Tying predator flies | gliss and glint bullhead

TIE A GLISS AND GLINT PLUS BULLHEAD

(The ultimate pike glidebait fly)

STEP BY STEP

You will need

Hook- 6/0 wide gaped hook

Thread – phantom thread or clear mono

Body – gliss and glint plus perch (or colour your choice)

Varnish – a touch clear varnish

Glue – croc glue (the toughest glue on the plane)

Eyes – 8mm hard eyez

Supplier links at the bottom of the page

1- Firstly place a little glue onto the hook shank then lay down 2 wraps of mono along the shank finishing in line with the hook point

2- Add a second very thin layer of glue at the rear end of the hook shank, where the thread finishes (this is to protect against teeth and give you a longer lasting fly)

3 – Take a pencil thickness length of gliss and glint (a whole length) plus and fold in half, then whip on to the hook , before you ad the next lot add a touch of varnish on the whipping (again to help guard against teeth)

4 –you next take another section of gliss and glint plus tied in slightly in front of the last piece fold on

Half underneath the hook and one half on top as above and that sorts out the tail end now for the body

5 – Building the body is pretty much a repetitive thing as you do the following steps over and over until you get to the hookeye , so first take a whole section of gliss and glint plus and cut it in half

6 – Take one of the sections off gliss and glint plus and tease out the fibers so they are uneven as above

7 - Take one piece of gliss and place just in front of where you have tied in the tail make sure 90% of the material is towards the tail, the 10% that’s facing forward will form the head. You now need to place the same amount of material underneath and on the sides so you use 2 full sections of gliss cut in half to give you 4 sections

8 – Once you have placed all 4 pieces on as in step 7 add a touch of varnish and make sure it goes all around the whipping

9 – Pull all the sections back as above

10 – Then whip down as above and varnish the whipping

11 – Follow all the steps from step 5 to build up the body, don’t be concerned if you think the body is to bulky we will trim it down at the end of the tie

12 – the final tie , you can see the fish shape formed nicely , although you may think this is quite bulky there’s actually not a massive amount of material involved

13 – Once the final piece has been tied in whip of and varnish to seal

14 – The raw finished bullhead

15 – Allow the varnish to dry and take the fly out of the vice ready for trimming

16 – time to trim , now with trimming the best thing is to trim small amounts at one time (you cant stick it back on if you cut to much off) always trim from the back towards the front , I usually start the sides first and work round , you need to start your trim from the hook bend back

17 - Once you have started trimming you’ll start to see the shape form very quickly

18 – if you want a larger profile only trim the sides and bottom , this works well for bream and perch patterns and the action will still be the same

19 – The fly fully trimmed and waiting for eyes

20 – take 2 8mm hardeyez and trim the stems, you need to make sure you don’t trim them flush as you need a little bit of stem to secure them properly , if you trim them flush they will at some point just fall off and you’ll lose the action of the fly

21 – hardeyez with stems cut down just enough left to hold them securely in place

22 – Next you need to mix up a five min epoxy

23 - Take you dubbing needle (I use a wine cork with a darning needle stuck into it) and force the epoxy into the head this adds to the weight of the head and the action of the fly, remember to push the needle right through