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This fly is modelled on the most successful estuary and inshore fly that I have ever fished with my sand skipper fly. For me in those shallow water salt water environments where you need a fly that you can fish deep in and around snags and other structure, can be fished at a range of depths depending on fly line and retrieve and swims hook point up to reduce hooking up on that very structure that holds fish my sand stripper fly out-fishes every other fly I have tried.

Given that wrap it's not surprising that when I wanted to develop a fly that I could fish in the top water, say just below the surface down to perhaps a meter deep, that I turned to my sand stripper fly for inspiration.

This top water fly has many of the elements of my original sand stripper fly except the lead shot has been replaced with a clear plastic bead, an upward facing bib has been added to give movement to the fly and to help it to swim high in the water column and importantly the tie of the fly has been adjusted so that the fly swims hook point down.

The bib is only available in one size and is best suited to a fly 8cm long tied on a 1/0 size hook.

Materials

Process

A	Put a foundation of cotton along that part of the hook shank where the bead is going to be fitted. Understanding hooks Tie the cotton thread off and trim the excess.

B	Take a plastic bead and cut a slot half way down the thickness of the bead. I use a Dremel tool for this. You can see the process here on this coloured bead.

C	Put a drop of super glue in the split of the bead or on the base of cotton thread and carefully position the bead half way between the back of the eye of the hook and that point on the hook shank directly above the tip of the point of the hook. Tie your clear monofiliment thread in behind the bead.

D	Tie the overlocking thread in directly behind the bead and the top of the hook shank until directly above the point of the hook. Managing synthetic fibres

E	Build up a cone shaped body of overlocking thread directly behind the bead. Tie the overlocking thread off and trim the excess overlocking thread away. Take the clear monofilament thread forward to a position half way between the lead shot and the eye of the hook,

F	Take a Flylips fly bib and tie it on as far forward on the fly as possible whilst still retain enough space to actually attach the fly to the fly line Bind the bib on all the way back to the bead with tight touching turns of thread.

G	The plastic bead chain that I use is available at haberdashery shops such as Spotlight and Lincraft and costs only about $1 per meter. Cut three beads off the length of bead chain. Use a pair of pointed pliers to pinch the middle bead off. If you were tying a significantly smaller fly you could use just 2 beads of bead chain as it is or if you were tying a significantly bigger fly your could use 4 beads of bead chain and pinch off the middle 2 beads.

H	Using figure of eight wraps of thread tie the bead eyes in about one third of the distance between the eye of the book and the bead. Monofilament eyes as an alternative

I	I want the finished length of this fly to be 8cm long and as the Super Hair I am using is 27cm long so I select a bunch of super hair that is about a third the thickness of what I want for the finished wing to be. Tie in the Super Hair in on top of the fly in the gap between the bead and the monofilament or plastic bead chain eyes. Trim the Super Hair off 8cm behind the eye of the hook. Tie in two strands of Krystal Flash on top of this first 1/3 of the wing.

J	Complicate the wing by repeating step I twice.

K	Tie in a set of legs on each side of the fly "Chernobyl" style in the gap between the bead and the eyes. Legs on flies Wind the monofilament thread forward to in front of the eyes and below the bib and whip finish and trim the thread.

L	Mix a small quantity of 5 minute epoxy. Lift the wing and using a tooth pick apply a coat of epoxy to the top of the gut and the release the wing. Using the tooth pick apple a coating to the balance of the gut, the bead and all the way on both the bottom and top of the fly to the eye of the fly. As a final step put extra epoxy directly in front of the bead so that as the fly is rotated the epoxy creates a net head and belly on the fly. Be careful not to allow the epoxy to encroach along the wing as you want the wing to be free moving. Working with epoxy

M	Rotate the fly whilst the epoxy goes off so as to ensure a nice symmetrical and round finish.

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