Viking Lars | Saturday, 9 July 2022
I’ve been tying a lot of upside-down and weedless flies lately. It’s not entirely the same, upside-down and weedless. Upside-down helps not catching weed, but weedless has a better hook-point-protection, either built in in the dressing or with additional features such as a mono loop over the hook point. But in both hook design aids greatly. I’ve been tying upside-down bait fish and shrimp imitations the last few days.
I was prompted by the release of Ahrex’s SA 254, a jig style upside-down hook. The hook eye is inline with the shank and turned 90 degrees up. Classic jig style, only on a saltwater hook. Alone the pull of the leader will turn the hook over and just a little weight on the underside of the shank helps too and also adds a little action.
Most fly designs can be tied on this hook without any (or maybe just a few) modifications. It’s often a bit more tricky to tie on, but it’s certainly doable.
Upside-down flies can’t be pulled through weeds as “proper” weedless flies can, but they are excellent over sandy and rocky bottoms. I’ve been tying these for a specific purpose, namely sea bass along the west coast of Jutland. They like hanging around structures such as jetties, stone reefs, even mussel beds and so on.
I particularly enjoy fisingh a sinking line, almost skating my fly along the sides of jetties and in this case, an upside-down fly greatly reduces the number of snags and lost flies. Sea bass actually also hide in the hollows between the larger rocks and a fly passing by close enough will trigger them.
They are great fun to catch. They’re strong and strike hard. And fishing for bass, you never know what else is going to attack the fly. Mackerel, garfish, flounders and several other species - even the odd cod.
In the PoD is Morten Valeur’s STF BaitFish, which is my favourite style bait fish imitation. Anything from small herring, sprat, gobies and a whole host of other small bait fish are easy to imitate with this design, simply by altering the colours of the dubbing.
Pattern
Hook: Ahrex SA 254, size 4 (which is the smallest available at the moment).
Thread: White UNI 8/0.
Tail: STF Dubbing, a mix of white and chartreuse and Ice Dub for a little flash.
Body: Pearl Ice Dub, tapered towards the head. STF Dubbing in a dubbing loop, a mix as the tail over the rear two-thirds of the body. The forward third with more chartreuse.
Head: Pro Sportfisher SoftHead, size XS. Locked in with a drop of Pro Sportfisher UV Resin under the SoftHead.
Eyes: Pro Sportfisher FiexiEyes, 5 mm, Gold, locked in the socket of the SoftHead with a drop of UV resin.
It’s fairly fast to tie, quite durable and keeps its profile in the water.
Have a great weekend!
Lars
Note: I’m affiliated with Ahrex Hooks and Pro Sportfisher.