Saturday, July 05, 2008

The San Juan Worm. Until Zen Piscator talked me into using it, I hadn't even thought about that fly much. It just wasn't on my radar. Now, it is far and away my go to fly. This is how I tie it...of note, I use a huge tungsten bead to get the fly to sink. I'd rather risk spooking the fish throwing rocks than deal with the frustration of trying to predict a random path to give your fly time to sink to the fish. I'm also partial to these hooks now...for info on that, contact Matt Klara of Sexy Loops...he hooked me up with these hooks and I'm a huge fan. They've replaced all my scud hooks.

All you need:

Putting the Bead through the Chenile:

Putting the Bead/Chenile on the hook:

Securing thread behind the Bead/Chenile:

I pull the chenile back, and criss cross the thread forward, securing behind the Bead:

Whip finish, and that is it. I'm too lazy for head cement, though it would help. Here are the hooks...I dig them. Contact Matt, link on the sidebar:

7 comments:

Unknown said...

good stuff John; Keep up the good work.

Anonymous said...

Me likey that hook. Numba 4 ? Wow.

John Montana said...

that is the beauty of those hooks...they are sized as 4s, but really short shanked. You get the heavy duty hook, big gap, but small length.

Although a 6 would probably be even better.

Wendy Berrell said...

Great tutorial - thanks for taking the time to photo-document all that. Very deadly fly.

Unknown said...

I started tying on short shanked hooks this year. You get the bigger gap for a similarly sized pattern on a traditional hook, which helps increase your odds of driving that hook in to the lip. I found this advantage huge when fishing for species with subterminal mouths like carp, sucker, buffalo, etc. I typically tie on a lot of 6s and 8s with 2X or 3X short shanks. Of course they are all beefy 2X or stronger hooks.

Great tip you pointed out there John.

dpstar said...

Thanks John,

I destroyed my last store bought version this afternoon. Lots and lots of cruisers, in groups of four and more, but no hook ups. Completely ignored. Even the singles turned away. Time of day maybe?? I'm trying to figure these guys out, but it can drive you crazy watching them cruising and not eating!! How the hell do they get so big!!!! Dan

Anonymous said...

This is really interesting because making that is like knitting, creative way to send that box to somebody, I'd do that with a viagra online box.