Soft touch shrimp step by step tying

I have had a unbelievable amount of contact regarding the 'soft touch shrimp' so I thought I should put up a step by step of tying instructions..

As stated in the previous post this fly was designed by myself through experiences on the river, my main goal was to create something that was a soft touch with a transparent look as like the natural..

I have done these with or without the orange hot spot, this can act as a trigger for non feeding fish so see how you go.

The orange spot is actually in lots of natural shrimp, this is a parasite that is not harmful to the shrimp to the fish but one thing we know is it stands out very well to a fish.

 

It starts to cure in 5 mins with a skin on the surface so this gives you time to blend the silicone in with the dubbing as you will see further down the post..

The picture above shows the material used, there is not much and all the work is in applying the silicone..

Materials

Hook Fish On light gauge grub hook 14 16

Thread 'fish on tying silk' any colour

Dubbing (grey squirrel undercoat)

Orange spot (acrylic paint)

Silicone clear aquatic safe

Syringe (10 mm)

Lead wire (if used for weight)

Please note in my previous post I did the red dot in the middle of th shrimp by mixing the clear silicone with red dye and injecting into the clear to give a transparent spot but on this I have used orange paint

 

Wind down the thread to half way around the bend of the hook and take a good pinch of dubbing and scrunch up so I binds together.. You can use any dubbing you want but I have found squirrel grey under fur is soft and it really does give you the finish better than anything else.

 

Dub the polar bear to the eye of the hook keeping it quite scraggy, it can be trimmed up at the end..

Take the thread back to the middle of the hook..

Tie in the orange thread to create the parasite spot and trim off..

 

Here we have the fly ready to have the silicone applied..

You might need some practise but it's not as hard as it looks, try doing some on a flat surface creating a segmented body as you go along..

 

I empty the silicone tube into a syringe as this is s much easier to apply than using a huge gun for building. You can get these from a chemist for free if you tell them your a heroin addict!!

The method the apply silicone.....start at the eye of the hook and squeeze the syringe and work you way down the fly stopping as you go to create the ribbing effect... This is easier on bigger flys used for mullet etc..

 

As you can see I have applied the silicone here.... This is still wet so the next trick is to blend it in with the dubbing to make it look realistic and give the soft touch feel..

I use a needle for this or my finger to smooth it in... It sounds hard but it's very easy indeed

I was asked if its better to make them on a flat surface then tie them in once dry, I have done this but it does not look nowhere near as effective as this method above...

The orange dot can also be applied at this stage by dabbing a small amount of the acrylic paint

 

 

As you can see on the finished fly I have blended it all in and it looks perfect, not only that it has the soft touch feeling that grayling will not exhale..

My results have been amazing on this fly and please let me know how you go on...

Don't forget if you need weight then add lead but I want it as light as possible like the natural, I tend to fish a heavy Jt flashback tungsten on the point and let that pull the shrimp down.. Then you have a light drifting soft touch shrimp that is transparent in the water!!!

I hope you enjoy this fly as I have done so early in the season.. Wait until the grayling are hard in the shrimp and you should fill your boots!!

As with all nymphing stay in touch with your flys at all times...

 

 

Glen Pointon 07973951352

My new 'soft touch shrimp' Grayling and Mullet

Over the last year I have pondered on a experience nymphing for grayling on the Derbyshire Wye...

Grayling fishing is something I love and there is nothing like catching these fish on a dry fly but as the weather really pinches and the flys stop hatching you must get down to where they are feeding and there is nothing better than using a fresh water shrimp pattern...

These little bugs are a amazing species and in alkaline rivers in the Derbyshire dales they flourish through the winter months giving the grayling some excellent food source

Walking around the middle beat Of the wye I spotted around 5 small grayling on a gravel dip heavily feeding on drifting nymphs, this was a perfect chance for me to watch the behaviour of feeding grayling... I sat and watched the shoal calmly dart left and right to intercept the offerings, this was going to be very easy for me I thought to pick a few of these fish out..

I was using a czech nymph method with a team of two flys.... Watching the takes was going to my goal to see how they reacted..

I flicked the team of flys 10 ft infront of the feeding fish and got a lovely taught line, as the flys approached the fish one of them darted to the left and inhaled my shrimp, before I could lift the rod the grayling exhaled the fly so quickly I was totally shocked!! I then cast again and watched these fish inhale and exhale a fly without any indication on my indicator whatsoever.. It eventually struck as I watched the take and managed to land a fish but it struck me how many times a dead free drifts on unsighted fish you never even know what has happened below the surface!! Even a taught line was not enough to see a take so I drove home wondering what could be done to over come this..

It's quite obvious that grayling and trout see millions of these shrimps over the seasons and know exactly what they are looking for, there are lots of very good shrimp patterns about that do the job very well but the grayling were spitting them out instantly because of one reason.... They knew by the feel that it was not the real deal......a big heavy hook with a brittle harsh feel was enough for the grayling to know instantly it was not the real deal.

I set out to make a 'soft touch shrimp pattern' that was transparent like the natural, and it only dawned on me a few months back when I was sealing some external outside sockets in my electrical job...

Silicone sealant in clear was what I needed, I could shape the shrimp with dubbing and then guide it over the fly creating the ribbing effect as I went and also teasing out to create a soft touch all around the fly where possible..

Last week I went to the river Dove to test my new pattern and was gobsmacked by the results!

I fished a team of two and took 5 decent sized grayling out of the same pool on my new pattern so was buzzing my head off...

I will do a step by step on my next blog post of how to tie, but here is a picture of the fly and materials used... Please give it a go if you get chance as I think you will be amazed by the results and let me know your results...

Materials

Pointons soft touch shrimp

 

 

This fly can can be used to make a exellent mullet shrimp too with the eyes on as pictured above..

 

Tight lines

 

Glen

 

Glen Pointon 07973951352