Bendback Flies

By Gavin Hurst of Carcharodon Angling

When you are fishing over rough ground or over weed beds consisting of kelp and bootlace weed a bendback fly will help to avoid the hang ups that can occur. The hook will ride upside down and the wing material will act like a weed guard allowing the fly to slip over bottom structure and through weed making them an essential part of your armoury. Using a long shank hook such as the Turrall’s Saltwater Streamer or the Tiemco 911s makes it much easier to bend than if we use a Mustad 34007 standard O’Shaugnessy Stainless Steel hook and will leave more room to tie in the dressing and apply a head coating such as epoxy.

To bend the hook hold it loosely in a pair of pliers at the point where you want the bend to be and bend it back using your fingers. The angle of the bend shouldn’t be too sharp because this can weaken some hooks, also if the hook is bent at too great an angle this could lead to missed takes (Hook at Top of Image). Once you have bent the hook to the desired angle you can then tie any style of streamer or epoxy fly hiding the hook point in the tail or wing of the fly as pictured.

A weightier alternative to any bendback pattern can be achieved using a cone head or two to add additional weight and turn the fly into a jiggy that will still sit upside down when fished. When using two cone heads place them back to back at the head so that they fit neatly together. However you may need to remove the barb to allow the cones to slip on to the hooks more easily