Materials

Hook

Mustad 92611, 5/0 with offset straightened

Thread

White 3/0

Head

Black closed cell poly foam 3/4" diameter

Eyes

9mm doll eyes or cats eyes

Tail Assembly

4-6 saddle hackles tied splayed

Body

White mylar metallic yarn

Wing Assembly

Soft white nylon under crimped white nylon,

top with light blue nylon under light blue

crimped nylon, top with black crimped nylon

under black soft nylon.

Gills

Red Marabou

Instructions

To make the head use a piece of 3/4" id tubing sharpened

at one end with a file to punch out the foam cylinders from

the black closed cell polyethylene foam. To attach the foam

cylinder to the hook use a hot melt glue gun using the

following procedure. First use the hot tip of the glue gun to

make a V-groove in the bottom of the foam cylinder. Then

lay the hook in the groove and cover the hook shaft completely

with hot melt glue. Let the glue dry and cure thoroughly. Then

take the head and hook assembly and spray paint the bottom

of the foam cylinder. The white paint will only cover the hot

melt glue well, leaving a shading effect on the rest of the foam

from the bottom. Take the 9 mm doll or cat eyes (I bought out

every 9 mm eye in Lake Charles for this swap, that is why some

of you have brown doll eyes and some have amber doll eyes

and some have yellow cat eyes. After looking at the results I

think I like the yellow cat eyes best, since they give the best

contrast.) And using a side cutter cut about half of the shaft

off. Make a hole all the way through the head in the position

you want using a nail with the same approximate diameter as

the shafts on the eyes. Glue the eyes in place using Goop,

E-6000 or a similar type of adhesive. The head-hook assembly

is now finished. Place the head hook assembly in the vise.

Attach the white thread to the hook near the bend of the hook.

Tie in 4-6 saddle hackles splayed at the rear of the hook.

(This is referred to as the tail assembly, the wing assembly

is actually much longer.) Attach a length of white Mylar metallic

yarn and then advance the thread to just behind the foam head.

Wrap the white metallic yarn up to just behind the foam head

and tie off and trim any excess off. Next step is the construction

of the wing assembly. The wing is made from two different

types of nylon. One is crimped nylon which is readily available

to fly tiers. The soft nylon comes from what is known as craft

cord or plastic canvas yarn. This stuff is available in a myriad

of colors. To get the soft nylon you need you must take the

braid apart. The procedure for this is as follows. Cut a piece

of craft cord about an inch longer than you need. Fray 3/4" to 1"

at one end so you can see the hanks that are braided together.

Grasp the fibers from one hank and pull it out of the braid while

holding onto the others with the other hand. Continue until the

material is completely unbraided. Most craft cord yields 8 hanks

of material. Grab the number of hanks you require at one end

and brush the fibers straight using a small stainless steel

detail brush (don?t use a brass brush since that will discolor

light colored nylon). After brushing one direction, grab the

other end and brush the opposite way until you have nylon

fibers that are no longer wound around each other. The craft

cord is a nice source of soft nylon with a nice luster. It has the

obvious advantage in that you can get soft nylon in any length

that you need. To construct the wing take the white nylon from

8 hanks and tie it in at the desired length. Top this with 25-50

fibers of crimped white nylon. Then tie in soft light blue nylon

from 4 hanks. Top this with 15-30 fibers of crimped light blue

nylon. Top this with 25-50 fibers of crimped black nylon, which

is finally topped with soft black nylon from 8 hanks. The gills

are red marabou tied in just behind the foam head on either side

(they considerably brighten up what is a rather monochromatic fly).

Although this looks like a popper, it doesn't pop very well. It does

float quite well, since the nylon does not absorb water. The long

wing assembly causes the fly to float on the surface of the water

in the exact same position as a mullet feeding on the surface of

the water, head up, mouth skimming the surface. The fly can be

retrieved to make a V-wake exactly like such a feeding mullet. I

have been able to cast this fly relatively well on my 12-weight

(Nothing this big is going to be easy to cast!) Good luck with

these monsters!

Mark Delaney