Kustom easy baitfish

I’m still playing with the stuff Rich sent me, and I wanted to make an easy to tie baitfish pattern, with as less material as possible, with a nice profile, a very lively action, very lightweight to cast, and it had to be very durable. To put it in other words, a fly that everybody can tie and make every pike angler happy.

So I tried out all kinds of things, with very disappointing results at first (although one or two prototypes have some prospects).

But in the end, I came up with this pattern, which I have great faith in (I’ve already tested the action, in a water where I wasn’t aloud to, but that’s something we’d better keep to ourselves, unless some idiot puts it on the internet of course). Anyway, I made a tutorial so you could try them out yourselves (click on any image to enlarge).

This fly is about 14 cm long, tied on a Gamakatsu F 314, size 2/0.

 

- Put your thread on the hook (I’ve put some varnish on the hook shank first), and leave it at about 1 cm before the hook eye.

 

- At this point, tie in some Polar Flash. Make sure that the amount of fibres facing backwards are a little longer than those facing forward.

 

- Tie the flash material in towards to hook bend in 4 or 5 wraps (this way you will still have the flash effect along the hook shank), and come back with the thread the same way.

 

- Fold back the excess and tie it in the same way.

 

- Put some lacquer on the entire piece of the hook shank where you’ve tied in your material (durability). I also put a hairclip on the tail from this stage on, to make less of a mess.

- Tie in some white chenille (this is Vampire Plush). If you use other chenille, make sure it’s wide enough (this one is 15 mm). This way you are able to make a nice ‘ball’, which will determine the volume (profile) of your fly.

- Make a ‘ball’ and tie it in.

Now I use Rich’s Kustom Fibre for the entire body of the fly. And I only use a very small amount of it. Make sure to taper it on both ends.

 

- Tie in the fibre on the bottom of the hook shank (in this case white) with a couple of loose wraps, again, make sure that the amount of fibres facing backwards are a little longer than those facing forward. Then, take your time to spread the fibre evenly around the bottom of the hook shank, and then tie it in.

 

- Fold back the excess, spread it evenly around the bottom of the hook shank, and tie it in.

- Tie in the Kustom Fibre on top of the hook (in this case yellow) the same way (with a couple of loose wraps, again, make sure that the amount of fibres facing backwards are a little longer than those facing forward. Then, take your time to spread the fibre evenly around the top of the hook shank, and then tie it in).

- And again, fold back the excess, spread it evenly around the top of the hook shank, and tie it in.

 

- Make a bit of a head, whip finish a lacquer the head.

 

- Glue on some eyes (these are some of Rich’s Realistic Flyz Eyez) partially on the head and partially on the fibre. The reason I do it like this, is because when you epoxy the head (which is the next step), the fibres between the eyes will be inside the epoxy and maintain the volume (and of course make the fly more durable).

After you epoxy the head, this fly is finished. But the nice part of this fibre

(all synthetic fibres in fact), is that you can colour them with a regular permanent marker, and make whatever you want to make of them.

 

You can leave this one white and yellow…

or you can make it a bit more aggressive by adding some red smudges like this

 

white and blue, this blue is Kustom Flash Blend (I think it’s Sea Blue Kustom Fibre with UV Violet Kustom Flyz Angel Hair)…

some dark blue permanent marker on the back, and some orange dots…

or make a kind of mackerel pattern

 

white and Lime

with green permanent marker on the back, and some orange dots…

dark olive (this is done with a Prismacolor marker) and black, with some orange dots, to make a perch pattern

I’ve also made some others without dying them. I can’t make that much combinations yet, but I will surely order me some more colours, because this stuff is really great!

 

Kustom Yellow and Purple Blend

 

And Kustom Flash Blend (purple/black)

Pike flies

I started playing with the stuff I got from Rich this afternoon. I already knew his Kustom Fibre from a fishing friend who uses it a lot (Renzo Callebert). In fact you can find a tutorial on one of Renzo’s flies on Rich his site www.kustom-flyz.com 

(and while you're there, check out all the nice stuff Rich sells as well).

It looks a lot like Slinky Fibre but it’s thinner (and therefore not so stiff), so it has a livelier  action in the water. Therefore, I definitely wanted to use it as tail material. The only problem was to find a pattern where this stuff could wiggle as much as possible.

Then I came across some flies I tied a while ago, and used this as a base for this pattern.

These flies are all about 15 cm long, tied on a Gamakatsu Worm 36, size 5/0.

This is a basic version of a ‘Jellybelly’, from one of the guys from Piketrek (you can find a tutorial on Youtube). I find the original unnecessarily difficult to tie, so I’ve made my own adaptation.

- I started with tying in light pink Polar Flash (tied in at half the length, then folded back the excess and tied this in as well) along the bottom of the hook shank (in 8 steps) up to 1 cm before the hook eye (and cut this into shape afterwards).

- then I tied in a single bunch of Rich’s Purple Blend Kustom Fibre. I tied it in 2/3 facing backwards and 1/3 forwards. Then folded back the excess and tied it in as well (and cut this into shape afterwards).

- then some of his Flash Blend (purple/black).

- some of his ‘Realistic Flyz Eyez’ (which look really awesome).

- and finally made a head with UV Clear Fly Finnish.

This is exactly the same pattern.

- I just used light green Polar Flash for the (Jelly) belly.

- then Kustom Flash Blend (this stuff is not yet on his site, but I think it’s a blend of his Lime Green Kustom Fibre with his Green/Gold Kustom Flyz Angel Hair).

- for the next step,

I wanted to use a darker kind of green that would still go along with the rest of the fly. The picture is a bit overexposed, but I’ve used Seaweed Slinky Fibre and blended it myself with Rich’s Green/Gold Kustom Flyz Angel Hair.

- and Green/Silver Kustom Eyez.

The same again here.

- light blue Polar Flash.

- Kustom Flash Blend (I think it’s Sea Blue Kustom Fibre with UV Violet Kustom Flyz Angel Hair).

- for the next step, I’ve blended the Blend of the last step with his Peacock Angel Hair.

- and Realistic Flyz Eyez.

I’ve been tying mainly with natural materials for a while now, so it feels good to use synthetics again (certainly this stuff), so you can expect a lot more to come…