A New Version of the Shady Lady:
The Split Shot Squid
The Split Shot Squid
Here's a different way of tying extended-body flies that simplifies the tying process, and adds some additional action to Bob Popovics' Shady Lady squid pattern
Background
There are many squid patterns to choose from, but over the years, one of the best I’ve fished is my good friend Bob Popovics’ Shady Lady Squid. The squid I am illustrating here is a variation of that pattern. I made a number of modifications to tailor it to the kind of conditions we normally encounter on the West coast.
The most significant change is the use of split shot for weight. Being positioned right behind the hook eye, it will cause the fly to take a nosedive (squid often do this to avoid being eaten by a larger predator) anytime there’s a pause in the stripping sequence. Many times, particularly on species like white sea bass and yellowtail, it’s important to get the squid down into their feeding zone (when fishing live squid, a sliding egg sinker is often used to get it deep), and the split shot will certainly help accomplish this.
Using wire instead of mono as a tying base for the tentacle section helps improve the sink rate, and also enables you to use a vise or even tie the fly in your hands, something that would be difficult to do when tying around a mono base. In addition, there is no need for two separate vises (as is required for the Shady Lady). Finally, macramé cord is not only considerably less expensive than sheep fleece or lambs wool, it has better translucence qualities in the water.
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