Don's Fly Tying - The Earth Worm Fly

Most of the lakes in my area that I like to fly fish are frozen December through March. A true fisherman will get a bit tired of tying flies for that long period so what are the alternatives? My old Kelowna Royal Pine neighbour who is not really a fly fisherman but is a bit of a fishing fanatic keeps suggesting "let's go ice fishing"! I do occasionally give in if the weather is accomodating and as my personal code is to catch my fish on artificial flies, I keep trying to find an answer to meet my conduct code! As worms are indeed a useful bait for ice fishing, I devised a fly to approximate said earth worm! My neighbour smirks at my efforts but I did land a nice 16 inch fish recently which I gave to him as he was fishless! Let's have a look at my ice fishing fly.

Below is a view of frozen Gardom Lake a bit north of Enderby, BC.

[Gardom Lake in January]

Materials

Hook--Medium shank size 8
Tail--Pink rabbit or yarn
Body--Dark red band at the bend and pink yarn to the eye
Rib--Pink thread for creating segments
Head--None
Hackle--None
Wing--None
Thread--Thin monofilament

Instructions

Start with a medium tail of pink rabbit or yarn. Next Make a single turn or two of dark red yarn or chenille at the hook bend tight to the tail. At this point attach a piece of pink thread to make body segments later. Now wrap pink yarn from the red band to the hook eye followed by spaced turns of the pink thread to create the body segments. Tie off, cement and you have created my version of an earth worm for ice fishing!

Your comments are welcome at "dhaaheim at telus dot net"

Do you want to see the previous fly tying articles?

Monthly Fly Tying Articles from November 1996

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