Bucktail Streamers for Fly-fishing Western Waters

Imitation is the key to successful fly tying and fly fishing. You have to pick flies that are best suited to the hatches or the baitfish present, but you can only pick the best if you've tied or bought the best. Fishing lakes and rivers is much the same as saltwater fly-fishing in that big fish get big because they eat little fish. An easy way to catch bass or large trout is to find out what naturally occurring baitfish are present and construct an appropriate bucktail fly or other minnow pattern to imitate them.

As an example, common baitfish in the West include red-sided shiners, black-nosed dace and chubs. But the fry or fingerlings of other game fish can be good feed as well, such as various trout and panfish fry. Popular patterns are little rainbows, brookies and browns. A great panfish pattern I've concocted is a simple yellow perch that's killer on stripers, wipers and largemouths.

Bucktail streamers can be fished deep or shallow depending on water and weather conditions. A steady reeling motion can be used, or -- better yet -- implement a slight jerking motion either with the rod tip or by stripping in short lengths of line through your fingers.

Bucktails streamers and other flies can also be used by anglers using spinning tackle by placing a clear plastic bubble or Cast-A-Bubble on the regular fishing line and a few feet to a yard down, tie on the fly.

Some simple bucktails can be constructed by following a principal of colors and layering. A 4x-6x streamer hook can be used, although any long-shanked fly tying hook could be used as long as there is a sufficient gap between the barb and shank and it is sturdy enough to withstand an attack by your quarry.

Simply wrap flat mylar tinsel around the shank of the hook after having tied it in at the back end. Having a thread body the full length of the hook is crucial, since you'll first tie a full length thread underbody, then apply sparse amounts of Hard As Nail or head cement; then wrap the tinsel from back to front. Try to wrap the tinsel either slightly over itself or right next to the previous wrap as to eliminate dark spaces and keep a nice, uniform silver flash.

Many patterns found online will list the wing (pinches of hair that lay over the top of the hook) as brown, black, white for a black-nosed dace for example. That means the brown should be on top when the fly is finished, followed by black in the middle and white on the bottom. That means when tying the hair on, you should do so in the reverse order on which the recipe lists them. Most often you'll be able to figure this out by looking at a color photo provided in a book, but many Web sites are geared toward seasoned fly tying veterans and don't include such photos.

After you've wrapped the tinsel the full length of the shank and stopping just in front of the hook's eye, secure the tinsel with a few wraps of the thread.

Pinch off a small amount of whit bucktail and cut it. Place it in a hair stacker and pound it until the tips are even. Or you can simply tie them straight onto the hook by the cut ends without putting it through the stacker as long as there aren't any hairs that are seriously longer than the others. Secure the hair to a centimeter or so behind the eye of the hook with several wraps of thread. Do the same with the black and then brown, but tie these on top of the white, otherwise the hair will have a staggered look to it, rather than a uniform wing.

Secure all the hair and once that's done, take your scissors and cut the excess from the cut end of the hair by coming at it from over the top of the hook and with your hand back toward the loose portion of the hair. Basically, create a 45 degree angle between your scissors and the hook shank with the scissor tips pointing down and toward the hook eye.

Cut the hair. There should be a sloped face to the cut. Now, wrap your thread over the remaining hair and up to the eye, leaving no hair left exposed. With practice, you can sculpt immaculate heads with a unique bullet shape that adds to the fly's performance under water.

Use either a whip finishing knot or whip finisher to tie off the head. Cut your bobbin loose and then apply lacquer or head cement liberally to the thread head, making sure it doesn't pool up by using your bodkin to spread the liquid around. Hard As Nails, although intended as a coating for finger nails, makes a great water resistant hardener for thread heads. Plus, it's cheaper than most head cements out of the catalog and is available as just about any retail outlet or drug store.

After wrapping the tinsel body, here are some hair wing combinations to try:

Black-Nosed Dace

Brown, black, white

Red-sided Shiner

Black, red, white or black, white, red

Chub

Black, yellow, white or black and yellow if tying a small one.

Rainbow trout

Green, pink, white or Pink and white if tying small.

Brown trout

Brown, orange, yellow

Brook trout

Grey squirrel, green, orange, white

Mickey Finn

Yellow, red, yellow