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hollow pleyes


rich mc

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I'm reminded that 3 minds are better than one ! So I tied an overhand knot, smashed it down flat in order to give it a greater contact area and after a drop of UV glue, I have no doubt this eye can withstand many a smallie-smashing. Thanks

 

Hopefully samples to come soon.

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i like that . for the mono stems you can also flatten it with pliers glue would hold better and it would tie in neater.

 

Like rich says, squeeze the mono stem real hard where you will tie it on. that roughs up the surface so that it will not pull out.

 

PS Thanks to Rob for blazing the trail. This thread reminded me that a drop of epoxy or UV can transform a flat stick on eye (3 cents) to a 3D eye (30 cents)--quite a savings.

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Rich, I do this with many of my flies where I want to create a hot spot. I tie the fly as usual with an inconspicuous color, white 6/0 Ultra thread above, then after finishing the fly, I whip finish a small head and cut my thread. I then start another thread in the color that I desire for my hot spot (Chinese red above), over the original head (and in this case make sure those mono ends from the eyes are completely covered), wrap neatly, whip finish again, then apply two coats of Sally Hansens. Markers don't give me that eye popping color that I want and they too often bleed or fade. The one problem with craft fur is that I've yet to find a marker that won't fade after being fished a while, including the black sharpie I use on the tails.

 

Edit: Ha, I really need to increase my font size or go grab my spectacles because I thought you asked about the fish lips in the above post, not the tail tips. Ha. Yea, just a black sharpie but again, it will fade. Duh, maybe I should find a better eye doc.

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Reverse ties are a pain since you have to hold the material in position in the right hand and wrap with the left to tie materials on (if you are right handed).

 

For my swap flies I am going to use the clouser mode on my vise and switch back and forth from clipping the hook by the bend and by the eye. I'LL let you know.

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  • 3 months later...

Ok, so today I glued a pair of those same eyes on the fly above using Liquid Fusion and they held up well thru several casts and I have no doubt they would stay on for a while, But....... the action of the fly changed dramatically. Who woulda thunk? Using glue on the eyes flattens out the front or head of the fly and it must impart more weight than I thought and/or decreases resistance thru the water column such that now when stripped, the fly gains more of an up and down jig action (which I didn't want) and lost the wounded minnow erratic action that was so appealing. Sometimes what looks good on paper (or in the vise) doesn't translate to desired action. Btw, definitely tie these on using a loop knot, it really adds to the movement. Been catching greenies on it and hopefully the rains will end someday and I can get a chance to show it to Mr. Smallie. ( As I type this, we're about to get nailed again, geesh )

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I have been hoping to try the pike thing out of the kayak the last few weeks but 20+ mph winds or stormy weather have kept me off the lake. The forecast for this coming week looks pretty good. Maybe I can give the above flies a try soon. Glad to hear you are getting some action on them Rob.

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They look good.

 

It looks like craft fur is a good material to practice on.

 

There is advice about gluing eyes on the fleye at 7:41 in the video.

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Was out today with the yak and the 8 wt casting the lake for pike. The flies looked great in the water. Very nice motion even with the larger deer hair version though it ran much closer to the surface than its smaller craft fur cousin posted above. Nice action in the fly, but the fishing was a total lack of action. Even my two go too flies struck out. One hour, two hours, three hours and I was out. Eyes were tied on using Rob's method. The flies kept their round full body look.

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  • 1 month later...

This fly may have saved the day today.

I got out this afternoon for a little while before our next flood which is to arrive this evening and the MiddleFork kicked my butt again. Only a handful of smallies and no size whatsoever, in fact the largest fish of the day was a spotted bass, and our spots down this way don't get very large. That is until I tied on my last Hollow fly and lo and behold, it fooled a really nice 18"er. Now I know an 18 is generally nothing to write home to Mom about but this 18" was exceptionally fat and wide, maybe the heaviest 18" that I've ever landed. Of course I forgot my camera so no photo but wish I could have shown you the girth. The coloration and pattern was pretty decent as well. The gray and white reverse fly looks a lot like the gizzard shad that were in abundance. But anyway, the fly has earned its spot in my fly box for sure.

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Rob,

 

Nice report. In the big leagues, weight gets the check. So I would not knock 18 especially a hefty specimen. On a rare occasion I once caught prespawn back to back 19s. The first I assume was a male in fighting shape. The second a female heavy with eggs was so big around that I could hardly grip it.

 

BTW Photobucket's retroactive rule on hosting really messed up this thread. I went back to look at your flies and mostly found upgrade notices. Now can a guy with Dr. in his name come up with 4 bills to ransom his pictures? :rolleyes:

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John, the 18"er was not a spot but a smallie, our spots rarely get much bigger than 12" down this way.

 

Mike, As to the photo thing, I thought it was something temporary with this site since I have photos still visible on other websites but that seems to be changing as well? I just checked into it and yea, they want $400 to allow my photos to continue to be visible where as for more than 10 years it has been a free photo hosting service. Yea, it's like extortion and they should have given fair warning. Guess there's been quite a back lash.

 

35853875500_4ae86684d1_o.jpg. by robow 77, on Flickr

 

 

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glad to see they work. are they light enough to do a double fly rig? rich mc

 

I guess it would depend on what weight rod you are using and how large a fly did you tie. I don't feel it would be easy with my 5 weight rods since I'm tying this as a rather large fly but it is not like casting a heavy wet sock either. The synthetic craft fur sheds water pretty easily.

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  • 2 weeks later...

A couple thoughts on this fly now that I have had a chance to use it more.

 

Consider using a loop knot when tying on. Not always the case but on this particular fly, I seem to get greater side to side movement which entices.

 

Tie it using a pretty WIDE gap hook. There is a lot of material tied to the shaft and found that I didn't get a good hook set on some of the flies that I tied when using a size 4 standard Daiichi stainless hook. I'm now using a Gamy Stinger hook while opening the gap just a touch and have had far less fish coming off.

 

I can't make a good case for tying the fly with eyes on. I think it looks cooler but I fished a couple that had caught so many fish that the eyes eventually came off and yet the fly kept producing at the same rate. Jury is still out on this.

 

Don't hesitate to load the front of the fly with heavier amounts of material vs. the rear. In much of fly tying, we always hear.... sparse is better but the front of this fly seems to appreciate more material, hence the wider gap hook to deal with that.

 

This one is a keeper for sure since it has accounted for many of my larger fish this year, and at about 4" it seems a nice size that larger fish might appreciate.

Btw, I would love to hear any thoughts that others might have on their design or use of this fly.

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  • 4 weeks later...

My 2 cents on eyes. While there is no doubt it can be a trigger and allow predators to focus on the head area of a bait, think of how many fish have been caught on a zoom fluke or original sluggo type plastic bait. No eyes and a simply deadly bait on most gamefish. The hollow tied craft fur flies have been a staple in my boxes for years. If you want some other tips for craft fur look up dave's bad hair day fly on youtube. He has some tips on helping distribute hair on the hook and is a master at simple very effective patterns that are fast to tie.

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