Ghost Perch
I’m always trying out new materials to improve my flies. One element that I constantly felt was missing from my streamers was translucency. No matter how sparse and hollow you tie a fly it would always be pretty opaque in the water due to opaque materials. Couple years ago I was excited when I tried a new “flash” from Sybai called Fine Hair. It’s a flashabou like material but made from tinted translucent plastic strips. It seemed like exactly what I had been looking for. The experiments were successful but the material was easy to tangle and needed a lot of support materials which defeated the purpose when it came to translucency. I still use it on many flies but not as the main material.
This year I went to stock up on some Fine Flash but the guys at HSC told me they had replaced it with another Sybai material Ghost Hair. This is basically the same stuff but thinner and more Angel Hair like in structure. Due to the structure it’s not as translucent as Fine Hair but it seemed like it could work for my purpose.
I’ve now tested couple prototypes and am very happy with the results. It could be more translucent and I still like to add a bit of bucktail to keep it tangle free but these flies look really good in the water and have a lot of movement. I will have to do some more tests in the sea with this material when the sea trout season gets in full swing.
Tail/Belly: Bucktail – Fl. Cream.
Wing/Body: Ghost hair – Golden Olive and the last bunch of Dark Olive. On top few strands of Olive and Black Angel Hair and Black SLF Hanks. Tied mostly on top of the shank in about 5 bunches with dubbing made from Golden olive Ghost Hair in between.
Eyes: 3D Epoxy Eyes – Basic Honey fastened with gel-type superglue.
Stripes: Black permanent marker.
