November Trout Fly of the Month

Lefty’s Deceiver

(With some Orange Parsons for the Holiday Seaon!)

In the late 1950’s, Lefty Kreh and his regular fishing companion Tom Cofield, both outdoor writers, were fishing in the Chesapeake Bay for stripped bass when conversation relating to this pattern first sparked. The fish that fed voraciouslyon alewives in the bay each season inspired Kreh and Cofield to create a fly pattern from scratch. The outcome of their musins eventually became the most influential pattern the sport has ever known. Almost immediately upon conception the Lefty’s Deceiver, as the fly became know, began blazing a trail for the fledgling sport of fly fishing.

The Lefty’s Deceiver owes its success, at least in large part, to its remarkable versatility.  Nothing about the Lefty’s Deceiver demonstrates this point better than the fact that it can be dressed in virtually any color combination imaginable.  The Lefty’s Deceiver has been tied in dozens of color combinations, each selected to meet the specific requirements of anglers across the globe.  It can also be tied long or short in length, tied to appear full or sparse.  The Lefty’s Deceiver can be tied as an imitator, imitating fish such as herring, alewives, and mullet.  Alternately, it can be tied as an attractor.  The repertoire of the Lefty’s Deceiver is nearly without limit and has earned its classic status.

Featured Fly: Lefty’s Deceiver

Created by: Lefty Kreh

Materials:

· Hook: 1/0-5/0

· Thread: Black

· Tail: Black saddle hackles and strands of Crystal Flash

· Hackle: Black bucktail, green peacock sword feathers

· Eyes: Large eyes painted white with black pupil

· Head: black

November Saltwater Lure of the Month

 Swim’n Image

The Swim’n Image is a wildly effective and compelling lure created by the legendary lure maker Heddon.  Stories about this lure both on and off the water immediately captured the imagination of the FE staff.  Evidently, we were not the only ones caught up in the excitement.  The Swim’n Image created a sensation when introduced in the 1990’s.  Anglers are still clamoring over this lifelike lure.  Apparently, Heddon has come as close to engineering the perfect bait as any lure maker in the market.  The Swim’n Image casts a country mile, it’s fitted with a rattle chamber, and it boasts a finish so real that we wouldn’t e surprised if the Swim’n Image started flopping around on its own, to say nothing about how it performs on the water.

This is the most polished lure we’ve ever featured as a monthly selection.  Heddon left nothing to chance when engineering the Swim’n Image.  The result?  The lure’s finish is among the best the industry has ever seen.  Heddon told us that they went to unparalleled lengths to perfect the process of applying such lifelike and hyper-reflective details to the lure’s surface.  The achieve these incredible effects, Heddon used in-house color specialists and graphics scientishs to push the envelope of the lure design.  Heddon added super-sharp Excalibur hooks that have a patented counter-rotating design.  Top it all off with true versatility on the water, and you have a classic in your tackle box.  Like the Swim’n Image?  For more luremaking goodness, check out the Swim’n Image’s stable mate, the Spit’n Image.

Featured lure: Swim’n Image

Date Created: C. 1990’s

Manufacturer: Heddon/ Excalibur

Technique:

Whether you’re fishing the Swim’n Image or the Spit’n Image, consider changing your retrieve style from time to time.  You might also find changing the speed at which you retrieve your lure advantageous.  The manufacturer suggests a stop-and-go retrieve, a slow-cranking retrieve, or a fast, “burning” retrieve as three specific methods you can use to generate “smashing strikes”!

November Freshwater Lure of the Month

Rebel Crawfish

Tim Gowing is a name Fishing Enthusiast subscribers might be familiar with.  He’s responsible for several of the lures we’ve selected over the past few years.  Gowing designed this month’s influential selection for Rebel early in the company’s history.  Considered a master lure maker, Gowing has been designing lures longer than some of the FE staff have been fishing.  By his own estimation, Gowing says he’s been designing lures for over 30 years.  That’s plenty of time to cook up a mess of killer classics.  In fact, if one were to crack open an angler’s tackle box at random, it’s highly likely that Gowing’s name will be behind more lures than any other individual designer.  That’s quite an accomplishment.

Though Rebel is wholly owned by EBSCO Industries, the Rebel Crawfish remains one of their best selling lures.  The company claims that it’s still one of the best selling lures of all time.  Perhaps Rebel Crawfish sales numbers do top huge selling classics such as Rapala’s Original minnow, the Johnson Silver Minnow, or the Mepps Aglia.  Regardless, it’s true that anglers consider the Rebel Crawfish to be without peer.  It’s the go-to bait for an alarming number of amateurs and professionals alike.  Anglers have a diehard loyalty towards this lure that is truly unique.  We can’t recall a lure that even comes close to the level of devotion that the Rebel Crawfish generates.  Except, maybe, another Jim Gowing designed lure.

Featured lure: Rebel Crawfish

Designer: Jim Gowing

Manufacturer: Rebel (an Ebsco Industries company)

Technique:

Rebel recommends that your style of retrieve closely imitates the behavior of a live crawfish.  “Cast around structure, muddy banks or rocky shore lines.  Use a slow, deliberate stop-and-go retrieve.  This will attract every nearby fish… whatever the species, large or small.  Get it digging the bottom along a rock ledge or around structure… then, be ready!!”

