Geezus Lizard Variation SBS

I tied these up for a fly swap and was asked for a step by step so here you go guys.  They look pretty intimidating but if you can make a dubbing loop you can tie these.  I will warn you that these eat up a lot of materials.  Bass love these flies and although I haven't tried them on trout yet I'm sure a big brownie would too.  I didn't get pictures of some of the easier steps so if anything's unclear just let me know.

Materials

Hook:  1/0 Mustad 90degree jig, a Gamakatsu would be better but expensive

Weight:  Medium dumbell eyes

Thread:  Uni 3/0 or your favorite heavy thread

Tail:  Crayfish Orange SLF, Rust Seal-Sub dubbing and Flor. Orange Rabbit from a zonker strip

(all in a furled dubbing loop)

Crayfish Orange Rubber Legs

Body:  Rabbit from a zonker in a dubbing loop

Topping:  Mini-Barred Marabou

Head:  Crystal Chenille

Step 1:  Start your thread and tie your dumbbell eyes with figure 8 wraps a little past the jig bend.  Then run a layer of thread to the bend.  I generally use size medium eyes.  Size large are OK but you might have to bust out the 8wt.

Step 2:  Now make a big dubbing loop.  You want it a little bit longer than double what your tail will be.

Step 3:  Get your tail materials ready.  You want two different colors for a banded effect.  If you want some flash use Ice Dub for one.  You also need a little strip of zonker for the tip, not even 1/4 inch.  I prefer a nice bright color.  The original used more dubbing but I like the wiggle from the rabbit.

Step 4:  Put your dubbing into the loop with the zonker strip at the halfway point separating them.  Clip the hide from the rabbit and spin the loop up TIGHT.  If you're not worried about your thread breaking it's not tight enough.  This will keep all the dubbing secure.  Keep tension on the loop.

Step 5:  Stroke the rabbit all to one side and grab it.  Keeping hold of the rabbit gradually bring your two colors of dubbing towards each other letting them furl onto each other.

Step 6:  This is what you end up with.  Instead of letting the loop as it is you want to clip it off and lash it back down.  This not only makes a more durable tail but allows you to adjust the length.  This is also a good time to brush out the dubbing with some Velcro. 

Step7:  You then want to tie a set of rubber legs on each side.  Just use one leg folded around the thread on each side.

Step 8:  Make another dubbing loop.  Then catch a length of zonker in a binder clip or Magic Tool if you have one.  Clip the hide away taking care to cut as close to the hide as you can.  This is going into the loop and will be the body.  The hide on zonkers absorbs a lot of water so this will cut down on that problem making it a little easier to cast.

Step 9:  Using the clip put the rabbit into your loop.  Let go of it with the clip.  Depending on how thick your rabbit is you might want to spread the fur out a little.  Spin the loop up nice and tight.

Step 10:  Wind your bunny loop up the shank stroking the hair back after each turn.  You want to end up just short of the eyes.  If your loop wasn't long enough just make another.  You could also do two different colors.  This one is Rust in the back and Crayfish Orange in front.  Tie on another set of rubber legs.

     Note:  The original has a shell-back made of Thin Skin that I generally omit.  I like the look of the rabbit all the way around and haven't noticed a difference as far as catching fish is concerned. 

Step 11:  Tie in your marabou topping.  It should go back a little past the end of the hook.

Steps 12-Finish:  I don't really show this but tie in a length of crystal chenille and wrap a head making sure to figure 8 around the eyes covering everything.  You could instead use one of your tail dubbings in a loop as the original does.  Either way tie it off, tidy up and whip finish.  These take some abuse so I usually do two whip finishes and then super glue the head.  If needed trim the rubber legs.

Odd Fishing Note:  If something goes wrong and the tail gets destroyed while fishing don't toss it out.  I had this happen and was planning on reusing the hook and eyes but it just sorta stayed in my box.  Long story short, I was smallmouth fishing and ran into a bunch of carp without anything "carpy" to throw at them.  I trimmed the legs a little shorter on my tail-less fly and  got a few of them to take my newly invented neutered carp lizard.

