Spawn Blog

Jul 13, 2020

60 Degree Jiggy Dungeon

60º Jiggy Dungeon:

"Let it be known, that I did not invent this pattern. I took the existing Sex Dungeon, a Kelly Galloup pattern, and adapted the principles using some different and new materials." -Allen Cambell

Allen, who is a phenomenal tier who we've had the pleasure of getting to know over the last 2 years, isn't alone when it comes to adding a touch of Spawn to classic patterns. Around the world we are seeing this trend of tweaking some of the greatest patterns in our box by adding an element of Spawn! From our Spawn Heads to our Spawn Shanks and everything in-between, Spawn has found its place in many fly boxes. For this we are extremely thankful and cannot wait to see what tiers like Allen do next! We hope you enjoy this awesome step by step!

Materials List:

Spawn Micro Jig Shank 60 Degree

Fish Hunter Saddle Hackle

Brassie Wire

Rubber Legs

Step 1: Secure a Gamakatsu #6 B10S to the vise, lay down a thread base and invert the hook.

Step 2: Tie in a length of marabou, the length of the hook shank or slightly longer off the back of the hook.

Step 3: Tie in a sparse amount of ripple ice fiber or flash on either side of the marabou tail.

Step 4/5: Tie in another tuft of marabou above the first one. Tie in small diameter, brassie wire and a length of small to medium chenille.

Step 6/7: Wrap the chenille forward and tie off. Tie in a hackle feather, stem first so that the point of the feather points rearward.

Step 8: Wrap the hackle feather rearwards in open spiral wraps. Tie off the feather when you get to the rear with the brassie wire. Continue wrapping the brassie forward in open spiral wraps until you get to the eye of the hook then tie off.

Step 9: Tie in a wing of marabou fading only 1/2 to 1/3 of the way into the tail.

Step 10: Tie in two rubber legs on each side and whip finish.

Step 11: Attach the 60* jig shank to the hook so that the eye of the shank and the point of the hook are on the same side of the fly, pointing up!

TIP: Before removing hook from the vice, attach the jig shank to the hook. It’s easier to attach this way.

Step 12: After placing the jig shank in the vise, close the gap in the wire with thread and attach the dumbbell eyes on the bottom of the shank where the two wires meet.

Step 13: Tie in a short tail to cover the connection between shank and hook, tie in ripple ice fiber too.

Step 14: Tie in two more rubber legs on each side.

Step 15: Tie in a collar of deer hair to extend approximately a 1/3 of the way back on the fly. This is meant to simulate the pectoral fins of a sculpin and will help stabilize the fly in the water.

Step 16: Tie in a small pinch of deer hair on top and bottom of the hook, both behind the eyes and in front of the eyes.

Step 17: Tie off thread in front of all the deer hair. Things will be a little messy as this point, take your time.

Step 18: Trim the head to the desired shape!

I recommend starting on the bottom of the fly to give you some space and help you get the angle you want for the top of the head. Typically I use razors to trim deer hair, however, with the jig shank pointing up, getting in the way, I find it’s more effective to use scissors.

Take your time and cut little by little until you feel comfortable. Remember, you can always cut more off but you can’t put it back on!

If anyone has any questions or suggestions, feel free to reach out to Allen @amcampbell_flyfishing (Instagram) or campbellflyfishing@gmail.com (email).

Cheers,

Allen Campbell

Jul 07, 2020

Clamworm Fly for Sea-Run Trout

As our Spawn Blog grows in popularity we hope to use this outlet as a platform to highlight individuals around the world who use our products in, incredible fashion. We hope this will become a resource for success no matter what species you are targeting or location you are fishing.

Andreas Lindgren is a fly tier and fisherman from Sweden. In the last serval months our products have taken off in popularity in that region of the world! We wanted to highlight a pattern that caught our attention Andreas has many patterns using our products that we love but this one in particular I find very appealing. We hope you enjoy this pattern and the methodology that brought it to life!

Summary

This pattern is intended to imitate a clamworm or as we say in Swedish "sommarmask" (summer worm) a fly you need in your fly box if you fish in saltwater especially on the Swedish West Coast chasing Sea-Run Brown Trout.

Warm summer nights when the clamworms are swarming in shallow bays the Sea-Run Brown Trout can go completely ballistic for this worm! I have had nights when the fish break the surface everywhere, trashing themselves with clamworms! It's complete mayhem! This is one of the best opportunity to catch the sea trout of your dreams!

I often fish this pattern with a floating line just below the surface taking it home in a slow steady pace. Sometimes it helps to put on a magic head to your leader if the fish just pokes the fly, this will give the fly some extra movement and make it swim like crazy.

