https://globalflyfisher.com/video/ep-ghost-shrimpThis is the recipe I followed. I used small brass dumbbells on the orange version, but they weren’t heavy enough to overcome the glass seed bead eyes I used so the fly would tend to flip in the water because of the glass eyes. I pulled off the glass beads off the nylon monofilament stalks and made eyes in place from Loon UV cure and a little micro glitter sprinkled into the glue. Those eyes were light enough in weight to enable the fly to swim eyes up, hook point up instead of trying to flip over.
The one with the pink legs I used small tungsten dumbbells and glass eyes. The tungsten was heavy enough to overcome the glass eyes and the fly swam right side, hook point up. If you use bead chain instead of brass dumbbells as the weight, I’d check to see if crustacean eyes you choose don’t try to turn the fly upside down when it’s in the water. Having eyes sticking up as much as they do per the recipe, the eyes are doubling as weedguards, wants to try a flip the fly over hook point down so the dumbbells or bead chain has to be enough weight to overcome that tendency.
None of the materials are particularly heavy. The small brass dumbbells and the tungsten ones are about the same size. If anything, the brass ones look a bit bigger. The glass seed beads I burn into nylon monofilament to make the eyes aren’t heavy either. The Gamakatsu SL45 size 4 bonefish hook I used is not a particularly heavy wire hook. I really like the black finish on those hooks. I’ve been tying borski sliders on that hook and they are super sharp right out of the package. They will try to rust as they are carbon steel and not stainless.
Fly hooks, many of the saltwater ones, are so much better than the heavy wire hooks found on many lures and jig heads. Fly hooks tend to be sharper right out of the package. The lighter wire of fly hooks slides into the fish’s mouth tissues so much easier than most of the lure hooks out there. One thing I’ve noticed since fly fishing is that I lose much less Speckled trout fly fishing than I did with lures. It’s got to be the hooks plus the fish can’t use the weight of a heavy lure to tear through those delicate mouths. The hooks used in fly fishing have been a great pleasure. No big trebles flying about attached to a thrashing fish to consider, that is surely nice.
I like!!!!
- By YakRunabout