| First things first
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| Ah, before the introduction: the important part.
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| To fish this fly I use a 1x or 2x shock tippet.
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| I knot the tippet to the hook and then throw
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| a double surgeons loop over the front end of the fly.
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| That way the hook is still mounted at mid-fly (where big
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| predators always attack) but the fly itself still pulls
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| from the front.
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| Background:
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| Streamer flies are supposed to imitate minnow and sculpins.
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| But we've all seen, or at least heard stories about big
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| brown trout caught with 6-10" fish in their gullets.
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| If you want to catch a big fish, it makes a lot of sense
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| to at least experiment with flies that imitate grown fish,
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| rather than juvenile minnows.
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| But how do you do that? How do you make a 7 or 8" fly
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| heavy enough to sink, yet still light enough to cast?
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| It's easy. All it takes is a little engineering.
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| This--the Jolly Roger--is the best big fish fly I know. I used to say that
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| about the Roadkill Streamer, but this
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| is a better fly. Like the Roadkill, this fly will
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| also attract a surprising number of small fish too.
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| Small fish aren't the point here. I fish these flies when I
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| want to catch a big one. But it is interesting and surprising,
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| still, every time I catch a 10" fish on an 8" fly.
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| Both flies (the Jolly Roger the Roadkill Streamer) are
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| designed around the long flexible strip idea, but
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| Roadkills are made with fur strips, which are harder to sink.
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| And Jolly Rogers are made with olive-dyed grizzly saddles,
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| which have a unexplained but powerfull juju effect on
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| the strike reflex. Fish bite Jolly Rogers better
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| than Roadkills. Why? Like a about the fishing business,
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| why is secondary, and it it isn't always clear. The sensous, undulating, sinusoidal
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| wave of action these flies assume, as you slowly strip
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| them through the currents, make both flies the number one
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| big fish attractors I know. The Jolly Roger takes a little
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| more effort and determination to tie. But it's a better fly,
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| than the Roadkill. And that says a lot.
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| I tie them and fish them in a variety of sizes,
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| from 3" to 6" long. The bigger ones still manage
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| to attract and catch some surprisingly small trout.
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| But the big ones really do catch the attention
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| of some very big fish.
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Make the Lathe
Start Some Spawn Sack
Hook and Eyes
Wind Some Hackle
Jolly Roger
Jolly Roger Hatch