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Monofilament Snake Fly - Step By Step

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  • Monofilament Snake Fly - Step By Step

    I bang on and on endlessly about this pattern for which I will apologise upfront. The fact is however that for sea trout it just works and works very well. It is by no means the only method of dressing a snake fly. Other anglers and fly dressers utilise braid which I am reliably informed works well enough. It is a matter of personal choice which you dress and fish with. Let's get on with it.


    Tying Materials

    Carcass: A Partridge X1 Black Outpoint Treble Hook attached via a doubled length of 25lbs BS Gorilla fluorocarbon to a cut down 1/0 sea fishing hook.
    Thread: Orange at rear end and black at front end
    Tag: No4 Glo Brite Floss.
    Body: Medium pearl Mylar with strands of No2 Pink, No10 Yellow and No7 Orange floss inserted.
    Wing: Slim bunches of orange dyed Cashmere goat hair overlaid with slim bunched of black dyed bucktail.
    Cheeks: Jungle cock nails.


    Tying Method


    Step 1: Secure the hook in the vice with the point(s) protruding.


    Step 2: Attach orange tying thread and feed a length of monofilament through the eye around the back of the treble and back through the eye.


    Step 3: Whip the mono to the shank. Whip finish and apply a small dab of superglue or varnish.


    Step 4: Using a pair of pliers or wire cutters cut a 1/0 sea fishing hook down so that the eye and about 1/8" of shank remains. Smooth the burred end with suitable tooling to prevent the ragged end from damaging the monofilament.


    Step 5: Insert the modified hook in the vice and attach black tying thread. Feed the flying ends of the monofilament through the eye from opposite directions and fold them back down the hook shank. Whip down ensuring that the monofilament remains untwisted or kinked. Trim waste ends, bind down, whip finish and apply a dab of superglue. It is more efficient to do the carcasses in batches for dressing later.


    Step 6: Mount the treble hook in the vice. I mentioned earlier that the mono should not be twisted. This is absolutely critical to ensure that the fly swims at the correct attitude. The carcass will bend significantly in the vice. Do not worry this will 'firm up' later.


    Step 7: Prepare your Mylar by cutting to required length and removing the fibre core. Cut coloured flosses to length.


    Step 8: Stick a bobbin thread up the Mylar tube. Drag the coloured sections of floss through the centre and taking care insert the whole assembly over the carcass. Attach orange tying thread and whip down the Mylar and floss to the treble hook. Trim the waste end and tie down the butts. Tie in a doubled length of red Glo Brite Floss.


    Step 9: Wind the floss and whip down with thread, whip finish and apply a small dab of superglue.


    Step 10: Remove the hook from the vice. GENTLY apply a small amount of pressure to the Mylar dragging it forward. Attach tying thread and whip Mylar down. If you apply too much tension when dragging the Mylar forward the whole carcass will distort and will not swim with the correct attitude. Trim waste end of Mylar and tie down butt ends. Insert the eye in the vice as shown.


    Step 11: Tie in a slim bunch of orange dyed Cashmere goat hair.


    Step 12: Rotate he vice and repeat.You should now have hair on both shoulders of the fly. Kinda hippy stylee, yeah baby.


    Step 13: Rotate the vice 90 degrees. Apply a slim bunch of black dyed bucktail. Rotate the vice 180 degrees and repeat.


    Step 14: 'Right' the fly and tie in a matched pair of Jungle cock nails.


    Step 15: The requirement is now to whip finish the fly with the eye in the vice. Impossible huh??????? Well no not really. There has been a lot written about whip finishing the fly in your hand. Naaaaaaahhhhhh not for me. Run a small seam of superglue up the thread and wind it 5 times. Let it stand for 90 seconds and trim the thread. Varnish immediately and it is sealed for life. Alternatively whip finish in your hand and book yourself an appointment at your local A+E while they remove a big angry treble from your palm. Your choice.



    Step 17: A 'close up' view of the floss showing through the pearl Mylar. My attempt to represent the translucence that the natural sand eel adopts which this pattern is designed to represent.



