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How To Tie Wildcat Streamer
Wildcat Streamer
Recipe: Hook: Any bass hook with a sproat bend or streamer hook with a down eye. Thread: UTC 140 (color to match body) Eyes: Weighted lead eyes (any style you want is fine as long as they're weighted. Body: Rabbit strips (I'm using yellow with an orange at the tip of the tail).
Step 1.
Secure the eyes with a few wraps in a figure eight. Once you tie them on you can adjust the eyes according to the way you want them. Next you’ll need to add some hard as nails in between the eyes (post). Now wrap in a figure eight motion to secure the eyes firmly. Make sure you keep tension on each wrap or the eyes will shift. Once you’ve built it up then rotate the hook upside down and repeat the same step as you did the top. I also add another coat of hard as nails on the bottom side. Once you’ve built the bottom rotate the hook back in the normal position and post the eyes to get the wraps really tight. What I mean by posting is go under the eyes, but above the hook shank with about ten turns. This will really lock these eyes in and won’t spin around the hook shank after a few cast.
Step 2.
Cut about a four inch strip of rabbit. I’m not using cross cut just regular strips that come on the whole hide that are stapled to the cardboard. The ones that come prepackaged are not as good just for that reason. Being smashed down in a bag will create memory in the hide itself. So if your tying flies that have a long tail hanging off the back you will see the folds in the rabbit which will not look as good. Of course after you get it wet it will look fine in the water, but who wants a new fly that looks like it’s been in a bend for awhile. LOL
Now the tail will hang off about two and a half lengths of the hook shank. Poke the hide in the center and slide it up to be tied in on the bend. You can wet your fingers and separate the hair and tie in between where you split it. Look at the picture to see the step. Make about three turns keeping the thread on top of each wrap in the same area. Lift the hide up and tie right in front of it. This will lock it in and prevent it from shifting when you go to wind it forward.
Look how it's tied in.
Step 3.
Advance the thread back up to the eye.
Step 4.
Wrap the rabbit strip forward keeping the wraps side by side. Make sure you palmer the hair back every time you make a full turn around the hook shank. This will help keep the hair laying back instead of straight up or maybe even forward a little bit. Once you get behind the eye you’re going to do a figure eight between the eyes. You can also tie it down behind the eye and do something different for the head. Just an option for you. You could dub it with some kind of flashy dubbing to enhance the fly. You can also add flash down the fly. Tie it in right behind the eyes and measure to the length of the whole tail.
Step 5.
I went ahead and did the figure eight between the eye. Once you do a full figure eight around the eyes tie it down and cut the excess off. I like this look because it blends so nice and keeps the fly looking the same in the water.
Step 6.
After you cut the excess off you’ll need to clean the head up with thread. You’ll build the thread head into a cone shape. If you noticed you crowded the eye it’s probably due to the eyes being tied to close to the eye of the hook.
After the fly is complete you can add a different color of rabbit to the end of the tail. This is easy to do if you have the right glue. Make sure the strips are the same width also. You can cut it to the desired length you want. I only cut about half an inch in length and glue it at the end. Just butt the end of the hides together when gluing it. I use this stuff that is highly recommended when attaching soft hides together called Tear Mender. Gloss coat the thread head and your good to go!!! This fly works really good for bass.
