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Fleye Foils

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These new fish foils from Bob Popovics are really great for making baitfish imitations.

By Martin Joergensen

Bob Popovics has been breaking new ground in saltwater fly-tying for decades introducing new patterns, new tying methods and not least new materials - or at least new use of known materials.
His book Pop Fleyes features a number of these patterns and techniques, but recently Bob introduced yet another material: Fleye Foils.

Ready-made
The Fleye Foils are small fish shaped foil profiles, which come in three shapes and many sizes.
The color and structure is the same for all foils. Very shiny and reflecting light in a multitude of colors. The foils have printed eyes and gills on them and in some cases mouths, meaning that the finished fly will become a pretty good imitation - at least where the foil is visible.
The foils come in sheets with a number of adhesive fish heads/bodies, ready to peel off and glue to your fly. After having attached the two foils to the side of your materials you take a few wraps over the tip of the foil, finish the thread and then cover the foil and materials with epoxy, light curing resin or another clear substance.
The result can be a very convincing baitfish imitation.

Many shapes and sizes
The foils come in three shapes and each shape comes in several sizes covering hook sizes from very large (size 4/0) down to fairly small (size 6), which covers a large span of baitfish sizes.
The shapes vary a bit, and are called Bay Anchovy, Silverside and Sand Eel. These differ in shape, predominantly in width (height) the Bay Anchovy being the tallest and roundest and the Sand Eel being the slimmest.
None of them are really fish shaped, but will make up the front part of the of the body and the head of the fish that your fly will imitate. You can make lots of variations to your flies by varying colors of the other materials used, using colored resin or resin with flakes or even using a marker to color the foil itself before covering it with epoxy or LCR.
In general the Surf Candy style of flies will be perfect as a base for the foils, in other words: slender and sparsely dressed flies.

Type	Size	Foil size	Fly size				Hook size
			From	To	From	To	From	To
		millimeters	inches		centimeters
Bay Anchovy	Extra large	45	3	5	8	13	2/0	4/0
	Large	40	2.5	3	6	8	1	2/0
	Medium	35	1.5	2.5	4	6	2	1
	Small	25	1	2	3	5	6	2
Silverside	Large	40	3	4	8	10	2/0	4/0
	Medium	35	3		8		1	1/0
	Small	25	2	3	5	8	2	4
Sand eel	Extra large	45	5	7	13	18	3/0	4/0
	Large	40	4	5	10	13	1	1/0
	Medium	35	3	4	8	10	2	1/0
	Small	25	2	3	5	8	4	2

Tying with the foils
When you tie with the foils they are usually the second last step, the last step being epoxy or some other resin.
In other words: you tie your fly, stick the foils on the outside of the materials and coat the foils and the materials with a layer of translucent material that holds everything together and creates a shape.
The foils are sticky on the backside, which aides the process and also have a small tip that you tie in under the final wraps of tying thread. This both secures the foil and curves the it a bit.
Once it's stuck on the fly and the thread has been cut, you apply the coating in one or several rounds to create a body shape and secure the materials.

	+ Small sand eels Martin Joergensen
	+ the Foileel Martin Joergensen
	+ A match made... Lutz Schepers

My first pattern
I have often tied flies to imitate sand eels, which are very common here and a top food item for the sea run trout that I fish for. Using Fleye Foils it's easy to get an imitation that looks pretty much like the real thing and certainly behaves very fishy in the water. I have tied it small. These fish often appear in large schools of individuals just and inch or two long, but can grow to 10 inches or more.
I have used very shiny and translucent Polar bear hair for the belly, but I realize that this isn't a common material. Use white bucktail or a synthetic in stead. Keep the fly very sparse and cover just the front part with resin.

Foileel

Type	Cold saltwater fly
Originator	Martin Joergensen
Year of origin	2012
Difficulty	Easy

Materials

Hook	Scierra stinger hook size 12 (corresponds to ordinary hook size 6-8)
Thread	6/0 chartreuse
Belly	Polar bear (use white bucktail as a substitute)
Wing	Olive bucktail and a couple of straws of smooth pearl flash
Topping	Two peacock herl
Sides	Bay Anchovy Fleye Foils size small
Coating	Bug-bond Light Curing Resin

Tying instructions

1. Start the thread close to the hook eye leaving a little space
2. Tie in a small bunch of Polar bear (or white bucktail) about 4 times the length of the hook under the shank
3. Tie in a small bunch of olive bucktail slightly longer on top of the shank
4. Top with a couple of peacock herl
5. Attach Fleye Foils to the side of the fly, making sure the small protrusion on the foil flushes with the bare shank right behind the hook eye
6. Catch these protrusions with the thread
7. Cover and build a small head
8. Whip finish and cut thread
9. Pull back materials tightly and cover fly front and foils with a UV resin such as Bug-Bond
10. Distribute the resin to form a slender body
11. Harden with UV light

More sand eel flies

• Flats in the cold. Published September 9th 2012
• Martin's Mundane Sand Eel. Published February 9th 2012
• Sand eel/lance. Published September 7th 2001
• EZ-body Sand Eel. Published March 20th 2010