Chatto’s fizzer

 

This fly swims well and the propeller at the front adds an element of action that fish find enticing. You can tie this fly in any colour combination to mimic the colour of some of the more popular lure colours that your mates that fish the "dark side" use so successfully.

My favourite colours are

fizzer-jack fizzer-bass fizzer-m
Orange - My favourite for mangrove jack Black my favourite for bass Bass vampire dressing - as tied below


 

Materials for size #2 fizzer

My favourite colours Hook Propeller Tungsten bead Thread Tail Tail flash Body Hackle
Orange Mustard 34007 size #2 Gold propeller blade #1 Gold 3.5 mm brass bead Gutermann polyester tread in black Orange marabou Tiewell pearl krystal flash Estaz chenille Orange saddle hackles
Black Mustard 34007 size #2 Silver propeller blade #1 Gold 3.5 mm brass bead Gutermann polyester tread in black Black marabou Tiewell pearl krystal flash Estaz chenille Black grizzly hackles
Bass Vampire colours Mustard 34007 size #2 Silver propeller blade #1 Gold 3.5 mm brass bead Gutermann polyester tread in black Purple marabou Tiewell pearl krystal flash Estaz chenille Chartreuse saddle hackles


 

Process

A
  1. You can find a wide range of propellers for your flies by Goggling "fly tying+propellers". I favour propellers that have blades about the same length, or just a little longer, as the gape of your hook.
  2. Once you have selected your propeller you may need to drill out the centre to ensure that firstly you can get it onto the hook shank and then importantly that it will spin freely.
  3. Slide a propeller onto the hook and all the way to the eye of the hook.
  4. Most beads have a large opening at one end and a smaller opening at the other. If the small opening is going to be too small drill it out using the same drill size you used to drill out the propeller.
  5. Slide the bead over the point of the hook small opening first and move it all the way forward so that it is behind the propeller.
  6. To complete this step you may also need to partially or fully crimp down the barb of the hook.
 fizzer-a

B
  1. Push the bead and propeller forward as far as they will go and tie your thread onto the hook shank directly behind the bead.
  2. Build up a mound of thread behind the bead that you can only just force the back of the bead over.
  3. You will need to test that you have the mound of thread just right but when you do take a couple of half hitches of the thread and trim away the excess thread.
  4. Push the bead forward jamming the propeller hard against the the eye of the hook and apply a drop of super glue to the thread mound.
  5. Whilst the super glue is still wet force the bead back hard over the mound of thread and wait for the super glue to harden locking the bead it into place.
  6. If you look carefully at the photo you will see that there is now a gap between the bead and the eye of the hook allowing the propeller to spin.

 fizzer-b

C
  1. Put a drop of UV epoxy over the thread and the back of the bead and whilst rotating the fly in the vice to evenly distribute the UV epoxy around the back of the bead and the thread use a UV torch to harden the UV epoxy.
 fizzer-c

D
  1. Tie the thread back in behind the epoxy covered thread mound and build up a neat bed of thread all the way down to the bend of the hook.
fizzer-d

E
  1. Select some marabou that will allow a tail one and a half times the length of the hook. It's important to have a reasonable amount of marabou in the tail as it's the combination of the "keel effect" of the bend and bite of the reasonably heavy wire in the hook, the fairly full front hackle and the marabou tail that stops the fly from spinning instead of just the propeller.
  2. Tie in half of the selected marabou forming an under-tail that is at least one and a half times as long as the hook.
 fizzer-e

F
  1. Tie 6 to 8 strands of Krystal flash, as long as the under-tail, on top of the under-tail. Try to have that reasonably well dispersed across the top and to the sides of the under-tail.
 fizzer-f
G
  1. Tie in the other half of the selected marabou forming an over-tail that the same length as the under-tail.
  2. Take the thread forward to just behind the thread mound.
 fizzer-g

H
  1. Tie in a length of estaz chenille along the top of the hook sank all the way down to the bend of the hook.
  2. Take the thread forward to just behind the thread mound.
 fizzer-h

I
  1. Whilst using wet fingers on the free hand to stroke the estaz chenille fibres back to ensure that none are locked down by the next wind of estaz chenille wind the estaz chenille forward in tight touching turns to just behind the thread mound.
 <fizzer-i

J
  1. Select one or two saddle hackles with barbules about twice as long as the gape of the hook and tie it or them in by the tip/s just in front of the body.
 fizzer-j

K
  1. Trim the tips of the saddle hackle/s away with a blade.
 fizzer-k

L
  1. Wind the saddle hackle/s forward in tight touching turns to behind the bead.
  2. Wind the thread forward through the hackle/s locking the hackle/s into place.
 fizzer-l

M
  1. Trim the excess hackle away with a sharp blade.
  2. Stroke the hackles back with your thumb and for fingers and form a collar of thread behind the bead.
  3. Whip finish behind the bead and trim the excess thread.
  4. Apply head cement or nail varnish to the thread collar.
 fizzer-m



Last Updated: November 10, 2019
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Categories: Bass, EP's, perch and saratoga flies, Flies, My bass, perch and saratoga fly box, Trout flies
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