Other stuff!

[Traditionalist]

These flies have caused a sensation in some places.  One American guy sent me a very effusive e-mail with a lot of photos of all the fish he caught on them in Florida. He said he got a "fish a cast" wherever he used them, and about ten different species. I must admit I have also been very very successful with them, as have others who have tried them. They will work anywhere on any predatory fish, incredibly good on trout, and various saltwater fish, but you might have trouble convincing some people that they are actually "flies" !  ( Most embarrassing for a "Traditionalist"  )

Anyway, enough buildup!  Here are the flies;

Mike's Crazy Fish  ( Some have been heard to say Crazy Mike's Fish! ).









and here is the blurb and general instructions for them;

Select a hook first. here I have used a Gamakatsu LS-5213N size 4. ( These are good on crabs, and various epoxy flies, as the sliced shank holds them tight in the epoxy)

Mount your hook in the vice, and run on the tying thread at the rear.Tie in your "wing" as shown. I like Arctic fox for this, but you can use almost anything appropriate. Tie the butts of the hair in, whip finish, and varnish.You should have something like this;



Remove the hook from the vice. Now select a false fingernail of the appropriate size. These are the false fingernails!;



I bought a whole load of these in a discount shop, some 40 boxes for 20 Euros. ( Yes, of course I got some funny looks. So? ).

It should be just slightly longer than the hook. Place a small bead of glue ( superglue, UHU etc ), in the middle of the nail, and press the fly down into it with the hook eye clear of the nail, in the position shown;



Put aside to set. Of course you can make up a whole bunch of these things in advance. When the glue is dry, mix up some five minute epoxy, and fill the hollow nail with it. When set, you should have something like this;



That was basically it! But now we move on to some interesting jiggery pokery! Using nail varnish ( What else!?! Funny looks again!) paint the fly as desired. ( plastic enamel and similar stuff works as well). I like to add a 3-d eye at the top rear or front of the fly as well on some flies;



The colour combinations and various other embellishments are legion! You can make mackerel stripes, flatfish colours, herring blue/green, etc etc. Or copy some of the other baits extant like "Fire tiger" and so on. I just used some glitter pearl here, and a few red spots. I left the underside translucent here, but you may of course paint it as well. Fish belly white is often a good choice. The mackerel fly shown was coloured with magic marker, and the stripes on the wing are also magic marker. The hook on the mackerel fly shown was also placed "upside down" in the nail, so that the hook point curves over the nail side.  This alters the action slightly as well.

I really did well on the mackerel with the "mackerel" fly shown above. The bottom or underside  view shows the hook wound with red wool before placing in the nail.

This fly does not spin, it wobbles! Fish usually hammer it hard, so be prepared! One may also alter the action and attitude of this fly very considerably by adding some weight. I will show you how to do that properly on the next pattern. This fly also has a major advantage over many others for one simple reason. When your wife asks you to do something or other, like digging the garden, or mowing the lawn, you merely reply, "Sorry love, can´t right now, I´m just doing my nails! " Should work OK, always works for them!

I got a few questions regarding the action and other things related to this fly, and here are the answers.

QUOTE
How does this fly come through the water? I mean, does it wobble with the nail side up, or down, or does it ride sideways? I'm trying to figure out which side to paint a lighter color for the belly.
UNQUOTE

When it is retrieved it wobbles, "flutters", and darts, more or less erratically, depending on the retrieve speed. Nail side down. When it is left to sink, it sways from side to side as it falls nail side down. I don´t usually bother painting the belly side, as the fly retains a lot of translucence if the belly is not painted. The colour of the painted nail shines through the epoxy. Also, normally the fish don´t see the belly side anyway!

Neither of the flies shown has a painted belly. The epoxy "shines" with the colour of the wool wrapped around the hook, ( if you do this).

If you want a white belly, wrap the hook with white wool for instance.

The epoxy in the nail gives it sufficient weight for a certain wobble. Adding weight ( lead etc) , at various positions makes it intrinsically heavier of course, and also alters the action. This takes some experimenting to find out what happens when one adds weight and where! The flies work well as they are, but you can experiment however you like of course.

I have found that just the epoxy gives the most attractive action, and it is also then easier to cast. It can be fished very slowly, far more slowly than any "hardware", and this is also attractive to the fish. One fairly major problem with hardware like fly-spoons etc, is that it usually does not imitate an injured fish very well, because it has to be moved too fast. Injured fish can´t usually move very fast though. This thing with its slow wobble attracts a lot more strikes. It is often taken "on the drop", when it is simply falling through the water. The action is similar to that of a falling leaf.

In smaller sizes, ( a "pinky" nail) and a couple of simple colour schemes, this fly has proven absolutely deadly for trout, but there are many places which would not allow you to use it, as it might not qualify as a "fly".Over time, I have caught a large number of species on it.
Finally, it has a major advantage over many other baitfish patterns, in that you only need to apply one eye!

For perch, a fly with an orange fox tail, and an orange nail with black diagonal stripes has proven very good. I will see if I can find it and post a pic. I have a box full somewhere. Incidentally it is not a spoon fly as such, but their are some vague similarities . You can find the original "spoon fly" here;

http://www.flyfishlouisiana.com/Spoon_fly_1.htm

It is much more complicated to make, and very difficult to "tune" as required.

There was also some confusion about how and why the fly works so well.

QUOTE
So you normally just paint the nail and not the epoxy to let the epoxy "glow"? But wouldn't that be the "belly" if it sinks and wobbles "nail side down"? Sorry, but I'm confused, which is my normal state of mind. I've just put together a few of them and they really look like they would be excellent on our panfish.
UNQUOTE

Ah,I think I see the problem. Wounded baitfish often tumble sideways. This fly is designed to imitate such behaviour , and of course also look like a baitfish! When one uses the term "belly" here in regard to the fly, one means the underside of the fly, in relation to the hook orientation in the vice! This fly imitates a fish on its side. The nail side is one side of a baitfish, but of course it is the "back" of the fly. The epoxy side is the other side of a baitfish, seen as the fish is falling or swimming sideways through the water. But the fish only usually see the nail side from below. The fly has no "belly" as such. It has a topside and a bottom side. In terms of fishing it, the nail side is the bottom side, and the epoxy side is the top side. Hope this is clear? It is quite difficult to formulate a clear explanation!

I do normally just paint the nail side. If you hold the fly up to the light, and look at the nail side, you will see whatever you have embedded in the epoxy glowing through. The nail, and the nail lacquer is translucent. The whole thing seems translucent as a result of this.
If you paint the epoxy side of the fly, you reduce the translucence. The epoxy side is the other side of the baitfish which the fish don´t normally see, as they are looking up at the nail side from below.

This is what the fish see ;



( difficult to backlight this and photograph it! I think I have gone temporarily blind as a result! ) when they look up at the side of the lure which is fishing nail side down;

This is the exact same fly shown above, but backlit. The translucence is only apparent when the fly is seen against the light. If you paint the other side of the fly, you will reduce the translucence, which however is part of the attraction of the fly

You can make dozens of these very quickly indeed, and paint them with marker, nail varnish, plastic enamel etc to suit whatever baitfish pattern you want. Of course you should also choose the "wings" to suit.

Regards and tight lines!

Mike Connor

[Wildfisher]

False fingernails!  :lol:

Now that is lateral thinking. Only fishermen could  come up  with that!  :lol: