# Snook Fly suggestions needed



## Swamp (Jul 12, 2010)

Same thing I use 99% for all SW fishing I do. Chart over white Maribou Estaz, chart over white Clouser, gray or olive over white Crease Fly(modified), and gray over white or all white Polar Fiber mullet. I tend to use smallish flies, #2 EC 413 mostly. For the polar fiber mullet I'll bump up to a 1/0 because they are short shanked heavy hooks (either owners or more recently off brands). I like smaller because most fish eat a staple of bay anchovies inshore and I'm not chucking half a chicken unless I have to.

Swamp


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

Here's a few bugs I'm fond of for snook in the backcountry of the 'Glades... You'll note that almost every one has a wire weedguard...










The Blacklight Special, a particular favorite in the winter, when the fish are up in clear shallows... change the color to olive/white, pink/white, etc the rest of the year









This is a Woolhead Mullet, in every color known when a small baitfish pattern is needed in the tangles, some will be fairly lightweight with stick on eyes like the one shown, others will have lead eyes.... We use these when we're working areas that hold fish but they're just not showing much.









My version of the Crystal Schminnow, the only thing to use when they're feeding on glass minnows - I'll tie them as small as a #6, but mostly in #2, Mustad 34007









This is the Whitewater Bay Clouser, on a 2/0 it's a bit larger than many Clousers available. A quick to tie guide's fly this bug gets a lot of use working mangrove shorelines when we're prospecting...

I deliberately didn't list any surface patterns or flies for really big snook since I consider them to be specialty items. This ought to give anyone a start tossing feathers at those racing mullet....


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## Swamp (Jul 12, 2010)

Those look great. You mind sharing the recipe for the Black Light Special? I can't tell what the body is made of. Can you share the history of the fly? 

Thanks

Swamp


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## Yoreese (Oct 15, 2009)

Bob those flies look great! Are they available from Fly Shop of Miami?


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## iFly (Mar 9, 2010)

> Here's a few bugs I'm fond of for snook in the backcountry of the 'Glades... You'll note that almost every one has a *wire weedguard*...


I did notice. I switched to wire last year and now, I am switching back. A double mono weedguard. Feels like wire always takes more pressure to depress the guard. Some of our fish want to just gum the fly. They don't want to necessarily eat the fly but, they will grab it softly. So...... I'm back to mono.


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## Salty_South (Feb 25, 2009)

Thanks for the great replies guys, looks like I have some tying to do!! I love that blacklight special!!


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## aaronshore (Aug 24, 2007)

Watch Borski's videos. He has several awesome snook flies on them.


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## phwhite101 (Mar 3, 2010)

Blacklight Special recipe quote by Capt. Lemay

"The body of the fly is stuff called Body Fur, Dan Bailey's was the main supplier when I first encountered the stuff.... You can find it now in many shops. It's a synthetic setup to be palmered (a string with fibers and flash coming out at right angles to the the string on just one side) around the hook shank, then trimmed into shape. The stuff is very quick to use, then shape. After everything's done, my last step is to permanently attach eyes, either holographic (what I used in early versions, not very durable...) or solid doll eyes (the same used in the Puglisi patterns). The glue used is 'Fletch-Tite', produced for folks that make their own arrows... 

This whole series of flies, in many colors, with a maribou tail over sparse bucktail or synthetic is a very durable small baitfish pattern. I'm able to re-tie these very quickly, as well, when they get chewed up. I've been able to re-cycle some of them over and over again.... "


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

Maurice... I tie for the Fly Shop of Ft. Lauderdale, Chris Dean ties for the one in Miami...

iFly... sorry to hear that the wire weedguard didn't work out for you. I'm guessing that you're using wire that's too heavy. I use #5 wire on most of my weedguards but will go down as light as #4 on hooks smaller than #2....


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## Swamp (Jul 12, 2010)

Thanks Amesbury! I was wondering if it was a chenille/brush type product.

