Samurai Dog

I need to fish this fly soon

"I haven't tried tube flies yet," a fellow angler remarked while we overlooked one of my favorite springtime fishing holes. I gave him a medium sized Sunray Shadow and an Owner hook to get him started. He asked to see some of my other tubes, so I let him rifle through my Finsport fly wallet. Two long, predominantly white tube flies caught his eye.

"Oh, that one," I remarked. "I haven't fished it yet. I cooked it up over the winter as a sort of small-to-medium alewife impression. I figured it might work well at this spot."

After he finished browsing through the pages of my fly wallet, he asked, "Will you sell me some of your tubes?"

"Sure."

"Ok, I'll take those two white ones. Can you part with them? How about you pick out some other favorites?"

"That all sounds good to me."

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The fly which initially caught his eye is a sort of cross between Mikael Frödin's Samurai and Hakan Norling's classic Temple Dog. It's mostly the former, however, the Samurai Dog wing is tied thicker and in the Temple Dog style. I wanted a broader profile than the Samurai, which normally has a slender wing. See the video below for instructions on how to tie Frödin's Samurai:

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Fast forward to a little over a week later. I got a call from the angler I met the previous weekend.

"You know those white tube flies of yours?" he asked.

"Yeah. Did you use them?"

"Did I use them? Woooo! Now that's a hot fly! First, I nailed a bunch of schoolie stripers on it, then I went to the Farmington and caught a bunch of trout. A few days later, I couldn't keep the smallmouth bass off it. I haven't taken the fly off since first using it!"

"Oh man, that's great! I'm glad it works!"

"I'll take a half dozen more, plus a few in XL size."

"No problem. I'll get to work as soon as possible."

"And you still haven't fished that fly yet, have you?"

"No. Don't rub it in!"

Samurai x Temple Dog hybrid

Samurai Dog (white)

Thread: White
Tube: 1"-1.25" Scandinavian tubing (large); Scandinavian tubing (small) nested inside
Rear Body: Pearl flat braid
Weight (optional): Lead tape
Front Body: UV Pearl Ice Dub (heavy & loose) over lead tape, picked out
Wing 1: White skunk fur (or arctic fox) and pearl Krinkle Mirror Flash
Wing 2: White skunk fur (or arctic fox) and Polar Ice Angel Hair
Wing 3: White temple dog fur (or cashmere goat) and Micro Mirage Lateral Scale
Topping: Several strands of peacock herl
Sides: Jungle cock
Head: Large ball of Pearl UV Ice Dub, tied loosely over wing butts and picked out
Collar Hackle: White schlappen
Cone: Silver turbo or monster cone


Tying notes: 

*I tie the wing almost exactly like Hakan Norling ties the wing in his Original Temple Dog video. Instead of wrapping hackle after the wing components, I tie over the butts so I have a huge base on which to create the oversized dubbed head. It's a bulkier fly than the original Samurai, but it's meant suggest the stockier profile of an alewife. 

*On smaller flies (the ones pictured here), I used a combination of skunk fur and temple dog for the wing. I tied a few XL sized flies which used ProTube marble fox in place of the skunk fur and cashmere goat in place of the temple dog. 

*I tied a few black Samurai Dogs, as well. Just substitute Black UV Ice Dub, black winging hair and a black turbo cone. 

Here's a picture of a Samurai...note the slender wing.