Fly Tying: Bruce Berry's Flash Tail
Bruce Berry's Background on the Flash Tail
Good flies are good flies and Flash Tail is just that. This is a pattern from a longtime friend of mine named Jason Hartwick. Together, Jason and I learned about the Pro Sportfisher brand prior to the product having an actual name a long time ago- circa 2008-09? Been awhile.
Since then, I’ve become the distributor for Pro in the U.S., and Jason has guided a bunch of years in Alaska while at the same time building a successful guiding business chasing anadromous fish in Northern California.
Why the Flash Tail came to Be
I had the opportunity to spend a week with Jason at my house recently, and of course we sat down to tie some flies. When I saw the Flash Tail, I was immediately interested in the fly.
"It’s just a marabou tube," he said, trying to dodge my curiosity.
"Nope," I said, "there is a lot more going on than that."
Finally, the story came out, and the fly was designed originally for Chinook up in Alaska. After it worked and proved itself time and again for both Chinook and Steelhead, Jason’s new fly received the name "Nookie Cookie."
That fly eventually went to a commercial company, and was re-named Flash Tail (definitely shouldn’t be an offensive name to anybody looking over the fly).
What's in a Flash Tail Fly? Well... Opossum for one
The Flash Tail definitely is a marabou tube with some extra steps that makes it a fly worthy of all Steel- headers’ fly box. The combination of materials from back to front gives the fly a lot of good attributes: better shoulders up front, a nicely tapered profile in the water, it is super wiggly, and much more durable than a standard/traditional marabou tube fly.
Opossum by nature holds less water than other leathers, plus the opossum hide from Pro Sport is ground so it is paper thin, only retaining enough leather to hold the hair cell pockets. That means it has a fabulous Polar Bear like glow in the water while it waggles in the current.
The other things I like about the fly is that, for a larger fly (actually sized in grand scheme of things in the "sweet spot" that fish tend to accept in almost all water conditions), it's easy to cast, quick to tie and easily repeatable with the right amount of flash and wiggle.
Plus it uses all of the good confidence color combinations Steelhead fisherman are looking for...
Check out the video and give it a spin!
Material List: