A Fly On The Wall Part 10-The Grizzly With Purple Marabou

  Well, it looks like I have the honor of writing the first SexyLoops Front Page in 2023! New Year's day found me again in the shop doing some much-needed cleaning and organizing. The weather down here in Texas is unpredictable at best this time of year, so there are plenty of days to play catch up with shop work. I also finally took the time to build a bunch of rod tunes out of PVC pipe. One of the perks of building your own rods is that you always seem to find yourself with more rods than you actually need! If there is one thing that scares me though, is unprotected fly rods in a shop with ceiling fans!

  If a calm day ever presents itself, the fishing in January can e VERY good. In fact, several of the state record fly caught redfish that have come off of Freddy Lynch's boat were taken in what most would consider to be the "off months" of January and February. Per last week's FP, I had big plans to test out the Hot Torpedo on the flats this past weekend. Unfortunately, that didn't happen due to a mild but contagious case of chickenpox going around in my angling family at the moment. I did however have the chance to cast the HT-8 over grass for a few days last week. It is indeed a wonderful stick, that should be just the ticket for sight fishing the flats. Not only is it light, and fast, but its loading and unloading characteristics are smooth yet powerful. Paul and company knocked it out of the park with the HT-8!

On the tying bench today is the JBT's Grizzly with Purple Marabou. A very basic pattern with only a few basic materials, this tie would be great for the beginning Tarpon angler looking to learn the basics of saltwater fly tying. Although it isn't really visible in the photograph, this pattern once again has John's Krystal FLash head tied "keys Style". One of the tricks to making the KF head REALLY pop is to coat it with an epoxy clear coat designed for coating guide wraps on fishing rods. One of the artifacts of epoxy chemistry is that it cures to a very high gloss yielding tremendous "depth of image". John really stumbled on to something with these KF heads...when done correctly, and with the right epoxy clear-coat, they literally explode with depth and color when exposed to sunlight.

I have included the recipe sheet and a reference photo for anyone wanting to tie the Grizzly with Purple Marabou.

Hope you all had a safe and Happy New Years' celebration, and wishing you all great fishing in 2023!

Andy