Tied up some with Lively Legz

[mike_richardson]

Picked up a few packs of Lively legs to try out a little while ago. I have put up quite a few fish with them. Here are a few of my most recent. I am getting the hang of keeping the legs straight and the material is becoming easy to work with.

I like my grey squirrel nymph with legs. I think these are really going to kill it this winter. I have a pelt that I need to preserve as my "magic squirrel pelt" is so used up and has almost all of the guard hairs missing that it feels like velvet.

Haven't tried tying them on anything smaller than a size 12 yet though, but that will be coming soon.

I found it a lot easier to tie them with a single wingcase than with a multiple like on a stone fly. I'll be playing with this material for a while, and see how it does. WIll have a nice stock pile built up for next year when I have a lot more time to fish.

 

[bigjohn58]

My experience with flies like that is that they look amazing to the human eye but not so much to the fish. My only explination is that there is no movement. Anyone else feel the same way?

 

[mike_richardson]

I get what you are saying 100%. Most of my flies are suggestive patterns. I don't put legs and such on most of my stuff but wanted to give these a shot. I think they give a nice looking profile to the nymph.

 

[Fishidiot]

bigjohn58 wrote:
My experience with flies like that is that they look amazing to the human eye but not so much to the fish. My only explination is that there is no movement. Anyone else feel the same way?

Agree.
However the ones shown here have plenty of picked out fur and soft, natural tail material. The addition of the LL give the nymphs a nice profile that resembles a stonefly nymph. Combined with the natural materials as shown here, these should make for a good fly for catching trout. I like 'em.

 

[PennKev]

bigjohn58 wrote:
My experience with flies like that is that they look amazing to the human eye but not so much to the fish. My only explination is that there is no movement. Anyone else feel the same way?

I agree. I think we, as humans, concentrate on well defined legs and gills and tails and such. Our idea of realism seems to rely on the accuracy and precision of the individual parts of a fly.

I don't think the trout think in a way that correlates with what we perceive as realistic.

Perhaps it is the lack of realistic movements or behavior under water, or just the fact that rubber legs look like rubber legs and not a natural food item.

But then again fish eat blue glitter powerbait so who knows?

 

[McSneek]

I frequently use a large "stonefly" pattern on Penns Creek as an anchor fly that is nothing more than chenille wrapped around the hook with sili legs for tails, legs and antenna. About as suggestive as you can get. The fish don't seem to mind though. :-D

 

[afishinado]

^+1

Lead wire on the shank, chenille wrapped around rubber legs, fools [d]as many[/d] more fish than a complex realistic stonefly pattern for me. Just tie the same type fly to match the size and color or SF you are want to imitate.

Girdle Bug

 

[mike_richardson]

We got some rain on Friday. I hit up a local stream that gets quite a bit of stockies dumped in. I just absolutely leveled the stream with that grey squirrel pattern.

I took a lot of pictures but didn't capture every fish. I would say somewhere in the 20-25 range. All fish were stocked trout. Have fished any wild streams to see if the LL fool wild trout or not, but I will soon.

My honey hole is a convergence of two streams. The one was stained and the other just green. It made it obvious right where the feeding lies were on the stream.

I attached some pictures of the trout I caught, pretty much all stockies from April and May. I made sure the fly was in their mouth. Whether or not that the legs, move, or don't look real, or what ever they work, plain and simple. I feel they are worth the 4.00 a pack price. I did not get to try an experiment, of tying the same size grey squirrel pattern with out legs, and seeing what one picks up more fish, but will try that next time.

Man I feel bad for that one rainbow. Looks like whoever caught him before was using and musky lure, and when the went to take it out, stepped on the fish and ripped it out much like starting a lawn mower.

I know that I wont be putting these on all of my flies, but after Saturday mornings outing, I think they will be on a great deal of them.

 

[gfen]

Proof on concept on fresh stockers? I'm sold!

 

[pete41]

The trout's western brethren and cistern love,repeat love rubber legs.Something fishy there.

 

[JG63]

Congrats Mike! You keep educating feesh like that on yer nymphs and dry flies will be back in style (I.E. The fish will be afraid to eat subsurface). I've got a couple gray squirrel pelts (as I am a die hard squirrel hunter) to trade fer some of your legz bugz if interested. Shoot me a PM if so.

PS: the Girdle Bug still rocks too!

 

[mike_richardson]

I guess they work on old hold overs as well, but that's none of my buisness My son reeled this guy in. Didn't get a measurement but he was pretty long and skinny. Just measuring my arm off of the picture puts him between 15 and 16.

I can educate them as soon the water temps will go up and I will leave them alone for a while.

 

[LongLineRelease]

I've been using Lively Legz some recently. I love the way they look, but don't honestly expect them to out fish good old fashion softhackle. I do like the idea of being able to show the trout something different though. A fishing partner of mine has been fishing nymphs with the legz on them and reports good results with them. Attached is a green rockworm caddis. I have a few other patterns posted around the forum too.

 

[mike_richardson]

I like that caddis a lot. The grey squirrel and hares ear beadheads have been the best for me so far. Seem the stockies and wild trout love them. Plus they are easier for me to tie than soft hackle