I like em' joe!

Cold out. Can't go fishing. So I grabbed some of those small bead eyes and made something for the bluegills.

Guess I'm the only guy that is tying much lately...

Not sure what these would be called, just 2 colors of rabbit fur for the tail, medium/small bead chain eyes (black), and an estaz/chenille body. These are tied on Gamakatsu Bonefish hooks, size 4.






Another Merkin, green this time.


A few little clousers for the white bass run.


Mini Crab... Tied on a size 8 Gamakatsu.

Those top flies there are very interesting. I like them a lot. What are you targeting with them?

Truthfully Kelkay, I have no idea...

I got bored last night and hadn't really used much of the rabbit that I have, nor any of the Estaz chenille that I had, so I tied one with each of the colors of Estaz I did have.

As far as target species, I'm thinking they might make good shallow water crappie and white bass flies, maybe even some of the giant redbreast and redear that are down here in LBL and Dunlap.

I will definitely be getting some of this Estaz stuff in White, Olive, and few other colors to make a few more variations.

I'm thinking a little olive one might be a nice little fly to take to Honduras with me to fool some bonefish on the flats (think a little mantis shrimp). The Rootbeer colored one is the only one that I added any additional flash too (couple strands of copper flashabou), and might not make a horrible "rat" redfish fly. Guess they will be my "If all else fails" fly.

Will probably decide on my favorite color variations and tie up a few with tiny brass eyes too just in case I want it to get to the bottom a bit quicker.

Estaz is great stuff, I have it in a few colors.

Did a touch of tying this weekend. Also figured out that I need to get better and keeping the head/snout of my flies a little cleaner, I don't like all the little sprigs from the thread, though I doubt any fish is going to care.

Tied some brass eyed versions of those little fly things, kind of like a mini Schminnow from the bit I have researched, even though I had never seen one before I tied these... Hard to come up with unique ideas anymore apparently... I also found my pearl Estaz and made up a pair with that too.




Another little closer, I like this one, will be tying a couple more of these with the red gill (Gray bucktail will ride on top, white on the bottom, so the red will be on the downside).


Tied this Gold Crease and my version of a croaker/deceiver pattern that I posted in response to Salsa's post. Have a couple colors of cross-cut rabbit coming in soon, so I will have some different Tarpon Toads coming up pretty quick too.

Those top flies are my favorites so far still, very nice looking indeed.

I have 5 more colors of Estaz, including some UVs and Metallique, on order, so I will have some more variations coming up. One that I know I will be doing will be a classic white with Red head, that I will use 2 colors of the chenille for.

If anybody that doesn't tie wants some of these, send me a PM. I'll give you my address and you can send me a self-addressed, stamped envelope and a little list of whatever colors you want I will send you some back (limit it to 3-4). I'm horrible about buying stamps, so if you send me the envelope I'll shoot you a couple for free. Other than that all you need to do is post up pics of what you go out and catch with them.

Since Kelkay likes them so much, I'll post up a step by step on them pretty soon. They are really simple, and I probably over complicate them.

A SBS would be great!

Redfish crack. Dont have any EP brush, so I used cross cut rabbit instead

Here are my first 2 flies I have done on my owns, a pair so Scuds. Not the best but I figure I can fish them until i loose them





I had some issues with the back material on this one, it split on me so I tried to take the excess and run it back to the tail and tie it down.

I have used zip lock baggies, and cut pieces for the scud back material, it works pretty good. You can even go over it with epoxy or a uv resin to make it more fish proof.

Here is an example of what I was talking about.

That looks good, it lets the dubing color come through better, looks like mine has a couple of extra legs too

what size of hook do you use?

If I remember right, it was a size 14.