Fishing shallow water has made me reassess how I target pike on the fly. I like to vary the way I retrieve a fly during the course of a session between fast medium and slow. With so many rock here and the amount of times one can get snagged up I'm tying more and more flies that stay well elavated in the water column yet work just below the surface. Poppers aren't that effective here on the Baltic sea probably because we don't have any frogs in the saline water and majority of the smaller rodents like mice and water voles generally stay close to fresh water ditches, ponds etc etc. So I've started using a lot more sliders than ever before. 
This Olive raccoon slider has been tied onto a Fulling mill 6/0 long shank hook. I 1st started with a 100mm length or olive raccoon zonker tied half way down the hook. added several white and grizzly microbarb saddles. Then palmered on some olive UV polar chenille. The added the slider head which is a trimmed foam popper head reversed. Painted black then bug-bonded over the the whole surface area. Then finished of the nose with some more olive UV polar chenille. I love this chenille. It just adds some extra sparkle to the front of the fly as well as provide a slight bit of resistance when retrieving the fly. I must admit I've really enjoyed the last couple of wading sessions I've been out, purely because I haven't had to worry about my fly getting snagged. click images for larger view
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