Spawn Blog

As promised we will continue to increase the number of step by step patterns of flies that we use! This two hooked fly from Pete Rosenau is as mean as they get. Follow along and add this streamer to your box you will love the results guaranteed! All materials for this fly available live on our site, you can also change any of the colors to better mater the location you are fishing!

Step 3. With your thread roughly 2 hook eye lengths behind the eye dub on a decent amount of Spawn Simi Seal. We are going to dub a body back to our flash tie in and then back to our starting spot.

Step 4. Using a dubbing brush or some Velcro give your dubbed body a fairly aggressive brushing.

Step 5. After teasing out all the fibers, dip your fingertips in water and coax the body fibers back toward the hook point. This will tame the fibers for the next step while also removing any stray fibers the brush left behind.

Step 6. Prepare a mallard feather by brushing the fibers toward the base of the quill. Wetting your fingers will make this a breeze. Trim a section at the top of the feather for your tie in. Come down the quill fat enough that it won’t break when tied in.

Step 7. Wrap 3-4 turns of mallard. To get a tighter body like this example you must keep the concave surface of the quill facing the hook shank as you’re wrapping. If the feather is wrapped with the quill on it’s side the fibers will stick out significantly more. The aesthetic choice is yours. Once it’s in the water the fibers will lay down essentially the same either way.

Step 8. Remove a small clump of the olive marabou fibers keeping the tips aligned. This is a fairly sparse amount of marabou that should add some color without blocking out the mallard underneath. Your marabou fibers should reach just past the mallard fibers. After a few loose wraps to tie in the marabou, gently position the fibers to cover the top half of the hook shank. Trim the excess marabou butts and wrap down the ends.

Step 9. Repeat the same step on the bottom of the fly with the Fl. White marabou. After you’ve trimmed the butts and formed a clean thread head, whip finish twice and cover the thread wraps with Loon Hard Head or cement of your choice.

Step 10. Slip on a sz 5/32 Gritty Brass or Tungsten Bead on your Ahrex NS122 sz4 before placing it in the vise. Add 15-20 wraps of .015 weighted wire and slide into the  back of the bead ensuring the bead doesn’t move at a later time.

Step 11. After wrapping over the wire with thread, tie in a 4 inch piece of Senyo’s Standard Intruder Wire. I like to keep this on top of the hook on the near side. This allows me to still keep the returning wire on top of the hook shank.

Step 12. I’ve used 2 sz6 craft beads as another trigger at the wire connection. This is completely optional. One you’ve slipped on the beads, run the trailer wire up through the bottom of the trailer hook eye. Return the wire through both beads and back on top of the hook shank. Once you have the wire in position secure with thread wraps toward the hook eye. Roughly ¼ inch before the bead bring the wire back again toward the hook point. This ensures that no matter what bites this fly it’s not pulling out that wire! The amount of space between your rear and front hook will be determined by the wire movement. You want just enough room that the wire sticks up slightly behind the craft beads.

Step 13. Prepare your next mallard feather. The fibers should be long enough to reach halfway back on the rear feathers. I don’t want to completely obstruct the red beads, so I’ve stripped the fibers from the shank side of the feather. We’ll still be tying the feather in concave side to the hook shank.

Step 14. Take 3-4 wraps of the mallard. The junction transitions more smoothly while still allowing a glimpse of the red bead trigger.

Step 15. Again, dub a body that goes back and then forward again for two layers of dubbing. Brush out coax back the fibers. Don’t forget to moisten your fingertips.

Step 16.  For our final mallard feather we’ll be tying it in full as we did on the rear hook. You want the fibers to reach just about to where the connection mallard fibers reach.

Step 17. Take 3-4 wraps of the mallard. Tie off and trim away the excess.

Step 18. Again tie in a small clump of olive marabou on the top half of the shank. The fibers here should be long enough to reach the ends of the mallard feather you just wrapped.

Step 19. Add a small amount of white marabou to the bottom half of the shank, matching the fiber length of the olive marabou.

Step 20. On the very bottom of the fly add just a few fibers of the Fl. Bubble Gum Pink marabou. These fibers should be about 1/3 shorter than the white marabou. We’re giving the illusion of gills while also adding another visual trigger.

Step 21. Once you’ve cleaned up the tie offs, make a neat thread head, whip finish twice and cut the thread. Apply some pink marker to the thread wraps before sealing with Loon Hard Head or cement of your choice.

Complete! 

