Hellgramite

[blueheron]

Here's my take on a Hellgramite. The bigger waters I fish have trout and bass and I do well with giant soft hackled flies that imitate the local stoneflies so it got me thinking about hellgramites.
Anybody else tying them?

 

[whheff]

I tie a pattern called Bass Candy. If you Google that you should find a link to it.
I found the link for you. Enjoy!

 

[Fishidiot]

Here's mine:

 

[jayL]

I dead drift the big black buggers from the streamer thread and get a lot of takes. I would assume some of them have to be taken for hellgramites.

 

[blueheron]

On the Androscoggin I swing a giant soft hackle sometimes two and have caught trout and bass on a tandem rig together. The big water has large stoneflies and, I gotta believe hellgramites, so that's why I'm tying them, the larger the better. You'll see.

 

[blueheron]

Fishid, Nice tye, I incorporated rubber legs in a previous version but then I looked on the net for an example and saw how stubby their legs areso I went with the hackle and the baggie back to push it down

 

[jayL]

I'll have to crank a few out then if we get a chance to fish it this year.

I'll hit the fly shop soon and see what I can come up with.

 

[FlySwatter]

blueheron,

I like the head on that fly. Does it make the fly wiggle when stripped?

 

[blueheron]

Yes, it pushes water but I weight the front half heavily so I'm not sure what makes it wiggle. I mostly let it swing then tumble into a lift.

 

[flipnfly]

i have fished the franke /delaware rive hellgrammite but if you ask me a black or dk. olive wooly worm without the red tag does just the same if not better

 

[blueheron]

flip,
I agree about the bugger but I like to experiment with new flies that are quick and easy to tie with material I already have on hand. I've never seen a hellgramite on the water but they were the bomb back in my bait flinging days( the dark ages)

 

[troutslammer]

olive wooly bugger with a black hackle (palmered) is what i would swing if i was targeting bass and trout together (which i have been known to do from time to time )

 

[flipnfly]

i caught a nice smallie in the raystown branch of the juniata river last season on a wooly worm black i wish i had a camera with me i think this year with my tax return its either a waterproof camera or a flip video with watrerproof case im leaning more towards the flip

 

[jayL]

The flip is nice, but a nice waterproof digital takes video just as well. I'd get the camera if the price difference isn't too much.

 

[blueheron]

I was just cruising ebay for a wp camera - looks like an olympus is available@100 bucks

 

[blueheron]

What the heck is that link on my last post?

 

[jayL]

It thinks it's an email addy.

 

[RLeep2]

My favorite hellgrammite fly is Harry Murray's rendition. Doesn't look much like a hellgrammite, so far as my sensibilities go, but it catches a lot of fish. And in the final analysis, that's what matters.

I think with a lot of the flies of this general type, whether tied to imitate crayfish or hellgrammites, the notion that the fish takes them specifically as an imitation of what we think they are is as often as not an opinion held exclusively by the angler and not so much the fish. I tend to believe the fish doesn't identify the fly so much as a hellgrammite as he identifies it as "something" worth eating.

But we'll never know until the day comes when we can ask the fish...

Murray hellgrammite: http://www.warmwaterflyfisher.com/flymonth/FOTM092002.htm

 

[afishinado]

RLeep2 wrote:
My favorite hellgrammite fly is Harry Murray's rendition. Doesn't look much like a hellgrammite, so far as my sensibilities go, but it catches a lot of fish. And in the final analysis, that's what matters.

[color=CC0000]I think with a lot of the flies of this general type, whether tied to imitate crayfish or hellgrammites, the notion that the fish takes them specifically as an imitation of what we think they are is as often as not an opinion held exclusively by the angler and not so much the fish. I tend to believe the fish doesn't identify the fly so much as a hellgrammite as he identifies it as "something" worth eating.
[/color]
But we'll never know until the day comes when we can ask the fish...

Murray hellgrammite: http://www.warmwaterflyfisher.com/flymonth/FOTM092002.htm

I agree completely. That's why I generally start and end with a wooly bugger. I has movement and looks like a lot of forage types to the fish...something worth eating. Good stuff.

 

[sandfly]

My favorite is this one, Bill Skiltons pattern