Current River 8/23-8/24 2011

Access fished:  Baptist, Tan Vat, right below Montauk

Time fished:  All day Tuesday and Wednesday morning

Flow:  110 cfs Tuesday, 115 cfs Wednesday

Water:  Gin clear

Weather:  Warm and sunny, big overnight storm

Hatch activity:  A.M. tricos,  mystery mayfly at dusk

Tuesday

Baptist

     I finally had some free time this week and spent it the best way I know, fishing the Current.  After furiously filling in the many holes in my fly boxes on Monday I was ready to go.  I arrived at ol' reliable Baptist early Tuesday morning, but not early enough.  The trico hatch was all but done.  Since I missed the tiny flies I decided to do the opposite and throw some big streamers.  I was quickly into a nice brown right at the tailout of the parking lot pool.  It nailed my waggy tail sculpin variation on the first strip.  It looked like I was in for some good streamer action.  Unfortunately I was wrong.  That brown was the last fish I would catch for 4+ hours.  I had tons of fish flash my flies and plenty of follows but no takes.
     After lunch it was high time to ditch the streamers.  I switched to my trusty 10ft. 4wt. and set off to go nymphing and finally got into some fish.  I used a #8 dronestone variation as anchor and a #16 quill nymph on a dropper.  That section down from the parking lot is almost tailor made for Euro-nymphing.  I was hardly knocking them dead but I found plenty of willing fish tucked in the rocky run.
     The highlight of this stretch was kind of funny.  I set the hook into what seemed like a really nice brown.  It felt really big and was doing the trademark brown down and dirty head-shaking fight putting a serious bend in my rod.  I get it in and find a 15 inch rainbow, not the two foot brownie I thought I had.  If anyone was around they probably thought I was crazy as I couldn't help but laugh at myself and the feisty rainbow in my net.  No one was,  the crowds were nonexistent.  I saw only one other person fishing and a single canoe all day.
     I had seen a few fish rising along the banks earlier and plenty of hoppers on the banks so I figured dry/dropper might work.  Plus it's a lot less labor intensive than what I was doing.  On the way way back to the car I fished a tan stimulator with that same olive quill nymph as earlier hung off the back.  The nymph received most of the attention but I did get two to come up and take the dry.  I was also very happy with how my nymph rod handled this rig.  It cast great and that extra foot made mending a snap.

Tan Vat

     I went to go set up camp at Montauk and then headed to Tan Vat.  I stuck with the dry/dropper set up but switched from the 10 footer to my normal rod.   Nothing special to report here.  I caught a few but none on the dry.  Most of them took a hare's ear I was using as a dropper after losing the quill nymph to a snag.  

Below Montauk

     After dinner I hustled down and out of the park to get a little more fishing in before dark.  The hole here seemed different than I remembered but I don't fish up by the park much.  Regardless it's quite the honey hole, shame it's so easy to get to.  There was a very sparse hatch coming off.  The bugs have me a little perplexed.  They were mayflies, about a size 16 or 18 and orange in color with cream wings.  They sure looked like sulphers, but those shouldn't be hatching this time of the year.  My dries were back at camp and the stimulator on my fly patch wasn't any kind of match so I went wet.  I've been really trying to hone in my wet fly skills anyways.  A #16 partridge and orange tied shortshank worked on the few risers.  I fished it upstream just under the surface picking up the rising fish.  They all turned out to be little park escapees but oh well.  I'm sure there were better fish deep but I'll never pass up an opportunity to fish anywhere near the surface.

     I had clear skies all day and it was a starry night when I went to bed but by midnight one hell of a storm rolled in.  The thunder woke me from my fishing induced coma.  I thought about making a run for my car and sleeping there but decided to stick it out in my tent.  Luckily I didn't float away and my tent didn't leak(props to Kelty).  Even more luckily my waders were hung upside down.  It would have been a bad morning surprise to find them filled with water.

Wednesday

Back to Baptist

     The morning was surprisingly chilly considering how hot it would get later.  The water was up a few inches from the storm but still crystal clear.  It actually seemed to drop all the way back down by the time I left.  Luckily I was up in time for the trico's.  I decided to go the wet route again.  I used a little black wet with an up wing (Clyde style, more or less) fished upstream.  It was a #20 dry hook, short black thread body, quill wing and a single turn of starling.  By the time the hatch petered out I'd caught a good number of rainbows and a single brown out of the pool.  I thought about trying streamers again but decided to nymph since I had to leave early.  The stone was the hot  fly the day before so, big surprise, I lost my last one right off the bat.  It didn't matter much as they were hungry.  A Vladi worm as anchor and a Frenchie on dropper did the trick.  I don't know the actual numbers but I think I caught as many Wednesday morning as I did all day Tuesday.  Shame I couldn't stay longer.

