{{start}}

My articulated swimmer been one of my most successful prospecting flies for Central Queensland. It has caught more than its fair share of barramundi in both the Boyne River and Awoonga Dam and has caught other species including bream, flathead, grunter, fingermark, queenfish, trevally and mackerel in the salt.

I have tied and fished this "big fish fly" in a number of colours and theses are the colours I have stuck with.

• Chartreuse and white are great colours for feeding queenfish and trevally.
• Orange over pink flies are useful in dirtier water.
• Brown bomber inspired colours are a great option in clear water around mangroves and impoundments such as Lake Awoonga.
• Qantas colours of red and white ... definitely the most useful combination of all for Central Queensland waters.

The example below is tied in Qantas colours of red and white on a size #4/0 hook with a 7/32" or 3/16" dumbbell eyes and, because it's important to match the size of food that predators are targeting, I also tie a small version of this fly on a size #1/0 hook with a 5/32" dumbbell eyes and a medium version on a size #2/0 hook with 3/16" dumbbell eyes.

Building an articulated fly is basically a two part process with the first step being the tying of the trailing hook fly.

Materials for trailing hook

Process

A	Place you hook firmly in the vice. Wind the thread in touching turns to the bend of the hook.

I build my marabou tail for these flies in three layers.

• Under-tail ... can be tied in in two distinct ways.
• Flash
• Over-tail

C	Wind the hackle forward in tight touching turns taking care after each turn to stroke the loose hackle barbules back behind the fly.

D	Using your thumb and forefingers pull the barbules together around the hook shank and as you slide that grip backward lock the marabou barbules in around the hook shank all the way to the bend of the hook.

E	For this fly I like to have the tail flash partially hidden between the under-tail and the over-tail. Tie six strands of Krystal flash on top of the under-tail with the individual strands all separated so that the Krystal flash does not bunch up and so that they are the same length as the under tail.

F	The over-tail is tied in using the traditional method of tying in a marabou tail of marabou that has has barbules that are just a little longer than you want the tail of the fly to be and importantly with plenty of flu on the barbules. Select a generous bunch of marabou for the over-tail and tie that in on top of the under-tail and flash completing the tail. Take the thread forward of where the completed marabou tail is tied in.

And now the body of the trailing hook.

G	Tie a length of FNF chenille along the top of the hook shank. Take the thread forward to just behind the eye of the hook.

  The second part for building an articulated fly is to attach the articulated head to the eye of the trailing hook and dress the articulated shank.

Materials for articulated head

I	Slide an articulated shank through the eye of the hook. Fish Skull shanks have an offset eye. Make sure that when you slide the shank onto the hook that you position the offset eye so that it is facing down.

J	Start behind the eye of the shank wind the thread, in tight turns, back toward the rear eye of the shank. I like to do a couple of half hitches at this stage just to be sure that the shank sides are locked together.

K	Tie in a length of palmer chenille along the of the shank all the way back to the rear eye of the shank taking care not to go so far back that you inhibit the movement of the trailing hook.

L	Wind the palmer chenille forward taking 6 tight touching turns. Tie the palmer chenille off and trim the excess away with a sharp blade.

M	With wet fingers stroke the palmer chenille back with your thumb and forefingers forming a skirt that disguises the join of the hook and the shank and lock that in with firm wraps of thread.

N	Tie in a length of FNF Jelly Chenille along the top of the shank.

O	Take the thread forward to where you want to tie in the dumbbell eyes. I like the dumbbell eyes to be back from the eye of the hook a distance equal to the diameter of the dumbbell eyes. Tie in your dumbbell eyes on top of the hook shank using tight figure 8 wraps. To make sure that the eyes don’t rotate on the hook shank include a couple of tight wraps the thread around the base of the eyes on top of the hook shank and between every couple of figure of eight wraps take a firm wrap of thread around the hook shank. Tying in dumbbell eyes Finish with the thread in front of the eyes.

P	Wet the FNF chenille and wind it forward in tight touching turns and then through the eyes using 2 opposite figure of turns. Between each wrap of the FNF chenille stroke all the fibres of the FNF chenille back to ensure that no FNF fibres get locked down. Tie the FNF chenille off behind the eye of the shank Trim away the excess thread and put a drop of super glue on the whip fished thread.

{{end}}