my quigley cripple tail won't sink

[peterkoistinen]

it's a store bought version with a (I think) marabou tail.

I only treat the top, I pre moisten the tail before casting, I tried rubbing mud on the tail, I even trimmed the tail down to 1/2 it's bulk, but it still dries out during casting and rides horizontally.

Do you think maybe the tail is something other than marabou?

I've read that marabou is the preferred tail material and I would agree if I could get it to sink.

Or does it not matter much and I could use antron or z lon?

What have you noticed tying and fishing this great pattern?

Thanks for the help.

Happy Holidays,

Pete

[Matt Frey]

Hey Pete
I have tied a few using pheasant tail, but this one uses z-lon. Hope this helps.
http://www.westfly.com/fly-pattern-r...ycripple.shtml
Matt

[David Lee]

Pete -

Go with the Z-lon , it'll look and sink correctly . Holds up better than Marabou/Pheasant , also .

David

[Darian]

Pete,.... How in the H__l do you see flies that small well enough to be able to tell if the tail is floating or not.... Oh well....

Both of the prior suggestions are good. Marabou, pheasant tail and Antron/Z-lon rely on capillarity of the materials to hold water and should contribute to the tail sinking. However, if they don't and if you tie your own flies and aren't particularly interested in being true to the original design, you might want to consider using a heavier wire hook for this pattern. The largest portion of the hook lies below the hackle and wing (the only floating parts) and will contribute to sinking the tail. Of course, you could, also, consider adding a rib of fine wire. Just stuff to think about....

[peterkoistinen]

Thanks everyone for the quick replies.

Darian, I wear prescription glasses for fishing (Smith/Action Optics photochromic amber - they work great).

Also the flies aren't too small, 14-16, I doubt I could tie a quigley any smaller than that (at least not yet).

Plus my flys are easy to spot - I just look for the unnaturally drifting speck - that's my fly.

If I have doubts (usually) I'll do a "test drift" close by so I can inspect how the fly floats.

Cheers,

Pete

[Terry Thomas]

Peter,
The key to preparing the Quigley Cripple is to moisten the marabou "before" you put your floatant on. If you don't moisten the marabou first, the floatant will wick into the thorax/tail of the fly.
Terry