fishyaker Loc: NW Michigan (Lower Peninsula)

It's a long way off, but I am planning to spend several weeks in Southern Alabama late this Winter fishing along the gulf shores to help fend off "cabin fever" as our cold Michigan Winter starts to lose it's grip on things.

From some experience I had last season, spoons and heavy hardware always seemed to attract more bites when dressed with a fly. Our recent weather has been cold, wet, windy and gloomy...all of which are conditions that I'd rather not kayak in so I'm at the fly tying vise making up some very simple flies to swap out on lures that came with trebles.

Although I might get creative with more hair colors, for now I am sticking with plain old white and another color called "cotton candy"...kind of a mixture of pale blue, yellow, pink and white with some flashabou strands as well. It sort of resembles a dirty ivory with pastel pizzazz, and looks good when paired with brass/gold spoons. The white looks nice on silver tackle. Red thread for the whipping made sense and gives a slight appearance of "blood" to get a fish to react more aggressively. At least I sure hope so!

Our local Fall foliage is almost at peak near the house, and I think I'll head out for an afternoon hike to take it all in and give my eyes a break from the close up work at the fly vise! Enjoy the Fall season in your respective regions of the Country. This is a spectacular time of year!

Final results with two coats of thread cement on the head. This one is on a 3/0 hook size, which seemed like a good fit for most of the lure sizes I plan to use for bluefish and anything else that happens to strike!


I was lucky to find most of the materials I needed right at our local fly shops, but I did end up having to obtain a few different hook sizes via "mail order". A big "thank you" to NJ219 from this site for his suggestion to use synthetic bucktail.


Taking a pause at the halfway point in dressing up a dozen lures. The barrel swivel and added split ring will hopefully act like a "stinger" hook for short strikes, and keep fish from getting their teeth any closer to the main line.

OJdidit Loc: Oak Creek Wisconsin

Nice looking rigs, good luck when you get down there!

fishyaker Loc: NW Michigan (Lower Peninsula)

Thank you OJdidit! I learned the "hard way" how toothy the bluefish are...and how easily they "trim" off your lure for keeps! If I do decide to make up some extra colors, I am leaning towards orange, pink, green and blue. Those seem to be popular colors for the "Fishbites" products that are popular to add to your lures and bait rigs.

NJ219bands Loc: New Jersey

A 9” bluefish bit off my best rig this week even though I was using braided line. If you have a shiny snap at the end of your line and cast into a school of bluefish, they bite your line. Eyes are the most important part of a lure. Bigger is better.

fishyaker Loc: NW Michigan (Lower Peninsula)

The next time I "face off" with some bluefish I was planning to use a short (6") black steel leader to attach the lure...in hopes of avoiding so many cut offs. I hope it works...

I agree about adding "eyes" to a lure body...especially spoons...whether for casting or trolling. I typically use the mid sized ones, but as you mention..."ocean" fish tend to have much larger eyes than freshwater fish do, so what you are saying makes a lot of sense!

Fredfish Loc: Prospect CT.

I always used a short braided SS leader anytime Bluefish were around. Always a black leader and swivel.

fishyaker Loc: NW Michigan (Lower Peninsula)

Very good advice Fredfish! Thank you!

Fredfish Loc: Prospect CT.