Sand ell/lance

By Martin Joergensen

By Martin Joergensen A very common fish The sand eel or lance - called the tobis in Danish - is one of the most common fish on the Dansih coasts, and is an important part of the diet of especially larger sea trout and cod for that matter. Because of that it is an interesting fish to imitate. Unfortunately it is also a difficult fish to imitate. It's pelagic, long - often 20 cm (8") and very slender. It swims fast with ondulating movements of the body, and not only do you need to tie a large fly, but also a very mobile one, that will work in the water. As you might very well know, movement and soft materials in large flies does not make the easiest casting. I tried some different approaches - tube flies, long wings on short hooks, flies with a body made from dacron backing and more, but never got a satisfactory result. My latest effort to tie a sand eel has come out better. It's a long winged fly on a short hook. A fly that is up to 20 centimeters long would be impossble to cast on an avarage Danish fly rod, so I decided to shrink the eel a bit. The shortest version is approx. 5 centimeters (2") and the longest one 8-10 centimeters (3-4"). My first experiment with this fly was to tie it as large as possible. In order to obtain a good size and still have a chance of hooking the fish, I had to use two hooks in tandem. The hooks are connected with a piece of monofile that is thoroughly varnished in order to hold. Hook Short shank, straight eye Thread Black Body None Tail None Wing Polar bear, white bucktail or synthetics Head Color of thread This is a very easy fly to tie: Cover one eye width of the hook shank right behind the eye with thread Tie in white material, langth 2-3 times shank length Tie in a few peacock herl (4-6), 3-4 times hook shank length Form a large head, whip finish and varnish.

Did you find the above interesting?

People who looked at the above also looked at these pages: Strange X-Mas Minnow, sand eel, fry. This little fly will imitate most small, transparent fish. Based on a now-classical Danish sea trout fly with an added zonker strip, there is little new under the sun. But it does catch fish as pictures in the article will show you. IFTS 2007 The International Fly Tying Symposium was held on November 17th and 18th in Somerset, New Jersey. As usual, the place was wall-to-wall fly tyers, tying everything from giant saltwater streamers to trout flies. Streamers, salmon flies, you name it - someone was tying it.

A few random articles for your entertainment The Underwater World of Trout There is simply too much information in these DVD´s to condense in a single review. If a picture if worth a thousand words - then how much is a couple hours of moving pictures like these worth? More than I can guess. November 20th 2006 Trout Bum Diaries - Kiwi Camo - A New Zealand Adventure The second chapter in Angling Exploration Group's fantastic travels, and just as entertaining and action-packed as their first adventure to Argentina. This time the bums go to New Zealand where they feast on NZ hospitality, lots of pasta and large trout in gin clear water. June 11th 2007 At long last GFF partner Martin managed to get his hands on a great new recorder and immediately went fishing and recorded his first podcast in months! The podcast is mostly about that: recording again, but also covers the recently held GFF Summit in Denmark and a few other subjects. October 2nd 2007 The Junior Mysis A fly tied for sea trout in the Baltic area. It proved to be efficient in other places too. Translucent and yet colored. Tie it in olive, rusty or tan and you can imitate any camouflaged mysis—and it will stand out from the crowd. Can be tied by seniors too... January 29th 2006