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Baitfish patterns are in every fly fisher’s saltwater box around the world. Mimicking a baitfish on the vise is simple but achieving success in the salt isn’t always as easy. This pattern gives you the extra articulated kick you need to bring the success you want into reality. Like the majority of my flies, this is a simple yet effective pattern using Spawn Products!

This style of fly can be altered and manipulated in many ways to meet your fishery’s needs, from changing the feather on the tail to the color of Simi Seal in the body! 

Materials List: 

SA220 Ahrex Size #8 

Spawn 90 Degree Jig Shank 20mm

Fishhunter Saddle Hackle Fl. Silver Dun

Spawn Simi Seal UV Chartreuse Steel

Spawn Eyes Silver Black 

Slotted Tungsten Beads 5.5mm 

Lead Free Wire Wrap .025

Step 1: Insert your SA220 Size 8 hook into the vise

Step 2: Find two thin feathers in your bag of Fishhunter Saddle Hackle Fl. Silver Dun. These will be the tail section of your fly. Tie in one on each side.

Step 3: Take another Fishhunter Saddle Hackle Fl. Silver Dun feather from the pack and reverse tie it in.

Step 4: Tie in the Spawn Simi Seal up to the eye of the hook. Then, add a Spawn 90 or 60 Degree shank with a 5.5mm Slotted Tungsten Bead.

Step 5: Using lead free wire, add 6-10 wraps depending on desired weight. Push the wire wraps  forward into the slot of the bead to secure it. Tie down the shank and add wraps of thread to secure the shank and lead free wire.

Step 6: Tie in Simi Seal either using a dubbing loop or veiling the dubbing back over itself. Adjust your tie length to create a better body taper. 

Step 7: Add your favorite Spawn 3D Eyes with an adhesive of your choice and cover with resin to add durability. 

 Below are alterations of this fly! Using different colors of Simi Seal and different sizes of Spawn 90 or 60 Degree Jig Shanks, the possibilities for this pattern are endless!

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Step 2. Place 7-8 wraps of .015 Lead Free Wire on the hook shank leaving just over one hook eye length behind the hook eye bare.

Step 3. Begin your thread on the hook and cover your wire wraps taking care to not let them shift. Cut a 3-4 inch piece of amber Vinyl Rib. The rounded side should be facing the shank as you tie it in. Begin tying in your Vinyl Rib so that the end matches up with the rear wraps of .015 wire.

Step 4. Tie down your Vinyl Rib to roughly above the hook barb. Make sure your Vinyl Rib stays on top of the hook shank while also watching that it doesn’t twist.

Step 5. Tie in a piece of pearl Lateral Scale. Make sure your thread wraps go all the way to the wraps used for your Vinyl Rib. Advance your thread to near the hook eye.

Step 6. Using overlapping wraps advance the Lateral Scale up the entire body to roughly halfway on the wire wraps. Tie off with 3-4 strong wraps and then fold the Lateral Scale back over itself toward the rear of the hook while maintaining thread tension. Wrap 2-3 times and neatly trim off the remaining Lateral Scale.

Step 7. Now wrap the Vinyl Rib to just past the beginning wraps of wire. Tie off with 4-5 firm wraps of thread and neatly trim away the excess Vinyl Rib for your next fly.

Step 8. Cut a strip of D’s Flyes olive Dura Skin that is just slightly wider than the Vinyl Rib abdomen. Trimming to a V shape makes for an easier and cleaner tie in.

Step 9. Securely tie in your piece of Dura Skin. The proportion we’re looking for is roughly 2/3 abdomen or body to 1/3 thorax. Tie back the Dura Skin until you feel you are right around 1/3 back on the entire body of what will be your finished fly.

Step 10. Cut off 2-3 herls from a caddis green Peacock Eye. Tie in all 3 back to the same tie in for the Dura Skin. Trim off the excess peacock and advance your thread to behind the hook eye. At this point gently twist the peacock herls together always twisting the same direction. Don’t put on too much pressure or you’ll need to tie in new peacock.

Step 11. Wrap the peacock herls forward to just behind the hook eye. As you wrap the peacock forward you may need to add a twist or two between wraps to maintain the grouping. Tie off and trim the excess peacock being as clean with your cuts and thread wraps as possible.

Step 12. Pull the strip of Dura Skin over the peacock thorax. Securely tie down the Dura Skin making sure it is centered on top of the shank. Trim the excess Dura Skin and wrap a neat thread head. After 2 whip finishes cut your thread and cover the head with a thin layer of Loon Hard Head.