Capt Bob, did you develop this pattern?

Thanks

Swamp


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

Yep, about 10 years ago... I submitted it to Umpqua (I'm one of their contract tyers..) but they passed on it. I think Dan Bailey's has a USA exclusive on Body Fur. Anything that makes materials difficult will put off an outfit that needs to be able to not only obtain them cheaply and reliably, but also move them in and out of more than one country to keep their tyers supplied and finished goods coming back our way.

I once pitched a great little bendback style pattern that had a wing of black bear hair.... With all the trouble about trafficking in endangered species, the black bear (although not in any way endangered) is high on the list of prohibited items since there's a big market for it as part of traditional Chinese type medicines... As a result I got a 10 minute lecture from the folks I deal with on just how much trouble it would be to do anything at all with black bear hair (an item that's available in every fly tying materials catalogue in this country...).

The business of fly-tying can be a bit complicated at times. My small part as a tyer is pretty simple - get the materials, tie the flies, and every now and then come up with something new or an improvement on a pattern that may have been around for years and years...


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## Shallowfly (Dec 16, 2006)

Good thread....


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## Swamp (Jul 12, 2010)

> Yep, about 10 years ago... I submitted it to Umpqua (I'm one of their contract tyers..) but they passed on it.  I think Dan Bailey's has a USA exclusive on Body Fur.  Anything that makes materials difficult will put off an outfit that needs to be able to not only obtain them cheaply and reliably, but also move them in and out of more than one country to keep their tyers supplied and finished goods coming back our way.
> 
> I once pitched a great little bendback style pattern that had a wing of black bear hair.... With all the trouble about trafficking in endangered species, the black bear (although not in any way endangered) is high on the list of prohibited items since there's a big market for it as part of traditional Chinese type medicines...  As a result I got a 10 minute lecture from the folks I deal with on just how much trouble it would be to do anything at all with black bear hair (an item that's available in every fly tying materials catalogue in this country...).
> 
> The business of fly-tying can be a bit complicated at times.  My small part as a tyer is pretty simple - get the materials, tie the flies, and every now and then come up with something new or an improvement on a pattern that may have been around for years and years...


Thank! Not the first time I've talked to somebody that said getting a pattern produced can be a PIA!

Swamp


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

A couple of notes for anyone wanting to get into the contract tying game.... Pick out the outfit you want to tie for and contact them for their specifics. If you hook up with one outfit that will keep you from working with anyone else....

Each year most big outfits will accept submissions from any tier, then they'll sort them all out and decide which (if any) they're wanting (a contract will be offered on a specific pattern). Umpqua is the biggest outfit, but not the only one.. If they accept a pattern the tier is obligated to tie up a dozen or so, provide a pattern recipe that's easy to follow and fairly precise about measurements, etc. Once they have the samples, recipe, and everything's ready. They'll send those samples to the various factories overseas (a facory is 50 to 200 women in one building tying all day and supporting their families...) to get copies made. Those first copies will come back to the tier, if he or she approves them, they'll go into production. At this point you still won't have made a nickel.... As salesmen take orders from shops around the world the pattern will go into production and the contract tyer will eventually get a small royalty for each one sold at the wholesale level....

No -it's not much money, yes -they're flies the tier doesn't have to tie, yes -if you come up with a really good fly that will catch fish worldwide (think Clouser or Deceiver for the salt or Copper John for freshwater trout...) it can become a big deal... For an outfit like Umpqua that must tie 1000 patterns already, each new fly is an important decision. They may only approve 10 0r 12 new patterns for saltwater each year out of 100's of submissions. I can only imagine the difficulty of stocking materials for the various patterns and keeping their factories supplied around the world with materials...

And so it goes.


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## Green_Hornet (Nov 1, 2008)

Neat bit of insight to your business, Capt Bob. I didn't realize it was that competitive or how involved the process was for new designs.


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