    Step 18: Happy fishing

    www.silversalmon.co.uk

  • #2
    Very good step by step laffingravy!! Ive gotta get some mylar then im going to have a crack at em! Thanks for taking the time to post.
    Tightlines andy

    Comment


    • #3
      brilliant post and thank you for sharing |\

      Comment


      • #4
        i prefer the braided method myself , just wondering why the need for the floss if you place one color mylar over another different color mylar you can really get some great combonations , nice step by step |\

        Comment


        • #5
          Very nice indeed. My worry would be that the nylong would create a limp mount that would constantly double back on itself. But it doesn't seem to be the case, so top job. |\

          TT.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by speycaster View Post
            i prefer the braided method myself , just wondering why the need for the floss if you place one color mylar over another different color mylar you can really get some great combonations , nice step by step |\

            Billy, I will explain for you the many benefits of Glo Brite Floss insertion. The primary appeal for me is that Glo Brite is fluorescent. The curious thing about any fluorescent material is that it reflects back more light than it absorbs. I have found that the introduction of fluorescent materials into both daytime and night time fly patterns seems to give them that extra bit of oohlala. If you remember the woven bugs that I gave you last year, I used to dress them with standard pink and white floss and for grayling they worked extremely well. When I went over to pink and white Glo Brite my grayling catch returns when bugging on the River Dee went ballistic. I have found the same to be true for sea trout and salmon patterns when using Glo Brite. I am glad that you are happy with the results that you can achieve by sliding coloured Mylar over other coloured Mylar but I don't like to use this method myself since it adversely affects the flexibility of the body. If you compare the flimsiness of the carcass in my Step 6 to the relative rigidity of the body in my Step 12 you should get an indication of the point I am striving to exercise. Every time you add another sleeve of Mylar you increase the rigidity of the snake pro rata. Adding single or doubled strands of Glo Brite does not appear to increase the rigidity of the bodies in mine. There are also approximately 16 different colours of Glo Brite Floss providing almost limitless colour permutations. I have only ever found about 4 different colours of Mylar. If you are happy with your own results however then best you stick with it since the method above is neither set in stone nor as I mentioned in the step by step not the only method in the world of dressing snakes. It has however become my own chosen favourite.
            www.silversalmon.co.uk

            Comment


            • #7
              I really like the floss idea - a great looking fly. Thanks for sharing.
              dB

              Comment


              • #8
                point taken my freind ,i personaly dont like the snake to flexible it can be pushed out of the mouth on the take due to the ,bend] hey if we were all the same life would be boring , most of my finds have come at the hand,s of the great welsh seatrout rod illtyd griffiths i was fortunate to spend a lot of time with illtyd and karl humphries and gleaned as much info as possible from them, he himself is not a great snake user as i am not myself much prefering the humble tube fly in its variants much more versatile in its aproach but they are super effective in certain conditions , i have had plenty of fish of the top in fast water skating the fly , but thanks for sharing your thoughts and pls continue doing so , by the way the bugs worked very well thank you my freind regards billy

                Comment


                • #9
                  I took a couple of fish last night in what was threatening to become a half decent night. I had to retire due to having to come to work this morning ::/
                  Here is the offending pattern:








                  www.silversalmon.co.uk

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    very nice geoff

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      I guess there will be no decent nights this side of next week. The North Of England has some pretty ropey weather with flood warnings in quite a lot of my favourite places. The Lune Valley has had major rain, thunder and lightening all day today with more forecast for tomorrow and the weekend. I guess that I might be tying up yet more wibbly wobblies or shooting clay pigeons ~#
                      www.silversalmon.co.uk

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by laffingravy View Post
                        I took a couple of fish last night in what was threatening to become a half decent night. I had to retire due to having to come to work this morning ::/
                        Here is the offending pattern:








                        Is that just a solid gold mylar body?

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          The pattern is the same as the pattern in the step by step and uses nylon monofilament for the carcass. It utilises gold mylar as opposed to the pearl mylar with the inserted strands of Glo Brite floss that I used in the step by step.
                          www.silversalmon.co.uk

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