Crabs...sightcast for stripers.

nice looking fly looks like a yellow jacket.

Tied up a few Llano bugs today in all different color combos. We have had nothing but rain and thunderstorms today so I thought what better day to do this. Good thing too. It turns out that I only had one left in my fly box.

Yes, I love that orange crab as well.

Some minnows in different colors to fool some chain pickeral this weekend .

plus a few standard SRC spiders with an egg sucking leech for stealhead thrown in for good measure...



plus, the fuel that made things possible....

EP shrimp. New for me, but love how they swim and look in the water. They capture the look of the real thing when wet and in motion.

The fish will decide. Hope to get their decision soon.

You're well-armed -- tight lines!

Dorato Hare's Ear. Recipe calls for longer wings and shorter tail than usual. I trimmed a "V" in the bottom of the hackle to have it sit upright. Original uses mixed grizzly and brown tail fibers. I subbed woodchuck. It's a buggy one.
uploading pictures

Yes, no real observed eye fouling yet. I haven’t fished it a ton. The legs occasionally get out of position on the fly, but not enough to be an issue. The eyes are supposed to double as weed guards. I try hard not to fish flies with weed guards. I’ve had trouble in the past setting the hook on redfish when using patterns with weed guards. I’m usually interested in not fouling on oyster shell in place of grass and have found guards or no guards, the most important thing to aid in not snagging on the shell is to be right on target on the cast and on the rate of retrieve. I kind of think lowering the angle of the eyes a little to be about even with the hook point but on either side of the point wouldn’t hurt the action or look at all and might help the hook set, if indeed the hook set is an issue.

So far on the EP shrimp, I’ve caught several small Speckled trout and a whiting and the hook set worked out on those. I did miss the set on a redfish. I’m still playing around with this pattern and haven’t settled at all on what colors or proportions of materials I like best.

Ugly -- and beautifully so!

adding a little color, new tying techniques, more bucktail, less flash....compared to what I normally tie for Tiger Muskies.




Cheers!