Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Realistic Worm Pattern and a fly giveaway contest



The idea for this pattern came to me on Sunday. I was fishing for some SUPER SPOOKY stocked rainbows in the creek behind my house. There's about 4 of them left and they dart under a bridge into slack water that's impossible to catch a drift though as soon as they see you.

I crept up and waited the 15 minutes for them to get unspooked and then started drifting eggs and san juans in front of them. I hooked in to a couple on eggs, but didn't get solid hook sets. After that, I was literally bouncing flies off their lips and they weren't taking them. I then tried caddis larva, mayfly nymphs, midges, and even some buggers with no luck.

I was about to pack it in when some guy sets up immediately across from me with a spinning rod and a container of drift worms. First cast and SMACK!, a rainbow takes the worm. He lands the fish (and kudos to him for releasing it) and casts again. Second cast, same thing. He hooks and lands the biggest of the 4 fish, also released.

This made me realize that maybe coming up with a realistic worm wouldnt be such a bad idea. I was at Dave's in Doylestown earlier in the day digging through their clearance bin, and I found a pack of Orvis bright red nymph skin with glitter flakes in it for $1. I bought it thinking I could maybe use it on some steelhead patterns.

Well, something made me try it tonight. I took a 4X streamer hook and bent it, Vladi worm-style. I made a fat clitelum with some .30 lead wire and built the body with some 3/0 monocord. I tied in a strip of the nymph skin and some 5X mono tippet. I made loose wraps with the nymph skin, and then ribbed it with the mono. After whip finishing, I colored it up with a brown Prismacolor marker, and hit the fattest part with some bright orange. Then I slapped on a coat of Hard as Nails and that's it. I think I need to find maybe a lighter colored tan marker instead of the dark brown, but I think this fly is gonna work.



Now I just need a name for it, so here's the deal. Post your name suggestions in the comments and I'll mail out 3 of these patterns (and some bonus surprise flies) to the person who came up with my favorite suggestion. I'll let this run for a week before announcing the winner.

So yeah, back to Sunday. I didn't catch anything, but my god, it was a gorgeous day on the water. I walked away with some nice pictures.




15 comments:

  1. Those are some nice photos. I vote for Monoworm. I'd love to try some.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mike's Maxi-Worm (or Mike's Max-Worm)

    Swimmin' Wiggler

    'Lectric Leech (because it honestly made me thinkg leech before I read it was a worm pattern)

    or maybe just call it "Fred" ?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice photos and fly. I'd say it will work too.

    Maybe call it the "One buck hot butt"

    ReplyDelete
  4. I thought it was a leech at first too. How bout "lerm"?

    ReplyDelete
  5. That is an awesome worm. Do you think you could do an extended body on that and make it a little more wiggly? Or maybe that would be too San Juan like. With that said, all three of my votes go to calling it the 'Ell Bent Party Worm. Those initials are coincidentally the same as the stream you were fishing that helped you come up with this.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Cool post, been messing with different materials for worm patterns this week myself. Couple names for ya,
    "Dub Sticker"
    "Orvie Worm"

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have nothing clever so I'm just going to say... Worm

    ReplyDelete
  8. looks like something I've seen in some sci-fi flick that crawled into a guys ear. My choice would have to be
    -Bent Alien Worm or
    -The Brain Bug (mainly because that scary thing is haunt my dreams. Thanks)

    ReplyDelete
  9. You have to keep it simple. If someone asks about it on the stream, you want to be able to say it in one breath...lol. Here are my suggestions:
    Gooey Worm
    Slimy Sally (sally hansens hard as nails makes it look slimy)
    Sparkle Worm
    Sparkle Sally
    S. Worm (slimy, sparkle, sally)
    and, uh, how about "Sparkle Earth Worm"

    ReplyDelete
  10. LOL@Stealth

    Great suggestions so far. I think I have a favorite but I'll it for next week.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Dub's Aunt Flow .............looks like a bloody mess.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks for all the suggestions. Winner announced in a new post.

    ReplyDelete