Karstopo, you are awesome!! Several parts of the hide are useful.

I found this. I am still laughing.

https://www.bassresource.com/fishing/Skunk.html

The fish don't care if a fly has a name or is some exact reproduction of some well known pattern. Flies, maybe most of them, are derivatives of other predecessors which in turn were derivatives of previous types. I'm not saying there aren't some really great patterns out there to copy, but there's still plenty of room for tinkering with novel materials and ways to put them on a hook. I think it's fun and rewarding to substitute materials on recipes and add or subtract things. I hardly ever fish a fly that doesn't have some changes made to an earlier recipe.

In the saltwater I fish, there were pitiful few and still are not a bunch of good Texas geared saltwater patterns. Much of the fly fishing and fly tying publications geared to the salt listed things like deceivers, seaducers, surf candy, ep baitfish and other flies that ride point down and are a liability in shallow, obstruction filled water. Thankfully someone, I think it was Andy Packmore at FTU, developed the redfish Crack pattern that rides point up and pushes more water than a clouser and I believe out fishes a clouser in many cases. Anyway, Redfish Crack is a great foundation to build on and there are plenty of variations out there. I do a couple to suit what I want.

All tiers do is combine materials to hopefully entice fish to strike. The fish aren't really all that selective much of the time, anyway. Your skunk flies may prove to be just the thing the fish want. The fish are the only thing that matters on a good fly design.

Or the �tuff judges� may leave my new flies skunked. LOL

I�ll look up the Redfish Crack.

As an example of going off the recipe, here are some redfish crack variations I tie and fish. I don't use the 34007 mustad hook, I don't like stainless hooks in general and really don't like that hook.

Instead of the pre made EP brush I either omit it and use just the eyelash yarn, which isn't in the original recipe, or make an EP brush in a dubbing loop. Sometimes I substitute Steve Farrar blend in the tail for the craft fur.

The non EP dressed version flashes more and sinks faster all other things being equal. The EP brush ones tone down the flash and push more water. Both catch a variety of fish.

Play around with recipes. Playing around lets you get a feel for materials and their pluses and minuses.

I don't have much to add other than you're off to a way better start than I was.

My best I can provide is to check out Tim Flagler's Tightline Videos (if you haven't already). Even though it's fairly trout focused, he does have a fair number of videos aimed at warm water and saltwater species. More importantly, the information, tips, and tricks he provides in his videos translate to better flies whether you're tying a size 28 midge or a 2/0 articulated streamer.

Keep up the great work!

Agreed. If you watch nothing else on Tim's channel, watch the 1 minute Fly Tying tips. You can watch them all in less than an hour and they will teach you a ton of techniques.

Looks like it is time to purchase some more fly tying material. LOL

Well ok, I can�t win for loosing with the photos...


Update: the skunk hair is similar to buck tail and has bouyance or floating properties. All of the lures previously tired we�re tested, (except the first one I tied-it has been saved as a reference.) The skunk hair was not floating on top of the water, all of the first batch would consitiantly set between 2-4 inch�s below the water.

The base of the skunk hair is very course. The longer the hair is, the better the action is of the lure. The short white hair resembled a stick with feathers. But that is ok, I can use those as a �base� and ornate them further.

The new batch:
In the six lures pictured, there is 4 different types of hair used.

The full length skunk hair performs well in the water. (Top picture, far right.) But as you can see, it is almost 5in long.

Using the skunk hair as a small garnishment layer in the lure does work well. (Top picture, middle lure.)

I will be testing the new ones this weekend.

I tied up one of the variants for the Redfish Cracker fly using green flash on a string and a green craft fur for the tail, chartreuse Crystal in front of the tail. Tied it on a #8 long shank with bead chain. No Blue Gill evident but in a short trip caught 2 L
Mbass which I believe were agitated by
the amount of water pushed by this fly, will tie up a few more.

Redfish Crack variant rewarded me with a 17 inch plus-3lbs? Lmb on my 2 weight fly rod.Easy first time fly to tie as suggested.