I make these from Steve Farrar Blend. I have some variations. Sometimes I'll put on a craft fur tail. The body is always Steve Farrar blend in a brush made in a dubbing loop. It's a terrible material for a brush. Has to be very very sparse to form the right shape. Contrasting back is just laid on and I CA glue on the eyes, then put a little UV to finish off the head area.

Barlow’s is a mom and pop tackle store in Richardson. It has been around 25-30 years, maybe more. These days most of their business is mailorder for DIY lure and tackle builders, but they have a storefront as well with fly tying stuff and conventional tackle. When the big box fishing stores moved in they decided to change what they focused on instead of going out of business. Smart move. They have a lot of fly tying stuff. About the only thing you can’t get there is dry fly hackle. They have their whole inventory on their website at www.barlowstackle.com.

Thanks guys good info. That Farrar's blend looks like it would really be hard to get in a dubbing loop, really slick looking. Must be hard for thread to get a bite on it.

Steve Farrar Blend has some coarse, kinky fibers as part of the blend and those mess with making it lay towards the rear in the streamline tear drop shape I’m looking for. I have to wrap forward carefully and coax the fibers into position. I try not to do much of any cutting or trimming like in an EP style Baitfish.



These are some more recent ones. I don’t like the grizzly hackle as a rule and have clipped them out for the most part.

What I don’t like about a high tie style of pattern is that it is the sort of two dimensional with nature of how the fibers are on the hook, a flat, thin front profile look. The Steve Farrar Blend is a little more of an oval cross section.

I don’t like the heavily clipped and trimmed EP style Baitfish either so that’s why I went with the way I put on the Steve Farrar Blend. The Steve Farrar Blend is sort of translucent, at least in the lighter colors.

The Steve Farrar Blend Baitfish is a good surf and open water option for Speckled trout, not good in real shallow weedy or shell filled areas. Slow sinker as tied, a couple of tiny strips of foam hidden in the body makes it neutrally buoyant.

Those are some good looking flies. I hear what you are saying about the profile. To that point I have used EZ Body Tubing on a mess of flies in order to get a rounded/oval profile. That being said I am not against some clipping though I have mixed feelings about it as it seems like a lot of waste of material. The fish photos really have me going though. I really want to do this kind of fishing.

Those look good. I haven’t tried a huge variety of patterns. It seems like everyone starts with clousers and you can catch a ton of fish on a size 4 or 6 Chartreuse over White clouser. It’s fun to figure out what else might work, though.

The months coming up are prime time on the coast. October and November are my top two favorite months to fish for so many reasons. Weather gets more comfortable, crowds thin out, fish turn on and get invigorated with the bait shifting out of the marshes. I’m planning on doing as much fishing as I can this fall. I’ve basically missed the last two years with issues like recovery from Harvey, health challenges, incessant storms, wind and rains, and a multitude of other things.

Weather pattern seems drier. No hurricanes on the horizon. I’m feeling good, my new hip is fantastic. Maybe all the stars will line up so I can finally really get some quality fishing in.

Awesome ties! Both of you guys