Hollow Fleyes

Hollow Fleye

Hollow Fleye

Today I wanted to share one of the most proven fly patterns that I fish in saltwater and in fresh. This is a Bob Popovics creation, one of the most innovative fly tiers in our era. He has two books that you can also purchase that covers all his fly designs. The one I want to show you how to tie today is my favorite, the Hollow Fleye. This fly has the best lifelike action of any fly I have ever fished. There are many variations as well, such as the Popovics deceiver, Hollow Fleye and Beast Fleye.

Starting with the hook selection, there are so many options. It really depends on what you want to do with the fly. I tie this fly on hooks ranging from size 1 to 5/0 normally. But like I said before, it all depends on your quarry. Good hooks to get you started are the Partridge Predator X , Mustad 3407, gamakatsu sp11-3l3h, and B10s.

So lets get started, and tie one up!

I'm going to tie this one today on a 1/0 B10s hook, and will top out at about 7 inches in length when finished. Also you want to use a round thread, so the cone to hold your hollow ties back builds up easily. I like to go with a basic 3/0 uni thread on these. One thing you always want to remember, is that you want to build a taper. On this fly, the first clump of bucktail I tie in will be the longest tie on the fly. As I get closer to the eye, each tie of material will get shorter and shorter to give the fly a good taper. Also, adding more material in each step as you get to the eye will give the fly good movement and good profile. A whispy light tail will get lots of movement with a bulkier head that pushes lots of water over the tail.

The first step after you secure your hook and lay down a good thread wrap is to add a clump of bucktail (white in this case) with a standard tie.

Next, I'm going to add a few white hackles, then some silver angel hair for flash. The hackle gives a great tail movement to the fly. Sometimes I go without them and just like the natural movement of all bucktail for the tail. Or add some extra flash material and give the fly a more flashy tail. I will add some pictures for ideas at the end of this tutorial of other flys I have tied.

After the flash is added, its time to start doing a few hollow ties. After tying the bucktail in reverse (see yellow tie) and then pushing it back with an empty pen case, you then build up a cone of thread to hold the hair back right in front of the bucktail. Below is the steps to make a reverse hollow tie. On this fly, I added a reverse tie of red craft fur to give the fly a good trigger point for predators to key in on. Then I reverse tied in some yellow bucktail  as my next hollow tie and built up a cone of thread in front to hold it in place.

Standard tie of bucktailPush the bucktail back using a pen casing

Create a cone of thread to hold the hair back

After I build up a cone to hold the yellow hair back, I'm adding in a veil of angel hair flash again. If you zoom in on this picture, you can see the cone holding the yellow bucktail back and the tie in of angel hair good.

Next I added a few strands of gold flashabou on the top of the fly. I finished off the head with a reverse tie of olive craft fur and a pair of fish skull living eyes, glued with some liquid fusion. Quick note when tying in craft fur as the final step for the head.... I prefer to tie the craft fur down reverse style and then whip finish the thread. Then push it back with a pen casing and add a small amount of CCG Hydro or Loon Thin to the front of the fly by the eye so the craft fur stays in place.

On most of my hollow flys, I tend to use bucktail as my final step instead of craft fur. In those flys, after the cone is made at the hook eye I like to tie in a set of tab eyes. They are very durable and you can also epoxy some 3d eyes over the tab if wanted. I prefer not to glue the eyes on bucktail, that's just my preference if I'm using eyes.

After the eyes are dried, you wet the fly down with water and hang dry. I like to just hold it under the faucet a few seconds. This will tame all the bucktail and make the fly come together. Here is the finishing fly when dried....

So as promised, here are a few other hollow fly's. These are tied using mostly bucktail, hackles and some flash. Enjoy tying these and if there are any questions id love to help. Happy tying!

Hollow Fleyes

Articulated Streamer Fly's

Articulated Fly's

  Having a few articulated fly's in your arsenal is a must, fishing fresh or the salt! They are a blast to tie because you can do so many things with all different types of synthetics and natural materials. Some of the fibers I find in a lot of my fly's are bucktail, marabou, craft fur, zonker strips, ep fibers/brushes, palmer chenille, hackle feathers, dubbing and some flash and silly legs. But there many more to experiment with that have stunning results.

As far as setting up for the articulation, I prefer a dual hook setup. Or if you want a single hook or many articulation points, you can opt for the Fish Skull Articulated Shanks. The yellow fly in the top left is a size 4 B10s in the rear and a size 2 B10s in the front. I usually prefer that difference in the hook sizes so the back has a bit more swinging action. But many people use the same hooks and swear by it! Its all what you prefer. I also connect the hooks with some knottable nylon coated stainless steel leader and a bead or two. The olive fly on the top right is Chocklett's Game Changer fly. I have this one with a size1 B10s in the head, 3 articulated shanks in the middle varying sizes and a size 6 hook in the tail.

Finishing off the fly with different head materials can make you achieve the action you are looking for. Sometimes a straight bucktail, craft fur, or ep brush head will get you that straight natural swimming movement you want. But my favorite has to be the dubbing head. You can compress the sides of the dubbing when tying it in to get you a jerk style action that drives fish crazy. It creates a sail like effect that makes it jerk from side to side. With the dub head and a lot of natural materials like marabou to help the fly suspend more, you can get that dying fish look that predators key in on.

Here is a quick video of a dub headed articulated fly..

Game changer...3 articulation points using 2 fish spine shanks and hook in head and tail

Fly tying ... Bass popper flys

Popper Tying Time!!!

  This is the time of the year to restock my fly box and make a bunch of my favorite largemouth bass fly's...POPPERS! There is nothing like watching any fish explode on a surface fly. Its my favorite way to take a largemouth, anytime!

  There are lots of  heads you can make them out of, but I prefer the hard foam wapsi heads. Tying them is pretty simple and you can get creative as you want in the paint job. I prefer to use acrylic paints and a brush, but an airbrush will get your creative juices flowing.

  To secure the popper to the hook, I like to lay down an aggressive thread wrap on the hook shank and coat it with zap a gap. After coated, slip the popper on and squeeze for 30 seconds. Once dried, I like to fill the gap of the popper in with super glue.

 

wapsi popper

  You can add a piece of 30lb mono if you want a weed guard as well when you lay the thread base on the shank. After its dried, I like to add a thin coat of CS seal coat to seal the head and add a good base for the acrylic paint to ahear too.

  Once dried, its time to get creative with the paint! You can use many paints and sealers. I prefer acrylic paints and CCG hydro to seal the head or loon thin and flow. These are freshwater bass bugs and when I do saltwater fly poppers I prefer Devcon 2 ton epoxy because of the toothy critters in the north east.

 

bass popper heads ready to be tied 

  Acrylic paint, a few brushes, sticker eyes, or round dowels for eye stamping and you good to go. The possibilities are endless and this makes a great winter project!  After your head is painted and sealed with your products of choice its time to tie a few hackels, marabou, bucktail, silly legs  and flash of your choice. Again, you can do any materials you like for the tail, but these are the norm.

Bass Popper Fly

popper fly

  Go tie yourself up a few bass bugs and have a blast this spring. I promise you will be hooked!

Brian