     I timed it pretty well though.  After getting my quality fishing time in I tore down camp double fast and headed back home with just barely enough time.  I had to be at work at four.  After getting home I had just enough time to unload the car, shave and shower.  If I had fished fifteen minutes longer I would have either been late or got pulled over on I-44 trying to make up time.  

     It ended up being a great trip.  The streamer fishing was crappy but that's usually hit or miss anyways.  Nymphing worked as usual and I even got a couple on a dry, not to mention the wets.  That possible sulphur hatch still has me confused but more than anything I'm ready for some fall hatches.  I just need to make sure I have some dries with me then.

Current River 7/9/2011

Access:  Baptist

Time Fished:  7:00 AM-3:00 PM

Weather:   Low 90's and sunny, morning fog

Flow:  115 cfs

Water:  Normal clarity

After spending way too much time fishing for bass and bluegill I finally got to go do battle with the trout......and the canoe hatch.  Speaking of hatches, the tricos  were hatching pretty strong in the morning although I didn't see any risers.  This might have been partly due to the layer of fog on the water hiding them but the trout do seem to ignore this hatch sometimes.  I actually considered the fog to be a bit of a blessing since it helped hide me from the fish's view.  I started out how I generally do at Baptist by Czech-nymphing the long run after the parking lot.  I generally do this more or less half sight and half feel but I couldn't see my sighter through the fog so it was all feel today.  I don't know if they were just really bite happy or I was "in the zone" but it went very well.  I caught quite a few rainbows, a few little wild ones, but no brownies at that point.  

By the time I got to the split the fog was starting to lift and the canoe hatch was on full blast, so it was time to sit on the bank and remember why I usually come down on weekdays.  None of them were too exciting, just a lot of "How's the fishing?".  Although one group seemed dead set to run into every piece of debris in the river and a little kid wanted to know if I was a "hillbilly".  Apparently his parents had warned him to watch out for hillbillies on the river.

I continued to catch nothing but rainbows all the way to the S-bend.  A few were nice including one fatty I caught at the split hole.  I hooked it on the right side and ended up landing the fish on the other side of the split.  At the bend I decided to switch up from the Czech set up to a frenchy leader.  At the beginning of the day I was catching almost everything on my anchor (a #8 Polish nymph) but as the sun kept rising I had more and more fish wanting the smaller flies I had as dropper.  The French set up is great for these smaller flies.  I used a #12 tungsten beaded hare's ear (tied on a jig hook) as my point fly for the rest of the day.  I'm really starting to like these jig nymphs since they don't get hung up on the bottom as easily.  I ran various smaller nymphs as my dropper.  Fishing stayed pretty consistent the rest of the day.  I'd wade a leader's length down, work the water up and across towards the bank and then wade another leader down.  Eventually, I finally got into a few browns.  None of the browns were of very good size but I did catch some nice rainbows.

There were a few memorable moments.  One was what could of been my first ever double.  I briefly had one on each fly.  I realized this a couple seconds before the one busted off my dropper.  There was one other fish that I can't get out of my head;  it got away of course.  I was working an undercut when my sighter just barely twitched.  I set the hook into something big.  After putting all the pressure my 4wt and 5X tippet could handle I finally got it close enough to see.  HUGE BROWN!  It definitely would of been my personal best.  Once it saw me the fish decide to get the hell out of there.  It took off downstream while I frantically tried to stop it and  about the time I started to see backing on my reel there was nothing at the end of my line.  I'm not  going to say where I hooked it but rest assured I'm going to hammer that spot from now on.

I got almost all the way to Ashley Creek before I decided to head back up.  I thought more about the ice cold cooler waiting for my at the parking lot than fishing but I still caught a few on my way back.  It was easily my best day as far a numbers go this year.  The canoe armada was pretty big but luckily they almost all came at about the same time.  The afternoon lock jaw wasn't that bad either.  It just required a change in tactics and some smaller more drab flies.  All in all it was a great day.