Step 13. Add a small amount of Loon Thin UV Clear Fly Finish on top of the Dura Skin. Cure with your UV torch and this caddis is ready for action.

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The words "Chum Fry" spark every fly fishers attention in Puget Sound. This is a time of year when Cutthroat are leaving the spawning grounds and looking to recover from the hardships associated with an anadromous lifestyle. Food is usually plentiful with large schools of Chum Fry pouring out of the streams and into Puget Sound. 

Although this year's Chum Salmon returns were low and flooding post spawn could have disrupted many of the redds, we are hoping there will still be Chum Fry around with hungry Sea Run Cutthroat and Resident Coho looking for an easy meal. 

If you have looked into the Spawn Simi Seal Dubbing, you will see that the blends we have created with John Romher are ultra specific. Their applications reach far outside the beaches of Puget Sound, but the inspiration stems from our home waters here in Washington. Pete Rosenau is one of the most talented tiers and materials designers there is and his involvement with creating the Chum Fry Simi Seal is invaluable.  

Chum Fry Recipe:

All available on our site!

Spawn's Mega Simi Seal- Chum Fry

Spawn's Mega Simi Seal- Smolt Belly

Spawn's Simi Seal- White/Silver

Lead Free Wire .025

Ahrex NS122- Size #10

Spawn Eyes- 4mm 

Black Sharpe

First we will start with a size #10 NS122 from Ahrex Hooks.

After a thin thread base, add 8-10 wraps of .025 Lead Free Wire leaving about 4mm of space in front of the wraps to finish your fly and add Spawn 3D eyes.

Then, take Spawn's Mega Simi Seal in Chum Fry and tie on the tail section. For this you want to have as much going off the back end of the hook as possible while still ensuring it is snugly tied in. 

Dub your thread with Spawn's Simi Seal in White/Silver and begin to wrap forward. For best results, wax your thread!

Stop wrapping the Simi Seal at the end of your Lead Free Wire wraps. 

Now add Spawn's Mega Simi Seal in Chum Fry to the top of your hook shank and veil back the Simi Seal to create a small taper for the head of the fly. 

Add Spawn's Mega Simi Seal in Smolt Belly to the bottom of your hook shank to create the belly of the fly. 

Whip finish and brush out the fly. 

Use resin to add on your favorite Spawn Eyes to give your fly an even more lifelike look and feel.

If you'd like, you can use a permanent marker to add Parr marks.

Without Parr marks:

With Parr marks: 

You now have an easy and effective Chum Fry Pattern using dubbing that was designed to exactly replicate the colors of this Puget Sound Hatch here on our home waters! 

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I am unsure why we say “DIY” in regard to fishing. It’s not something that is typically  used outside of the tropics. I never read about DIY Brook Trout fishing or DIY Smallmouth Bass fishing. But every Bonefish, Permit, Rooster, Tarpon and Snook seems to carry this title if it isn’t caught with a guide. 

First things first, this is a blog about what worked for me. By no means am I an expert on bonefish, but everyday I learned, changed, improved, and caught fish. 

On the first day, the water was murky and I wasn’t sight fishing. I knew how I liked to work a beach from my time spent in Puget Sound. I worked the mangroves inside to outside much like how I fish Puget Sound. I never stand in one area and cast straight out. I walked about 20 feet out from the shore into about 3 feet of water and faced parallel to the beach. My first cast, I casted about five feet out from the mangroves. The second cast was 10-20ft out, and the 3rd about 25-45ft out from the mangroves. Once I completed the fan I would move forward slowly about 40 feet and start the pattern again.  I started with a small light shrimp fly on a size 8 hook but switched after about 45 minutes to something lighter in color and much larger. 

My first bonefish encounter was a disaster. I wasn’t ready. I didn’t even see it. It felt like my line bumped the bottom then got hooked up to the back of a jetski and tore off. I was extremely disappointed when the fish came unhooked and I reeled the fly line in from my backing. To make things worse, I proceeded to lose two more shortly after. Thinking back, I don’t know exactly what I did wrong but i do know what I did right. I had changed to a larger,  jig-style fly that seemed to get their attention in the murky water. I also seemed to be covering the right places. 

Finally, 200 yards down the beach, I landed my first bonefish. I horsed it in as I was a bit nervous about losing the fish and was more prepared for that initial burst of power. Feeling satisfied, I called it a day.  

