DEEZ Nuts!

Fruit flies, not the annoying flying type, but the ones that get crushed by hungry fish! And this time i have the mighty Pacu (or Koumaru) in sight.
I have tied the first batch and went for the floating version, i will make some sinking ones soon.
I used the  Sakumas 410 size 2 , hope they will hold...
Made out of foam , you can get them into the shape you want in two ways.
First you can place a small cube of foam onto a Dremell bit or a drill, spin it and use sandpaper to shape. Or you can do it the way i use, just using a sharp blade( a razor or a scalpel ) get the best fruity shape you can and then burn the sharp edges left by the cuts.

Foam melts fast! So try on a sample first to get to know how much heat you need to apply. Melt and roll in your fingers, simple.
After you need to cut a slit in the middle, put some super glue on the hook shank and place the fruit into place. Make sure to place it so it doesn't obstruct the hook point. Squeeze and hold for a few seconds and your nut is in place...

Then comes a little cosmetic. Sharpeys and airbrush some details, so it looks a little more realistic, like a ripe or over ripe fruit falling from natural causes into the water.

 Again i decided to coat the fruits/nuts with some Gorilla clear glue.You can also use your favorite UV resin for this. The coating will help in two ways, first it will protect the fly so you can hope to catch more than one fish on the same fly, and very important for this type of fly, it gives it an extra weight.

That extra weight will help to make a good splash when the fly hit the water. Fruit flies need to be noisy! No gentle landing here! Keep tuned for the sinking version soon!

Cicadas!

One of the most enjoyable part of fly tying for me is definitely tying terrestrials. Great summer fun flies to fish, top water action that catches many species of fish from trout, carp, chubb, to masheer.
I wish we had more species here in Ireland to chase on terrestrials....
This tie was one that i wanted to fish for a long time, the cicada. Cicadas have always fascinated me from a young age living in the south of France. That characteristic noise they make with their wings in the summer months  and their amazing life cycle makes for a very special insect. The hatch can take from 2 to 17 years to happen depending on the type of cicada!
So with the Amazon trip planned for next November i had to tie a few  ( it's a good excuse anyway to carry a few in my box). These are slightly on the big size, but can be tied smaller to suit your area and fish targeted.
I tied them this time on Gamakatsus C70SD Big Game in size 1/0. Largely inspired from Dron Lee ties and Hernan Tulá  i came up with these supersize Cicas!
All you need for this tie is some 3mm foam for the body and some 2mm foam for the head. A little bucktail for the wings, some round rubber for the legs and some home made eyes with a couple of beads on a bit of mono.
I made these as tooth proof as i could for the Amazon, but normally if you chase chubbs, trouts , bass or carp you don't really need to coat them with anything.

• First cut out the body parts, the belly and the back. You can use the same colour or two different ones. This is 3mm foam.

• Now put some thread on your hook to give the glue more grip

• To add volume and buoyancy glue a strip of 2mm foam

• Then glue in place the top part

•  Trim the edges
  

•  Now for the tricky part, burn and weld the sides. Better to try this on some loose foam first to get used on how much heat and how fast the foam you use will melt. Burn and squeeze to weld the sides, then trim the welds with scissors to give a clean finish.

•  Shape the body with a few wraps of thread to make about 4/5 sections
  
• Add the legs now( round rubber) and the wings (bucktail)
  
  
  
  
  

•  Making the eyes is fairly straight forward, put two beads on some thick mono and burn to hold in place
  

•  Tie the eyes in front of the foam body and cut the 2mm foam to make the head.This foam is cut like a long tear drop shape. Bring the thread forward a little (in front of the legs/wings part) Tie the narrow part of the "tear drop " underneath the measure where the eye of the hook need to come out. Burn this hole with a hot needle for a better finish.
  
  
  

• Nearly finished, bring the foam over the top of the head, pass the hook eye through the hole on the foam and secure with a few wraps directly behind the eyes. Bring the thread back a bit and secure an other section. The fly is now complete.Secure with some glue, add some details with a Sharpey and you're ready to fish!
  
  
  
  

• As i mentioned at the beginning, i'm hoping that these will get crushed on the Amazon, so they need to be strong and resilient.For this i add a thin coat of some Gorilla clear glue and let it spin and dry for a good two hours.
  

 Here's a few videos on how effective this pattern can be when fished at the right time, i will let you know how mines do on the Amazon when i come back from this trip!