Shrek fly step by step

[col]

Hook: 4/0 (weighted with a few turns of lead wire secured with super glue)
Tail: Arctic fox tail hair and a good helping of flash
Beard: Arctic fox tail
Wing: Flash and crinkle hair (Turrals) or slinky fibre(h20), or supreme hair in various colours
Eyes: 10mm wobbly eyes (available from craft shops) secured with Epoxy resin
Weedguard: 50lb nylon tied in a ?V?(optional)

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Step 1. Crush barb with hook (optional) then fix it in the jaws of the vice. Take some arctic fox and tie it in as a tail. Take some flash and tie in also at the tail end then secure with a wip finish. Wind a small ammount of lead wire as shown and secure this and the previous thread wraps with super glue.

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Step 2. Take another peice of arctic fox tail and tie in as beard. Then place some more flash as shown.

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Step 3. Take the winging material, in this case pink crinkle hair and tie in as shown.


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Step 4. Double back the wing.

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Step 5. Tie in Weed guard (optional)

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Step 6. This is the messy bit. You must keep the epoxy at the head area only. Secure the eyes with epoxy(5 min) once dried add a second coat of epoxy and the fly is finished.

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The last picture shows some variations using the same recipe. The bottom two flies have rattles for stirring dour pike.

[Wildfisher]

Good stuff Col, I have put the pics in line for you

[The General]

I take it these flies are for catching shreks or hanging on the Christmas tree 

Davie

[Traditionalist]

Very "pikey" !

Are those light wire Aberdeens?  No problems with them straightening?

TL
MC

[Traditionalist]

If you want to save a few bob, and have a bit more choice instead of using the "googly" doll?s eyes, you might like to try this;

http://www.greatart.co.uk/GLAS...uance

http://www.misterart.com/store...r.htm

http://www.onestroke.com/demo/....html

Comes in all colours, including clear, various metallics, etc etc and works very well indeed.

This is acrylic window colour. The stuff I used here for making 3-D eyes;


The eyes, ( and anything else done with the clear material), go completely clear, and  stay that way. The ones in the picture are still very slightly milky, as I was in a hurry to take the picture, and the stuff was not completely set!



The stuff I have used here is a German brand, but there are many makes and others I have tried have all worked. The stuff comes in various sized bottles, which are designed with nozzles for painting directly on glass. These allow a fine dosage of small drops. The bottles I use contain 125 ml of paint. Doubtless someone could work out how many drops that is, but so far I have made well over a thousand eyes from one bottle of clear acrylic and as far as I can tell it is still nearly full! The bottles cost 1.60 Euros. You may find them cheaper elsewhere; glass painting is a very popular hobby it seems! I can?t understand why people waste good fly-dressing gear on such stuff, but there again, they probably think we're nuts too! =)

The stuff is non-toxic, no fumes, water based, extremely tough, waterproof when set, and extremely easy to use. I have a couple of flies with eyes, and also "epoxied" with the stuff, sitting in a glass of salt-water on my windowsill, where they have been for three weeks, ( I took them out after three months! I wrote the article with these pictures quite some time ago now). The "normal" hooks were rusted, even the stainless hooks were marked, but the stuff was still clear, and there is no sign of any deterioration. The stuff does not yellow or fade.

I have used it for coating heads and bodies etc, ( Try the glitter or pearl metallic etc, on a "flashback" nymph!) very successfully.

TL
MC

[Wildfisher]

Col, how deep do you fish this   fly?

[Wildfisher]

These are well fed pike!

[haresear]

Good stuff Col. I'll be tying some of those up for the summer I think.
Two pike on fly at the same time must have been hilarious .

Alex

[The General]

Hello Col
Can't wait to see the christmas tree ones.      How do attach these to your leader,
is there any wire or other kind of trace involve?

Davie

[Traditionalist]

Here is how I make them;

You will need

1. A sheet of glass or Perspex. At a pinch, use a piece of stiffer clear polythene taped to a white background. Nothing else will work! This stuff sticks like nothing else; it is easy to peel off the above mentioned materials when it dries hard but flexible but if you get it on anything else it will stay there for good. I know of no way to remove it from stuff like paper, wood, hair, cloth and so forth. This is also why it works so well on flies as an epoxy substitute. If you use the perspex, give it a polish with furniture polish before you start, as it is otherwise difficult to remove the finished eyes.

2. A good pair of tweezers, preferably with serrated points, for grasping beads, sequins etc.

3. Something to dab the black pupils on the eyes with. The tool in the picture is an engineer's pin vice, holding a straight pin (sewing pin) with an oval head. I merely found this convenient, but you can use anything at all really, even a cocktail stick. The idea is to use something which allows you to place drops of a uniform size on the sequins.

4. Acrylic window colour. The stuff I used here is a German brand, but there are many makes and others I have tried have all worked. The stuff comes in various sized bottles, which are designed with nozzles for painting directly on glass. These allow a fine dosage of small drops. The bottles I use contain 125 ml of paint. Doubtless someone could work out how many drops that is, but so far I have made well over a thousand eyes from one bottle of clear acrylic and as far as I can tell it is still nearly full! The bottles cost 1.60 Euros. You may find them cheaper elsewhere; glass painting is a very popular hobby it seems! I can?t understand why people waste good fly-dressing gear on such stuff, but there again, they probably think we're nuts too!

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All of this should be placed on a white background. I used copier paper. You should also have some kitchen roll or similar stuff handy, for cleaning needles etc.


5. Some Sequins. The ones I used here are 6mm holographic sequins, in "mother of pearl", gold, silver, and copper. There are other colours in the range, but these suffice for most things. I chose 6mm because that is a fairly universal size for baitfish eyes. I have also used plain silver and gold, but I prefer the holographic eyes.

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The process

Place your sequins on the plastic. I have only used a couple here for clarity, but I normally place them in lines of ten or so on the sheet. Some sequins are flat, and others are domed. I use both types. If you use the domed ones, then place them hollow side up. If you use flat ones, then be extra careful when placing the drops on them, since they may otherwise flow off the sequin (maximum two whiskeys before you start). A packet of one thousand 6mm sequins costs 0.49 Euro, but I am sure you could get them cheaper if you shop around!


It is quite difficult to photograph these things, as they shimmer and scintillate quite remarkably.

Take the bottle containing the black acrylic, and squeeze a small amount onto the sheet. Take your pin - or whatever you are using - and place a drop of black acrylic in the middle of the sequin. This serves two purposes. It makes a black pupil for the eye, and it also sticks the sequin to the sheet! Sequins have a hole in the middle! This is most useful for our purposes.

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Leave the sequins to dry. This takes anything up to 24 hours, depending on paint thickness. When dry, take the bottle of crystal clear acrylic and carefully place a drop on the sequin.

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If you do this correctly, the stuff forms a domed "head" over the sequin. Allow to dry. That was it! You can peel these eyes off the sheet, and stick them to your flies.

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When you first apply the acrylic from the bottle it is not clear or black; instead it looks milky. It only clears completely once it is dry.

We have just made 3-D eyes, with a holographic background ( the sequin), and a round (unless you were on the beer before you started, or bought square sequins!), black pupil.

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TL
MC