I like to tie this fly on two different hooks, for the bigger clamworms I use Ahrex SA 280 minnow in size 6, and for the smaller ones i use Ahrex NS 122 light stinger in size 10.

Tie some up and give it a try!

Happy tying and tight lines!

Best Regards

Andréas

Social: @sweden_flytying

Material list:

•Ahrex SA 280 minnow size 6 or Ahrex NS 122 size 10

•Spawn Simi Seal Spot Prawn, Petes Peach, Shrimp Belly and Sand Dab Sculpin.

•Power Thread 50 denier white

Step 1: Insert your Ahrex SA 280 minnow hook in the vise.

Step 2: Start your thread 1/2 a hook eye behind the hook eye, cover the hook shank with thread and make a 3.5 inch (9cm) dubbing loop securing it to the top of the hook shank.

Step 3: Blend spawn simi seal in spot prawn and pete's peach, align the fibers and then cut it in half. Lay out the material so it is 3 inches (8cm) long.

Step 4: Put some dubbing wax on your dubbing loop and insert the simi seal mix with a magic tool or papperclip.

Step 5: Spin the dubbing loop with a dubbing twister, brush it out. Measure out 1.5 inches (4cm) and fold the dubbing loop back over itself then help it to twist up on itself. Then secure it with some tight wraps.

Step 6: Now make a 2.5 inch (7cm) dubbing loop, take your spawn simi seal shrimp belly, align the fibers and cut it in half. Lay out the material so it is 2 inches (5cm).

Step 7: Put some dubbing wax on your dubbing loop, insert the simi seal with a magic tool or papperclip. Twist up the dubbing loop and palmer it to where you started your thread and secure it.

Step 8: Make a small head with Spawn Simi Seal- Sand Dab Sculpin, whip finish your fly and brush it out. Done!👊🏻

Thank you all for checking out this latest Step By Step Blog. Be sure to checkout Andreas on social @sweden_flytying (Instagram) and (Youtube)!

Jun 29, 2020

Simi Krink Minnow

If you saw the last SBS with the Simi Seal and mallard you will notice this is just a slight variation to that pattern. It’s always fun to tie a realistic batifish pattern that automatically boosts your confidence on the water. Once you tie and fish a few of these flies I’m sure you’ll make room for more in your fly box. Thanks for tying along.

-Pete

Materials List:

Hook – Ahrex NS122 size 6

Thread – Iron Gray Uni Thread 6/0

Tail – Mallard Feathers Medium Dun

Hook Body – Spawn Siimi Seal UV Seal the Deal

Shank – Spawn Micro Jig Shank 60*

Shank Body – Same as hook body

Body Collar – Mallard Medium Dun

Body Accent- Lateral scale

Dorsal Flash – Snake River Fly Peacock Krinklezon

Topper – Nature’s Spirit Peacock Stick Herls Muskrat Gray

Eyes – Spawn Agate 6mm

Resin – Solarez Thick and Thin

Step 1: Place your hook in the vise.

Step 2: Begin your thread on the hook shank and wrap back to where the shank just begins to bend; about halfway between the hook point and barb point. Bring your thread forward to roughly in line with the point to tie in the tail feather.

Step 3: The feather we want for the tail will have fibers slightly longer than the hook shank. Trim some fibers from the tip of the feather and use that spot as your tie in. The feather should be tied in with its top, or convex side, facing the ceiling.

Step 4: Wrap your feather 5-6 turns making sure to gently coax the fibers rearward with your off hand fingers as your working hand is wrapping the feather. Tie off, remover the excess feather and cover neatly with thread wraps. At this point make a thread loop where the feather was tied off. The loop should be around 5 inches in length.

Step 5: Remember to add some wax to your thread loop to assist in retaining dubbing fibers. Prepare your Simi Seal fibers so they are stacked thinly in a ladder fashion. Your dubbing stack should be 3 inches. Once you have your stack of Simi ready, carefully transfer it into the thread loop and begin spinning.

Step 6: Once you’ve spun your loop, brush it gently with a dubbing brush or similar tool. Take a few more securing twists and then wrap the loop up the hook shank using touching wraps. As you wrap, again use the fingers of your off hand to coax back the fibers during every turn. Once you’ve wrapped to the hook eye tie off the loop (which should be mostly thread at this point) and make a neat thread head. Add two whip finishes with 5 wraps per. After your thread is cut, brush out the body and comb back the fibers. At this point cement your thread wraps. If you cement your thread wraps before brushing out the body you run the risk of disrupting the cement.

