Weedless Sandeels

[Fly Aweigh]

Here are some weedless sandeel flies i've had good seccess with. When tying these flies be careful not cover the hook point with too much material, a small amount will fend off most weeds, if you use more you may fend off fish strikes.
http://evilendeavors.com/StansFlies_files/weedlesssandeels2.jpg

Capt Stan

[striblue]

Stan... would those flies be able to be fished from the bottom..if weighted and stay upright as though they had a clouser eye on. In other words... can you do away with the clouser eye and use a cone or lead wrap and get the same action and balance you could as though it were fitted with a lead clouser eye? Thanks, John

[Fly Aweigh]

John, When I want to fish these flies deep I do wrap the hook with lead wire or simply tie three or four strands of lead wire along the hook shank and cover it with body braid. If I really want to get heavy I tie in a length of soldering lead along the shank and cover it with wrap, its a little bulkier but much heavier. With the weight in the shank of the hook the flies will swim upright even more than ever. One of my main goals in tying these flies was to eliminate the lead eyes.

Stan

[striblue]

I appreciate that... I want to do something like that with sand eels tied like my Feather brain fly.... but want to eliminate the clouser eye...so thanks for this help... gives me something to think about and work on.

[Epoxytier]

capt i got to say those are the best flies i have ever seen 4 a sand ell pattern other than the real thing!!! how long are they? wanna share the recipe with us? ;)

[Fly Aweigh]

John, glad to help, I know you 'll come up with some great flies.

Epoxy, You tie these flies almost the same as a clouser except without the lead eyes. The most important thing you must do is angle the tail up slightly so that all the drag created by the material is above the center of balance of the hook, that way it will swim with the hook point up. If you you want to go deeper you can add lead wire to the hook shank as I have done in the top two flies ( you will notice that their bodies are a little thicker). You can use the same materials you would for a clouser minnow type fly. In these particular flies I use unique hair in the wing and super hair in the tail( because it is a little more stiff and will stay angled up better than the softer unique hair). I also dab a little softex on the first 1/2" of the tail to help keep it angled up. Since sandeels have a long slender body you wrap the tail only slightly down the bend of the hook, where on peanut bunker flies with a deeper body you wrap the tail much further around the bend. Some time on the slender sandeel type flies I don't use any tail at all. The flies I posted are approx four to six inches long. I hope this helps you.

Stan

[sage fly guy]

For those who don't know Stan teaches "free" classes every winter. Give Smitty a call at the Rod Builder's Workshop in Kingston for this winter's dates. There is a small materials fee, I think it was $20 for a five week course. I took the beginnner's class about 5 years ago now and Stan's advanced class last winter.

Without them I would be way behind the learning curve.

You ought to see what he ties with stuff from the craft store to make squid patterns.

[AlderBrookFarm]

Is this tied on the same C68SS hook as the Pnut bunker posted a while back?

[Fly Aweigh]

Alder, Most of these flies were tied with 34011 or similar long shank hooks. The long shank allows you to hide the hook and still get the long slender profile of a sandeel.

Stan

[Saltydog]

FlyAweigh, Very Nice.
'GOOD LUCK GOOD TYIN"

[Striperknight]

Nice...Very nice.