zoo cougar style flies

[corsican dave]

i had quite a bit of success with this pattern last year (the pollack seemed especially keen...)

has anyone experimented with similar patterns? i'm thinking that someone, somewhere has used a feather placed directly on top of the fly before? it certainly adds an amazingly erratic movement to the fly.

what sort of feather would you suggest as a substitute for the mallard flank. i would guess anything with a bit of substance to it to act as a "hydrofoil"?

your thoughts (wild, wacky, abusive..) appreciated, as ever :

[Traditionalist]

You can use lots of feathers for this. If you do a search on "Flatwings" then you will find quite a few patterns.  These flies have a very distinct swimming action due to the flat feathers and are often very effective indeed.  I have caught quite a number of fish on them. Various sandeel imitations are good but herring and similar patterns also work well. As ever a good imitation of whatever the fish are feeding on usually works best.

Baby Flatwing Sand Eel

http://globalflyfisher.com/streamers/raske/flatwing/flatwing.htm

http://www.flyfishsaltwaters.com/rhody_flat_wing.htm

http://www.stripermoon.com/flyarch/soft1.html

Some other stuff you might like;

http://www.flyfishsaltwaters.com/flies.html

TL
MC

[corsican dave]

thanks Mike!

i also found a couple on jack gartside's site, but it took me a while to realize that "flatwing" was the generic term for these patterns. some of them don't have particularly prominent wings. i also don't understand how the softer wings can be effective. surely they just waft about, rather than accentuating the movement?

just watched that video, mike: those hackles are HUGE! surely they're not plain ordinary cock hackles?

[Malcolm]

Dave, some saddle hackles are absolutely enormous.

[Traditionalist]

thanks Mike!

i also found a couple on jack gartside's site, but it took me a while to realize that "flatwing" was the generic term for these patterns. some of them don't have particularly prominent wings. i also don't understand how the softer wings can be effective. surely they just waft about, rather than accentuating the movement?

just watched that video, mike: those hackles are HUGE! surely they're not plain ordinary cock hackles?

The behaviour is more like "planing" and "wiggling" although this varies with exact dressing, and the flies tend to have a sinuous "swimming" motion which is very effective, especially when fished in certain ways.  Long slow pulls with pauses causes them to swim very realistically and then glide. Works with basically any feather when tied in flat but may be erratic with single feathers. One may also use several feathers, indeed to obtain the precise action this is necessary, it is explained in this video and set of step by steps;

http://flyfishohio.com/Flatwing%20Shiner.htm

Using single feathers or other constructions produces different actions.

One fly that was once very popular and works on the same basic "planing" principle is the "missionary" dressed flatwing style, an excellent fry pattern;

http://www.fish4flies.com/Lures/Fry_and_Small_Fish_Patterns/Orange_Missionary

but there are quite a number of others.

One can obtain such saddles fairly easily and they are not too expensive. Just search for Whiting American Saddles. ( Also known as American Saltwater Saddles ).  You can also use "ordinary" cock hackles as well.

You really have to see the motion to appreciate it. This will give you some idea;

Flatwing Wiggle Minnow

Watch these sandeels and you can see why it works so well;

Sand eels 1

Sand eel

Pollack love sandeels and will actively hunt them;

Pollack & Sand Eels

One may adjust the action in various ways ( specific dressing), and imitate various bait fish.  The exact dressing of a flatwing determines how it will fish, but many of them will take practically any predatory fish.  In smaller sizes I have taken plenty of perch on them when they were "crashing" minnow shoals, and the larger sizes also work very well indeed for pike among other things. Works for fry feeding trout as well of course.  Practically all saltwater fish will also hammer them hard.  But some patterns and retrieves work better for some fish. The good sand eel patterns are excellent for seatrout, cod, mackerel, garfish, pollack and lots of other fish. I have even had red gurnard and ballan wrasse on them.

A "wiggle bug";

wiggle bug swim

The action of many of these flatwing flies when dressed and fished correctly is more or less irresistible to most predatory fish.  Can be important to match the size to suit the predator's specific range.  Too small is usually worse than too big!  Having looked into quite a few people's fly boxes on the Baltic and elsewhere most tend to use flies that are too small.

TL
MC