Step 7: Slide your bead onto the Spawn Micro Jig Shank before you attach the hook. The 5.5mm takes a bit more finesse, but with some patience it will go on. Once you have the shank loaded in the vise add some non lead .020 lead wire wraps in gap between the shank arm and the bead. Once you have 5-6 turns, slide the wire wraps into the bead cavity to hold it in place. Trim the rear section of wire wraps to coincide with the tying down of the shank arm. After securing down the shank arm and wire wraps with thread, add some cement or glue to the wraps and cover with a couple more passes of thread. Make another 5 inch thread loop at the rear of the micro shank.

Step 8: Repeat the steps you used to make the hook body. Since the shank diameter is greater the loop will end leaving you a small space behind the bead. Tie down and trim off the dub loop.

Step 9: The feather for the body collar should have fibers that reach past the trailing hook point. We’ll be removing the fibers from the left side if you look at the convex side with the tip at the top.

Step 10: Tie in the feather so the fibers will begin to splay around the body touching the previous tie off. Wrap 3-4 turns of the feather and tie off. Remove the excess feather.

Step 11: Tie in a small clump of Snake River Flie’s peacock Krinklezon in the space behind the bead. You want the clump to have slightly more length over the hook so that when you veil the Krinklezon it will be ever so slightly shorter, making for a more natural body taper. After you have veiled, or pulled the forward material back over itself, tie down securely with thread wraps. For extra strength you can also add one whip finish at this point.

Step 12: Tie in a single piece of pink Lateral Scale on each side of the hook shank. For now the length should be the length of the body. The Lateral Scale should ride parallel to and just below the Krinklezon.

Step 13: Add a decent number of peacock herls to the top of the fly. It may seem like too many at first, but after condensing them with thread and water they will form a slim dorsal line. Trim the excess herl butts and make a neat thread neck. Whip finish twice and trim your thread. Add some cement to the thread wraps.

Step 14: After the cement has dried, dunk your fly in some water to allow all the fibers to lay in place. At this point the fly is more than sufficiently ready to fish, but if you’d like to add more realism, please continue.

Step 15: To finish the head and eyes, simply superglue the eyes in place using the Lateral Scale as your guide. Allow the glue some time to cure. The way I like to finish this style of resin head is to use one layer of Solarez Thick on both the top and bottom of the head, curing with a UV torch in between. At that point I do two thin layers using Thin Solarez over the eyes and sides to blend in with the profile from the Thick resin. Happy Fishing!

Jun 24, 2020

Suede Baitfish for Big Game Species!

Norbert Renaud is a fabulous fly tier and has tied up some incredible flies using Spawn Products. Recently he shared an awesome step by step blog on how to bring a killer big game fly to life!

These are largely inspired form the latest tie on Flyskinz Instagram account. Flyskinz have some amazing products that will suit many styles of tying and will cover many patterns.

Step 1: First cut some tails from a faux suede sheet. These are about 90/100mm long and the tail at it's widest is 35mm.

Step 2: Glue and tie onto the hook.

Step 3: Now tie a strip of rabbit on both sides of the tail. The strips are 5mm wide and 35/40mm long.

Step 4: I then glued the strips onto the faux suede. This will stiffen the tail at it's base and keep from wrapping itself on the hook. However, you will still have lots of movement from the mid section of the tail all the way to the end of the tail.

Step 5: For the gills and head base I make a dubbing loop and fill it with Congo Hair.

Step 6: For the head I tie in some foam, this will give a good base for the glue to hold the head and it will make the fly have a little more hang time in the water.

Step 7: Nearly finished, just need to glue the head on. If the eye of the hook doesn't fit through the small hole in the head, all you have to do is heat up the eye of the hook with a lighter and push the head over. (You can also use a filing too)

We hope you enjoy his awesome pattern be sure to check him out on social @norbertrenaud as well as his blog!

http://norbertrenaud.blogspot.com/

Jun 13, 2020

Articulated Simi Seal Jig Leech

Pete is at it again. Like I've stated many times before Pete Rosenau is one of the most knowledgable and talented fly tiers there are and he's continually pushing the envelope at Spawn both with material and fly design! We hope you enjoy this step by step and cant wait to see all the fish you get into using this pattern!

