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Another sand eel pattern
Saltydog, Your posts made me remember one of my favorite sandeel patterns for this past summer.
Last year I bought a book by Joseph Bates, Jr. which documents the history of steamers and bucktails. There's a whole section in the book on saltwater flies. I tied up several of the patterns from the book and used them this summer. This was one that worked pretty well when the smaller sand eels were in on the flats of the beaches up here on the North Shore.
WOOLNER’S SAND EEL: pattern from Streamers and Bucktails, The Big Fish Flies, by Joseph Bates, Jr.
My changes to the pattern are noted in parenthesis.
Hook: Regular 4/0, stainless steel (I used an Eagle Claw 254 2/0.)
Head: Green with white eye and black pupil. (I used some chartreuse thread.)
Tail: A green neck hackle with tip removed, so that the spine protrudes ˝”.
Body: Silver Mylar tubing 3 ˝ “ long. (I could only find silver holographic tubing….)
Wing: Small bunch of green bucktail (12 hairs) as long as the tubing, with a few hairs of black bucktail on top.
Cheeks: Jungle cock
Additional helpful tying details taken from Bates book are as follows: “To dress this fly, take the core from a 3 ˝” length of silver Mylar tubing (piping). Dip the end of the green neck hackle in cement and insert all but ˝” into the tubing, lashing it in place with black thread. Push the barb end of the hook through the other end of the tubing until nearly an inch is threaded on; then push the hook through the tubing and push the tubing on the shank of the hook, where it is tied down behind the eye. The tubing now should be straight. Dress the fly as usual.” He further notes that the tubing should be 1/8” in diameter.
It's real easy to visualize this tied up with different colors. The book is well woth buying if you can find it. Lots of really good info in it!
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Threaded Mode