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worm fly pattern?

5K views 7 replies 6 participants last post by  FishHawk 
#1 ·
Does anyone have a worm fly pattern that they'd like to share? I hear that they're hatching down here in CT and RI, and I could use some advice on what to tie and how to fish them.

Thanks for the help.
Dave Wirth
 
#2 ·
I've done well with the velvet cinder worm pattern, but I add red marabou to the recipe. Tie the marabou onto the bend before you drape the velvet tube, then pull the marabou to protrude beyond the end. Instead of melting the tube, I tie a little nail knot using a large eyed doll needle to close it off. Then the standard black chenille head. Sometimes I'll collar the head with black hackle.

I also tie a similar pattern in black on black for night fishing , except I also include a loop of thick mono tied from the bend to eliminate fouling - inside the velvet tube, long enough to prevent fouling but not long enough to kill the action of the tube. Marabou is used for pectoral fins and tail on this one too. One variant uses clouser eyes to fish on light sand on moonlit nights... like tonight!

My luck in worm hatches has been mixed. Sometimes the worms are so thick your fly is like just another suit on wall street. That and the silverside feast at night in the bays. I love being in the dark with all that slurping and popping going on though.
 
#3 ·
I have never used this pattern, but it comes from the recent CCA presentation jack Gartside did.

He uses a small 1-2" pattern, similar to a wooly bugger. it is rootbeer colored, has a marabou plume tail and basically a crystal chenille body palmered up to the hook eye. That's it. He called it a clam/shrimp fly. Interestingly, he fishes it all year in estuaries, not just for worm hatches, and has apparently taken a few cows on it.

Sorry I don't have a picture or actual recepie, but if you get a hold of one of Gartside's books, I'm sure it's in there.

I believe Ken Abrhames has a worm pattern in his book as well...
 
#4 ·
Sorry to post this since it's an untested pattern but it's dirt easy to tie and looks like it has the right features;



Take a piece of wide red zonker, push the hook point through from the hide side in a position that has one end about 3/8" back from the eye. Tie down at the 'head' leaving a gap at the eye. Take a second strip the same length. Tie it at the head and fold the rest back over the hook eye. Apply Fletch-Tite (archery adhesive) to the two hides and them pres together ( try to seal the edges around the hook shank). Tie in a piece of black or tan zonker at the point where you tied in the red. Palmer forward to the eye, tie off and cement.

I'd really appreciate any feedback as to how this fly fishes in a 'hatch'. I never seem to be in the right place at the right time......
 
#6 ·
Terry, In this particular reference I was bemoaning the fact that I've never hit one of those worm love-ins that the S.Cape is known for. In fact during the clave I was daydreaming about the whole bay behind your house, under a new moon, with a bazillion cinderworms doing the reproductive 'nasty', drifting along in a boat trying to get get just one of the stripers that are popping all around me to take that fly.....

Now, what the heck are you doing reading bb mail, you should be down there fishing!
 
#7 ·
Thanks for all the advice. I tied up some of your flies on Friday night and took them down to Quonnie pond on Saturday. I put the kayak in around 10:00, and got into a 22" schoolie within five minutes on a Clouser right in front of the launch ramp. Nothing else seemed to be there, so I worked my way further up the pond. I started hitting twinkies from 10-15" on every drift. That got a little old after a while, so I moved on. Nothing doing elsewhere in the pond.

I never saw any worms, but then again, I didn't stick around until evening either. But at least I've got some worm flies in my box just in case I run into one of the mythical worm hatches.

I wonder if worm hatches are the striper fishermen's equivalent of a snipe hunt.
 
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