Stripper's Glitter Step-By-Step
Stripper's Glitter Baitfish
Using one of our most popular head designs, we have replaced marabou with Kreinik fibers make for a super deadly, easy to cast, sparkly, durable, and skinny baitfish pattern.
Material & Components
Thread - Veevus Power Thread 140
Tail Piece - Tailfeather Spine cut to 1" total length
Tail/Belly/Wing - Kreinik Fibers
Throat/Head - Rainy's Evazote Foam
Trim - Ice Dub UV Red
Step 1 - Place spine in vise, attach thread, and add a small dubbing ball
Step 2 - Grab Kreinik chunk and trim clean to your finger tips
Step 3 - Attach Kreinik ahead of dubbing bal with 4-5 wraps and trim to desired length, roughly the size of your hook is a good reference.
Step 4/5 - Back off 3-4 wraps, use your finger tips to "roll" the Kreinik around the spine creating a 360 degree skirt and wrap back to dubbing ball. Trim the front of the body wrap to 1/4" for the first inch and attach to spine.
Step 6 - Palmer wrap forward maintaining backward angle and tie off, part vertically.
Step 7/8 - Trim desired taper into your tail minding to keep the fibers from intertwining with tail fibers. Most baitfish bodies taper to a narrow point before fanning out to their tail. Dub over your thread area, tie off, and apply super glue.
Step 9+ - String on tail to the wire, add bead making the tips even on the wire. See background, add thread to hook and a defined thread bump at the start of the bend of the hook.
Step 10 - Attach your tail piece to the top of the hook shank maintaining a loop about the size of the bead between the bead and the eye of your tail.
Step 11 - Add a dubbing ball for your Kreinik fibers to flare off.
Step 12 - Add Pearl or lighter belly to the underside by attaching it a bit towards the eye and rotating it around to form belly as you wrap back to the dubbing ball.
Step 13 - Add darker tone wing to the top 180 of the fly and wrap to dubbing ball.
Step 14 - Attach body wrap material wrapped back to the same point as the Kreinik.
Step 15 - Palmer forward to JUST A PINCH past the hook point. Trim to your liking. This will be nigh impossible to trim once the belly and wing are in place, so keep that in mind.
Step 16 - Attach lighter belly tone and trim to just past the front of your tail piece, or how you see fit. It does not grow back.
Step 17 - Add wing and trim to desired length. Make you are wrapped back to just in front of the hook point as that will decided the size of your foam head.
Step 18 - Tie in red foam slice/strip on top of shank.
Step 19 - Barber pole wrap strip forward creating a nice, clean taper and tie foam off on the top of shank.
Prepare to add foam head, notice the slight angles cut, the narrow end will be the nose.
Step 20 - Fold foam over like a liltte taco and start with loose wraps to attach it to the hook.
Step 20 continued - Use a wide spread of wraps to attach the foam to help complete the tie down without cutting through foam.
Step 21 - Encase your thread head with a sparse layer of Ice Dub, tie off, and apply a small amount of super glue to the know BEFORE trimming.
Step 22 - Carefully fold the foam back and CAREFULLY, CAUTIOUSLY apply super glue underneath. Watch your fingertips.
Step 23 - Rotate your vise and hold the "taco" shell together while the glue cures for a couple minutes. Careful with your finger tips.
I like to slide my finished product into a tape measure clip for 5-10 minutes for perfect finish and to allow you move on to the next fly while it cures.
That is the Stripper's Glitter! Feel free to holler anytime at 469-573-5040, email dan@dirtywaterflyco.com, or stop by the shop for clarification on anything fly tying related!