[Greenbuttbomber]

About to head up north and have been tying for quite a while. When I do this I usually tie up a bunch to give away to cabin mates. Some are in the know about tubes and some not.

So I have tied up both.

But here is a general question for steel headers that use sink tips.....

Do you prefer tubes? Or intruder type stingers? (of the same pattern)

I am talking about if the same pattern as for example the Hoh Bo Spey.

So tubes or Stingers? (and why)

Should be interesting I hope......

 

[SLSS]

I think the shanks sink more quickly, but otherwise I like them both. I rig my shanks the way the original intruder was done, which most folks who are unfamiliar with them find to be too much a PIA. Of course many react to tubes the same way.

 

[fredaevans]

Off sink tip ....

Probably doesn't make much difference as its the sink tip that's doing the work. That said, one type of fly will be 'larger' regardless of the type of tie.

The one thing that does come into play is the length of the leader off the end of the sink tip. Two-three feet probably doesn't make much of a difference but longer it does as the fly will tend to 'float up' due to current flow (just like using a dry line/leader).

There a bit of weight in the tie brings a lot to the Party.

fae

 

[buff]

Both...

I use both. An example would be the black/pink Intruder/tube fly I use for river run salmon here on Vancouver Island. The sizes go from 4 inches to less than half an inch. I can make a huge fly with very little mass using an Intruder pattern. I can vary the mass to some degree by changing the dumbbell eye size from none to Arnold Schwarzenegger, and by adding lead wire parallel to the shank before the body is tied in. I can’t use them to tie really small patterns. The smallest shanks I use are 15 mm, giving me at least a 30 mm fly. I have used cut off hook shanks, but I prefer a tail loop, so its Waddingtons or variations thereof. I prefer to tie my smaller patterns on tubes, smallest being 6 mm by 1.1 mm. I don’t tie them to large sizes like my Intruders, but I can tie them to be very heavy. I use plastic, cut metal tubing and turned metal tubes including tungsten, pricey though. I prefer to tie modular additions, what Lawrence Deans calls tubular appendages. I can add or subtract mass by using various sizes, weights and combinations of cones, all attached to liner tube segments, some plain and others with wings, hackles and combinations. I used to tie some bottom dredging Shumakov pattterns with up to four cones hidden in the body, but now I use the tubular appendages because of the ease of changing up for different situations. And requiring far less material – those tungsten cones are expensive.

 

[G_Smolt]

For patterns tied in the round, I use tubes - fast, easy, can change hook styles and sizes, doesn't matter how it rides.

For patterns with dorso-ventral orientation, I tend to use stingers. Tubes have the point of pull closer to the center of balance, and as such can be a PITA to trim correctly. Add hourglass eyes, and most tubes tend to flip or spin as the water velocity increases.

Ymmv.

 

[SLSS]

That's just the common-sensical type reasoning I expect from you, G.

 

[Greenbuttbomber]

thanks fellas....appreciate the responses a lot.

I tend to lean toward tubes on the vice because they are a bit faster to tie. But then again there is something about what goes in to making up and attaching the wire or whatever for the stinger that seems real solid.

I recently tied up some stinger type but made the mistake of (I know this is dumb now) putting a bit of a crimp in the wire in order to thread through the eye of the hook and loop around in order to easily change them if needed. Then, I heard from a respected friend who had done the same that he had lost a 40" plus fish up in BC which in his opinion was due to this spot of possible weakness in his spider wire. So I salvaged whatever I could from these (couple dozen) and discarded them. 95% of the time they would have been fine but my thinking is to eliminate all possible problems in the chance you have an opportunity to hook then land a really large steelhead.

We live and learn......

Anyway thanks for the input and discussion

Best

 

[Fish Tech]

I like to tie flies on shanks and never was interested in tube flies. If you rig your cut-shanks "old school" style without a wire to pinch through the hook eye you never have to worry about the wire breaking.

The stinger hook is attached directly to the leader similar to a tube fly. The tippet goes through the hook eye, then out through the wire loop at the rear of the shank, then through a piece of 16 gauge wire insulation and then the stinger hook is tied on with a non-slip loop knot.

 

[john8]

I prefer tube flies, the fly can be a little more versatile use the same tube with a sink tip or put a hole in the tube and hitch it on the surface. Also I like the straight connection (leader directly to hook) you get with a short shank hook on a tube fly also the intruder has more connection points which can fail.