve tied the following flies exactly as shown in the tutorial, but instead of wrapping racoon zonkers around the hook shank, I used several dubbing loops of Long Fur. In fact, the first time I touched this stuff it immediately made me think of racoon.
And I added some eyes with some UV Clear Fly Finish between them as well. I know that Simon will say that it isn’t necessary, but I like eyes on my flies. If it isn’t as a striking point for the pike, then it’s because I like the look of them. If I don’t put any eyes on my pike flies, I have the feeling that they’re not finished (but that’s personal of course).

They are all about 17 cm long, tied on a Mustad Saltwater hook, size 6/0.


 




White/pink







 






White/chartreuse





 








White/olive


 












Yellow/olive

 











White/light blue/pink

 












This black one is a little longer (19 cm).

 











And of course, I couldn’t resist to tie a tandem version as well.
This fly is about 22 cm long, white/pink.

3 comments:

Jerome_S said...

Wonderful versions of the Replot Stinger Stefaan! I'd be interested in your impression of the weight if those flies compared to raccoon flies ;).

the lonsome piker said...

Jerome, if you tie in the zonker, the skin will always absorb a lot of water, so that will certainly be the heaviest. But when you cut off the hair and comb it out very well, I don’t think there’s much of a difference in weight with the Long Fur (and you have to comb out the Long Fur as well).

Jerome_S said...

Ok thanks! I'll try!