Bayou Boogie vs. Rebel Crawfish

BAYOU BOOGIE      vs                       REBEL CRAWFISH

Which of these great lures should be the November Freshwater Lure of the Month? Vote on the right!

FE October Trout Fly of the Month

Tying The Zonker Minnow Fly Pattern

Hook:Tiemco #300 size 4 (any long shank streamer hook, sizes #2-#8)

Thread:Olive&White 6/0

Weight:Large lead wire

Underbody:White antron dubbing

Body:Pearl mylar piping

Wing/back:Olive Zonker strip

Hackle:Dyed olive grizzly marabou

How to tie the Zonker:

Hipwader

Many tiers omit the hackle, or use red to suggest the swollen gills of an injured bait fish. Some use marabou as a beard, instead of a hackle. A strip leech is a Zonker tied with a marabou tail (like a wooly bugger), gold or silver sparkle chenille wound as a body, and copper or brass wire to bind down a zonker strip on top. As you can see, there are many flies that owe their fundamental design to the Zonker…and for good reason. The rabbit strip pulses, breathes as it is stripped. It undulates, and seems to never stop moving. Once you see rabbit fur under water, any doubt you may have in it quickly disappears.
In the original pattern, adhesive lead tape is used over the top of the hook shank and taped to itself on the underside. It is then trimmed to the body shape of a minnow before the mylar piping. I tie some this way, but have found that once a good-sized fish (trout or bass) gets a grip on that tape underbody, it deforms it. The problem is that the mylar piping fibers often get pulled apart to some degree. In the pattern below, lead wire is used (strong, tight) with a smooth, dubbed body over it. This "holds" the shape of the mylar and gives a bit when the fish takes. I believe that the fish holds on just a bit longer when it bites a soft body.

Happy Fishing!

FE Saltwater Lure of the Month: Zara Puppy

FE Saltwater Lure of the Month: Zara Puppy

The Zara Puppy was originally created by Heddon, a fishing company started in 1894.  In the early 1900's the "walk the dog" technique began to take off in popularity, so Heddon knew they wanted to keep up with the technique, creating their Zara Puppy model. These lures are designed to allow you to control the lure's action, much like that of the Zara Spooks.  It takes a little practice, but once you get it down, these lures have a reputation for attracting fish from as far as 20 feet away and the strikes are vicious!

The Three L's: Lob, Lift, Lead and Set

"Lob the cast. With a short line loading the rod downstream using water tension to cast, form a tent with the rod and fly line. Raise and rotate the rod hand and in a chopping motion, drop the forearm toward the target (usually slightly upstream). This will allow the flies to sink to the desired depth. After the cast 'lift' the rod horizontally so all or most of the line to the indicator is off the water, leaving a slight bit of slack for a natural drift. Lead the tip of the rod above or slightly downstream of the indicator. This position will help with the hook set. (When thinking of lead, think about 'Walking a Dog'. If the leash is too tight, you are choking the dog. If it is too loose, the dog can get out of control.)" The hook set is when the indicator does anything other than drifting naturally, such as slowing, dipping, pausing....When in doubt, quickly set the hook downstream by moving your rod tip towards the water. This will pull the hook into the trout's mouth and keeps the rig in the water and not flinging in the air. Remember that most tangles happen in the air and not in the water."

Questions or comments? David@FishingEnthusiast.com

October Freshwater Lure of the Month

Fishing Enthusiast Freshwater Lure of the Month: The Little Cleo!

The Little Cleo is a classic among the freshwater casting spoons.  Dating back to 1953, the lure was originally created by the Seneca Lure Company of New York City and was designed for salmon and steelhead anglers in the Great Lakes region.  Seneca lures was founded by Charlie Clark, a man with a very creative personality who began as a songwriter and publisher, only to later in his career get into selling fishing equipment.

As an avid fisherman in upstate New York, Charlie knew that if he could come up with some metal lure designs to take advantage of the growing demands, he could launch Seneca into a major player in the fishing industry.  His most popular lure was designed with a concave, humpbacked shape that Charlie felt wiggled so enticingly that it would be irresistible to any predatory fish that came its way.  Once he had tested the lure, he only needed to come up with a name.

As the story has been passed down over generations, it has been said that Charlie had become secretly enamored with an actress named Rhonda Fleming, the star of a 1951 film called Little Egypt.  The film popularizes a form of dancing that is now widely referred to as “belly-dancing”.  In Charlie’s head, he felt that the enticing, wiggling action of the lure would be as tantalizing to the fish as Ms. Fleming was to him.  So, Charlie wanted to name the lure after the movie, and decided upon “Little Cleo”, which was short for “Little Cleopatra”.  He even went so far as to imprint the image of a belly dancer on the packaging and on the inner concave of some of the Little Cleo’s themselves, his own personal joke.  This practice continued for the next 45 or so years, until the image finally became a casualty of politcally correct sensibilities in the mid-1990’s.    

Questions or comments? Contact me at David@FishingEnthusiast.com!