Topwater shrimp

Some topwater shrimp style gurglers tied on a #2 gamakatsu b10s.

Good looking shrimp Bones72 have you caught any fish with it yet?

Those are nice!

Nope no fish yet just a lot of tying and daydreaming. I have a few more I will post up later. Thanks for the compliments.

Those look great!

Nice ties. What did you use for the tail and body? I was inspired by your tie and whipped up some of my own. On a Gamakatsu SP11-3L3H (maybe a bit heavy but it is what I had on hand) with 4mm of foam, Fly Tyers Dungeon Big Bopper dubbing for the body and coyote for the tail.

Mine was a 3mm dual tone foam strip, for the body tan 1/2 inch EP tarantula legs brush. Tail was moose mane over tan calf tail and black spanaflex for antennae. Like that orange addition to yours that would help to make the fly visible on the water.

Forgot to add. The fly also has tan rubber legs and for antennae I used two colors of krystal flash, black and UV tan. The orange foam should not only make the fly more visible, but I also used it to prop up the front of the fly so it pops and moves more water. I glued it to the front section of foam and then when that dried pulled the front section up and glued the orange foam to the body.

Gamakatsu hooks are scary sharp. I just went with the B10s because I had few laying around from a previous project and for a wider hook gap. Between the foam and the brush figured some gap was important to put steel to fish flesh.

I tie most of my streamers on B10S. They are about as sharp as it can get right out of the bag. Lately I have been tying Clousers and a few other streamers I intend to use for saltwater on the Lightning Strike stainless steel saltwater hook. They are sharp and 1x or 2x heavy so they should hold up to bigger fish. So far I have only tried them on bass but have had no issues. They don't have a wide enough gap to use for gurglers, but at $5.50 per 25 pack and available right down the street from me at Barlow's, they are tough to beat.

Also, tied up some more of the shrimp gurglers, only this time I subbed in medium Bonefish Tan frizzle chenille instead of the Fly Tyer's Dungeon dubbing. Gives the fly a much slimmer profile even though everything else is identical to my previous ties, and it should allow the fly to float lower in the water. I am a bit worried the FTD dubbing will be too buoyant and may cause the fly to roll over, but won't know for sure until I can get out and cast it this weekend.

Good looking fly. Thanks for the info on the hooks. I've tied a fair amount of top waters on the B10S again I am looking for hook gap. I wouldn't think the dubbing you were using would be too buoyant. Looks like it has enough micro rubber to weight it yet be very water shedding on a back cast or a few false cats. I've been using Mustad 34007 or the Billy Pate Eagle Claw hooks for clousers. They've worked well on sunfish, spotted bass and an oddly unusual number of good sized channel cats.

How is this Barlow's set up for tying supplies?

Nice shrimp there, bones and longhorn.

Mustad Stinger hooks are nice if you haven’t tried those. Less than $5 gets you 25. Not stainless, though, might be a good thing or not depending.

http://store.hookhack.com/Stinger-Hook-C52S-BLN/products/576/

I have used those on some bass flies, gurglers and some bluegill representations. They are a good hook and surprisingly sharp. Saltwaterflies.com has the B10s in comparable prices so I have gone with them.

I used to get most everything from saltwaterflies.com, it’s a good vendor. Gamakatsu hooks are pretty amazing. That SC-15 hook is my favorite for redfish crack. Super light wire, but very strong. I love the B10S and do steve Farrar Baitfish and deer hair divers on that hook or the Mustad.

Moving from the bigger, heavier wire hooks of conventional tackle to the lighter wire and smaller hooks typical in fly fishing made me realize how critical hooks are. Light wire, super sharp, forged carbon steel hooks like the Gamakatsu stinger and the SC-15 really can’t be beat for getting a good hook set and staying set.

Gonna order up some SC15s for a pattern I want to do that is somewhat similar to the Redfish Crack. Do you have any pictures of the Baitfish fly. I really need to do some baitfish all I have been concentrating on lately is shrimp style patterns like the Crack and others. I have a few baitfish but mainly really small flies done with combed out lazer dub

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