Tying a Synthetic Surf Candy - False Albacore and Striped Bass Fly

Today we'll be tying a synthetic surf candy, a Popovics Fly and one of the most popular flies I tie. Works well for false albacore, bonito, spanish mackerel, striped bass, bluefish and other species.
Hopefully you enjoyed the video, if you would like to see more tying and fly fishing videos subscribe to the channel and be sure to check out our twitch channel. We do live fly tying as well as other things like live fly fishing, guitar/music and gaming streams. Tight lines!
Twitch: / lifliesmike
Instagram: / lifliesmike
Music by Epidemic Sound: www.epidemicsound.com/
Materials:
Mustad c70sd Big Game fly hook size 4 - 2/0
Danville Mono thread fine
Flashabou
Supreme Hair ( or unique hair)
Lateral Scale
Stick on Eyes
UV Resin (medium or thick)
Body Braid
Super Glue (optional)

[@peteyarrington582]

great video! Glad I found it. Thanks from Maryland!

[@glennplatvoet7111]

Yeah 👍 looks good 😊 going to use them

[@FlyTyer1948]

Nice tie. Thanks for posting. When I discovered that my epoxied surf candies were yellowing (arrgggghhh!!), I switched to coating the head & first part of the body to Softex, & it was quite effective. It’s more flexible & doesn’t yellow. Put a toothpick in the eye, dip the fly in the jar of Softex & even out the material & remove the toothpick after the fly dries. It’s not quite as durable as epoxy or resin for hard use around rocks, but it is pretty tough & has a soft mouth feel for the fish. You might want to test it to see if you like it. If I could still fish, I would now use flexible resin ( tested it on one fly & it was similar in feel) interchangeably with Softex for deep water or sand beaches & hard resin the way you tied your example for tough beach or ledge fishing. Right now I’m tying fllies for donations mostly for freshwater, since my local Healing Waters chapter mainly pond fishes, but I like keeping up with the evolution of saltwater flies & am enjoying your tutorials.

[@lifliesmike]

Hey thanks for the compliments and for the info, ya I use to tie with softex, especially the mushmouth patterns by Dave Skok, but that stuff is terrible for you fumes wise, so I stopped by tying with it. I now use the flex resin when I need a softex type of application. It's not the same but gets a similar effect.

[@OldVetUSN72]

My go to fly for Surf ! The UV resin brought this one back on my bench. Tying these with epoxy years ago wasn't much fun as nowadays. Keep up the good videos. Tight lines !

[@lifliesmike]

I agree, I always found epoxy tough to work with consistently, UV resin is so much easier to use and get the shape you want. Thanks for the kind words!

[@jaygrenham]

Nice video Mike!! LI here also and I believe the Stripers have arrived!

[@lifliesmike]

Thanks Jay, the bass have certainly arrived. Had my first keeper sized bass on the fly a couple days ago. Time to get out and fish

[@BenjaminDyall]

great looking fly dude! Cheers

[@lifliesmike]

Thanks for the kind words!

[@johnthomas5806]

thanks, I think this will work on stripped sea perch also....

[@wally6278]

Great video.. Would you be able to do a video on a micro version for like trout ,bass etc..

[@lifliesmike]

Great idea. You basically scale it down for the hook size but I'll work on a video for micro candies for the next video.

[@mdees88]

Nice video and good looking surf candy. How do you like the fly tester?

[@adensteindl9079]

New to the salt water fly game here in south jersey. Your videos have helped me immensely. Do you have any patterns you like with EP fibers?

[@lifliesmike]

The ep baitfish is a classic but you can use it in the same manner as most synthetic materials. I tie a mullet fly with a trimmed ep head, ju a try not to use too much material as it builds up quick.

[@adensteindl9079]

@@lifliesmike awesome! thank you for the response and for the material you provide us with here on youtube.

[@jeffbowes8224]

Trying to order some flies do you have a online store?

[@markrigg6623]

All surf candies are synthetic. Just sayin'.

[@albertovos1189]

I tied them with bucktail.