I used to tie my own hair jigs for river fishing.
Recently I tore apart (mentally) a 4" salmon trolling fly. You know, the ones with the shiny mylar skirts, long leaders, and big treble hooks...
![Image]()
Anyway, after seeing what they cost in stores ($5 to $8 each), I set out to build a better and cheaper version suited to my needs.
I found a pack of 25 VMC #1 trebles for $10 on ebay, 4 bags of mylar tinsel at the dollar store for $1/ea. and 20ft. of automatic icemaker tubing for $2 at Home Depot. I had a 100yd. spool of 30lb. fluoro leader on hand (cost me $15 new) and found some old beads from kids craft projects laying around the house.
So if I only make 25 flies being limited by hooks only, that makes each fly come out to roughly $1.25 each. Score! Plus I have enough tubing and mylar left over to make about 200 more flies.
I'll post some pics when I get a chance. I just didn't think to document these flies until they were field tested.
Well, here are the results:
![Image]()
Fish eat them!
Like I said, I will get some pics of the flies and the process when I get a chance...
Recently I tore apart (mentally) a 4" salmon trolling fly. You know, the ones with the shiny mylar skirts, long leaders, and big treble hooks...
Anyway, after seeing what they cost in stores ($5 to $8 each), I set out to build a better and cheaper version suited to my needs.
I found a pack of 25 VMC #1 trebles for $10 on ebay, 4 bags of mylar tinsel at the dollar store for $1/ea. and 20ft. of automatic icemaker tubing for $2 at Home Depot. I had a 100yd. spool of 30lb. fluoro leader on hand (cost me $15 new) and found some old beads from kids craft projects laying around the house.
So if I only make 25 flies being limited by hooks only, that makes each fly come out to roughly $1.25 each. Score! Plus I have enough tubing and mylar left over to make about 200 more flies.
I'll post some pics when I get a chance. I just didn't think to document these flies until they were field tested.
Well, here are the results:
Fish eat them!
Like I said, I will get some pics of the flies and the process when I get a chance...
