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A short article about adding weight to a fly – and make it do what you want and stay where you put it

We should fish crayfish imitations more than we do. Crayfish can be used to target trout, bass, carp and other species

Minnows upcycle small lifeforms into a tasty package of protein for bigger fish to eat, so minnow imitations make effective flies

Plain and simple bead chain is one of the cheapest fly tying materials around, but very useful and a great addition to many flies.

With names that sounded fresh, in-your-face and downright sexy, the Optic Fly series entered the stage like a warm summer wind in the 1960’s cold war era.

Make your own large eyes for pike and saltwater flies using inexpensive materials and a little time. Some adhesive marker dots, a handful of waterproof pens and some LCR and you can start your own stick-on eye factory.

The fly-tying market is brimming with prefabricated materials, and Danish Easy Shrimp Eyes is one of the companies who are making them. We have talked to the guys behind the products.

It's a easy fly to tie - and it produced fish back then and can do so again in this mundane version

Five pairs of mono eyes dipped in epoxy for just around 5,50€ or 7$. It sounds like a good business opportunity, but as a consumer it just pushes you to make your eyes your self.
On a trip to Fyn this spring two Danes and an American-wanna-be-German made their own.

If you play guitar and tie flies...you are wasting some valuable tying material every time you change your strings. Old guitar strings have something to make flies land softly on the water and jig just enough to tease fish into striking. Learn from GFF partner Steve Schweitzer what to keep from old strings and how to tie

Tired of buying eyes, that make your shrimps look great? They are expensive and yet it is hard to find the color you want or the right size. It is not complicated and a good pursuit during winter time.
Make your own in all sizes and colors you want.

Painting eyes on streamers is nothing new, but as with any other tying procedure, there are some tricks that can help, and some pitfalls that should be avoided. This article shows you how to do it on-the-cheap with readily available materials.

Shrimp patterns are always fun to tie. These salt water imitatoins are easy to do and fish well. Martin Joergensen has once again pursued the art of imitating these salt water arthopods - this time utilizing his family's hair brushes!
Read the story and find the patterns here.

These eyes are actually quite easy to make, but can tease a bit if you want to do them both on the same piece of monofile -- which is the neatest way to do things.

You will see that many of the Danish saltwater flies - The Magnus, Bjarke and Grey Frede are prime examples - have bead chain eyes. These eyes serve two purposes: weight and imitation. The eyes will add quite a bit of weight in the front end of the fly and the beads obviously look like eyes. Their shiny surface even adds an attractive feature that will glimpse and get the attention of the fish.

There are other ways than bead chain eyes to make eyes for a fly. Here are two ways: Copper thread and pearls and melted monofile.

Beads or eyes are added for one or both of two reasons: weight and appearance. The eyes and beads discussed here are made from metal: brass, steel, lead - even tungsten. This will make them heavy and thus add weight to the fly. The weight will bring the fly down and often give it a certain behavior - a diving or jigging motion. But it will also add to the looks of the fly, the most obvious case being eyes added to fish or fry patterns like streamers.