The next morning, the water clarity was better but still not picturesque. This lead me to my first very important lesson: walk a straight line and stay on the same path. The mangroves are a mix of sand and mud. In certain places, I sank two to three inches into the sandy mud. My footprints which were all over from the day before created shadows that looked exactly like bonefish. It was very difficult at first to distinguish between the two. I found myself squinting at footprints over and over waiting for one to move. 

 I finally saw an actual bonefish, got excited, and casted too close,  spooking the fish. I remembered a friend telling me to increase the length of my leader and to provide more distance between your fly and fish. I added another two feet to my leader for a total of around 11ft of Maxima Fluorocarbon. I saw another bonefish and casted out in front of it, giving myself more room to dance. I paused for a second then gave my fly a small twitch. The bonefish instantly came over and after several more strips, I was hooked up! I had tightened down my drag a bit from the day before and after fighting this fish in, the reel brought it to hand.  

The day only got better from here. 

After 2 more hours of sight fishing and several more landed bonefish, we decided to leave the lagoon and head to a local beach which held a large flat.  Here it was much easier to spot the bonefish, but there weren’t nearly as many around. I did see a school of feeding bonefish. Nervous about spooking them, I watched their movement from a distance. In my opinion, these fish move much like a Coho Salmon in Puget Sound. They were feeding along a path and didn’t seem to move very erratically. Judging their movement, I gave myself plenty of room when casting out in front. Waited for about 20 seconds and gave my fly a long slow strip. They saw it and began to chase. Although I hooked and landed a bonefish in this encounter, I swear it was the smallest fish in the school. The fish also went absolutely crazy spooking all the others away. This was something I found to be common; I never pulled multiple bonefish from the same school. I believe it would be very possible from a boat to target fish on the outside of the groups, but from the water I just wanted to cast into the mix where I had the highest chance of hooking up. 

At this point, I began to feel good about targeting bonefish. I was using an 11ft Maxima Fluorocarbon leader with a 7ft 25lb butt section and four feet of 12lb Maxima Fluorcarbon Tippet. I used a Douglas Sky 8wt Rod and a Galvan Torque Reel. For fly lines, I had a floating line and a mini tip from Jim Teeny.  I was fishing primarily 5 to 35 feet from the shore in the lagoon and just about anywhere on the flat in 5 feet to 12 inches of water! I used a Jig-Style Shrimp pattern. Once I had lost the 2 I brought, I switched to a smaller shrimp fly tied on a size 8 saltwater hook. Both flies road hook point up and were made of Spawn Products. Both flies were made up of primary Spawn UV Ghost Shrimp Simi Seal in particular! 

The next several days I would take a morning “walk” through the lagoon, sight fishing for bonefish in clearer water. Each outing I landed a bonefish.

The last day of bonefishing, I attached a pool floaty to the back of my backpack with strong fishing line and pulled my girlfriend through the lagoon as I found and caught bonefish. That day I went 6 for 8 with several fish that were a bit larger! This day I felt I had a much better understanding of how a bonefish takes the fly. It wasn’t like a bass or salmon where you instantly know because they simply smash your fly; it’s almost as if these fish were nibbling on it. They were like a time bomb in this sense: tik, tik, BOOM.  My hook set had transformed to a combination of strip setting and trout setting raising the road tip and stripping the line as I felt the take.

If you’re going to target Bonefish for the first time, I’d recommend an 8wt rod, quality fly reel, good pair of Polarized glasses, flats shoes, floating line, Maxima Fluocarbon, and shrimp flies using specialized Spawn Shrimp colored products with varied weights. Some thing to lookout for: stingrays were abundant, everyday on the water I saw them. They did not spook,  and sometimes they seemed almost interested in me, coming very very close. Barracuda become a problem. Once you catch a few of them size 10-20 inches,  the honeymoon phase disappears and they become a nuisance. I found that if they follow your fly, stop moving it completely and they will lose interest. If you keep stripping the fly, they will eat it and more often than not you will lose that fly. Don’t move fast and be patient. I found it’s far better to keep your distance and lead the bonefish than to risk casting too close. 

Overall, bonefish are awesome and bringing 12 to hand my first go at it was great. I don’t think they deserve to be in the same class as carp which I’m not a huge fan of. The challenge, the environment, the hunt and the fact that they chase a fly makes this fish a must-do experience for any angler!

Douglas Sky 9ft. 8 Wt. 

Maxima Fluorocarbon 

Bonefish Fly Box which I would supplement with flies using Spawn Products!

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