Sunday, July 22, 2007

Sand Eel Pattern

Ever since I posted A use for the pitt and the stem I've been pondering the quill as a fly tying material. I was fishing for stripers recently and the water was loaded with sand eels. I have several sand eel patterns that I like but on my way home after one session I saw these large seagull wing feathers lying in the sand and the vision of this pattern came to me. I'll be testing it out soon. Stay tuned. Click on the picture and mouse over the boxes for more detail.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice fly...is the seagull quill idea your own or adopted from another pattern?

I tie a burrowing sand eel that produces well on the spurwink ;)

Anonymous said...

whoops, didn't see the "original" post.

New to the blog format.

Very creative.

El Pescador said...

Here are my initial test results and observations on the sand eel pattern:

The fly flew and turned over very well. The action in the water was fine. I did get some fowling when I really punched the cast but it was minimal. I caught 5 stripers on the fly with no signs of damage but the quill on the fly I tested started to peel a little after drying. It appears that quills are formed in layers like finger nails (very thin). I put a little clear nail polish on the quill and it became very transparent. I will test it further. I will also try allowing the quill tube to extend just a little further back.

If anyone has a cool name for this fly let me know. Right now may favorite is Sand Quill.

Anon., can you share your pattern?

bigfatomcat said...

This is last evenings anon.

Glad your pattern worked out nicely. Sand Quill is perfect!

I can put a picture up tomorrow evening. I'll be on the water tonight.

I believe skok originally tied the fly, i'm not 100% sure on that.

Dumbell eyes attached 1/2 way between the hook bend and eye of the hook. ez body over olive and white craft fur. epoxy the ez body at an angle so the body of craft fur cover the hook point.

Not much of a fast water fly, but great for fishing it alot like crab patterns.

I like it in the shallow waters of the wink and scar marsh.

bigfatomcat said...

I can't seem to post a photo in the comments.

Any recommendations?

Anonymous said...

bigfatomcat - I think blogger prevents us from posting images in the comments section. Post a link to it or send it to El Pescador and we'll get it up somehow.

chris erdman said...

should be called sand queel

El Pescador said...

Thanks for the name suggestion Chris. The pattern has been working!