Well I've officially started down the gamechanger bunny hole. If I catch a fish on one of these I may never get out.

The top one is the Chocklett's game changer ribbon. It is all white and I added the black with a sharpie. Attempted to make a gill with a red sharpie, but it looks like a messed up smiley face.

The rainbow pattern used some generic white and olive synthetic fiber bundles I've had for years. They came in zip tied bundles like flash material. It is much more difficult to work with, but I like the result better. I need some practice on the technique though. I let the olive fiber roll over the top on me a little, so the other side of the fly is almost all white. Also, if you look close right under the eye is some red flash that was supposed to be a gill. I thought it was in the right spot while before I trimmed it, but now it just looks like a bleeding eyeball.

Those gamechangers look great. Typically the unweighted gamechangers float initially and then get waterlogged and end up a few inches under the surface on the retrieve. I find that bass tend to hit them very hard so once you start catching fish you are definitely going to want to tie some more.

Appreciate the tip. I'm experimenting with a belly scratcher weight now to make one that runs deeper.

I'd also like to note that I made the splines using paper clips. After just a little experimentation with my pliers, it is super easy to do and I knocked out about a dozen splines in a half hour sitting with the wife watching TV.

Never used paper clips for spines but I imagine they should work well. Since you don't have a second hook on the fly they shouldn't be under any real pressure so you don't have to worry about them breaking.

My favorite type of flies to fish are crawfish imitations. Been tying up several different patterns lately. The one I am most proud of is a pattern I came up with a few years ago that has proven very successful on a variety of species including bass, sunfish, carp and gar. It is I guess what you could classify as a guide fly since it is very quick and easy to tie. Tie in a zonker tail and some rubber legs at the rear then dub a body using Fly Tyer's Dungeon Sand Crab dubbing in a dubbing loop. These are size 4, but I have tied them as big as size 2 and as small as size 8. I tend to give my flies names so this one is the Linebreaker Craw, named so because the first fish I hooked on it was a nice bass that broke me off. Shortly after that I hooked a carp that also broke me off and voila, the fly earned a name.

I ended up with two versions of the spline that I tested for strength. For the first, I had one end that was just an eye and the other had an arm that got tied down to the spline (right one in pic). The second version had arms on both sides which got tied down with thread (left in pic).

To test, I tied up two splines of each design together as it would when you tied a fly. I then tied a piece of 30# mono to the ends and pulled with a scale. On the first, the eyes opened up at about 15# on the scale. One the second, I broke the mono at around 35# on the scale and the splines did not open.

Love this thread. Great baits.