Back to baitfish

The simple baitfish, the tie that we all (mostly) started with...You can make it very simple or spend more time being creative, the bottom line they all catch fish.
Easy to cast, low cost on materials they are the pattern that match the hatch all the time.
I see more and more guys that fish with me when i guide that carry very little baitfish in their boxes. In this world of Bufford, Gamechangers, T-bones and other patterns ( and all these catch too) the humble baitfish is somehow forgotten.
I  always have at least a roach and a perch with me all the time. I had many sessions where pikes where eating heavily, splashing all around me after shoals of roach..And all they wanted to take was a baitfish. You think that in these frantic times they would smash anything in their path, but no. Many times i found myself in this situation, casting buffords, bunnies, T-bones without any interest. Switched to a 10cm (4 inch) roach baitfish and all hell broke loose! Hits after hits...I also remember the time where pikes where going crazy in the shallows , that was in may.And with me i had two guys lure fishing, all they could managed was getting follows without any eats.And they tried all the lures they had with them that day.They finally managed half a dozen jacks between the two of them and i had over 30 fish and some approaching the meter mark. All on a small baitfish.
It's also a good fly to fish when things gets slow. Fish it slowly  with a lightly heavy head , like a fish mask or a small dumbbell the slow jigging action can push them to eat.
I wanted to fill my box for this season with a fresh batch. With the Covid-19 striking hard all over the world, my season here as a fishing lodge owner and guide is completely gone...And i don't know when things will come back to normal...
It's hard on the bank account and for the moral. But looking on the bright side i'm not in total lock-down and it's been over 15 years that i had time to fish at this time of the year.
As i said i will keep the vlogs coming to give you guys a little escapism, even if it's for 5 minutes..

Back to this bunch of baitfish!  I wanted them slightly head  heavy to be able to fish them in depths of 1 to 5 m on my favorite line: a floating line. I love floating line, many would only fish a floating if they fish with surface flies but i adore watching my line on the surface. In between each strips the line slightly coil and more than often you can see the bite before you can feel it.
It gives you the option to fish super shallow and in deeper water ( 5m max) you just need to use a longer leader and when pikes are hunting, they have absolutely no problem coming up to nail you fly.

I tied these on Kona hooks 3/0 Xtra strong stinger hooks. The heads are from Flymen Fishing Company, the one used here are the size #10.  I airbrushed them in white first to prime them then added different colours to match each style. Of course a roachy one, a perch and one that saved me so many blanks: white/yellow.
To make them long lasting  and shinny a coat of Gorilla clear glue.
The fibres used are Congo hair (tail+ belly) and kanekalon for the back to add volume.

• Head prep:

  

  Primed in white

  
  

  

  Colouring and eyes

  
  

   

  
  

  A good coating of Gorilla clear glue.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

• Body prep:
  
  
  

  

  I like to airbrush accent colours, like gills(orange)

  
  

  
  

Now all you have to do is to stick on the heads, for this i use hot glue inside the head, and the front where the eye of the hook is, i use a solid UV resin.