Orange marabou mini tube fly

One of the most exciting flies in my fly box the summer of 2009 was the mini tube fly. Mikael Frödin calls this kind of fly The Simple fly. I have altered a bit just for fun.

One of the things I have done to it is to add marabou in different colours. I find the new Barred Blood Marabou from Hareline appealing, and it is suitable for these small tube flies. Tying them is a mess and they don`t look like traditional salmon flies at all. But they are indeed easy to tie. They look fat as long as they are dry, but turn into something wonderful once they get wet.

I have been using Woolly Buggers for years and I love the pulsating effect in the marabou feathers. Adding them to a very short tube is in my opinion a good idea. The turbo cone in the nose creates turbulence just like the head of a Muddler Minnow. In a way, I think of this fly as acrossover between a Woolly bugger, a Muddler Minnow and a tube fly. It is not pretty, but it is effective. It is also cheap. You don`t need a lot of fancy materials, just a few colors of blood marabou, some mini marabou, turbo cones and some flash. The flash should be soft and limp to match the marabou action. You can see the swimming action of this fly on the trout mini tube fly page.

Also new for this season was the Owner double tube fly hook. I really love it. It is very sharp, durable and light. A major advantage is that the wings don`t get tangled into the corner where the hook bends meet at the shaft. This is a serious problem with most treble hooks. In order to function, you need to add a drop of epoxy glue to the treble hooks. If you take a closer look at the picture of the Owner hook, you can see the smooth, round welding where the hook bends meet. It works very well. You can fish for a long time without having to worry if the fly is tangled or not.

Start by melting the end of a tube size extra small. The total length of the tube on the finished fly is no more than 5-6mm. Tie in some soft gold flash at the base of the melted tube. Then tie in some barred blood marabou. The color used on this fly is called red barred orange. Then tie in some more marabou in the color black barred tan. In the front of this mess, tie in a grizzly mini marabou feather as front hackle. The color is burnt orange. This makes it even more messy.

As a second front hackle I use a black mini marabou feather. Try to keep it as clean and neat as possible. Do not use excessive amounts of tying thread. At this point, prepare for adding a drop of zap-a-gap glue. Slide on a turbo cone. It should look like the fly on the picture. When everything is good and ready, add a drop of glue, cut off the tying thread and slide the turbo cone close to the front hackle. It should slide all the way down to secure the tying thread. Then cut the tube with sharp scissors 4mm in front of the turbo cone and burn the end with a lighter. Once you get a grip on this, you can tie this fly in only a few minutes.