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A short article about adding weight to a fly – and make it do what you want and stay where you put it

Behind the somewhat strange name hides a somewhat strange fly originated by Danish salmon guide Marc Skovby. An good looking salmon tube fly that's both easy to tie and very efficient.

A lot of flies - salmon tube flies in particular – use different discs or cones, and the market is full of them. Here's an overview of some of the many types.

Rubber legs and a zonker... in orange. The Ronker is a fly for deep dwelling trout, featuring some weight bright colors, mobile materials and not least rubber legs.

Here are some general tips on composing a Scandinavian style salmon tube fly - and a bunch of flies to inspire. Learn some basic methods and you can experiment wildly and still get some beautiful flies.

Once again, simple is good!
Once again, black is good!
Once again, rubber legs are good!
Once again a tube fly from Nils Jorgensen.
This little tube fly is so easy to tie that you can easily fill a box in no time.

Believe in ghosts? How about a black one? If you're fishing sea trout or brown trout, or even salmon, there is no way around the Black Ghost. It has caught thousands of fish around the world. This is an all time classic that has proven itself.

Simple things somehow often seem to work and this has also been the case for one of Nils Jorgensen's absolute favorite salmon flies, the Raven NJ. It has proven itself many times.

This is another bright tube fly for clear water designed by Danish fly tyer Ken Bonde Larsen. And another one that uses a cone to add weight to the front of the fly. And another one, where the metal cone can be replaced by a common head or a plastic cone.

We continue our series of tube flies tied in the Scandinavian style. This fly is another subdued yellow, white and gray fly, well suited for bright light and clear water. It uses a mallard hackle to create a nice, closed shape.

A bright tube fly for salmon in clear water created by Danish Ken Bonde Larsen. Tied in the Scandinavian style with a large and soft hair wing made of several layers. Easy to tie and impressive both in and out of the water.

GFF partner Martin Joergensen has been fooling aruond with Bidoz Products brand new Kameleon Heads. These aluminium heads screw onto almost any straight eye hook - such as the one on the Screwhead Matuka.

A conehead muddler/zonker

A few early samples of Danish fly tyer Ken Bonde Larsen's cone head flies.

The Magnus is a pattern always present in my fly box. I've caught a lot of fish on it, it's simple to tie and surprisingly durable. It's normally tied with ball chain eyes, but after I found a good supplier of bullet shaped bead head, I tried tying some with bullet heads.

A brand new way of tying tube flies. The usual way of weighting a tube fly is by using copper or aluminum tubes. This article shows a totally different approach

This streamer fly is actually a variation of the well-known Woolly Bugger. It imitates a small baitfish.

The flies on this page are all well known patterns which have all been juiced up a bit - many with some modern materials, but all with cone heads.
By Bas Verschoor

Beads or eyes are added for one or both of two reasons: weight and appearance. The eyes and beads discussed here are made from metal: brass, steel, lead - even tungsten. This will make them heavy and thus add weight to the fly. The weight will bring the fly down and often give it a certain behavior - a diving or jigging motion. But it will also add to the looks of the fly, the most obvious case being eyes added to fish or fry patterns like streamers.

This fly is in a way my 'signature fly'. It's a beautiful fly (in my own humble opinion), and even though it's heavy - very heavy, actually - it's a good fishing fly, that dives deep and overcomes current and turbulence.