Flies Fouling

[hooker-of-men]

I want to pick folks' brains a bit about strategies for tying streamers to avoid flies fouling when casting.

I recently posted this fly, which worked well (until it was lost on a log), and I have been playing with various iterations of it:

The fish liked the pattern all weekend, but it fouls a good deal and I am spending a lot of time adjusting the flies.

I have similar experiences with say, sand eels, tied like this:

I'm more looking for general rules of thumb to consider than specific solutions for these two patterns. I've done some experimenting over the last week with tying the longer materials as a tail and then a dubbing loop body and a shorter length of similar materials at the head (so sort of a two part body), but I am still not getting the head-length quite right to keep it from wrapping under. ( I wish I had a pic of these attempts to clarify, but I was just churning through a handful of variations to test and didn't bother to take photos.)

Is a short shank hook going to be better? Is there a point at which, counterintuitively, longer materials will actually avoid fouling by being too long to wrap around the hookpoint? What guidelines do you follow when you're tying?

Thanks!

 

[Tigereye]

I may be able to help. Use a hook with a longer shank (streamer hook) and tie the fly in a classic streamer style, like a mickey finn or black nosed dace. You can also try a tying the same size fly on larger hook.

Also at fault may be your casting style. Make sure your line stays in one plane. Picture yourself casting in a narrow hallway to get the proper stroke.

Nice fly BTW.

 

[hooker-of-men]

Also at fault may be your casting style.

How dare you!










Possible.

 

[tomgamber]

Too small a tippet/leader. I've been guilty out of laziness on occasion.