Getting a fly to dance back and forth in a walk-the-dog action is not as easy as I thought. There are tons of posts on flies that do it, but none of those posts explain exactly why, or how to troubleshoot.
The head of course, is critical. The weight and materials used, just as much so. I personally wanted to get this set up working with a trailing hook, to fool our spotted friends on the Breede. I figure watching one of those surf in while trying to eat a big popper would be cool.
At about 10pm on Saturday night the ball dropped. And on attempt number 20 something finally worked. the umpteenth variation of materials and weight. Before I left I made another crucial discovery. Its not asymetrics of the head that cause it to favour a certain direction, its the resting stance in the water. It makes perfect sense now, if its lying on its right, it favours the right. But no one tells you this shit.
A cool little trick is to tweak the weight using UV resin while you’re on the water to make sure it sits even. And yes, I got it to work perfectly with a trailing hook….and two grunter tried to suck the bugger in.
Great that you cracked it Pete. I’ve been trying to get it right for ages. I have a couple of Zara spook style plugs from the bad old days, bought a couple too to scrutinise, and a lot has to do with weight at the back of the lure. The lures sit in the water with the back hanging lower in the water. What I noticed from fiddling in the pool with them is the momentum from more of the mass being at the back helps push the lure left and right. I found a clear walk the dog lure on the Breede which has heavy rattle beads only in the tail of the lure which makes the weight distribution more obvious. So a combination of weight and the smoothness of the lure assist in the prominent zig zagging. Something that is quite difficult with a fly because of lack of weight and friction of the feathers when you stop pulling. Did you add any weight to the hook? I’d love to have a good look at your fly some day. Thanks for sharing.
Well done, I have also been contemplating getting my head around a similar pattern. Love to use one on tiger fish & bass
super cool!!
What hook do you use for the fly?