Ray's

[tynan19]

Tied some sparse, some a little fuller, some long and some short.

[SAXATILUS]

That is definatley one of the most productive flies around. Sparse is the only way to tie them. Each layer of bucktail should be slightly longer than the previous. The flash and hurl should be longer than the last layer of bucktail. I always add a very slight amount of angel hair mixed in the wing and jc for eyes. Always fish them at least two at a time. Do yourself a favor and learn to tie a G.P. These to flies fished in combo, dead drifted on a floating line is a killer technique in the estuaries.

['ol pajamas]

Nice.
The original pattern also calls for a silver or pearl body. Also try my most productive light blue. Use a violet body if there are small sand eels around. Plus as Bondorew did tie down the whole wing over the hook point for a sand eel with a few thread wraps. This is personal preferance but since the Ray's fly is a sparse tie I like peacock herl that is very thin. The thicker type seems top heavy.

[FishHawk]

Another vote for Ray's fly, a true Classic. Similar to the Adams dry fly and Hare's Ear nymph . FishHawk

[Slinger]

Nice looking ties! This is not a criticism, use less yellow. The recipe calls for sparse, everyones idea of sparse is different, it only takes a FEW hairs. The original calls for a silver tinsel body and a FEW hairs of sky blue over the yellow followed by olive. I actually saw an article in a mag that stated the fly was tied with white and black bucktail, what an insult to the original! Try some Rays flies with Clouser eyes, this is my 95% go to fly.
Slinger

[Slinger]

Allmost forgot, the original was tied sans eyes, but I wouldn`t tie a fly without eyes. For these I use tape eyes to keep the finished fly slim, when I move up in size I go with the domed eyes. Tie in a few sizes too, in the early season the silversides are small, 2 to 3 inches but by the time the FA`s show the silversides dumping out of the breachways are 5 to 6 inches.
Slinger