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Night Striper Inlet Fly Pattern

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The Graveyard Shift

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Been thinking about what I want in a fly all year as I have fly fished and surfcast primarily three different inlets.  I really like Rich Murphy's Rattlesnake fly with the double rattle tail it seems to call in fish at night but its designed to ride high and works much better on shllower beaches or in saltmarshes.  Also Rich's  conomo special has been great with a big pushy mesh head and easy casting large profile in sythetics.  It also tends to rise up and its killer waked at surface on a floating line during the herring run.  Also the beast fleyes and hollow fleyes have produced some large bass as well. So the rattles, hollow tied materials, and pushy head characteristics need to be incorporated but its got to stay low in water, but something else was missing in the action.

 

The surfcasting lures that are producing are bucktails with pork, Savage sand eels, and Tsunami sandeels 9" version all of which are less snag prone due to jig style, stay near the bottom, and put out some vibration through tail kick or pork movement.   I found inspiration from european pike fly tiers Ilias Karanzas and Niklaus Bauer.  Their use of clip style attractor tails was the solution I was looking for.

 

I will post the final fly later when I finish it but wanted to show the core of it.  The tail is small size black EZ body with two heavy duty plastic jig rattles inside.  No more glass rattles they break to often.  The ez body is tied onto hook and connection is epoxy coated but behind tie off is left fleixble so tail has ability to move flexing left/right/up/down.  This is stolen from Rich's Rattlesnake pattern.  

 

A fastach clip is tied to end so you can change out different attractor tails.  These tails have different actions and impact fall rate and over all swimming action of fly.  This allows for fast adjustments on water just by changing tails.  This fly design idea is stolen from Niklaus Bauer, but the goal of changing tails and triming bucktail density to tweak my fall and swim rates is from John Skinners bucktail book as I already carry multiple sizes and shapes of otter tails so I can tweak jig fall action.

 

 You now have great attraction sound from two rattles and vibration of the different attractor tails movement which will help fish key in of fly in dark fast moving inlet water.

 

It uses a 7/0 owner jig hook with the heaviest dumbell eyes I could find and 3/4" long channel lead.  This set up is like a swimbaits internal weighting somthe fly will get down and stay down like a bucktail or swimbait.  Will finish it and post final pictures later once its done.  I will tie these in different weights by adjusting length of the channel lead so I can tweak depth and I will use different eye colors to denote the weighting of fly pattern so I can be certain of which fly is which weight.

 

If it does as well as I hope next year fly fishing these different inlets I think I want to name it the Skinner Special because John's books have been instrumental in my development as a surfcaster and what got me into fishing these deep fast inlets on bucktails and swimbaits in the first place.  Now I am converting these areas into fly fishing success but I needed a better fly.  This fly on the recent full sinking lines I have switched to should be the solution to more night shift trophy bass next year on the fly from shore.

 

 

 

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Edited by The Graveyard Shift
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I think we may well be looking at a wrap on the back of the head or back, wear a hood for sure, I think snags on the bottom will be an issue, oh yea a broken rod tip may be a good possibility, bring a back up.

 

I hope you take this well, I just all of those things a big possibility.

 

I would much prefer  300 grain 30 foot sink tip with a bigger clouser tied vey full to push a lot of water.

 

Keep us posted.

The Tug Is The Drug

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Although glass rattles break they're good for sound but tying them into a fly dulls/mutes the sound and doesn't allow you to replace broken rattle.Solution:use a 3/8" piece of vinyl tubing w/ a hole poked through it w/ a hot needle so it can slide onto the bend of the hook.Force your rattle into the tubing and you're good to go,if it breaks,slide another in.

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45 mins ago, albacized said:

I usually associate flies pushing water with surface presentations, regardless whether it's something like a gurgler, or a slider that spends a good part of the retreive subsurface

Any material that flares out or moves a lot pushes water.One of my favorites for sunken flies is deer hair tyed on as a head muddler style but using the bottom of a bucktail for it's long hollow fibers so the collar is 3 or more inches long.

Rabbit strips move water well too,a big,fat ,3/8" wide strip flaps and wiggles like no other material beside pork rind.I've recently been night fishing for some fat local river walleye and rabbit strips have been a deciding factor in my success.

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Mike

 

Re water pushing flies, some are very significant. Ones that have large and dense heads have a significantly higher amount of water drag than ones without. Even two hollow flies with the same profile, one with a bulkhead and one without have big differences in resistance to water flow. I know this because I can feel the difference on the end of my line as I retrieve them. You can physically feel the resistance to pulling them through the water. Nothing like a clouser or standard deceiver. They have totally different actions too because the flow of fluid around and through the fly is different and the tailing material must follow. 

 

Others not so much. A clouser that's heavily dressed will not have as much disturbance as one which is a bit more sparse but features a big synthetic or deer hair head around the eyes. 

 

It's all a bit relative. The larger flies 6"+ have greater potential for significant water push. 

