L & L Special Eastern Tom Keer, originally printed in Fly Fishing

Page 1

MryWry L& L S p e c i a l

Hook:

EagleClaw253NA

saddle hackles blend to make the fly almost disappearwhen it hits the water. The L&L Special successfullysuggests the colorsof silversidesand sandeelsthat The wind was light and variable, the air Support: Chartreuse saddlehackle adopt the yellowhues ofthe sandand the temperature was in the mid-7Os, and Tail: \fhite saddle hackle, silver sun. On cloudy days or in murkywatet not a singlecloud gracedthe skies.The Flashabou,chartreusesaddle, the L&L servesasan attractor panern and Northeast offers anglers about a dozen gold Flashabou,fuorescent yellow saddle, respectively aggressivefish smack it hard. perfect dayseach season,when all ofthe Silveror pearl Mylar braid The fat-wing construction in the ideal conditions assembleand converge, Body: L&L Special is perfect for fishing in C o l l a r : Fiuorescentwhite bucktail and this was one of them. fuorescent yellow below; skinny water.The hackles,thin-stemmed I launched my boat and reached bucktail on sides so they undulate like a baitfish in even the the fat halfway through the ebb tide. Wing: Chartreuse bucktail slightest current, are ded perpendicular to Three feet of water washed over the Turquoise and violet buckCheeks: the hooh and their placement suspends white sand, and I planned to fish the tail, three hairs ofeach the fly in the water column. Usually the last few hours of the drop, wait out the color per side hook imelf is ample weight to sink the fly dead water at low slack tide, and then Eyes: Jungle cock (optional) to the proper depth; if not, pinch a few fish the first few hours of the food. At solit shots onto the leader. the top ofthe fat, I cut the engine and Abrames designed his flat-wing patterns as impresdrifted with the tide. School after school of striped bass sions of baitfish, so he usesa sparseand loose construction moved into the current, the fisht silvery fanks fashing to outline the baitfish'sprofile and then blends the colors to in the sun each time they rolled to inhale medium-size make the fly look natural in the water. If the bassare feeding sand eels.I drifted quietly past all the commotion, then on largesandeels,uselonger saddlehackles.Ifthey arekeying motored carefully back to the top of the fat to begin a on juveniles, tie flies with shorter wings. Experiment with seconddrift and to make some casts. colors: add hints of blue for fishing on partly cloudy days, into cast The fishing would be easy,an up-and-across or add some green to flies used for fishing over kelp beds. the current, followed by a few mends. Fly choice was also Being sparsein construction, the easy-to-tieL&L Spesimple: I tied on a 6-inch-long L&L Special,a flat-wing cial is also easyto cast.You can cast a l0-inchlong L&L originated by Rhode Islandt Kenney Abrames. On my with a stout 6-weight rod. Fish it asyou would a freshwater first cast, a legal-size bass closed in on the fly like a duck streamer:dead-drifted, strip-retrieved,castup and across, to a June bug. and mended, swung, or hand-twisted slowly back. All of The L&L Special is one of the best Northeast fats thesetechniquesworkwith the L&L Special-just match fies. It consistently takes fish of all sizes, on nearly any the retrieveto the baitfish. For more detailsabout the patday, and particularly excels on bright, sunny days when tern, seeAbrames's fly-tying book,4 PerfectFish, and also shy stripers feed selectively. visit wwwstripermoon.com. And when you want to get a Flats fishing is an intricate business.There are many closer look at a 4}.inch basscruising the fats, tempt the different kinds of flats, and the light plays off the terain fish with an L&L Soecial. and the baitfish in a variety of ways. Properly matching the baitfisht color is critical for success.L&L standsfor lemon TbmKeeris a creatiuefly tier tuholiuesin Wellfleet,Massachusetts. and lime; the chartreuseand yellow colors of bucktail and

ne bright Juneday,I decided Thread: Chartreuse to check out a saltwaterflat Platform: Fluorescent yellowbucktail abouta mile from my home. Pillow: Yellowdubbing

94

EASTERN FLY FISHING.lanuarylFebruary 2007


Step 1: Remove the short hairs from a bunch of yellow bucktail and spreadthe remaining hairs laterally to create a support, tying them on the hook in this manner. Make one turn of thread under the hairs to prop them up to the desiredangle.Add a pillow of yellow dubbing.

Step 4: Wind the Mylar forward to form the body, then dressthe collar, with the white hairs on the bottom and the fluorescentyellow hairs on the sides.Next add a wing of chartreusebucktail. Thim away the butt ends from all of the hairs.

Step 2: Select saddle hackles for the support and for the tail, matching them all in length, width, and amount of webbing. Dress the support hackle curved side facing upward by making rwo loose turns of thread around the hackle stem, and then steadilypull the bobbin downward until the hackleis properlyseated.Thim away the butt ends of the bucktail hairs and the support-hackle stem.

Step 5:Add the cheeks.

Step 3: In forming the tail, all saddlehacklesare dressed with their shiny side facing upward so they curve downward. First tie in the white saddlehackle,then two strips of silverFlashabou,the chartreusesaddlehackle,two strips of gold Flashabou,and finally the yellow saddlehackle. The Flashaboushould extend past the end ofthe flyt body.

Step 6: Ifdesired, attach ajungle cock eye to eachside. Then finish the head and add two coats of cement (or epoxy the head).

. EASTERN FLYTYING 95 www.matchthehatch.com


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