This is a no-nonsense, easy to tie pattern that just works. The rubber legs and artic fox add heaps of movement, and the lead eyes will get your fly down and add a nice jerk motion when fished with a floating or intermediate line. I always have a few of these in my box for bass or inshore/ bay saltwater fishing. Tie these up in your local colors, chuck them out and go get bent!
Materials:
Eyes – Hareline Dubbin Medium Painted Lead Eyes
Tail – Fly Enhancement Legs Chartreuse/Olive/Black
Body – Medium Variegated Chenille Black/Olive
Wing – Hareline Dubbin Olive Artic Fox tail
Weed Guard (optional) – Hard Mono 30#
Step 1:
Clamp down on that barb with some Loon Rouge Debarb Pliers. Let’s keep this game civilized and give the fish a slight chance.
Step 2:
Wrap thread onto hook till about half-way down the shank. Come up to the ¼ mark and tie your dumbbell eyes in, using a figure eight. I like to add a bit of super glue at this point. It’ll help keep the eyes from spinning and make sure everything is bomb proof.
Step 3:
Wrap thread to right before the bend and tie in two legs, right at their mid-point. Then fold the legs over and tie in to the bend of the hook.
Step 4:
Tie in the Chenille and wrap with touching turns to the eyes.
Step 5:
Tie in two more rubber legs at their mid point and pull them back. Take the thread back behind the eyes and secure them in place.
Step 6:
Tie in two strips of Krystal flash on each side.
Step 7:
Cut off a strip of Artic fur. Remove the under fur with a lice brush or by hand. Tie that in on top of the fly. Trim the extra hair on an angle and create a nice thread head.
Step 8:
(Optional – Skip to Step 9 if not tying in a weed gaurd) Take a piece of Mason’s Hard Mono (30#) and tie in as a weed guard. Whip finish behind the weed guard and trim to length.
Step 9:
Add some head cement or UV cure epoxy to really seal in the flavor. Make sure you get the underside as well. Feel free to trim the legs to a desired length. I’m a long legs kind of guy. But don’t let that influence you. You do you.