Sneaky Pete

SOMETIMES AGGRESSIVE TOPWATER flies actually turn off fish, which is when you need a slider, which creates a wake rather than a splash. My layman’s theory is that excessive popping makes the fly appear too formidable when a fish is only looking for an easy meal. Either way, the Sneaky Pete is the classic slider. It works everywhere, and on all kinds of bass. As it burbles along, the bushy little tail and trailing legs give it a slightly frantic wiggle, but at 1½ to 2½ inches in length, it’s still easy pickings. And surprisingly large fish will hit it.

HOOK: 2XL STREAMER, SIZE 4 TO 8 TAIL: RUBBER STRANDS ON EITHER SIDE OF A CLUMP OF SYNTHETIC FIBRES (SHOWN) OR MARABOU COLLAR: SADDLE HACKLE LEGS: RUBBER STRANDS HEAD: FOAM, CORK OR SPUN DEER HAIR EYES (OPTIONAL): 3D OR PRISM TAPE

I bought my first—and only—Sneaky Pete in 1986, and it landed so many bass and sunfish at my local pond that their sandpapery mouths eventually ground off the colour and feathers. Since then, I’ve made my own, first out of spun deer hair, and later from pre-shaped foam bodies. By the way, you don’t need a special “slider” body; you can just install a popper body backwards. I think the colour of your hat is more important than the colour of this pattern, but I like them in easy-to-see chartreuse or yellow.

THE TEQUEELY IS both futuristic and a throwback. It looks like something that fell out of a busted circuit board, but it also reminds me of gaudy, old-timey “attractor” flies created before the match-the-hatch ethos took over fly fishing. It also raises the question: How much can you change a Woolly Bugger before it needs a new name? The answer, it seems, is when it has rubber legs, a shiny copper body and a clashing two-tone tail. The TeQueely obviously doesn’t resemble anything in nature, yet the combination of the colour, flash and movement make it look alive and extremely edible to bass (and, again, to big trout) all over North America.

You can swim it like a streamer, swing it like a wet fly or drift it like a nymph. I also like it on a double-fly rig, trailing 18 inches behind a topwater. It’s also easy and inexpensive to tie. This is one of those loopy flies that you tie, then let languish in your fly box because it’s just too goofy looking. But have a little faith, and you’ll discover it’s just as exciting to fish as it is to look at. OC

FOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR SCOTT GARDNER’S FLY FISHING COLUMN, TURN TO PAGE 26.