Thursday, March 13, 2014

Tying Matt's Cinder Worm

We changed things up with this video, going with a saltwater pattern I designed some 20 years ago or so.   Cinder Worms "hatch" in the Northeast early in the striper season - late April through July as you go northward up the coast - and when they do, striped bass go bonkers for them as they drift to the surface en masse under the cover of darkness.  

After getting frustrated one evening while stripers boiled all around us without even a hit on the flies we were using, I vowed to come back the next evening with a suitable imitation.  At the time, a friend of mine was experimenting making furled leaders.  After watching him furl (twist) the leader materials into a tight, strong leader the next day, it occurred to me that I could apply the same technique to a fly to create a worm-like body.  The trick to it is simply to twist the dubbing loop of SLF fairly tight, so that when you fold it in half, it furls back on itself.  And, the bass took the fly like candy the next night. 
          

The technique can be applied to any worm-like pattern.  I use this technique to tie a sand worm, also for striped bass, except that I tie in dumbbell eyes at the head, eliminate the deer hair, and wrap the dubbing noodle all the way to the eye.  For these two flies, make sure you tie them with SLF, I've tried other materials, and none seem to work nearly as effectively.

Thanks again to Tim and Joan Flagler of Tightline Productions for another fine video.

Sharpen your hooks!

2 comments:

Swamp Yankee said...

Nice deer hair head. When I see the worms, they are small. Glad to see it was done with a #6. Anything bigger would get ignored.

Anonymous said...

Matt--Love your videos. I'm interested in your sand worm version of this. Could you post a picture?

Thanks