Braid a worm
Sometimes a fly-tyer thinks out of the box, and suddenly the complex and difficult becomes very simple - like tying a great clam worm fly.
Clam worms are also known as ragworms or the free swimming polychaetes. Their swarming can give anybody who fishes the salt wet dreams. "Hatching" in great numbers, suddenly very visible in the water and drawing all focus from the fish - be it Baltic sea trout or Caribbean tarpon.
If you are there, in the right place and at the right time, you can find fish blindly focused on worms, their bellies so full that they are about to burst. And that's when you want a good worm imitation in your fly-box.
The problem
with the clam worms is that they are both long and very mobile and not easy to imitate, neither in shape nor in movement.
I have tried most patterns, sat through agonizing tying sessions with complex methods trying many techniques, sneezing from marabou and rabbit in the nose and having to vacuum like crazy after my usually unsuccessful attempts to produce a useful fly.
Fortunately,
Danish fly-tyer Hans Aarre Pedersen from the shop Equator Sports in Odense on Fyn sat down and invented a novel way to tie these long worms. He found the solution in the neck of little girls with long hair.
He doesn't tie
a worm, he braids it. It's simple, easy and the result is a very lifelike, mobile and durable fly.
When you are sitting at the vise tying this pattern, try varying the color and don't just tie it in the traditional brown colors. How about a pink version for winter fishing or a fluorescent white version for the night? There are many possibilities, and you can tie them without it costing you a fortune in materials since this pattern basically only uses one material: Cactus Chenille, available in as many colors as you can imagine.
You can vary the fly further by putting a Sonic Disc just behind the bead or a Petitjean Magic Head in front of it. It will get the worm to dive and wiggle even more.
When a big fish
slams its dentures into the worm, you can send Hans a kind thought for having made the difficult so easy.
More worm patterns
Video showing the tying method. With Danish speak, but you can easily follow the tying in the video.
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Comments
Very nice tutorial,
Very nice tutorial, finally an easy way of tying a worm pattern!!
Thanks,
Tom.
Tom Biesot