Gray Ghost Variant Tube Fly

A pair ready for alewife-rich waters

Until this season, I had only fished very small Gray Ghosts and not too frequently at that. I don't think I ever hooked a fish with one. While fishing Connecticut's Farmington River this past spring, I tried a larger (sz. 4) Gray Ghost and did quite well, landing several respectably sized holdover brown trout. It was in between a Hendrickson hatch and spinner fall, and it seemed like many of the larger trout preferred the larger meal.

I have a few friends who swear by this fly, so I figured I should give it a go. I wanted to tie some even larger than what I had, but was not crazy about fishing a 10x long streamer hook. I decided to convert it to a tube fly and substitute some more "modern" (read: flashy!) materials.

I have plans for these tubes...Primarily, I want to use them to target landlocked salmon this fall. Also, there are a couple of lakes nearby (one really close to home) with large seeforellen brown trout coupled with a population of landlocked alewives. I've done well fishing one lake's spawning run, but have yet to take a trophy seeforellen brown. Time to get cracking on that...

A classic Maine streamer, converted 

Gray Ghost Variant Tube Fly

Tube: 1.5" aluminum 

Tag: Flat silver diamond braid

Rib: Oval silver tinsel

Body: Flat orange Diamond Braid

Underwing: Yellow bucktail

Wing: 1. Silver fox tail w/polar ice Angel Hair

             2. Silver fox tail w/pearl Krinkle Flash

             3. Black temple dog or arctic fox, topped with four strands of 

                  peacock herl

Throat: White bucktail topped with yellow Fluoro Fiber 

Cheeks: Silver pheasant and jungle cock

Head: Black w/red thread band