Spring Coneheads

Well not long now at all to the new season and with more rivers open on January 1st hopefully a few fish will be caught, water permitting. The river Bandon is open thankfully, just waiting to see if it will be open for spring fishing as for the past few years the river has been catch and release from February 15th until May 12th. With a quota of 1,162 fish for the year there is a good chance it will be open, we shall wait and see.

Having tied a few coneheads for coloured water, it was time to tie a couple for clear water.

All tubes above are 15mm brass tubes with brass coneheads. No fear they'll get down nice and deep. Bound to get some cold weather this winter yet so fishing deep will be a necessity. Looking back at the photos now should have wet the silver doctor a tad, looking well fluffy! Can't wait to fish it though, hopefully it will do the job and it is very much a proven pattern. 

Lately I have also been toying around with bodyless coneheads. These are composed of feather and fur materials tied on a small length of plastic and a cone put in front.

As the tube is so small and not wide enough to fit a hook into I'll use the swing tube at the back.

As you can see here it is simple to change the appearance of the swing tube by adding any material to it you like. This in itself gives the conehead a body and hopefully with the quick movement of the swing tube, the glint of silver, pearl, green, etc will act as another trigger point for the onlooking fish. Very much looking forward to seeing the movement this set up will achieve. Another advantage it will give is that it will be useful to carry if you happen to be fishing for trout and come across a salmon, especially during spring. These are light enough to cast on a trout fly rod but heavy enough to achieve some depth.

Lastly, 3 patterns tied on bottle tubes which will be useful in slower water.