Bodkin / Patterns

Lil Muddy Baitfish

Baitfish · Striped Bass · Bluefish · False Albacore · Jack · Tarpon · Snook · Redfish · Advanced · 1 version

Reference Recipe

  • Hook Gamakatsu SL12S saltwater hook, 1/0
  • Thread Black 140 denier (Danville)

Materials

  • Cactus Chenille Root beer cactus chenille (medium)
  • Fox tail Cream fading to tan
  • Fox tail Tan carapace
  • Gold Sharpie
  • EP Chromatic Brush 3 in Pale bronze ep chromatic brush in
  • Living eyes Earth (4D, 8 mm)
  • Loctite gel

How to tie it

  1. Start black thread midway down the shank and wrap back to just before the barb where the bend starts.
  2. Tie in medium root-beer Cactus Chenille and palmer about five or six turns to form a short egg-sack/'bleeding gills' collar; tie off and trim the excess.
  3. Measure the cream-to-tan fox tail about one to one-and-a-half shank lengths behind the hook and tie it in as the tail; the chenille collar helps prop it up.
  4. Bar the fox tail with a gold Sharpie down each side.
  5. Measure a clump of tan fox tail to the same length and tie it in over the first tail; trim the butts.
  6. Tie in about half of an EP Chromatic Brush (pale bronze, 3 in) on top and palmer it forward, wrapping each turn in front of the last and picking the fibers back with a bodkin each wrap so none are trapped; brush it out.
  7. Clean up and shape the head, cutting the brush wire off with an old pair of scissors, and form a neat thread head.
  8. Whip finish, then glue the 8 mm earth living eyes on each side just behind the head with a dab of Loctite gel, lining them up symmetrically.

Tying videos

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