Articulated Simi Seal Jig Leech

"The Simi Seal Leech, born from John Rhomer, is one of the greatest fish catching patterns in existence. This variation simply involves adding some mallard flank for some subtle mottling and using a Spawn Micro 60* Jig Shank for that magical dancing movement fish love. Tie this fly in different sizes and colors to fit your waters. You’ll be glad you tied a dozen." -Pete

Material List:

Hook: Ahrex NS122 size #6

Thread 1: Uni Thread Pink 6/0

Thread 2: Uni Thread Chartreuse 6/0

Tail: Fluorescent Hot Pink Mallard Flank

Hook Body: Spawn UV Pink Steel Simi Seal

Shank: Spawn Micro 60* Jig Shank

Bead: Hareline Mottled Tactical Slotted Tungsten Pink 5/32” (3.8mm)

Shank Body: Spawn Coastal Chartreuse Yellow Simi Seal

Collar: Fluorescent Chartreuse Mallard Flank

Cement: Loon Hard Head

Step 1: Place your hook in the vise.

Step 2: Begin your thread on the hook and wrap back to just where the shank begins to bend. Come back toward the hook eye 2-3 wraps to be in position for tying in the tail feather.

Step 3: Select a mallard flank feather with fibers slightly longer than the hook shank. After gently brushing the fibers toward the base of the quill, trim a section for the tie in. This point is usually easy to find if you pay attention to where the fibers become more consistent in length which is also the same point the quill becomes a bit stronger.

Step 4: When tying in a feather to be wrapped it’s always easier to begin the wraps and keep your fly cleaner if you leave just a bit of bare quill. When you begin wrapping it will be easier to guide the fibers and not begin with strays getting trapped. Tie in the feather top (convex) side facing upward.

Step 5: As you begin wrapping any feather, it helps to wet the fibers with some water on your fingertips. They’ll be much easier to control. As you wrap the feather your off hand should be gently coaxing all the fibers to point toward the rear of the fly. For most of my mallard I like to wrap with the inside of the quill facing the hook shank. This leads to a sleeker look. Whatever your preference for where the quill is facing, once the fly is in the water it will be slicked down either way. For this example there are 5 wraps of the mallard. Tie down with 5 solid thread wraps and trim off the excess feather.

Step 6: Make a thread loop roughly 5 inches long. This will be longer than we need, but easier to wrap. Thinly pull out your UV Pink Steel Simi Seal fibers and lay them out in a ladder fashion. The key to a clean loop that lets the material do the work is to keep it sparse. The length of your pre stationed dubbing ladder should be about 3 inches. Carefully load that into your thread loop and spin away. Gently brush the spun loop to release the trapped fibers. Spin your dubbing spinner a few more times to reinforce anything fibers that may have come loose. Wrap the loop up the hook shank in touching wraps. With every wrap your off hand should be coaxing the fibers toward the rear of the fly.

Step 7: After wrapping to the hook eye, secure your dub loop with 3-4 solid wraps. Bring the dubbing loop thread back over itself and wrap down with 3-4 more solid thread wraps from your working thread. Make sure your tie off is clean and apply 2 whip finishes with 4-5 wraps per. Gently brush out the Simi Seal body and comb back toward the rear of the fly. Apply your cement of choice to the thread wraps and let dry.

Step 8: Before attaching the hook to your Spawn micro jig shank, slip on the slotted bead. Attach your tail section to the Spawn 60* micro jig shank with the hook point facing upward. Place the shank in the vise and add some .015 non lead wire wraps. This can be tricky in such a small space, but if you do it before tying down the shank you can slip some wraps underneath until you have roughly ten wraps. Push those wraps into the bead cavity and jam the bead to the hook eye. Trim the non lead wire so the shank arm will have room to be tied all the way down without interference from the wire.

Step 9: Begin your thread and fully secure both the shank arm and the wire wraps. After a couple passed of thread I apply a small amount of Loon Hard Head and then wrap over a few more passes.

Step 10: Repeat the same procedure as we did with the hook body. 3 inches of Coastal Chartreuse Simi Seal into the loop.

Step 11: After wrapping your dubbing loop forward and tying off, you should have roughly 1/8^th inch of room behind the bead which will hold our final ingredient. Again be sure to brush out your dub loop and comb the fibers toward the back. To control the Simi Seal fibers wet your fingertips in a cup of water and coax the fibers backward. This will keep them out of the way whilst wrapping your feather and also tying off the fly.

Step 12: For our final feather wrap we want a feather whose fibers reach to the hook point of out trailer. In this application we want the feather to add some mottling, but not cover our Simi Seal body completely. For this effect we simply remove the fibers from the left side of the quill if you’re looking at the convex side with the top of the feather facing up. Again make a neat tie in spot on your feather and tie in.

Step 13: Wrap your feather forward with touching wraps. When you reach the bead tie off and remove the excess feather. Make a clean and even neck and apply 2 whip finishes. Apply the cement of your choice and let dry.

Complete fly!