Pike, muskie and other predator fly: The Thickness

Despite the synthetic fly tying materials craze, I still think natural fibers are the best for the bulk of my fly tying. You can’t beat the way the natural materials pulse, flicker and taper in the water. To that end, I’d like to introduce you to The Thickness. If you checked out The Chubby Chaser, we used a lot of the same techniques and materials, but you fish these flies very differently.

The Chubby Chaser was designed to suspend over deep rockpiles and drive structure-hugging bass nuts. It’s light-weight and designed to cast on a 6-wt rod with a sinking line.

The Thickness is designed for the super shallows, where the big predatory fish lay up after ice-out, fished on a floating or intermediate line, with an 8-wt rod. You want this thing pulsing about 2-4 inches under the surface of the water.

I would also add that this isn’t a fly for a trip to Canada where you’ll catch 100 snaky 24-inch pike in a day. Unless you’re a masochist or really love spinning deer hair. If you’re going into that situation, lash a couple rabbit strips to any wide-gap hook and knock yourself out.

The Thickness is for those waters where you need confidence to keep casting, where you need something to stand out. That wag, 50% slop, 50% sass… It should look like the fly version Kim Kardashian going blonde.

If you tried to stuff these with synthetics, it would look like this:

There’s something amazing about the bouncing, floating, wobble of a stuffed fly with a deer hair head. This is a Sir-Mix-A-Lot approved fly pattern.

Those Daiichi hooks are the bomb. Literally, the best big predator hooks I’ve ever used. Note the Icelandic Sheep Hair is tied in reverse.

The Thickness
Hook: Daiichi Long Shank 2461 Size 2/0
Thread: UniThread 6/0 white
Tail: White bucktail
Flash: Micro Opal Mirage Flashabou
Body: UV Polar Chenille, pearl
Body: Icelandic Sheep Hair
Collar: Extra-Select Marabou
Head: Deer belly hair