Six Classic Fly Patterns for Striped Bass
There’s something comfortable about spinning up a fly that was designed more than 50 years ago and still catches striped bass today. Old-time saltwater fly patterns are among my favorites and the nostalgia, history, and connection to “the days of old” are hard to beat. Another big advantage is that many of the best old-time fly patterns for striped bass are so simple to tie.
Fly tying is a means to an end because it’s what catches the fish, so I’m not a fan of flies that take 102 steps and 45 minutes to complete. I enjoy simple patterns that take maybe 10 steps to complete, like the six we’ll talk about here: the Surf Candy, Estaz Minnow, Mickey Finn, Seaducer, Glass Minnow, and Ray’s Fly. They’re fun and quick, and I can pretty much fill a small fly box in one evening.
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Recipes and detailed tying instructions are readily available online, and there are always books, old and new, available, so what we’ve got here is a bit of history along with updates on new materials that build flies with more durability and action. On The Water readers getting ready for spring can have some winter fun right now and even more fun in April when the season’s first striped bass lip-locks one of these old-timers.
Surf Candy
Development of Bob Popovic’s Surf Candy began in the 1980s, so it’s the youngest of this collection of simple flies, but it’s become an iconic imitation for a bay anchovy or silverside—or sand eel if you tie it long—and is popular the world over. Although quite a few tyers experimented with epoxy prior to the Surf Candy, it was Bob who made it an art form. My friend, the late Bert Lewengrub of the Sportsmen’s Den in Connecticut, was one of the first to use epoxy in the late 1960s to protect windings on his custom rods and the bodies of his bluefish flies, but he never enveloped the entire fly body in the gooey stuff. Mark Sosin’s Blockbuster, an original high-tie-style fly, used epoxy to protect the winding threads, but not the bucktail wing. The fly was effective but not bluefish-proof.
Popovics took inspiration from Hal Janssen’s Hamada Silverside, an epoxy-covered fly with a balsa body described in Ken Bay’s 1972 book, Salt Water Flies. Bob enhanced and perfected the essential techniques needed to sculpt fly bodies with epoxy. By the spring 1990 issue of American Angler and Fly Tyer, editor Dick Stewart revealed the first photos and tying instructions. Many imitations followed from other tyers and the fly quickly became a classic. The originals were tied with bucktail, but Bob soon switched to more durable synthetic fibers. Fast-forwarding to today, Surf Candies are now tied with all sorts of materials. SF Flashblend, Polar Fibre, Kraft Fiber, EP Fibers, Flashabou, Ripple Ice, DNA, Krinkle Flash, and just about every other fiber imaginable have all been successfully used to create variations of the Surf Candy.
Epoxy has given way to UV-cured acrylic finishes that are significantly easier to sculpt and take far less drying time—just a few seconds with a UV light—and with significantly less “mess” at the bench. For the ultimate in realism, Fleye Foils are the latest Surf Candy enhancement and are available at fly shops.
Estaz Minnow
If you head south in winter for a family/fishing vacation, you probably know of the Estaz Minnow (sometimes called the Crystal Minnow or Schminnow), especially if you’ve taken a shot at snook fishing under dock lights. This fly also works just great up north in both fresh and salt water. It began life when three early salty fly pioneers, Mark Sosin, Dick Wood, and George Cornish, clunked heads back in the 1960s and devised a series of flies with chenille yarn bodies and marabou tails, calling them Blossom Marabou flies.
The Orange Blossom and Platinum Blossom were the most well known, perhaps because orange looks somewhat like a cinder worm or shrimp and the all-white looks like an anchovy or silversides, but they can be tied in any color. All-black can be deadly before sunrise, and Blossoms can be tied in attractor colors of yellow, chartreuse, and pink. The key to the Blossom’s success is the languid motion of the marabou tail that works its magic on a slow retrieve.
Today’s versions use Estaz Crystal Chenille or Estaz UV Light Chenille for the body instead of the standard wool-like chenille. The added sparkle and flash is a substantial improvement over the originals. To go deep, Crystal Minnows can be tied with a cone head like a Wooly Bugger, or Clouser style with bead-chain or dumbbell eyes, or with several wraps of lead or tungsten wire wrapped to the shank beneath the body. Although the tail is usually marabou, SF Flashblend, bucktail, Kraft Fur, Polar Fibre, and EP Fiber can also be substituted.
Mickey Finn
Don’t laugh! The Mickey Finn is a good striped bass fly. The late Mark Sosin credited his dad, Irv, with nurturing his interest in fishing, especially fly fishing. While visiting Mark before his passing, we met for lunch at Yesterdays Diner, aptly named considering our reminiscing saltwater fly-fishing conversation over burgers and coffee. He told me how the Mickey Finn fly was one of his dad’s favorites. Created in the 1930s and popularized by John Alden Knight, developer of the Solunar Tables, Irv Sosin used the Mickey Finn to catch striped bass and bluefish in New Jersey’s Barnegat Bay; probably weakfish too. The fly was originally designed to catch brook trout, largemouth bass, and bluegills, but many freshwater streamer patterns were popular crossovers in the early days of saltwater fly fishing.
