How Do You Add Weight To A Fly Without Lead Or Bead Heads?

Post by **Sportsman95** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 4:51 pm

I am tying flies for June 12 for when I go up to Chemong Lake for a 3 fishing marathon. I am tying very small woolly buggers for panfish and I am using bunny hair for them because I think that it looks better in the water. I dont use lead or bead heads with the hook because the lead will give it to fat of a body and I dont want bead heads because I dont have any and I have no time to get them...... What can I do to get my fly down to the bottom without the use of lead or bead heads?

Post by **beachburger** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 5:08 pm

Not sure how deep you plan on fishing but here are a few ways to get a fly to the bottom.

- Split shot(s) or a blob of sink putty. Place at the head of the fly or further up the leader.

- Removable sink tip. Sits between the fly line and leader. Can get them in various sink rates and lengths.

- Full sink or sink tip line.

HTH,
Doug

Post by **uberfish** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 8:27 am

a beadhead substitute is bead chain. I use it on a few patterns for weight and it looks a bit like eyes too. For panfish though I don't really find that I need weighted flies, the fish are usually shallow and the flies sink just fine with hook weight.

Post by **Hookup** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 9:15 am

Copper wire rib would add some weight.. not loads, but some...

You're really limited in options because you do not want bulk...

My only other suggestion would be to take a soldering gun and add some weight right to the hook... you could try to ad it to one side to make the hookpoint ride up to make it snag-proof-ish...

Post by **Todd B.** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 9:22 am

You can always use Mustad 3906 hooks (S80 under the new Signature Series model). They are a 3x heavy hook, which is heavier than a typical streamer hook (i.e 9672).

Another trick, you are ever tying up flies with epoxy heads is to mix in some tungsten power into the expoy, resulting in a "heavy" epoxy head.

Post by **wongrs** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 9:30 am

you can also lighten your tippet/leader and lengthen your tippet/leader. if you don't like splitshot, you can try adding a barrel swivel at the connection between your leader and tippet. it casts a bit nicer than a splitshot and also deals with line twisting. if you want to get really deep then sink tip is probably the best way to go.

what are ya fishing for? crappies?

Post by **LeGrand** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 12:10 pm

Use a streamer instead of a dry fly. It will slowly sink with a sinking tip fly line.