Muskie Flies

[Crawdad31]

Nice ties everyone. It's pretty kool to see the little community we have here grow. Here is a recent tie. I've been slacking I need to quick get a few more done before season heats up. This is a 6/0 foam popper.

 

[afishinado]

Nice!

 

[Bosshog]

Tied this one up last night. Articulated single 4/0

 

[GenCon]

Guys, just curious why such large hooks? I have noticed a lot of your flies have 3/0 or 4/0 hooks. Are you using them that size just to balance the fly?

GenCon

 

[Bosshog]

I'm sure TD or Paco can answer this question better but musky or pike like big flies. Need big hooks to tie such flies.

I've only been tying for a short while. I started off thinking 2/0 was huge, now to me, it seems way to small. 4/0 is the biggest I've tied thus far, but i just got some 5/0 and 6/0 to play with.

 

[PACOFRANSICO]

I line to stay in the 4/0 to 6/0 range. I also tye on the 2/0 b10s gamas. Which has the hook gap equivalent of a 4/0 partridge predator x. If dia rikki would make there 810 bass hook in 4/0 I'd use them. Td and have hook alotta muskys and pike on those 810s.

 

[TD55]

A musky mouth is very large literally nearly a 5 gallon bucket on a large fish. You can hook them on 2/0 and 3/0 but I got a much better hook up when I switched to larger hooks. I use the 8/0 Partridge Universal Predator X almost exclusively.

 

[Crawdad31]

Now I'm just heading into my sophomore season,but having tasseled with quite a few toothies last year, I have to agree with TD and Paco on hook size. For me it's definitely a confidence play, most of my singles are on 5/0-6/0 hooks now because you never know when the biggest fish you've ever seen decides to swipe at your fly and having a small hook would make me nervous. The head and mouth on a 40 and up fish is huge. I like having the extra bite (no pun intended) a larger hook can give you.

Nice tie by the way Bosshogg.

 

[plombardo]

I have talked to few people on this subject. What I took from our conversation was:
Our fly rods are not made to hook musky. A large gap, smaller diameter, sharp hooks be it B10, 550 or predators, help you sink the hook better. It takes a lot to force with a huge heavy wire saltwater style hook. Less is maybe better be it hooks and materials.

 

[BlueSteel89]

Been busy tying, but I would rather be busy fishing! Here are a few EP style flies Ive been tying. They are pretty easy and fun minus doing the eyeballs the way Enrico Puglisi does them. Still haven't mastered that. Here is a popper I tied on a 6/0 Partridge Absolute Predator hook. Its got a really wide gap. I found the foam cylinders at Michael's Craft Store.

 

[jay348]

I don't fish many, but I always like how those barred perch-style ep flies look...well done steel!

Paco, I gotta come clean...I got a little jealous of that diver video of yours. I took a stab at something similar...hopefully it swims half as nice.

 

[PACOFRANSICO]

That diver was tyed by Pat Cohen. Kick *** fly it's gonna see some teeth! It's a prototype that he planning on selling on his Ru Superfly site in the near future.

 

[pro4mance]

Pat's flies are awsome

 

[TLoomis]

Nice diver Jay! I agree, Pat has some crazy stuff coming off of his vice. The Baby Merganser I saw on his instagram was insane. I wanna give it a shot haha the toothies should love it

 

[BlueSteel89]

Awesome diver Jay! I met Pat Cohen at the Lancaster show and bought some of his goodies. He ties some awesome flies and is great to talk to.

 

[Crawdad31]

Bluesteel, I pretty sure I got the same thing you did at michaels. It was a big bag full of foam shapes? When I saw it, I was all pumped up about it and the lady next to me was looking at me like I was crazy. Nice tie by the way.

Jay..nice diver as well. I need to learn to stack deer hair like that.

 

[BlueSteel89]

Crawdad31 wrote:
Bluesteel, I pretty sure I got the same thing you did at michaels. It was a big bag full of foam shapes? When I saw it, I was all pumped up about it and the lady next to me was looking at me like I was crazy. Nice tie by the way.

Jay..nice diver as well. I need to learn to stack deer hair like that.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that gets weird looks at the craft store. The last time I was there I got all excited about the crazy googly eyes and giant pipe cleaners. A mother was there with her child getting supplies for a science project and looked at me like I escaped the nut house. Those cylinders came in a bag of about a dozen of just that shape and color. I hope they float well cause I would like nothing more then for Mr.Musky to crush a giant popper 🙂

 

[Crawdad31]

Haha. They look at you like you have two heads it's pretty funny. Everytime I go in there and ask if they have certain things from an employee which the items are always pretty random, I feel the need to explain I am using them for fly tying. The bag of foam I got had a bunch of different shapes in it which is pretty kool because I can cut more out of the pieces and make some smaller bass poppers and I want to experiment with the pyramid shapes for a slider pattern.

 

[jay348]

I got meet pat at somerset, and I agree with the others...very nice guy.

I highly recommend his diver tutorial dvd to anyone interested in the deer hair game. Got it for my bday in dec and my tying desk has been a mess ever since.

 

[BlueSteel89]

Here are a couple of flies I've tied up. Picked up an awesome pink bucktail and had to tie a couple of flies with it. I got out Monday and threw the double pink one and it really looks cool in the water. I'm not sure if it was my frozen guides, my frozen line, my frozen reel or the fact that I was wading but I could not throw that guy very far lol.