©
Tim Tipton 2020
Three
Classic Bass Streamers and How to Tie Them
By
Tim Tipton
Fly-fishing for bass
can be a relaxing time, a serious endeavor or something in between. How casual
or serious a fly angler chooses to take it is up to the individual. What makes
bass so entertaining is they are everywhere and easy to access. Bass live in
every type of water body you can find. They inhabit small farm pounds, natural
lakes, rivers, streams, and large impoundments. They will take a lot of
different style flies and are often overly aggressive and are an especially
good target species for beginning anglers.
Streamers are
effective at catching all species of black bass. They are subsurface flies, so
you can get down to the bass’s level and they can be retrieved in a variety of
ways. While there is a huge selection of streamers, three have withstood the
test of time and are a must have for both beginners and longtime anglers.
Woolly Bugger
The Woolly Bugger
is one of the most versatile flies on the market. It is simple to tie, can be
fished in a variety of ways and most importantly, it catches fish.
It was originally
tied by Pennsylvania fly-tier Russell Blessing to resemble a hellgrammite, the
nymph form of a Dobson fly, that is plentiful on most freshwater streams. Its
versatility on any body of water and the ease with which it catches fish make
it an extremely popular fly.
A standard Woolly
Bugger consists of a chenille body, marabou tail, wire ribbing and a saddle
hackle. One of the best things about the Bugger, is that it can be tied in a
variety of ways. To get the fly deeper, you can wrap lead on the hook shank,
use a beadhead or barbell eyes. This will not only get the fly deeper in the
water column but will also add more action.
Materials
Hook: Dai-Riki
#700 Size 10
Bead: Cyclops
Wapsi 5/32 Gold Bead
Thread: UTC Brown
Olive 140
Body: Lead wire
.02 wt / Chenille (olive)
Hackle: Whiting
Bugger pack
Tail: Marabou
olive blood quill
Instructions
Step 1: Wrap lead
wire on hooks shank leaving some space below the eye and above the hook bend.
Step 2: Start
thread on hook near eye of the thread and lay a base of thread down.
Step 3: Take a
clump of marabou that is roughly the length of the flat part of the hook shank,
place it on the hook shank just before the bend and secure with the thread.
Leave bobbin with thread in the back.
Step 4: Tie in an
edge of the chenille just back of the eye of the hook and wind the chenille
with forward wraps along the hook shank to just before the eye. Wrap chenille
backwards until it meets the marabou tail and tie it off with the thread. Cut
off and discard the leftover chenille.
Step 5: Tie in the
hackle in by the small tip. Wind forward with even wraps to just below the eye.
Carefully wind the thread through the hackle, taking care not to pinch down any
part of the hackle tips. Clip off the excess hackle and add a few wraps of
thread, then secure with a whip finish knot and add a couple of drips of head
cement to the knot.
Clouser Minnow
The Clouser Minnow
could possibly be the most-productive streamer fly ever designed. The legendary
Bob Clouser, a Pennsylvania fly-tier and guide, designed the fly to catch
smallmouth on the Susquehanna River. Clouser was looking for a type of streamer
he could design that would react much like a Rapala acted when it was twitched
or jerked.
Clouser started
his quest for the perfect smallmouth streamer in the 1980s, but it wasn’t until
he received a package of barbell eyes from the Wapsi Fly Company that he had
perfected what he had set out to do.
“The barbell eyes
completed the aesthetics of the fly,” Clouser told me in a 2012 interview. “It
provides the action that triggers fish to bite. When you retrieve the fly, it
rises. When you pause, the fly darts off to the side or drops down. It never
stops moving.”
The Clouser Minnow
is so effective that Lefty Kreh claimed to have taken 86 different species on
this fly.
Materials
Hook: TMC 9395
#2-12
Thread: 3/0
Monocord
Eyes: Painted Lead
or Brass Eyes, sized to hook
Belly: White
Bucktail
Flash: Krystal
Flash
Back: Chartreuse
Bucktail
Instructions
Step 1: After lying
a thread base on the hook shank, tie in the barbell eyes toward the front of
the hook shank, leaving a space between the eye of the hook.
Step 2: Tie in the
white Bucktail behind the barbell eye’s using just enough thread wraps to
secure it, while leaving Bucktail in front the eyes. Go forward of the barbell
eyes and, using several thread wraps, tie the bucktail flat with the surface of
the hook shank. Neatly trim Bucktail away from the eye of the hook.
Step 3: Turn fly
upside down in the vise. Take two pieces of Krystal flash and double them
around the tread. Wrap thread to tie in the Krystal Flash.
Step 4: Tie in the
chartreuse bucktail on the bottom side of the hook shank, only wrapping forward
of the barbell eyes.
Step 5: Finish the
fly with a whip finish knot and place a couple of drops of head cement on the
nose of the fly.
Lefty’s Deceiver
Just how famous
was the late Lefty Kreh and his prominent streamer the Lefty’s Deceiver? It was
famous enough that it was chosen by the U. S. Postal Service to be placed on a
stamp in 1991. The fly, like most famous patterns, was tied to simply solve a
problem.
Kreh and a friend
frequented the Chesapeake Bay to chase the legendary striper runs of the 1950s
with a fly rod. The problem was that most of the streamer flies of that era had
feather wings that frequently tangled or under-wrapped the hook, spoiling the
retrieve. It was so frustrating to cast to breaking fish only to find that the
fly had fouled.
“I told my friend
Tom Cofield I’m going to design a fly that won’t foul on the cast,” Kreh
recalled. “It will have a fish shape but can be made in many lengths. You can
vary the color combinations. It will also swim well but when lifted for the
back cast it will be sleek and have little air-resistance.”
That simple
problem solving led to Lefty’s Deceiver, a legendary and productive fly. Kreh
was not trying to accomplish anything other than to tie a better fly, but word spread,
and the Deceiver has become one of the most productive streamers in history.
“I wasn’t trying
to redesign the wheel,” Kreh Explained. “Just like most anyone who was tying
something new. I only hoped it would work and didn’t consider it might become a
part of fly-fishing history.”
Materials
Hook: Mustad
34007, sizes 2/0-6
Thread:
Fluorescent yellow, 140 denier
Tail: White saddle
hackles, 3X length of hook shank
Flash: Pearlescent
Krystal Flash and medium Flashabou
Body: Silver or
pearl braid
Wing: White
bucktail
Overwing:
Chartreuse bucktail
Gills: Red Krystal
Flash
Head: Tying thread
Instructions:
Step 1: Tie three
or four pairs of white rooster saddle feathers, these must be V-shaped and tied
with the tips pointing out.
Step 2: Tie some
Flashabou strips or pearled Crystal Flash at each side of the fly, at the base
of the tail feathers.
Step 3: Wrap
thread forward. To make the wing, tie in white bucktail at the tip of the hook.
Step 4: Tie in
another section of bucktail on the bottom of the hook shank to shape the body.
Step 5: Tie over
the wing a chartreuse strap of bucktail hair.
Step 6: Tie over
the wing a chartreuse strap of bucktail hair.
Step 7: For the
throat, tie a bit of red flashabou. Even out the head with thread to add volume
to the fly.
Step 8: Give a few
more thread wraps to make sure the head has volume and is even. Use a whip finish
knot and add head cement.
The author with the legendary Lefty Kreh. (photo by Jennifer Tipton)
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