Having recieved several PM,s about the tying and materials for the green Apps i posted i decide to post ALL info here and get it all done in one fell swoop.
Ok, Beads, the beads MUST be these exact beads for the devastating pattern most of heard of, in fact all the materials must be exactly as described..sure you will catch the odd fish on a variant but believe me the original is deadly on its day.
GREEN BEADS:Gutermann Rocialles 9/0 Colour No 8535 (shown on underside of vial)
AMBER BEADS: Gutermann Rocialles 9/0 Colour No 3545
RED : Gutermann Rocialles 9/0 4500.
The beads can be bought from John Lewis, Fenwicks etc etc or any good craft shop.
A vial of one thousand will cost you around £2.50 and make PLENTY of Apps.
The legs (for devastating effect) MUST be Wapsi Spanflex.Reason being this stuff is straight and does,nt kink at all, or split unlike some other flexifloss/spanflex.
Wapsi in OLIVE and RED.
The Amber is tricky because it is not an everday colour and must be specially dyed to achieve the correct shade, which again is very important.
The closest (if you can obtain it) is gordon griffiths, but it is curly flexi floss and you won,t get many apps out of the hank.
I have my own dyed especially.If anyone is desperate for some of this i may be able to help , just P.M me
Hooks are also important, mainly for ease of threading beads.
SIZE 10
Hayabusa 373 all purpose medium or 751 (wide gape).From experience i will tell you, fish will shake the hook a lot more often using the 751.
You can AT A PUSH use competition heavyweight hooks which are bomb proof, but because sometimes the beads hole diameter is not consistant you will spend time fiddling about on one fly.
I have found the fastest and easiest way to tie this pattern in my own opinion is simple..
1. Take a hook as mentioned..thread on five beads.
2. Place hook in vice
3. Take a 4 inch length of fine wire (not X fine).
4.Fold wire in half and thread through all five beads, so a loop of wire hangs
out the back and you have enough to grab at the front.
5. Take one strand of Spanflex and thread through the fine wire loop making it even lengths.
6. Using finger and thumb , pull the spanflex as tight as possible while pulling the wire away from the eye of the hook.The spanflex should slide nicely through the beads.
7.Leave an equal length back and front.
8.Using colour thread (in this case Olive) tie on behind the last bead and create a butt , jamming the beads together.Whip finish.
9.Now take a second strand of spanflex, fold in half and place it under the hook shank after the second bead from the head.
10.Pulling upward force the spanflex to slightly part the beads(this should be a nice tight fit) and tie an overhand knot, again embedding the spanflex in between the beads.
11.Cut the front and closest side legs in the middle to create your legs (as you folded them earlier)
12. FInally put a coat of liquid varnish on your whip finish at the butt and also over the knot between the beads.
You can also replace the standard thread on the butt with "hot colours " if you fancy it, but i find this simple variant is deadly enough...in fact it can be so effective i rarely use it now ..it can be THAT easy.
Best results come from Sinktip or Intermediate lines with a slow steady pull stop pull stop action when it is cold, or fast strip,strip,strip action when fish are in the upper layers and chasing.
MERRY CHRISTMAS..HAVE FUN.
Apps Bloodworm materials and wereabouts AND Step through
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