Based on a long-shank Limerick hook wrapped in flashy silver tinsel topped with oval tinsel for the ribbing, the fly had flash appeal. Its top wing of alternating yellow bucktail topped with red, then topped with another bunch of yellow gave it plenty of color. Knight’s original version had an optional yellow chin. The Mickey Finn was a friendly fly to cast because the wing didn’t extend much beyond the hook bend and therefore rarely fouled. Today’s versions ditch the Limerick hook – most tyers use the Mustad 34007or a similar one – and the quaint ribbing is rarely used. Although bucktail is still a superb wing material, it’s often replaced with more modern materials and the body is usually tied with flat or small-diameter braided Mylar.
The yellow-red-yellow color scheme adapts to other patterns like the Clouser Deep Minnow and numerous Rhody-type flies. The colors are excellent attractors from Maine to Maryland, and are very popular for redfish in Florida and the Carolinas. In dark, murky water, they will catch schoolie striped bass and weakfish will go for them in salt-marsh bays. Keep in mind that many flies of the 1950s through the 70s relied on white, yellow, and red for their primary colors.
Seaducer
This old-time fly dates back to the mid-1930s and was originally known as the Homer Rhode Tarpon Streamer. Joe Bates fished with Rhodes in the Everglades and corresponded frequently with him over a 30-year period. Bates described three flies that Homer created in his Streamer Fly Tying and Fishing published in 1950. In the 1960s, Chico Fernandez tweaked the fly and popularized it as the Seaducer.
This fly is simple, quick to tie, and has an awesome action. It can be suspended on shallow grass flats or fished deep on a type 3 sink-tip. It tends to “lift” slightly on the retrieve and rarely snags on the bottom. It is a great pattern for striped bass when fishing over mussel beds, oyster bars, and areas with a lot of grass. Tied small on a 2/0 hook with brown and tan materials, it has a shrimpy appearance and looks like more of a mouthful.
It doesn’t really imitate any particular baitfish; instead, the fly relies on the motion of the tail feathers, which can be tied scissor-like or bundled, and has a palmered hackle body. Besides the tail motion, the palmered body also tickles the water when the fly is momentarily at rest. When twitched, it pushes water that gets picked up by a striped bass through its lateral line.
This is an excellent pattern when you have to fish quietly. A Seaducer lands gently on the surface, so it won’t disturb striped bass feeding in a calm salt pond or creek. It can be worked on a swing retrieve, allowing the feathers to gently flutter in the current.
Glass Minnow
Carl Hansen of St. Petersburg, Florida, is the originator of the Glass Minnow, a unique fly that uses clear monofilament wrapped around the hook shank to imitate small baits often called rainfish or glass minnows. Hansen’s early versions simply wrapped 15-pound mono around the hook shank and, remarkably, its silvery color gave a pretty good impression of the bright silver sides of natural bait. Later versions used tinsel, then tyers switched to Mylar to further brighten the flash power. The wing, as Hansen usually tied it, was black bucktail over white, although many combinations are also popular like green, blue, purple, or tan over white. It’s tied sparsely and does an excellent job of imitating its namesake, the glass minnow. One of the most effective versions of it, one popularized by Chico Fernandez, is the Bendback. It’s almost weedless.
The late Ed Graser discovered the Glass Minnow on a fishing trip to the Florida Keys sometime in the mid-1960s. Apparently, his guide showed him how to tie it by snelling the mono to the hook shank, which made a much cleaner presentation than securing the mono with thread wraps and then wrapping the mono toward the hook eye. Wrapping 15- or 20-pound mono can be a bear of a job to tie and it unravels in the blink of an eye. Ed placed his spool of Ande mono on a windowsill to let the sun warm it up to make it softer and more manageable.
Purists might prefer mono, but clear and stretchy D-Rib (or V-Rib or Round Rib) is so much easier to wrap to the hook because it’s soft and flexible. It will stand up to several schoolie bass before shredding. Another option is to brush on a thin layer of UV acrylic before adding the wing, and the Glass Minnow will last longer.
Ray’s Fly
Ray Bondorew began tying this fly many years ago. After much observation and experimenting, he created a fly that blended the colors appearing in live, natural baits, like a silverside. For decades, it’s been a reliable, perennial favorite in New England, New York, and New Jersey for spring stripers. Savvy tyers heading south for winter vacations use them on Florida snook, crevalle jacks, ladyfish, and sea trout.
The original Eagle Claw short-shank #254 hook in size 2/0 is still very popular, although the Owner AKI and AKI Light are good alternatives. To save time, a friend of mine blends the yellow and olive bucktail by massaging the fibers between his thumb and forefinger. To add variety, some tyers replace the olive bucktail with dark blue or purple. The peacock herl may seem antiquated to modern tyers, but it’s an essential ingredient for the most lifelike appearance and should be retained.
So, there they are: six flies that are fun, simple, and very quick to tie. Best of all, they have proven track records for catching striped bass.
Related Content
How to Start Tying Flies: A Beginner’s Guide
Sand Eel Fly Patterns for the Fall Run
Source: https://onthewater.com/six-classic-fly-patterns-for-striped-bass
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