Tying The Salty Stripper
My good friend E. J. Sigety is a very skilled fly angler, creative fly tier, and a wealth of fly fishing knowledge. One of his favorite smallmouth bass patterns is the Lazy Stripper SBS. In this feature we’re going to put a salty twist on the pattern. We’ve dubbed this fly the Salty Stripper SBS. It’s an effective pattern to throw into the mangroves for snook and baby tarpon. You can also tie it larger to throw at big laid-up tarpon using an 11- weight. The marabou tail gives this fly amazing action even at a standstill, while the synthetic EP fiber head and body make it very functional and durable.
Materials:
- Hook: Gamakatsu SC15 or similar, 2/0
- Threads: Danville 210 Denier Thread (any color); Danville Monofilament Thread (.006 diameter)
- Adhesive: Zap Goo
- Tail: Marabou, white and olive
- Flash: Gold Flashabou and gold Krystal Flash
- Gills: Red EP Silky Fibers
- Body and Head: EP Sculpt-A-Fly Fibers, sand and white
- Eyes: EP Plastic Eyes, 5.5 millimeters
Step 1. Start with any color of Danville 210 thread. We’ll eventually switch to mono, but standard thread makes tying in the first materials much easier. Attach your thread on the shank above the hook point and wrap back to above the barb. Trim off the tag end.
Step 2. Take one white marabou feather and measure your tail length. For a 2/0 fly we normally use about a 2-inch section. secure that tightly to the top of the shank with thread wraps.
Step 3. Measure your olive marabou feather. You want this to be just a bit longer than the white marabou. Secure this on top of the white marabou and trim the excess.
Step 4. Take several stands of gold Flashabou and V-wrap it along both sides of the tail so that it runs down the middle of the olive marabou feather. Trim the strands so that they’re about a half-inch longer than the marabou. After that’s secure, take about five strands of gold Krystal Flash and tie them in so they rest directly on top of the marabou.
Step 5. Move your thread in front of where the feathers are secured, whip finish, and cut your thread. Attach your monofilament thread where you left off and hit it with a dab of Zap Goo. Next, take a 2-inch length of red EP Silky Fibers and V-wrap on the bottom 2 quarters of the hook shank. These are going to suggest the fish’s gills. Once secure, press the fibers up and trim them at an angle.
Step 6. Take your sand-colored EP Sculpt-A-Fly Fibers and prepare the three pieces you’ll need to make the body and head of the fly. (You’ll also do the same with the white fibers.) Each piece you tie in will get progressively shorter. Begin with a bunch that’s about 50 fibers thick. When you twist them to compress them, they should be about the same thickness as a toothpick (always err on the side of fewer fibers). Prepare by cutting a sand-colored section that’s 3 inches long, a section that’s 2 1/2 inches long, and a section that’s 2 inches long. Then prepare three sections of white fibers as well in the same lengths as above. Once all six sections are measured and cut, put a taper on each end of all sections. Doing this before you tie them in will help with post-production trimming and avoid creating a fly that looks like a paintbrush. Take your 3-inch section of sand-colored fibers and secure them at midpoint with several wraps of mono to the top left quarter of the hook shank. Bend the other half of the fibers around and tie them down the top right quarter. The result should look like Image 6a.
Step 7. Rotate the head of the vise or invert the hook and tie in the 3-inch section of white fibers along the bottom of the hook shank in the same manner. The result should look like Image 7a.
Step 8. Move your thread forward and repeat the above instructions with both of your 2 1/2-inch sections, and then again with your 2-inch sections. If, along the way, the fibers start to puff out or get tangled, combing them with a lice brush should fix things. When you’ve fastened all sections, your fly will resemble that in Image 8.
Step 9. Because you took the time to taper the ends of the fiber sections before you tied them in, your trimming time should now be significantly less. Take your scissors and simply clean up the fly a bit to suggest a baitfish form. (I highly recommend the EP 4 1/2-inch scissors, which are excellent for trimming synthetics).
Step 10. Use a cautery pen to burn two small holes in the fibers to place the eyes. These holes should be burned even with the point of the hook. Use flush cutters to snip off most of the posts of the plastic eyes. Use a bodkin to place a generous amount of Zap Goo in one of the eye holes. Place a plastic eye into the glue-filled hole so that the post is both covered with glue and touching the shank of the hook. Repeat on the opposite side of the fly. If you do this correctly the eyes will be bulletproof.
Bio: Nick Davis is the co-owner of 239 Flies & Outfitter in Bonita Beach, Florida, which began as an online retailer selling one-off fly patterns and now occupies 2,600 feet of retail space. You can learn more about Nick and 239 Flies by visiting his website (239flies.com) or his Instagram (#BuildingFuzzyEmpires).
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