Fly Tying: Jacob's Lucent Pickle/Rubber Legs Material Highlight
Published by: Jacob Lutz
Another Sunday rolls into Cutthroat Anglers...The peace and quiet of fresh snow, and a crisp spring morning is shattered as the UPS truck screeches to a halt. The latest Hareline Dubbin order of tying supplies has arrived! After getting our tying corner fully restocked, Jacob and Jack dive into the new materials, and what do they find? Lucent Slotted Tungsten Beads! These tungsten jig beads are anodized in metallic hued colors that won't chip or scratch off like paint. The spring feel in the air already has the boys thinking of run-off in our river drainages, and these Lucent Beads are a perfect starting point for spinning up some heavy, shiny bugs for high water!
Lucent Pickle: by Jacob
The olive and brown hued lucent beads caught my attention immediately, I liked that the still contained color realistic tones while still reflecting a lot of light. I decided to incorporate these beads into a "Pat's Rubber Legs" inspired pattern. My main goals were to keep the bugginess of the original "Pat's", while keeping the overall size scaled down, adding a bit of extra weight, and adding some attention catching flash. Using the Tiemco 413 J (barbed jig style nymph hook) as the platform for my bug, ensured that it would have an overall smaller size than the typical "Pat's" that uses a "3x Long Shank" style hook normally. My thought here was to decrease the surface area of my pattern so it will not get caught up in the heavy currents as easily. To Maintain a heavy weight even with the smaller body size of my bug I double wrapped the underlying lead wire, and it also also helped achieve a nicely tapered profile. The Lucent Slotted Tungsten Bead also adds weight to this pattern, as well as that flash that is sometimes needed to get a trout's attention quickly in fast water. I also added a bit more flair by filling the bead slots up with a few choice colors of Solarez UV Cure Resin. I wanted to make sure the rubber legs and chenille matched the narrow/smaller body theme, so I chose Hareline Dubbin's "Small Stonefly Chenille", and "Buggy Nymph Legs". Both of these products are scaled down from the "typical" thickness usually found in rubber legs and chenille on a "Pat's Rubber Legs". We have a ton of color options in all these products, and I was able to whip up a few different color combinations that I'm excited to fish!
Materials:
- Uni-Thread 6/0 Camel, Uni-Thread 6/0 Olive Dun
- Tiemco 413J size 10
- Hareline Dubbin Slotted Tungsten Beads.... Metallic Brown 1/8", and Metallic Olive 1/8"
- Lead Wire .025
- Hareline Dubbin Buggy Nymph Legs (Golden, Dark Olive, and Rust)
- Hareline Dubbin Fly Fish Food Small Stonefly Chenille... Olive/Black, Seal
- Brown/Ginger, and Black/Tobacco
- Solarez UV Cure Color Resin (Fluoro Chartreuse, Copper Shimmer, and Dijon Mustard)
