The Junieta - Low, Clear, and Beautiful

Its a little late for this post, but I have to put it up. Monday I hooked the boat up and headed out the the J to fish with Aaron and Austin, the water was low and clear, but we all needed a day on the water to relax. Fishing started off slow, I was fishing big streamers, trying for the monster, with very little action. Aaron fished a frog and had some smaller fish eat it, and when Austin wasn't rowing, he wasn't doing much(relaxing he called it). About half way through the day Austin decided to go, low and slow with two of my favorite bass patterns, and withing the first two casts, he had two fish. We all switched to low and slow, and immediately, regretted not doing it sooner. Sculpin, hellgrammites, crayfish, and frogs were the ticket.

Featured Fly - Clawdad

OK, so here is a sweet crayfish fly that has been out for a while now. It was first shown to me by my buddies at Mossy Creek Outfitters, it is relatively simple to tie, but moves like a bandit in the water. On top of that, smallmouth love it.

Materials:

Hook: TMC 300 SZ. 4-6

Claws: Clawdad Tails - Multi Colors 

Eyes: Lead Eyes - Large

Body: Variegated Chenille - Color to match Claws 

Legs: Sili Legs - Color to match Claws

Step 1: Poke the hook through the claws and clamp into the vise.

Step 2: Make a nice base of thread, then tie on your lead eyes, clouser style.

Step 3: Tie in your chenille, and move the thread just in front of the hook point.

Step 4: Make 4 wraps with the chenille, and tie off.

Step 5: Pull the claws forward and tie in, move the thread all the way forward.

Step 6: Wrap the chenille forward, figure 8ing around the eyes.

Step 7: Tie down and cut off the extra.

Step 8: Whip Finish and cut off.

Step 9: Make a small thread base behind the eyes.

Step 10: Tie in 4 rubber legs, on top, bottom, and both sides.

Hint: Pull 4 full legs off, fold them in half and cut. Keep them together until all 4 sections are tied in.

Step 11: Whip finish and cut off.

Step 12: Trim the front legs.

Finished Fly:

Featured Fly - Taramite Hellgrammite

 It's bass season and it seems that yet again my one of my go to patterns is a Hellgrammite. I was shown this awesome Crittermite tails at Somerset last year, and finally got around to getting them in the shop. This is a fly that I came up with using the new Crittermite tails, took it out this morning and the bass loved it. This is an awesome pattern that looks just as great in the water as it does sitting on your fly tying desk.

Materials:

Hook: TMC 5262 sz. 4-8

Thread: UNI Thread 6/0 - Black or Brown 

Tail: Crittermite Tails - Black or Brown 

Body: EP Tarantula Hairy Legs Brush 0.5" - Color Varies 

Eyes: Lead Eyes sz. X-small - Med. - Black 

Legs: Spanflex sz. Med - Black or Brown 

Step 1: Slip the crittermite skin over the hook point.

Step 2: Tie on the led eyes, leaving enough space to tie in rubber legs in front of them.

Step 3: Tie in the Tarantula leg brush. Wrap the thread forward.

Step 4: Wrap the brush forward, stop about 3/4 of the way to the lead eyes. 

Step 5: Tie in rubber legs on each side. 

Step 6: Wrap the brush between the legs and in front of them.

Step 7: Invert the hook and wrap the brush over the eyes and in front of them.

Step 8: Tie in the legs or "pinchers" on the bottom of the hook.

Step 9:  Bring the skin forward, tie it in by the little tag.

Step 10: Cut off the tag.

Step 11:  Whip finish and cut off.

Step 12: Wrap thread behind the lead eyes, this will form the head of the fly.

Step 13: Whip finish and cut off.

Finished Fly:

Featured Fly - Orange Belly River Crawler

Now that the river is finally fishing well, I am back into smallmouth mode. The river crawler is a simple fly that works awesome in low clear water. Just let it hit the bottom and strip it slowly, big smallmouth are lazy and do not want to work hard for their food, so give them something "Low and Slow".

Materials:

Hook: TMC 300 sz. 2 - 8

Eyes: Tungsten Predator Eyes 

Flash: Krystal Flash - Brown/Pearl 

Tail: Rabbit Zonker - Olive, Black, Natural Brown 

Body: EP Tarantula Hairy Legs - Orange 

Collar 1: UV Polar Chenille - Red

 Legs: Rubber Legs - Any Color 

Collar 2: Partridge - Natural Brown 

Head: Rabbit - Spun in a Loop

Step 1: Tie in the eyes, leaving a little room in front to make 1 or 2 wraps for the head.

Step 2: Wrap the thread back to the bend of the hook, tie in a few strands of flash.

Step 3:  Measure about 1 inch of rabbit for the tail, then punch the hook through the zonker.

Step 4: Tie in the tarantula brush.

Step 5: Wrap the brush forward, stopping right behind the eyes. 

Step 6: Tie in the chenille, the make two wraps behind the eyes. 

Step 7: Take one rubber leg and cut it in half, fold it in half again and tie in, making four legs on each side. 

Step 8: Bring the rabbit forward, and tie off behind the eyes. 

Step 9: Tie in the partridge feather.

Step 10: Wrap the partridge feather making the second collar.

Step 11: Make a rabbit fur loop, make one full wrap behind the eyes. 

Step 12: Make a figure 8 wrap over, and under the eyes, then one or two wraps in front of the eyes.

Finished Fly: