O.F.F. Fly Shops Top Innovative Materials for Tying Flies for Pike, Musky and other Predatory Fish
As most of you know we're pike and musky fishing nuts here at O.F.F. Fly Shop. Our spring pike fishing season will soon be upon us and we couldn't be more excited to be back chasing toothy critters on the fly! With the advent of new tying materials such as the Wiggletails, Dragontails and the Mangum Dragontails, there's some exciting new materials that can really ramp up your pike, musky and predatory fly game. They'll also make your tying, cleaner, simpler and easier, so its a real win win.
*You can click on any of the pictures to get more info on each product or if you'd like to purchase them.
1) Mangum Dragon Tails
No that's not a typo. These are not magnum dragon tails they're called Mangum Dragontails after their designer David Mangum a guide from FL. These are very simple to tie with, move like crazy in the water and are now durable enough to stand up to predatory fish. Many of us played with the similar looking product from dollar stores intended to be kids toys and suffered through them disintegrating just from casting. They also moved like crazy in the water, but blew apart from casting and didn't have the durability to be a feasible option. The Mangum tails are far more durable and still move exceptionally well in the water.
2) Wiggle Tail, Dragon Tail
Confused yet...? lol So the innovative wiggle tails, designed by Paolo Pacchiarini, also came out with a new addition to the wiggle tail family, the Dagon Tails. They come in a wide variety of colors, move like crazy in the water and are super durable. They need little to no water passing over them to cause them flutter and undulate in the water. Tying them in with the quick release clips allows you to swap out tails and colors in a flash, there's few things we've ever seen that will give your fly the life, action and especially the versatility.
3) The Original Wiggle Tails
These were the original Tail designs that still exist, are still popular and come in a huge variety of colors, including metallic, holographic and matte finishes. The ability to tie them on the quick change clips gives your flies the most versatility and being able to swap out tails on the water can completely change the look of your flies in the blink of an eye
. Much like the Dragontails they need little to no water passing over them to cause them flutter and undulate in the water. We've picked up a lot of heavily pressured fish that hadn't touched other flies but jumped on the wiggle tail versions. Everything from pike to musky, golden dorado, big bull redfish, piranha and barracuda.
4) Blane Chocklett's Body Tubing by Fish Skull
Blane Chocklett is one of the great innovators in big game predatory flies and the body tubing allows you to make a dam or ramp to flare materials, creating more bulk with less materials. That's a huge win for those of us that love casting large chicken sized flies! ;-) It's also a great replacement to a spun deer hair head for those of us that don't always have the time for spinning deer hair, a salon cut and then having to break out the vacume.
5) Fish Masks by Fly Men Fishing Co
One of the biggest complaints that we here from people tying giant predatory flies is that they loved how their fly looked, until they got to the head of their fly. Spun deer hair heads look and fish really well, but not everyone likes sinning deer hair and in many situations the buoyancy of deer hair is not desirable. These masks are the fastest, cleanest, simplest way to make a good looking head on your fly and has recessed spots ready to take your favorite 3D molded eyes. Fish Masks are now made in a more pliable rubber like materials vs the older hard plastic models that could crack from the teeth of large predatory fish, or an inadvertent backcast that clips the rocks...(not that any of us would ever do such a thing).