Fly Tying Feature:
Lywrm
by Lyle Robertson
I was fishing one evening on a dock in south Rhode Island where there
is a heavy tidal current. There was a light on the dock and I could see
things drifting by in the flow. I saw this long white wiggling thing,
about 24-28 inches, in the drift. I figure it to be a worm but had never
seen anything like it. I snagged it with my fly line and brought the worm
onto the dock. The worm was kind of flat and not segmented. I later learned
that this worm was a Milky Ribbon Worm cerebratulus
lacteus . When I was done poking around on this worm I tossed
it back into the drift. About a minute later down stream I heard a splash
that sounded like someone dropped an engine block into the water. Looking
that way I saw the huge disturbance from the bass that had eaten what
I figure to be the worm. I fished a while and saw another worm come by,
same tremendous splash down stream. That got me thinking that maybe I
could replicate this worm some how but the key would to be to create the
free flowing wiggle the worm exhibited in the current. I played with this
idea for a few years but finally came up with a pattern I like and the
fish seem to be responsive to. The original fly was basically Ken Abrames
Eel Punt tied with the longest white hackles I could find. In the water
it did not have the worm look I was hoping for. The multiple hackles gave
a much larger profile than I had hoped. I tried two then finally settled
on a single hackle and use rabbit fur dubbing on the hook shank. What
I ending up with looks like a fly that really moves in a drift.
Materials List:
| Hook |
Any light wire hook, the purpose is for the
fly to dip like a jig. I use a GamaKatsu SC15 2/0 in this
demo |
|
Thread
|
To match color
There are 2 ways to do the support, Bucktail or a Hackle
|
|
Buck Tail
|
To match color
or
|
|
Neck Hackle
|
To match color
|
| Saddle Hackle |
To match color |
| Body |
Rabbit fur dubbing to match color |
| |
|
|
Starting the Fly
Start your thread and fill in the gap of the hook eye. This prevents
the line from binding or slipping into the hook gap. Wrap the
thread back to the point of the hook as shown.
|
Option 1, Bucktail
Start with a small bunch of bucktail, about 15
hairs and tie them on under a small pinch of dubbing to create
a pillow.
|
Option 1, Bucktail
Wrap a small pinch of the dubbing to create a pillow and tie
in a thin fairly short neck hackle, or piece of short saddle hackle
tide in curve side up.
|
|
The Tail
The tail is created with a single neck hackle, this should be
a very thin hackle allowing a little more length the longer you
make the fly. I have tied these up to 18 inches. All depends on
the hackle. These can be tied in many lengths. Worms exist in
many colors and lengths so this pattern is very versatile.
Tie the hackle in flat over the pillow and secure way up the
hook shank for durability.
|
|
The Body
Dub the body from back to front with a slight taper forward.
The idea is to have a with about the same as the hackle. The are
many methods to dub, I use wax and roll it on the thread, nothing
fancy. Whip finish to a small head.
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Shaping your Fly
Use a tooth brush to pull the dubbing out and brush it straight
back.
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| Attach to a leader and throw it at a Bass! |
The Lywrm can be tied in many lengths and colors... play around and
experiment.
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