Velvet Eel?

[Slappy]

Does anyone fish this fly regularly? Any interesting ideas to improve it?

[LeonR]

I have not but I prefer something with a little more movement, maybe use fishhair and cristal flash...
Long feathers can do the trick as well. If you want it to be see-through there are materials than can give you that look, scout around in a flyshop for something with a little flash.
Big fish-fibre will work as well.
Sorry I just don't like rigid flies with no movement..

[uncle4]

Hi there. I use the eel on two occasions: Red when there're cinderworms hatching; black on very dark nights at lobsterville or other north shore venues.

for the cinderworm, I use red material, tie on/off with black thread. I cut the 'tail' at a sharp angle, seal with a (SMALL) bead of superglue along the cut, and mark with a black sharpie (black head/tail).

For the black velvet eel I sometimes trail flash out the back/cut in the tubing. Alternatively I sometimes crush styrafoam (into the little beads/balls), and loosely fill the hollow tube through the back end with em... then seal the back end with a bead of superglue. The hollow tube has negative buoyancy and will (slowly) sink. The foam-bead filled tube will have positive buoyancy and will ride on the surface. I like the surface-riding fly (ESP) when its a calm night and the water I'm fishing is in the lee. Both have great action and will, if fished slowly, drive bass nutzo.

Hope this helps...

Uncle 4

[teflon_jones]

I've started tying two flies that could be used as an eel. I did a lot of freshwater lake fishing this summer with a spinning rod, and I had great success with 6-8" worms. I was frustrated by the lack of any flies that had a similar action to a worm when they're falling in the water, so I came up with two patterns.

The first one uses entirely rabbit fur. I use regular cut rabbit fur for the tail, and cross-cut rabbit fur for the body. I wrap this like hackle to give the fly body, and it provides good movement in the water. I don't use it as an eel currently, but as a worm imitation for largemouth and smallmouth bass and pickerel. I'm going to try it out on stripers next year. For freshwater I tie the tail about 6" long. For the salt I think I'll probably use this size, or maybe even go up to 8". You can vary the width of the tail to give you different actions and sizes. I prefer using a narrow tail because it lets me cast the fly further, and I think the narrower profile provides better action in the water.

The second pattern uses rabbit fur and a tail made out of something that looks like a tapered pipe cleaner. I can't think of the darn name for it! This gives the fly gives a nice tapered profile, but not a lot of action when the fly is falling. I tie the pipe cleaner up off the shank upside-down so that it covers the hook point so it's semi-weedless.

In both cases, I like to tie some lead wire onto the bend-end of the hook shank so the fly sinks point up.