New fly

[kastmaster]

Snagged and lost it, but not before I fooled 3 green sunfish with it! Size 8 mosquito hook, thrift store bead, black shrink tubing, and wing feather material from a red-shafted flicker. Sinking fly. Used some floating twigs as casting weight & strike indicators 2 ft above the fly with my spinning rod. Fish all hit on the slow twitch retrieve.

[Midnightpass]

Cute little critters… The flicker feather did the job…
Butch

[Carpkiller]

Red-shafted flicker? Naw, I just met 'er...

Sorry.

Nice going on the greenies!

[kastmaster]

A couple of lessons / observations from the last trip.

1) I made a wood floating 'honeybee plug' (lost it, no photos!), which I was able to vibrate in a convincing enough manner to get one fish to rocket up to it, only to turn around within inches of it. Either it saw the line, or was unconvinced by the plug, or both. I was out of sight, so I didn't spook the fish.

2) There is a nest-guarding male that I have caught multiple times now, both on the fly and with bait. He wanted no part of the fly this past trip, but as soon as I added a tiny slug to the fly, BAM! This makes the fly-alone accomplishments feel very good.

[Neuroshima]

You can use a bunch of stuff lying around the house to make flies. Deflated balloons cut into strips for buggy legs, chenille from a bath rug or a mop that imitates a grub, press on nails from the wife/gf to make sand crabs, craft foam to make floating flies, or use a hole puncher to make foam disc and then thread them onto floss to create a worm. Burned 50 lb monofilament line to create a little ball at the end and coat it in black nail polish to make shrimp eyes.

And one of my favorites, giftwrapping ribbon pulled apart to make hackle.

[kastmaster]

Love these ideas. Thanks.

You can use a bunch of stuff lying around the house to make flies. Deflated balloons cut into strips for buggy legs, chenille from a bath rug or a mop that imitates a grub, press on nails from the wife/gf to make sand crabs, craft foam to make floating flies, or use a hole puncher to make foam disc and then thread them onto floss to create a worm. Burned 50 lb monofilament line to create a little ball at the end and coat it in black nail polish to make shrimp eyes.

And one of my favorites, giftwrapping ribbon pulled apart to make hackle.

[Midnightpass]

Love this kludgy stuff... Keep it up...
Butch

[Neuroshima]

Love this kludgy stuff... Keep it up...
Butch

Finally found a pic of my balloon fly. Years ago, a balloon artist made animals and a headpiece for my daughter. When it finally deflated, I took the feathers and cut the balloon into strips to make a fly and wanted to see if a fish would eat it. Thankfully spotties will eat anything.

[Midnightpass]

Love this kludgy stuff... Keep it up...
Butch

Finally found a pic of my balloon fly. Years ago, a balloon artist made animals and a headpiece for my daughter. When it finally deflated, I took the feathers and cut the balloon into strips to make a fly and wanted to see if a fish would eat it. Thankfully spotties will eat anything. Screenshot_20260517-213633.pngScreenshot_20260517-213452~2.pngScreenshot_20260517-213437~2.png

That's what I'm talkin' about. ....
Butch

[kastmaster]

That's great! More and more, I have been thinking about whether or not 'eyes' are important features in lures. I bet that spottie would have bit that thing even without the yellow eyes. [realizing that the eyes also serve as a weight of sorts]

[Neuroshima]

That's great! More and more, I have been thinking about whether or not 'eyes' are important features in lures. I bet that spottie would have bit that thing even without the yellow eyes. [realizing that the eyes also serve as a weight of sorts]

No, they aren't. Eventually the paint wears off on many of these eyes and they still catch fish.