Grip the hook in pliers about 1/3-1/2 of the way down the shaft, and simply bend the hook down a little bit. The object is to hide the point in the dressing, in a Clouser's case, the bucktail. Don't do it too far, or you'll miss hookups. And yes, this will ride over weeds and branches and stuff very well.
There's a discussion at http://www.branhamssaltwaterflytying.com/flytying/tips/bendbackhooks.asp PIctures here: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.flyfishlouisiana.com/images/bendback.gif I use this all the time, and it works. Lefty Kreh has it shown in several of his videos. On 1/15/07, Kevin W. Machon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Maybe I'm missing something in the picture, but what exactly is the bendback method? The picture looks like a clouser minnow except all the material is tied on the same side of the hook. Is that it? On a related note, did anyone catch the "Fly Fishing America" that aired on VS. this past weekend - the musky fishing one from near Boulder Junction, WI? The fly he tied in the show used a wire weed guard that "clipped" from the head to the underside of the hook point, for lack of a better description. I thought of that when this thread started and emailed the shop owner to see what the weed guard was. They have to throw those big streamers into some pretty thick cabbage for musky so those might work on clousers for bass, too. I'll let you all know what I find out. Kev From: "DonO" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Subject: [VFB] Clouser Minnow Question- Bend-back Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2007 13:36:09 -0700 Chuck, Use Bob's & Lefty's 'bend-back' method to make them weedless: http://www.clouserflyfishing.com/benclous.html Don ----- Original Message ----- From: Chuck Alexander Subject: Re: [VFB] Clouser Minnow Question Mark: Thanks for the tips... And I do want them as weedless as possible, cause I fish in a place where the bass are in heavy cover, and last two years, due to not knowing how to tie anything weedless, I lost almost as many bass as I did flies trying to catch them LOL, I think a white bottom half, with a few strands of flash in the middle, and chartreuse on the top with a blood red head would be the ticket around here because as a bait chunker, that is the color jigs I used to catch both bass and crappie the best.... Chuck _________________________________________________________________ Communicate instantly! Use your Hotmail address to sign into Windows Live Messenger now. http://get.live.com/messenger/overview
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