Fly Candy

I've noticed here during springtime over the last 3 yrs that many of the pike I catch are hooked right at the front of the mouth either in the top or bottom of the lip. I lost a lot of fish in my first season here purely because the pike were snapping the back of the fly and I was striking before the hook was set. Then two yrs ago I started using flies with trailing or tandem hooks attached to the main fly and my catch rate improved drastically.

The trick is with these tandem rigs is to use a much smaller hook for the trailing hook not only to cut down on the weight but to allow the fly to track better through the retrieve. I use Tiemco 811s 2/0 saltwater hooks for these kind of flies. I started by tying on three pink and 3 white hackle feathers towards the back of the hook. Then added 4 black microbarb saddles. I then made a dubbing brush with some new white speckled xmas tinsel about 70mm long and then wrapped that around the hook folding the tinsel back with each wrap. Then added a couple of clumps of white bucktail.

Attached the trailing hook with some thin flexible wire. then repeated the same process along the main hook shaft until the hook eye. Overall length around 220mm.
Click images for larger view.

Tweet