Steel brushed flies
Sometimes the most used flies work much better than the newly tied replica. This was definitely the case when I started tying smaller streamers with the long fiber dubbing from Fly Dressing's range for pike fly tying. It wasn't until I started brushing the finished fly with a steel brush that I got the results I wanted.
The texture of predator dubbing is incredible. The closest similarity to this dubbing I can find is the Laser dub from hareline, which is perhaps one of the most praised dubbings when it comes to sea trout flies. The first issue I came across when starting to experiment with predator dubbing was that the fibers were much longer than any dubbing I used in parallel to the hook I was going to use. But at the same time, it is one of the softest and easy materials to deal with so it was not hard and a lot of fun to start experimenting.
What grabs my attention with this material is that it is only partly florescent even though you cannot see that without using the UV lamp on the dubbing. It has also got some flash into it, so already there you have almost everything you want in a sea trout fly. You want flash, some fluorescent parts (not too much) and a profile and movement that looks similar to something on the sea trout menu.
I love adding some hackle to my flies and in this fly I think it worked nicely in bringing some contrast and additional texture to the fly. What I make sure to do really well is that I try to wrap the dubbing to the thread with as many turns around the thread as possible for each fiber of dubbing. You cannot align the dubbing with the thread because then the dubbing won't stay on the hook for that long and the proportions of the fly will be uneven when you start brushing. What happens when you brush this material is that the volume will grow substantially and the flash fibers will emerge. The tougher brush the better, and note that I start brushing when the fly tying part is done. So I also brush in the hackle into the dubbing, but I make sure to do it before gluing on the eyes. I use the flashiest eyes I know for it to give a good reflection in the sun.
This is now one of my favorite sea trout flies and I look forward to continuing using them now that I have made a first larger batch of them.
Material list:
Hook: Partride saltwater shrimp #6
Thread: Textreme Power thread 50 den.
Dubbing: Fly Dressing Predator dubbing dirty pink
Hackle: Whiting Rooster cape Medium Ginger
Eyes: Fly Dressing Stick on eyes 3,1 mm silver scales
Uv glue: Gulff classic
Edit: Samuel Blyth
LEO Goldie I'm so impressed with these new easy shrimp legs. Realistic and simple to wrap onto the hook. The legs are soft and move well in the water. My favorite color is the transparent dirt brown. It is a brilliant color that goes well with a sand color or pink like I have here. At the moment I fish this fly with a floating line, but that is mostly to do with it being wintertime and cold water. When the temperature rises during the spring I can for sure see myself fishing this pattern with an intermediate line. Read More...