4weightfanatic:
Over the last week or so I've finally gotten down to the fly vise to create a fly I've been thinking about tying to replicate the look and action of the Cicada lures The Bat (Kokoda),The Soft Shelled Cicada (Tiemco) and the Siglet (Megabass). These lures are all very similar with myself only using the Bat (cheapskate) having caught some of my best bass in the night hours in my local with some of the most subtle takes for big fish. The fly had to have a couple of features that needed to be considered:it needed to be reasonably easy to cast (not too wind resistant),emulate the action of the lures and be tough enough to with stand my casting :o It took three goes to get to a point where the fly was fulfilling the criteria and MK III has pulled its first bass the other night in a full moon night fish. The first two attempts used a stiff plastic for the "wings" but they didn't last the rigors of my casting and MK I & MK II both had wings break off in their first water test. Not to be deterred I knew the concept would work with a bit of tinkering so I trimmed the wing butts off the original MK I fly and fitted a smaller wing made out of the heavy vinyl table cloth protector with some 40 lb game wire to reinforce the wings so they kept forward. I added a strip of stiff plastic glued behind the vinyl wedged behind the foam head. Some rubber legs were added for extra wiggle and to represent .. you guessed it legs! The first test the other night of the Mk III showed it had good action both on a pop and pause type retrieve but the first hit was on a constant popping retrieve. With the rod tip in the water the fly makes a deeper bloop rather than a pop so a bit or variation is going to be good. Some pics of the tying of the fly and its updates and the results of the nights full moon session .Cheers Pat.
4weightfanatic:
OK that is MK I which then morphed into MK II then into MK III. It was MK III that pulled the fish and its form should be the basis for future flies. Pat.
bushwacker:
Saw this on KFDU looks good mate, Im suprised someone hasnt started commercially making a fly such as yours.
I still havent tried nearly half of my creations.
Steve
4weightfanatic:
Cheers Steve it's easy to just use a pattern that has worked before but I've made the effort to try a few different things lately. Having a location that has a good population of fish helps so you can put them into their line of site. The spot I have tested these is temporarily blocked both up and downstream so a captive audience of sorts but also means a learned one as well. So variation may be the key to continued success besides it's a bit of fun getting them on you own creations. Cheers Pat.
Sweetwater:
Awesome work. I love it. Although I think I'd be tempted to tie it onto a light spin stick, I haven't pulled out the wand for a while now...... recon if it was wet it would cast well on a spin rod.