VBF Stone

June’s fly of the month is another of Blake’s ties that managed to fool fish at the cabin – the VBF(very big fish) Stone.  I had been relaying any intel I could gather from the creek throughout the Spring to Blake and after hearing about Jim’s run in with a VBF of his own and viewing Dan’s stonefly nymph video, Blake set out to tie something similar that might work to catch these trout.  It has enough weight in it to eliminate the need for extra shot and is more natural looking than a pickle, which should hopefully fool those wise, old trout who know better.

Materials

• Streamer hook, 4x long
• Bead – gold to fit the hook and black one size larger
• Goose biots
• Dubbing
• Vinyl ribbing
• Shell back
• Thread – I use smaller thread than I normally would just to reduce bulk under the beads

1. Slide beads on the hook, gold bead on normal, and black bead reversed with the concave side facing forward. Start thread behind the hook eye.

2. Tie in two biots extending over the hook eye. Be careful to not wrap so much thread that you can’t get the bead butted up against the eye. Trim butts, whip finish, add some super glue to the thread then push the bead up.

3. Start thread behind the first bead and tie in a biot on either side. I like my legs to be about half the shank length. I like to use enough thread so that the bead is snug when I slide it up the shank. Whip finish, super glue, the slide up the bead.

4. Wrap lead on the shank. Start thread behind the lead and wrap the lead with a layer of thread.

5. Wrap a small ball of dubbing right before the hook bend. This will help to splay out the tails.

6. Tie in two biots at the bend.

7. Tie in ribbing material at the far side of the shank

8. Dub the body

9. Palmer the rib and tie off in the space behind the bead.

10. Tie in shell back material.

11. Biot on either side.

12. Dub leaving a small space behind the bead to tie in the next set of legs. Bring shell back over and tie it in.

13. Tie in next pair of legs then dub the body up to the bead. Whip finish behind the black bead.

14. Start the thread between the front legs and the gold bead. Add some dubbing here to make those front legs angle towards the back of the fly.

15. Bring shell back over the bead and tie in right behind the gold bead. Cut the extra shell back and whip finish.

I like to give the shell back a coating of SHAN to make it shiny. Finished Fly. Enjoy

This eager trout took the VBF stone not more than 30 minutes after I caught it on a dry.