The Graham Shad........now articulated

[Jonn Graham]

Had some luck last season with a shad pattern I came up with. Fished it on a river with a shad population and caught a few real nice fish. Next step..................articulate the same pattern.

 

Last few days been playing around with adding a back section to the fly using an Articulated Fish Spine. Here is what I came up with:

 

 

 

 

Added a 6 mm fish mask to this one:

 

 

 

#2 Gammy B10s as my hook.............no hook in the back. Since old man winter won't stop, I have not been able to water-test these yet...........we will see how they swim come spring.........................

[Rob G]

John,

yours look great but I have a question:

I have not fished many articulated flies and only just recently started tying a few up. On mine, I cut off the front hook and left the rear hook to swing freely, thinking I might have a better chance at short strike hook ups, do you know if there is much difference in action or hook ups when tied in either manner? I'm sure it's probably hard to generalize to some degree depending on how the fly was tied and what materials used, but I would appreciate any advice or feedback from yourself or anyone that has more experience with these. Thanks

[Mike G]

I like the fly, Jonn. I kinda wonder why you put the hook up front which requires fiddling with a loop of some sort to attach the tail section. I am not sure there would be a big difference in hooking since the fly does not look that long anyway.

[Jonn Graham]

Mike:

 

Good point about having the hook in the front..........not sure why I put the hook in the front rather than the back............habit I guess. You are right that if I put the hook in the back I would not need a loop to connect the two halves. Will have to make up a few with the hook in the back and try them out.

 

Rob:

 

Not sure about better hookups or not. In the past when I have tied articulated patterns, I have always either had two hooks or a hook in the front only. I will need to tie up a few with the hook in the back and test them out. I know a lot of guys do tie them with only the hook in the back. As I said above, I am not sure why I decided to put the hook in the front. I wonder if I put the hook in the back I might actually impede the tail action as it will be heavier with the hook??? Who knows? I guess I was thinking with the tail hookless and weightless, it would swing and twitch in the current.

 

Thanks guys for the advice..............definitely got me thinking a little more. Sure wish I could run to the river and test it out right now. Hard to test out a fly on my local flows as upon casting they would slide like a hockey puck.

[Tom L]

Nice ties, Jonn. I've heard that fish masks crack sometimes. Just wonder if you've had that experience. I've heard also that some people coat their fish masks with CCG to make them more crack resistant.

[Jonn Graham]

Tom:

 

You are right, the fish masks do crack..............found out the hard way this past fall when i hit two muskie flies against the outboard motor..................good bye fish mask. I heard that CCG coating helps so that is what I do now on all my masks.............we will see if it truly helps

[Mike G]

Jonn,

 

Here's a reason to put the hook in front. You can save money by using a 5-10 cent Aberdeen hook for the rear segment. After you tie it, cut it off at the bend. No need to use a 30-50 cent fish segment for the rear section ever.

[Rob G]

Mike,

why couldn't you just use the cheap hook up front and cut the barb end on that one, at least that's what I did?

[Mike G]

Mike,

why couldn't you just use the cheap hook up front and cut the barb end on that one, at least that's what I did?

 

Rob,

 

I bend my own fish segments using #12 stainless wire. It is even cheaper than using hooks. The value of a fish shank, home made or purchased is that it is one piece and the rear loop can't pull off. Considering all the work in a segmented fly, who wants to make one that might pull apart.

[Rob G]

Good point Mike. I have only made them by tying in the coated wire loop to an existing hook shank and then cutting off that hook bend and point. I have not had much experience with these so can't comment on the durability of my tied in loop holding the rear hook. Though I am unable to physically pull them apart, I don't know how fishing will affect that strength. Hope to really give them a work out on smallies and pike this year.