X Rap Fly Giveaway

[phaaker]

Base off of Lynch's Drunk and Disorderly, I have a fly with an interesting problem. It has too much side to side action where it can go into a roll. It is a coated deer hair wedge shaped head, but I used an old concave double edge razor to cut the top. The action is too much. I wanted to know if anyone could suggest a technique to keep the action, but stabilize the fly. I am against mucho weighting. I will post a pic of the finished fly, send the winner a fly, and step by step recipe.

[Jonn Graham]

I would like to see the step by step of this fly. I too tie a fly based off of Lynch's Drunk and Disorderly and Schultz's Swingin' D. So far, I like the action of the ones I have created, but, in all honesty, I would like to achieve more side to side action. But, the action I desire could be a function of current speed. I know Lynch and Schultz are fishing rivers with more current speed, on average, than mine. I am going to continue to fiddle with my design and different materials until I get what I desire...........

[Ben K.]

Lets see this pic! I love tinkering. My friend got some of that epoxy that dries quickly under uv light and we had some fun creating different shaped heads, can't wait to see the action they give.

[Mike G]

Phaaker,

To the point, the solution to your “problem” is Fletching. I am borrowing a word from archery. Picture an arrow without a point. Even without an arrowhead, it would fly straight because of the Fletching (feathers on the back end). The drag makes the arrow fly straight. So to solve your enviable problem, I would add some minor amount of bulk to the rear of the tandem. Bulk up the tail or body slightly-a little more tail material or a few winds of hackle on the body. This should reduce but not eliminate the wobble.

 

To be more specific, take a look at the D and D.

 

 

The quickest solution is a big increase in the length of the flash tail. If the additional drag proves to be too much, trim the tail until you get it right. You could also play around with adding bulk to the rear section other ways like adding fur to the tail or winding hackle on the body. But this approach will require a lot of trial and error.

 

I will pmail you the address where you can send the fly.

 

[Tom L]

Without seeing the fly, it is kind of hard to diagnose the problem. I think Mike's solution - adding bulk or weight to the body and the tail sections - has a lot of merits. But that does sound like the solution that you want as you'd stated against adding weight. Another solution, I would like to suggest is to reduce the head size by making the deer-hair head smaller in width, height, and length. Reducing the head's width and height is simple, just shave more deer-hair off of the sides, the bottom, and the top. You can do this with you existing flies and on the water. Reducing the head's length is a bit tricky, but it is also can be done with your existing fly.

 

When you look at the profile of any crank bait which is what this fly is trying to imitate in action, the bill is slanting forward but with little weight up front. The bulk of the weight is the body and the tail. Your fly's deer-hair head soaks up water and makes the head too heavy for the body and the tail to stabilize the fly which makes it spins. So reducing the head size which leads to reducing the head weight will bring the fly into more balance.

 

I think this might be your solution. Try this first before you tying up more flies.

[phaaker]

Here is the head shape I am talking about

[Tom L]

I would shave more deer-hairs off the top of the head.

[phaaker]

The first two pics are to show the curve of the top of the head...the fly was cleaned up and trimmed significantly