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Tying '' The Toad '' fly by Brian Gent

Brian Gent is a regular customer and he has kindly taken the time to share a couple of secrets. Thanks Brian ...

The Toad Fly

The New Kid On the Block Tarpon Teaser

While some fishermen reckon they have been using the Toad Fly for over a decade, this pattern really only hit the scene around 3 or 4 years ago, when the original version which was tied with rabbit zonker strips for both the tail and front hackle, was adapted by some innovative guides in the Florida Keys, for putting in front of the tarpon in the relatively shallow waters of the area.

The zonker strip was replaced by Marabou, both as a tail and†front hackle of the fly, and the original bead chain eyes, were replaced with lightweight plastic eyes, which made the fly very light and a lot easier to cast, and present delicately in front of a spooky Tarpon, and these refinements have developed as†the more popular dressing.

Still relatively unknown outside of the USA, the Toad has undoubtedly become the go to fly for the Tarpon of the Keys, during the last two years, and is rapidly gaining in popularity in other Tarpon destinations around the Caribbean and the South Americas, although, apart from a scaled down bone fish pattern, there is not a great deal of information with regards to the Toad Fly readily available.

This pattern can be successful in smaller versions for Red Fish, Snook and Jacks, but it does appear that it is at its deadliest when dressed as a Tarpon Fly on hooks in the 1/0 - 4/0 range, when delicately cast a few yards in front of a Tarpon, and allowed to work itself in the current,†almost dead drift style with very little movement, or in areas where you are unable to actually spot your target fish, by using a very slight twitch and dead slow to almost stop speed.

There are versions around with weighted eyes, but this seems to alter the characteristic of the fly, for the Toad’s killing attraction is undoubtedly its ability to drift around in the current on the end of a floating, sink tip or intermediate line without the need for the angler to impart, anything other than minimalist movement.

The tying of the Toad is a little time consuming, but not particularly difficult, once you have mastered the way in which the body is formed. It is however well worth learning, as once you have mastered the tying techniques associated with the formation of the body section, you will also at the same time, have mastered the tying of any Merkin Style Crab, so it is well worth giving it a go.

The example Given is for the Tan & Orange version, which along with Chartreuse, and Yellow, Yellow Chartreuse and Chartreuse, and Purple and Black are the most popular and effective colours, but as the fly becomes even more popular, other colour combinations are cropping up all the time, some quite useful, others quite ridiculous!

	Materials Required Hook: Size 1/0 – 4/0 UK Salt/Varivas 990s (one and the same hook) and reckoned by many to be the most efficient hooks for Tarpon. Gamakatsu SC15, Trey Combs or similar short shank hooks - Please note I now sell the Carbon Steel version. Guides like the dark hooks rather than shiny ones for Tarpon -AG Thread: 8/0 Uni Thread or similar 8/0 - Tan Tail: 2 good quality Marabou Bloods – Tan Flash: (Optional) 4 strands of DNA Holo Chromosone Flash - Gold Collar: 1 large saddle or neck cock hackle – Tan, followed by 3 or 4 bunches of Hot Orange Marabou followed by 1 large saddle or neck cock hackle – Hot Orange Body: Segments of Floating Poly Yarn or EP Fibres – Tan Eyes: Black Plastic or Metal Bead Chain / Lead Dumbbell for Heavier sinking versions Finish**: Loon Hard head or similar applied to the head, and under body thread. Step 1. Place your hook in the vice (in this case UKSalt 2/0) and lay down an even bed of 8/0 tan tying thread to the rear
	Dtep 1.1 Tie in anti tangle loop ( Mason hard mono)
	Step 2. Select 2 good quality matching Tan Marabou Bloods, and prepare in a similar manner as you would a cock hackle, by stripping off the flue at the base end of the Marabou
	Tie the first Marabou Blood, perpendicular to the hook point, along one side of the hook. Repeat the process with the other Marabou Blood on the other side of the hook, making sure they both align nicely at the tips.

	When you have them aligned to your satisfaction, lift the Marabou, and take half a dozen or so tying raps under the base To raise the whole tail slightly, then with a bodkin add a touch of Softex to the first _” or so of the underside of the Marabou, in order to make it reasonably foul proof. Alternatively, before beginning the tying sequence, you can tie in an anti-foul loop made up of a short length of 25lb b.s. mono line, although as this adds bulk to the rear of the fly, I prefer the former anti-foul method, which works fairly well.
	Most Toads are tied without any flash, but if you want to add some, now is the time to do so, but do keep it sparse, adding no more than a couple of strands of Gold DNA Holo Chromosone Flash, along the outside of the tail, on each side of the hook.

