The pole!

[Artin]

So.... anyone figure out how to tie this puppy yet? I'm looking online and found one dude on the stripers online site who tried it and looks good. Only issue I have is trying to find out what goes into an injected foam head as it is described for the pattern.... I fished it couple of days ago for the first time, blanked on the fish but man it looked o so good in the water.... the whole walk the dog action is a killer. I know an old dog that fishes spook type lures exclusively and man it's a killer!
I've seen the knock off heads but they don't appeal to me at all.
Any input?


Here is the post I found on stripers online from the east coast...

http://www.stripersonline.com/t/738775/pole-dancer-attempt

Artin

[Swanee]

Artin
I played with the same fly last year using premade popper heads and made some foam heads on my own. One thing that seemed odd to me was that the spook lures that walk the dog have the eye in the vertical position but the pole dancer has it horizontal?. My protos didn't work too well and then I added the rattle to give it the head up at rest angle.
The amount of pause between twitches seemed to be the key to making it walk. I need some more testing on some boils to see if they really work.
Swanee

[lucfish]

Just so you know, a couple of people I know have been working on their prototypes but so far I've not seen anything as good as the original. Swanee is right, it's all in the pause and location of the rod to get the walking the dog action. Personally I believe the local reservoirs get pounded by the swimbait crowd and makes this fly less effective for us. They can throw those lures a country mile and they cover the whole water column from the surface to 30 feet and they look so real. Regarding the pole dancer, the big ones are hard to cast, you really need to get them out at least 60 feet and after a couple of hours I'm ready for something easier. I've fished them hard for maybe 40 hours and have only hooked 2 largemouths with them although they were goodsize fish, stripers are the target and I have yet to hook one with one. I've not been able to fish with them when the fish were in a frenzy chasing trout though. If I'm lucky enough to be on the water when that happens I imagine I would hook a few.

[briansII]

So.... anyone figure out how to tie this puppy yet? I'm looking online and found one dude on the stripers online site who tried it and looks good. Only issue I have is trying to find out what goes into an injected foam head as it is described for the pattern.... I fished it couple of days ago for the first time, blanked on the fish but man it looked o so good in the water.... the whole walk the dog action is a killer. I know an old dog that fishes spook type lures exclusively and man it's a killer!
I've seen the knock off heads but they don't appeal to me at all.
Any input?


Here is the post I found on stripers online from the east coast...

http://www.stripersonline.com/t/738775/pole-dancer-attempt

Artin

The guy on SOL did a great job trying to replicate the Pole Dancer. If it walks the dog as much as he said, it should work pretty well. That walking to one side happens to me too. It's a correction to the stripping motions that makes it walk both ways. In my experience, it's harder to walk a Pole Dancer than a Spook, or other conventional lure.

No way would I try and duplicate a Pole Dancer. I think it can be done, but it looks like too much time to produce a reasonably effective copy. My limit is approximately 15 minutes per fly. More than that, and I'm looking to press "add to cart". BTW, I have had bass and stripers blast a Pole Dancer. Some were respectable size, but have only hooked small fish, on the smallest size......so far.

briansII

[Artin]

Artin
I played with the same fly last year using premade popper heads and made some foam heads on my own. One thing that seemed odd to me was that the spook lures that walk the dog have the eye in the vertical position but the pole dancer has it horizontal?. My protos didn't work too well and then I added the rattle to give it the head up at rest angle.
The amount of pause between twitches seemed to be the key to making it walk. I need some more testing on some boils to see if they really work.
Swanee

I think that the retrieve is key in making it walk and I bought a spook and saw the vertical eye. The angle in which it sits on the water is also key!

Just so you know, a couple of people I know have been working on their prototypes but so far I've not seen anything as good as the original. Swanee is right, it's all in the pause and location of the rod to get the walking the dog action. Personally I believe the local reservoirs get pounded by the swimbait crowd and makes this fly less effective for us. They can throw those lures a country mile and they cover the whole water column from the surface to 30 feet and they look so real. Regarding the pole dancer, the big ones are hard to cast, you really need to get them out at least 60 feet and after a couple of hours I'm ready for something easier. I've fished them hard for maybe 40 hours and have only hooked 2 largemouths with them although they were goodsize fish, stripers are the target and I have yet to hook one with one. I've not been able to fish with them when the fish were in a frenzy chasing trout though. If I'm lucky enough to be on the water when that happens I imagine I would hook a few.

The shape of the head has to do a lot with the movement of the fly in the water I think. I need to see if I can make a shape like it. It will be hard to design a fly that does walk the dog... I agree about the locals also, but one thing the fly has over the lures that may help is the body material. It is very wavy in the water as it readjusts itself I think. This may be an advantage. I was throwing it on Monday up at Castaic in the rain with a 10wt. I got it out about 60-70 ft max! Nothing hit, but I was more interested in learning the technique of the whole walk the dog thing. It is tough at first and I found that with some patience and attention to what I did to get it to go right and left got me more consistent with the whole thing. The large is not an easy caster... it is rough on the arm but I found that with a double haul I was using less energy and my 3rd false cast beyond the was smooth unlike the first two which would feel like it popped in the air sorta'. It's a FISHY fly...

The guy on SOL did a great job trying to replicate the Pole Dancer. If it walks the dog as much as he said, it should work pretty well. That walking to one side happens to me too. It's a correction to the stripping motions that makes it walk both ways. In my experience, it's harder to walk a Pole Dancer than a Spook, or other conventional lure.

No way would I try and duplicate a Pole Dancer. I think it can be done, but it looks like too much time to produce a reasonably effective copy. My limit is approximately 15 minutes per fly. More than that, and I'm looking to press "add to cart". BTW, I have had bass and stripers blast a Pole Dancer. Some were respectable size, but have only hooked small fish, on the smallest size......so far.

briansII

I think so as well, I have been trying to find the right foam to duplicate the head. I have all the time in the world to tie up some of these. I think the first would be a challenge but after that we will be well within your 15 min limit!
It's a good pattern to duplicate I think. At $24 a pop, I cannot keep buying them once lost... I would support the maker and shops if things were better but for now I need to consider the economics of the whole ordeal, I figure $50 bucks to learn to tie one and probably $3-$4 to make additional ones. In the long run on this fly at least I will come up. This is not true though about my other flies....

I am thinking of cutting it open and seeing what makes it tick. But I think I will wait to catch something on it first then retire it to the dissection table! hehe...

Artin