Published Sep 1. 2001 - 22 years ago
Updated or edited Mar 11. 2023

Gift wrapping string fly

I have some remote relatives in Boston who occasionally sends over christmas gifts to my kids. This year the gifts were packed with some particularly interesting string. This string was braided in the colors red and green with some shiny material laid in. It said "flies" all over it! I scavenged the remains from the unpacking and stoved it away between my fly tying materials.


Tied using the string around a gift from the US

I have some remote relatives in Boston who occasionally sends over Christmas gifts to my kids. This year the gifts were packed with some particularly interesting string. This string was braided in the colors red and green with some shiny material laid in. It said "flies" all over it! I scavenged the remains from the unpacking and put it away between my fly tying materials.
A couple of months later I remembered the string and tried to come up with some kind of fly to tie with it. Inspired by some barracuda patterns in Farrow and Allen's book on saltwater flies, I tied a strange longish fly, primarily meant for cod.
The result can be seen here: a crazy worm like pattern, which no doubt will be able to catch fish. It looks much like a clam worm (annelid/nereid), but I've added the eyes as a weight. i might consider substituting that for some lead in stead. The problem with this solution is the the hook shank is bare, and the lead would have to be covered with some kind of material.
I'll use the eyed version first and see how it works. The I might adjust it later on.

The pattern

Simple, simple, simple

Hook Short stainless straight eye hook size 4-6 (Like Tiemco 8011)
Thread Red
Tail Braided gift string in funny colors. It's flat approx 5 millimeter or 1/5" wide
Body None
Wing None
Hackle Red flash of the Fritz type
Eyes: Ball chain eyes, rather large
Head Color of thread
Sections: 

Comments

How often...

How often did you fish this pattern and how many fish of which kind did you catch . thanks a lot for your ideas. I use packaging materials also. So patterns and funny ideas on how to use waste is always welcome
br
pit

Martin Joergensen's picture

Quite often...

I fish this pattern for cod, and do so regularly from a belly boat on a sinking line.
Cod are not picky when it comes to flies, and this pattern is easy to tie and easy to cast.

Martin

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