	Step 4 Once satisfied with tail alignment, cut off the excess hackle stalks and bind down tightly with another half dozen wraps of tying thread to secure. Take a large Tan, cock hackle, and stripping off the excess flue from the rear end of the hackle stalk, offer up to the hook and secure as shown in the picture. With the aid of a pair of hackle pliers, take five complete wraps of the hackle around the shank, moving fractionally forward towards the eye of the hook. Secure with half a dozen tight thread wraps and break off (or cut away) the surplus hackle tip.
	Step 5 Having made secure, grasp all of the hackle, sweeping it back, so all hackle and tail materials are completely clear of the tying thread. Hold it in this position while at the same time wrapping the thread back towards the base, and graduating very slightly over the base of the hackle. You do not want to create a big hump at this point so gradually build up the thread near the hackle base, and only then take 4 or five turns over the very base of the hackle.
	Step 6 Take a Hot Orange Marabou plume and from the section near to base/middle of the plume, divide a small section of flue, and grasping this in one hand, carefully cut off the section from as near to the stalk of the plume as you can. At this point, wet the thumb and forefinger of your freehand thoroughly, and grabbing the base of the cut off section between your wetted thumb and forefinger, soak and at the same time roll the base between your two digits, until the base mats together. This forms the cut off Marabou into a little shuttlecock, and serves two purposes. First off the flues will stick together, which makes it very easy to handle, but more importantly, wetting marabou compresses it by as much as 70%, greatly reducing the bulky area at the tying in point. You will need 3 or 4 of these little shuttlecocks to complete the next tying stage, and I would advise that you make all 4 up before attempting to tie them in, as you will be better able to judge the consistency of each clump with regard to size, even length, and consistency of the flue. With your shuttlecocks made up and to hand, take the first, of These, and tie down on top of the hook making sure that the part Of the shuttlecock at the tie in point is thoroughly wet, and thus compressed. Repeat this on the underside of the hook, and both, sides as necessary. You are aiming at achieving an even 180-degree spread right around the hook, as illustrated and the number of shuttlecocks required, will depend upon how thick you cut each one initially.
	Step 8 Now we need to form the body of the fly, and this is the slightly tricky part of the tying sequence, although with just a little practice, you will soon get the hang of it. However to alleviate a good many of difficulties that may arise, before beginning the body tying process, you should attempt to get rid of the little bump that has been created where you have secured the Hot Orange hackle. (hence the need for 8/0 thread) This is achieved by running the thread up and down the bare hook shank until you have put enough thread on the remainder of the shank to fairly well even everything out.
	Having attained a fairly even thread base with which to work on the body tying sequence, cut off a clump of Tan EP fibres, about the size of a pencil, and chop this up into small chunks of about 2” in length.

	The body is created by tying a series of these cut off sections, and to begin, take a section of the EP fibres, and offer this up crossways to the hook shank, immediately in front of the Hot Orange hackle just tied in. Secure the EP fibres in the middle with a couple of loose figure of eight turns, and adjust so as the cut off is as central as possible. Now with your thumb on top of the tie in point, (to prevent the section of EP fibres slipping around the hook shank) pull down with your tying thread to add some pressure, and tighten the figure of eight wraps, before securing firmly with another couple of figure of eight turns. Now secure with a few turns immediately in front of, and just fractionally overlapping only the first few of the EP fibres. This will tend to sweep back the whole bunch ever so slightly, and will also cause a little bump to form immediately in front of the section just tied.
	Before attempting to tie in the next clump of EP fibres, you should again attempt to even out your tying base by running the tying thread up and down the hook shank immediately in front of this bump, so you once again have an even base to tie on. This is most important, as you need the next bunch to butt up tightly against the bunch already tied in, and in any case, you only need to run the thread up and down the first º” or so of the shank immediately in front of the hump. If you leave a hump, the fibres from the bunch you are attempting to tie in, will tend to slip down the hump, and you will not be able to butt the two flush to each other. With the tying base evened out, take another bunch of EP fibres, and Offer them up to the hook as close as you can as you can get them to The previously tied bunch, and again secure with two loose turns of Tying thread. You may find this easier to achieve if when offering Up the bunch to tie, you position your tying thread as shown. This will help prevent catching up individual fibres when tying your first figure of eight wraps.
	Now with the loose figure of eight wraps holding the bunch of fibres in place, use your thumb to push them back so as they are completely butted up against the previous tying, before again applying pressure, by pulling down on your thread and tightening, and then adding two or three more figure of eight wraps to secure. Bring the thread immediately in front of the tying, and repeat the whole sequence (including the evening out of the hump procedure) with as many bunches of EP fibres as required to almost reach the eye of the hook.
	Step 9. Take a pair of plastic bead chain eyes, (in this case I used plastic Pearl that I have blacked off with a marker pen and varnished) or for heavier sinking versions, metal bead chain or lead dumpbell. Lash the eyes to the hooks with a number of figure of eight wraps, and apply a dab of super glue to secure. When dry, finish off with a few more figure of eight wraps, whip and finally tie off with a whip finish, and apply a coat of Loon hard head to the tying thread that is securing and surrounding the eyes.
	Step 11. Remove the fly from the vice, and with a very sharp pair of Scissors trim the body to a crab like shape.
	ep 12. Once the body has been shaped to your satisfaction, invert the fly, where if all is well you should then have a hook shank neatly wrapped with a slim even layer of tying thread (The very reason for using an 8/0 thread) which you should protect along its full length by applying a couple of coats of Loon Hard Head
	Whilst these step by step instructions do make the tying of the Toad seem over complicated, I can assure you that it is not, and with a little practice, you should be able to complete the whole sequence in around 10 minutes. Do please remember that should you wish to tie weighted versions of the Toad, or then move on to Merkin style crab patterns, of which weighted eyes are an essential ingredient, that before tying the body, you will need to invert the fly in the vice, and perform this section of the tying sequence along the underneath of the hook shank, as the weighted eyes will cause the fly to fish point up.