At last Saturday's Free State Fly Fishers fly tying session, we tied Bend Back Minnows.
Here's my offering from Saturday:
bendback.jpg
It's essentially a Clouser Minnow without weighted eyes. The trick is to bend the hook shank ever so slightly to cause the hook point to run upright. Hence the name bend back. It's a good fly to use in shallow water since it's unweighted. It's also a good fly to cast into structure since the hook rides up and is less likely to get snagged.
Late last week I started watching the promising weather forecast of temperatures in the 50s for today. The weather folks got it right! So, I headed to the Eastern Shore this morning to chase pond pickerel. But before I did that, I tied three more bend backs last night:
Bend back3.jpg
The picks indeed liked them. I got 26 in the boat. Most were 16 to 18 inches.
P1040501.jpg P1040516.jpg
My largest was 20 inches:
P1040507.jpg
They're hard on flies:
P1040517.jpg
But flies are easy to tie and not expensive.
So today was a bonus day on the water with spring like temperatures in January. The weather forecasters got it right. And the pickerel did their part by agreeably chasing bend back flies.
A very good day all around.
Here's my offering from Saturday:
bendback.jpg
It's essentially a Clouser Minnow without weighted eyes. The trick is to bend the hook shank ever so slightly to cause the hook point to run upright. Hence the name bend back. It's a good fly to use in shallow water since it's unweighted. It's also a good fly to cast into structure since the hook rides up and is less likely to get snagged.
Late last week I started watching the promising weather forecast of temperatures in the 50s for today. The weather folks got it right! So, I headed to the Eastern Shore this morning to chase pond pickerel. But before I did that, I tied three more bend backs last night:
Bend back3.jpg
The picks indeed liked them. I got 26 in the boat. Most were 16 to 18 inches.
P1040501.jpg P1040516.jpg
My largest was 20 inches:
P1040507.jpg
They're hard on flies:
P1040517.jpg
But flies are easy to tie and not expensive.
So today was a bonus day on the water with spring like temperatures in January. The weather forecasters got it right. And the pickerel did their part by agreeably chasing bend back flies.
A very good day all around.
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