The larger the eyes of an artificial fly, the more strikes. Bait, made more attractive with imitation eyes, with magical force provokes trout and pike. Guido will tell us a few ways to make the streamer more attractive.
Love at first sight – we all know it. Eye contact is more telling than words. It is exactly the same in the animal world, like in humans. When it comes to fish, the eyes also play a very important role, especially when searching for food. As I gained my fishing experience, I noticed, that artificial lures with big eyes, including artificial flies, they are much more effective than traditionally used lures. Many fly fishermen will probably "make big eyes" at this point in surprise. I explain everything already – I do not mean "duck rump" flies, but all kinds of streamers, salmon flies, large wet flies, flies on tarpons and so on. I have already found out many times, that the bigger the eyes of the lure, the better your chances of success. So don't be surprised, that I am a staunch supporter of lures with eyes. I have the greatest confidence in these lures, and every angler knows, that believing in the effectiveness of a lure is the secret to being successful.
Dual function
The eyes of an artificial fly have a double function – they make the appearance of the lure more attractive and determine its behavior in the water (the speed of sinking and the nature of the work). If someone starts looking for ready-made streamers with eyes in fishing stores, will find out quickly, that it is only wasting time. The only chance to get such a fly is to make it yourself. The oldest, and at the same time the easiest way is to paint the eyes on the fly's 'head'. An eye that is a black point on a white background, so well contrasted, it has a particularly provocative effect on fish. If the paint is not waterproof, the painted eye is covered with a thin layer of varnish. For salmon flies, we make eyes from a jungle hen pen, by tying them directly behind the eye of the hook.
Long tradition
Artificial flies with eyes have a very long tradition. Already in the last century, at least that's what the literature says, anglers noticed, that such a bait is very effective. Wanting to get a lure with an eye-catching effect, it was used to bind, inter alia, guinea fowl feathers. These feathers do not affect the work of the artificial fly, however, they clearly increase its effectiveness.
Teddy bear eyes and plastic eyes today come in all sizes. They can be glued to the fly or integrated into its body while tying. Before binding, we pull our eyes on a very thin metal wire. Using different sizes, the weight and color of the eyes, we can easily make many interesting models of artificial flies.
The weight of the eyes determines the depth of the artificial fly's work and the way it moves in the water. In this way, it is also possible to circumvent the prohibition of adding lead weight to artificial flies. There is a small one in the hollow plastic eye, black ball, which having the ability to move, has an extremely exciting effect on hungry trout and pike. The eyes of an artificial fly can also be made of plastic pearls of various sizes. Such eyes are ideally suited to bind imitation of the flowering larvae.
In addition, specialty fishing stores have been offering self-adhesive eyes for some time (also in all sizes and colors). After sticking such eyes to the bait, we should definitely protect them with a thin layer of transparent varnish or instant glue..
Lead and metal
The most effective eyes, however, can be made from painted lead pellets or from small chain beads attached to a plug to clog a bathtub or sink. The pellet is clamped at the front of the hook shank and painted with waterproof paint. We tie the balls from the cork chain for clogging the bathtub as the fly's head (they must always be two balls), we can paint them or not. Both of these methods are recommendable, because even for an average angler, tying a fly with eyes is not the slightest problem. Choosing a different weight of eyes, we can decide about the action and the depth of the lure's work.