Bodkin / Patterns

Needlefish

Nymph · Trout · Pike · Striped Bass · Advanced · 2 versions

Joe Penich

  • Hook Mustad saltwater, with a 1/0 Mustad stainless short shank stinger, 6/0
  • Thread White and blue Semperfli Nano Silk 6/0 and 12/0

Materials

  • RIO 40 lb coated wire (10 inch tether)
  • Mylar tubing, small Silver oval tinsel (One section)
  • 3D eyes, 8mm Silver d eyes mm (1 pair)
  • Icelandic sheep fur White and black icelandic sheep fur (Several sections each)
  • Super Hair White craft fur (One section)
  • Wing 'n Flash Pearl, black and purple hue (Several sections)
  • Ice Dub Silver and blue ice dub (Three dubbing loops)
  • Flashabou Blue flashabou (A half dozen strands per side)
  • Uni-Mylar #10 flat tinsel Silver oval tinsel (Body wrap)
  • Five-minute epoxy Clear uv resin (Two coats)

How to tie it

  1. Build the stinger first: fold a ten inch length of 40 lb coated wire, heat the ends with a lighter so the plastic coating fuses them together, and loop it through a 1/0 stainless short shank. Leave a marked gap between the hook and your thread wrap so you can swap a damaged stinger later.
  2. Wrap the thread at the mark into a ball, finish it with a thread loop pulled through six wraps, cement it, and epoxy it once dry. The epoxied anchor is what actually holds the stinger. The thread alone will not.
  3. Slide small silver mylar tubing over the wire with the mark just ahead of the wrap, secure the front the same way, epoxy it, and separate the mylar fibres with a bodkin so the tail flares.
  4. Mount the stinger on a 6/0 Mustad with the stinger point riding up, keeping the wire parallel, and pass the tag ends forward through the hook eye, back, fold them over and bury them. Point-up on the stinger is what converts short strikes into hookups.
  5. Set 8mm silver 3D eyes at the shoulder, saturate everything in cement, then build the wing in layers behind the eyes: white Icelandic sheep, white Super Hair, pearl Wing 'n Flash, black Icelandic, black Wing 'n Flash. Each layered slightly longer or shorter for a needlefish's razor-thin taper.
  6. Wrap silver Ice Dub behind, between and in front of the eyes, add more black and white layers, then sweep every fibre back and lock it with a collar. Add blue Flashabou each side (wet it first so it lies flat) and cover the collar with blue thread.
  7. Build the head with blue Ice Dub, wrap Uni-Mylar flat silver over the threaded portion, and add final white and black Icelandic layers with purple hued Wing 'n Flash on top.
  8. Cage the fibres back with lead wire, cement from the eye to the dubbing, then apply two coats of five-minute epoxy, letting the first dry before the second so the finish is glossy and even. Remove the wire and comb everything out.

Other versions

1 more in the app: Reference Recipe.

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