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Grays Needle Tubes are very fine stainless steel
tubes designed for making ultra slim tube flies for salmon, sea
trout and steelhead. Introduced by
Grays of Kilsyth for the
start of the 2008 fishing season, they have now accounted for a
number of salmon and sea trout here in the UK. It seems that
they also travel well, as the following report by Bob Schoeller
shows. Bob is a keen fly fisher and expert fly tyer from Erie in
Pennsylvania. He has recently devised a number of needle tube
patterns, shown below, for his Lake Erie steelhead. As Bob says,
“These tubes truly have made the presentation of slim life like
flies much easier”. Not only have his needle tube patterns
proved effective but they are among the most beautifully dressed
flies I have seen.
Bob dresses
his needle tubes both as baitfish imitations (juvenile
smelt and "shiners"),
for use early in the season when the fish are actively feeding
in the lake, and as attractor patterns for later in the season
when the fish have started to really enter the rivers.
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one of Bob's needle tube flies |
As Bob says, “The attractor flies also work
occasionally in the lake when the rivermouths are a bit turbid
from wave action or a spate. I only use the tube flies on the
lower sections the rivers. We don't have tides here on the
lakes, but the fish tend to mill around for some time after they
move in and act as if they are not sure what they want to do...
some will even go back into the lake and make several attempts
to enter before they finally make up their minds. In any case,
they are real suckers for flies with or hot pink in them. Once
they have run some distance up the streams, I switch flies to
nymphs below a strike indicator or Irish style shrimps, albeit
more colorful than your average shrimps.”
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an eight pound Lake Erie
steelhead taken by Bob on a needle tube fly |
The flies shown below illustrate the sizes,
colours and fullness of tie that have been most effective on
Bob’s local steelheads. As he says, “I like to use soft Arctic
Fox or Temple Dog hair. The soft hair really allows the fly to
have a lot of movement in the water. When I strip the fly in in
short jerks, the flies really pulsate and look alive. I also put
a lot of flashy materials, (pearl Flashabou and U.V. flash etc.)
in the fly. I like to put the flashy material under the top part
of the wing so it sort of shines through the hair and give the
fly a "glow" in the water that isn't so harsh as to frighten the
fish.
I fish the
light coloured ones on an intermediate sinking line with a 10 to
11 foot tapered leader of fluorocarbon, tapering down to no
lighter than 3X. I fish these in the lake itself where the
rivers are flowing into the lake. Current is not usually an
issue here. Usually I cast out parallel to the flow of the
current, but to the side of it, and let it sink for a count of 5
or 6 seconds. Then I strip it in in short jerks. The darker
flies I usually fish in the rivers themselves, and cast cross
current and let them swing down through the lies, mending as the
fly goes to keep it near the bottom. Here I usually fish them
below a short polyleader of 5 ft (I prefer Airflo 5 ft
Salmon/Steelhead polyleaders) then add a 4 or 5 ft straight
strength fluorocarbon leader below this. Obviously you change
the polyleader sink rate as needed (I carry several pre-tied
ones and may change them 5 or 6 times on a trip depending on
what pool I’m fishing). This is based on the fact that I’m
usually using a single handed rod (most of our rivers are quite
small). I will use a double hander where warranted, and of
course the leader length will change accordingly. I hope your
Scottish fish find them interesting.”
I am sure they will, Bob.
Some more of Bob Schoeller's
Needle Tube Flies
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