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3 hours ago, bonefishdick said:

I think we may well be looking at a wrap on the back of the head or back, wear a hood for sure, I think snags on the bottom will be an issue, oh yea a broken rod tip may be a good possibility, bring a back up.

 

I hope you take this well, I just all of those things a big possibility.

 

I would much prefer  300 grain 30 foot sink tip with a bigger clouser tied vey full to push a lot of water.

 

Keep us posted.

100% agree on risks of casting that fly regularly in the dark with number one fear a hit to the back of the head.  I appreciate feedback that is part of why I posted it.

 

I am fishing this on a 500 grain sink tip. The current is very intense and since I was fishing in dark I thought I was getting down far enough because I was catching fish occassionally.  But if I throw heavy jigs on spin gear I hook up a lot more.  I went back in daylight and had a friend spot (very clear water) where my beast fleye was on the swing much to my surprise way only about halfway down in water column (8-10 feet deep) and it started rising as soon as swing was initiated. So I realized I need a fly a lot of internal weight in addition to the sinking line because I want it hanging in the 20-22' depth range.

 

Right now I am struggling with deciding how to tie the profile I want with less drag to get down and stay down.  I am thinking hollow tie with a mesh head front  shaped to track well.

 

I also would rather loses flies on bottom then snag sinking lines in rocks which is a real problem in this area.  so figured want fly tracking at or below the sink tip.  hook pointing up should help as I tick jigs along this bottom regularly.  Honestly if you are not losing a jig or or two on every trip you are not in the strike zone at this place so losing these flies is going to happen probably 5-8 flies per season

 

 

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, slip n slide said:

Any material that flares out or moves a lot pushes water.One of my favorites for sunken flies is deer hair tyed on as a head muddler style but using the bottom of a bucktail for it's long hollow fibers so the collar is 3 or more inches long.

Rabbit strips move water well too,a big,fat ,3/8" wide strip flaps and wiggles like no other material beside pork rind.I've recently been night fishing for some fat local river walleye and rabbit strips have been a deciding factor in my success.

I am torn between a muddler style head or a formed EZ body head for this fly.  May try one of each.

 

These tails blow rabbit strips away on action you should try them for your walleye flies.  You need to use the clips though so you can change them out.

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1 hour ago, slip n slide said:

Although glass rattles break they're good for sound but tying them into a fly dulls/mutes the sound and doesn't allow you to replace broken rattle.Solution:use a 3/8" piece of vinyl tubing w/ a hole poked through it w/ a hot needle so it can slide onto the bend of the hook.Force your rattle into the tubing and you're good to go,if it breaks,slide another in.

Great idea I will try this on flies where I want to be able to add or remove the rattle.  

 

For this fly the rattles have more purpose than sound alone.  They sever as the extension to get attractor tail away from body materials that impact tail action.  the flexible ez body is important just like the mono extension is on a beast fleye spine it can bend easily allowing for good hook set no matter how the bass decides to take the fly.  Lastly,  these plastic ball bearing rattles are heavy and help fly sink and keel more level.  I dont want an extreme head first jigging action since it is fished on a sink tip and this helps balance the flies fall.  The goal of this fly is like a bucktail a slow steady gliding retrieve very close to the bottom.

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Great stuff Graveyard. I love seeing the creative process and research you are putting in on this. I think in the heavy current you fish your flies will be rising with any amount of drag. Maybe one approach on fishing at depth is doing your 200 foot drifts and thinking about fishing that drift almost as drag-free drift on the rod end of things and try to hit a fish before the swing starts. 

 

I been fishing live bait recently. It's a new thing for me and kind of fun. I like catching the live bait. One approach that's worked is bobber and letting it drift for five or so minutes in current. It only gets out about 500 feet in that time but have gotten some hits that way. Now I want to try to do the same thing but with flies. Will have to do the long range drag free drift approach will be interesting. 

 

While we're talking flies that push water, one neat one that was from the stripermoon knowledge base is a flatwing tail, just one or two hackles but super long and then a big bushy muddler head. But you select longest hairs from base of bucktail and don't trim the butts of the hair too close. Kind of a snake fly I guess. I never caught on it but I love the way it looks and swims. 

Edited by Otshawytsha
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56 mins ago, Otshawytsha said:

While we're talking flies that push water, one neat one that was from the stripermoon knowledge base is a flatwing tail, just one or two hackles but super long and then a big bushy muddler head. But you select longest hairs from base of bucktail and don't trim the butts of the hair too close. Kind of a snake fly I guess. I never caught on it but I love the way it looks and swims. 

O,

 

That sort of design to me is extremely reminiscent of a flatwing/Buford hybrid. I bet Kenny would be unhappy thinking about it but as long as it catches fish, nothing else matters. Sounds like it would make an excellent subsurface eel fly. 

Edited by RedGreen
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28 mins ago, RedGreen said:

O,

 

That sort of design to me is extremely reminiscent of a flatwing/Buford hybrid. I bet Kenny would be rolling in his grave thinking about it but as long as it catches fish, nothing else matters. Sounds like it would make an excellent subsurface eel fly. 

When Did Kenny pass?

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