Little Missouri Fly Fishing

In one of his reports, Mike, I think, mentioned having success with something called a "slider". I hadn't heard of a "slider". So I googled around. It seems like there's different versions. In fact one looks more like a bass popper than anything. Most of them however look something like a muddler minnow, sort of, with a craft fur tail, but several variations they're calling "sliders". I call them muddler-like because they incorporate a spun deer hair head and they're a kind of streamer after that. The main difference is that the slider incorporates dumbbell eyes within the deerhair head. (That is, if I have the right "slider".)

So I tried tying one of my own. Being as I'm constitutionally incapable of following instructions exactly, I used marabou for the tail instead of craft fur. That seemed to be fine. The hen saddle that you're supposed to palmer forward I struggled with. I couldn't get the fibers to stand up but lean to the rear. They wanted to lay flat on the hook shank, some forward and some rearward. I fought with them and ended up with them mostly standing up, but clumpy.

The spun deerhair collar and head was really an adventure. You have to work spinning the deerhair around the dumbbell eyes, behind the eyes and in front of them. The behind part was fairly straight-forward. That first big clump you tie in and spin, the ends facing back are going to be the collar. That's easy. The forward facing butts I just trim with scissors near the end of the whole process while making sure I don't cut the collar deer-hairs off.

Then my problems started. When I spun the big clump you need in front of the dumbbells it turned out I hadn't left enough space. I completely buried the eye, completely. Well I just pretended I hadn't for awhile. I whip finished as far back as I could mash a whip finish down. I trimmed the deerhair with razor blade and scissors. The head and collar turned out pretty decent looking after all! But the eye was still buried. I took my razor blade and scissors and trimmed and trimmed around the eye. I finally unburied the eye, nearly. My whip finished tying thread though, in this process I've shaved and shredded it till it's barely holding anything together. It could come loose at any moment and the whole thing begin to come apart.

But now, the place where a whip finish is supposed to go is pretty exposed with my shredded whip finish thread just on top of bare hook, barely hanging on. So I restarted the tying thread there and mashed a big  old triple whip finish over all of that, but where it's supposed to have gone in the first place. Then I applied some UV cement and UV light hardened it for a nice hard finish over my messed up part. I had to dig UV cement out of the eye with my bodkin. Now the eye is clear, just barely, but clear.

Maybe it will hold together to fish. If not, at least now I know to tie in the dumbbell eyes further back so I can maybe avoid these "issues". I'll try some more in the next few days. If no one minds I'll substitute UV Polar Chenille for the palmered saddle hackle. Easier for me. Should work fine, I think.

But anyway, besides all the unwanted adventures, is what I describe tying here a "slider"? I tie a muddler-ish thingy. It has a spun deerhair head without dumbbell eyes but with a marabou or bunny tail. It works pretty good! I'm anxious to try my "slider" concoction out.

Sorry, nothing like the slider I'm talking about. Look at the fly in Jeff's speciality flies. That's what we call a slider.

To oversimplify things, a popper has a flat (or even concave) face that pushes a lot of water and makes a lot of commotion when you "pop" it.  A slider has a convex face that "slides" through the water easily.  A Gurgler usually has a lip that is in between a popper and a slider.  You can push a lot of water when on the surface, but once under water, it will slide through easier than a popper.

Quote from: HEN on May 19, 2024, 04:15 AMSorry, nothing like the slider I'm talking about. Look at the fly in Jeff's speciality flies. That's what we call a slider.

Ah! Thanks!