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