I recently completed an order of ten LARGE saltwater streamer patterns for a customer to use for marlin and giant trevally fly fishing. These new-to-me BEAST Fleyes are not quick to tie and challenged my fly tying abilities. It’s the first fly I’ve ever tied in hand during my 55 year fly tying journey. I thought you might enjoy seeing these colorful seven and eight inch saltwater streamers.
I wrote about My Journey Tying a BEAST Fleye recently. These flies were the creation by Bob Popovics, a saltwater fly tying guru from New Jersey. Each one took me a minimum of 30 minutes to tie.
These seven and eight inch streamers are tied on 8/0 hooks, a first for me! After finishing the order, I tied a size 22 Sparkle Dun Baetis. We’ve seen these recently on my home waters.
I tied the streamers with a little variation between each fly pattern, experimenting with color and number of bucktail fibers in each bunch.
I was creative in the colors I chose and used images of other flies my customer had used in previous trips to help with color selection.
He leaves on his trip later this month and I can’t wait to see images of one of these flies in the mouth of a large fish!
I plan to tie a few seven and eight inch streamer patterns for Bull Trout in the near future and see what happens.
Enjoy… go fish!
Beautiful work. I did some but smaller for my Chiropractor to go down to the Bahamas a couple years ago and when he came back home his guide wanted to know if he could have the flies he didn’t loose and he gave them to him. He caught some rooster fish, sea trout, barracuda , and lots of smaller fish wading on the flats including some bone fish . Lots of talent there and awesome materials.
Wow! John!
We are impressed with the flies. We’ve tied a few of that type of fly in years past – emphasis on the word, “few.” We decided we could make more dollars tying western flies. Take care & …
Tight Lines – (Gretchen &) Al Beatty
Nice flies. I’ll have to tie a few smaller versions for my arsenal. Thanks.
Great flies. By “in hand” do you mean holding the hook in your hand during tying?
Hey Bob, actually I tied the extended body in hand and placed the hook in the vise for the rest of the fly. I need to tie two more in the near future and I’ll try tying the whole fly in hand.
John