by dahlberg » Fri Dec 01, 2006 6:14 am
Hi H,
It's been a standby of mine for years and years.
The first I remember was called a serpent fly and was made with long saddle hackles for a tail and a body of long soft palmered hackle. It had eyes for weight and was tied on a very short shank hook so it sank with a decidely head-down angle. That was in the mid-sixties. I think it was published in one of the major magazines.
The next one that really turned my crank was the rabbit strip matuka sculpin. In my opinion you can't beat a rabbit strip tail for sex appeal.
A rabbit strip diver fished with a sinking line can be made to work like a crank bait, actually bumping bottom. I've caught numerous 20#plus browns doing this, plus lots of rainbows.
If you taper the rabbit strip rather than use it in pre cut untapered strips, it casts a little better and you can get away with slightly larger flies.
When flies get over 6 or 7 inches, rabbit strips become impractical because of air resistance in casting.
For even larger flies, which are often the ticket for large predators like pike, pcocks and muskies, and for salmonids when they are competing for females, I use a combination big fly fiber and flashabou.
With it I can make 7"+ flies I can cast 100 feet with a 7 weight rod.
The trick to tying with big fly fiber is to stretch out the curly part by simply pulling on it hard while holding it between your fingers before you cut it, or tie it to the hook.
Yes, big streamers can be deadly, and there are many, many variations in designs and in the way they're fished. If I had to simplify it into a couple of categories it would be these:
1) Big, fast, flashy
2)Big, dark, intermitant bottom contact, speed variation from dead-drift to fast. Fish on the swing, also at steep angle upstream.
good luck,
L
Larry Dahlberg
The Hunt For Big Fish