Jack Harford is the contributor for this week’s Fly Tying Friday Post. Jack has written for the blog in the past and his posts are always welcome! In this post Jack has a fly that will help you even the odds when fishing for warm water fish. Jack writes…
As many of you know, the bass guys with spinning and casting gear have found a lot of success fishing with tube baits. Tube Baits are suggestive of baitfish or crayfish and have been effective for the gear guys for years.
That got me to thinking one day, what do we have in the fly fisher’s arsenal that is similar to a tube bait? I couldn’t think of anything except maybe the wooly bugger might be somewhat close. The Redneck TubeBait Fly emerged from that thinking. It is a simple, quick to tie fly and has been successfully fished for white bass, smallmouth bass, and crappies in my experience. There are probably many other species that would like to eat one of these. If you land one of the other species on this fly, please let me know. The materials are simple; for the White Bass Special, a Mustad 3366 size four or 3906b size six hook is used. Other sizes and hooks can work just as well. UTC 140 Thread in Red is important for the hot spot/gills as the final touch for the fly. For a little extra weight, add a 4.0mm bead. The tail consists of chartreuse spinnerbait skirt material purchased online or Sili Legs that are stocked in all fly shops. The body of the fly is Pearl Estaz. Other versions of the TubeBait Fly can be tied with the wide variety of spinnerbait skirt tabs (sili legs) and Estaz.
Here is a quick step by step of this effective fly.
Place bead on the hook. It can be helpful to secure the hook in the vise as show here to facilitate adding the bead
Prepare the spinnerbait tab by separating seven (7) strands from the tab, being careful to keep them attached at each end. Then trim a rough “V” in each of the ends to make the tie in a bit easier.
Lay down a thread base from behind the bead to the hook bend and then back to the tie in point about one bead width behind the bead. Fold the spinnerbait skirt tab in half and tie in by the two pointed ends. The silicon material is a little funky to work with so make the first couple of wraps light and then tighten them up to secure the tailing material.
Secure the tailing material all the way to the bend of the hook then back to the bead and then again back to the bend of the hook as pictured to lay a smooth base for the body material.
Strip some of the Estaz from the end to expose the inner cord and tie in by the cord.
Palmer the Eztaz to behind the bead and apply multiple wraps of the Red thread to create a noticeable red hot spot behind the bead. Trim the tail to the desired length. It is usually good to leave the tail a bit on the long side and then it can be trimmed down stream side with the nippers if needed.
Jack recently posted a video of himself tying the Redneck Tube Bait which I have included below. If you have any questions or comments for Jack please leave them in the comment section.