Fly Tying during a Plague: Did that title catch your eye? This corona pandemic is extremely serious and causing havoc worldwide. No question, we must all do our part in slowly the spread of this virulent virus. In staying apart, we’re pulling together
Hopefully this post finds you and your loved ones well. Yes I know, you’re grounded, locked down, stuck in your abode, bored to tears, drinking beer, looking out the window, watching YouTube, with oodles of time on your hands. No fun. Yet why not put it to good use? Break out the vise and go to work! That is exactly what I have been doing, although I admit to being slow on the draw. Yes, my vise has finally made a cameo appearance, materials are strewn across the table and nasty clumps of trimmings are now firmly embedded in the rug. Yup, fly tying is gloriously underway in my man cave.
During the winter shows I whipped up a fair number of sand eel flies. So no shortage there. Ready to go. But I was low on two staples – Clousers and Deceivers. And worse yet I had very little in the way of choice materials for either one. Why? Well the last seven seasons had me on the Florida flats chucking crab and shrimp patterns for the most part. Sure I tied a few streamers for snook, but not a huge amount. Consequently I hadn’t been stocking up on bucktails and hackle. Ummm.
Thankfully, after digging deep in my fly tying material stash, I unearthed enough odds and ends to make a few Deceivers. Sweet that. Started with size 1/0 and a few in size 1#. Run of the mill stuff. With a dozen of those puppies under my belt, I moved on to the big boys. Gotta have some real honkers in the fly box. Damn right. Unfortunately I didn’t have any of the long webby saddle hackle I like, but found some feathers that will have to do. These flies are 7″ long and ride wide gap 3/0 hooks. Hidden from view is a mono loop extending off the back of the shank to help support the wing and keep it from fouling. A Deceiver of this length is a great searching pattern on open Atlantic beaches. Try it sometime. You might lock horns with a kahuna striped bass. Stay well, stay safe.
