All Points Fly Shop + Outfitter - News

This weeks fly focus Friday features Joe's Squimpish Fiber Hollow Fly, a large profiled hollow fly featuring Squimpish Boutique Blends layered in between several hollow bucktail ties. Hollow tying techniques have become one of the most popular styles of creating large baitfish patterns. Both bucktail and squimpish fibers, whether that be the boutique blends or the original squimish hair, take extremely well to this style of tying in materials,and blend together to create amazing movement and presence in the water. This pattern was designed for our local striped bass, (specifically the big ones) but has also taken species such as peacock bass, golden dorado and striped marlin. Our favorite colors locally here in Maine are the olive and white combination for daylight hours and the blurple for night. This fly can effectively be tied anywhere from a 1/0 all the way up to 10/0 or bigger.

Materials List (Click for link to page):

• Gamakatsu SL12S Hook
• Veevus GSP 150
• Large Northern Bucktail
• Squimpish Boutique Blends
• Ewing Full Saddle
• Mirage Flashabou
• Lead Wire
• 3D Big Fish Eyes
• Solarez UV Resin (Thick)

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I started tying a version of this crab fly about 10 years ago. It started as a permit crab that I was tying for customers. Soon after, I made slight adjustments to make it more appropriate for striped bass. Now, over the years it has been slightly tweaked, such as the addition of a jig hook, but remains essentially the same. The basic foundation of this fly is a combination of the EP Crab and (Del Brown's) Merkin.

Materials List: (click for product page)

• AHREX SA254 Salt Jig Hook #1
• Olive Craft Fur
• Chartreuse Grizzly Streamer Saddle
• Black Krystal Flash
• Back Country EP 3-D Fibers
• All Points Crab + Shrimp Rubber Legs (Spotted Green Crab Dark)
• Black Medium Lead Eyes
• Solarez Thin UV Resin

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The crouser has fast become one of the most popular flies for targeting striped bass here on the New England coast. This pattern was developed by local fly angler and current shop employee Joe Webster. The crouser is a crab + clouser hybrid and produces great results in a variety of scenarios.

What makes this such a great fly is its versatility in that it will work in scenarios where fish are selective towards crab, shrimp or small baitfish. In any of these situations the crouser will produce results. Originally this fly was designed to fish directly on the bottom with a sink tip fly line but also works well on a floating or intermediate line, especially when the bass are more interested in shrimp and baitfish vs. crabs. The olive/light olive color was the original and to this day still the most popular and all around productive color scheme, however darker colors have been found to work especially well in stained water or low light hours and the lighter tones have become extremely popular on some of the bigger flats south of us here in Maine. On top of being an extremely productive fly pattern for striped bass, tropical flats fisherman have taken a liking to this pattern in smaller sizes for bonefish and permit. This is a must have for any fly angler targeting striped bass on the New England coast.

Materials List: (click for product page)

• Large Northern Bucktail
• Painted Lead Eyes
• Gamakatsu SL12S Saltwater Hook
• Krystal Flash
• Rabbit Dubbing
• Veeus 140 Power Thread
• Zap a Gap
• Solarez UV Resin (Thin)

Check out one of our Crouser fly tying videos:

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We had an awesome time last night at Maine Beer Company! Not only was this the first time that we have done a M.B.F. at Maine Beer Company, but we also did our first one during a weekend. So it was a first for a couple of reasons! We had a great turnout even considering the possible conflict with the Patriots game! Haha. 

We were reminded of the changing season yesterday as light flurries of snow dusted the parking lot as we started to setup the room for the night. 

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Words + Photos By: Josh Thelin

We are back! This marks the first in-person Maine Bar Fly in two years. It was great to get back to one of our favorite events that we do here at All Points. We saw lots of familiar and new faces and had a great time tying some classic freshwater patterns.

The two flies that we covered for the night were the Black Ghost and Gartside Soft Hackle Streamer. Both very productive here in Maine for trout and landlocked salmon. By tying the marabou version of the Black Ghost, we were able to use similar materials to achieve two very different flies by simply adjusting techniques.

It was pretty clear that the hot beer for the night was Fore River's "Fore Five Six" pale ale. I saw a lot of pints of those at the tables. Speaking to Flynn Wilsea who is an employee at Fore River (and a future Maine Bar Fly instructor!) he said it has been their most popular beer recently. 

The Black Ghost was the first pattern that we tied and I took some time at the beginning to go over a little bit of its history. I brought in some images from books which had great old photos of Herb's flies. Deeply rooted in Maine fly fishing, the Black Ghost came from the western mountains on Mooselookmeguntic Lake here in Maine, and including others of Herb Welch's patterns, changed the way featherwing streamers were tied and fished for trout and salmon. His influence was wide spread including with Carrie Stevens and her well known Gray Ghost.

 We finished out the night tying the Gartside Soft Hackle Streamer. This is another one of my favorite streamers. It has certainly influenced me with my trout and salmon streamer tying. Most of the patterns that I tie for myself or clients are based around this fly. Jack Gartside had many patterns under his belt including ones for saltwater. Although more of a modern influence, you can see many of his ideas in new patterns today.

Cheers and see you at the next one!

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