Tube Bomber ™ : Big dry flies with no weight or problems with leverage
The Tube Bomber - and how to tie it
The Bomber was designed in the ’60s in New Brunswick Canada – Normally it is tied on long shank streamer hooks 8 – 2/0 – We tie them on a tube for multiple reasons
- Make huge dry flies with no significant weight (easier to cast)
- A Tube Bomber ™ will stay high on the water…
- No problems with leverage when using a Tube Bomber ™ and short shank hook’s
- A Tube Bomber ™ will stay afloat much better due to low weight
- You will inflict less damage to the fish with the small hook’s you can use with the Tube Bomber ™
- Small sharp wide-gape hooks used on a Tube Bomber ™ will easily with less use of power hook a salmon
- Smaller hooks are less likely to penetrate the pallet of the fish and damage vital organs.
Above: White Tube Bomber ™ well up the leader with this hooked Atlantic Salmon – This makes de-hooking easy – And the fish can’t use the long fly as a lever
Hooks to use with the Tube Bomber
We recommend a short shank wide gape hook at the end of the Tube Bomber – This will give you a perfect hook-up. You can change to single, double or treble hooks according to your choice, the flow of the river or the rules of the Riverkeeper.
Read more on the hooks we suggest for the Tube Bomber …
Tying The Tube Bomber ™
Tying The Tube Bomber ™Start by heating the end of the tube near a naked flame thereby creating a small collar on the tube. – This collar will prevent the hook guard from falling-off during energetic casting. Note of warning! Not all types of tube will melt and form a collar when heated – most tubing will catch fire etc. – It is the melting point of the material that is of importance – If you use the right quality tube such a collar will easily form
Fix an x-small tube to a needle (here a 1,4 mm tube) Tie down the hook-guard. We used sewing needles to tie on.
The Tube Bomber I will do this time is The Smurf Bomber
Tie in a bunch of hair from a quality calf tail Not too stiff hair. Ad strands of Mylar (the Mylar strands will help you keep track of the Tube Bomber in low light and fast water). Note how I have tied down the tail hair at the thinnest point at the back..behind the tie-down of the hook guard – This is to make sure that it later will be possible to shape the deer hair body all the way down
To be used in the following job: Add yet another bobbin-holder. This time with 0.04 Fireline (# 2 Lb. test) Tie in a length of the Fireline later to be used as a rib. Add drops of super-glue to the tie-down of wing and tail.
We use Berkley Fireline Crystal Competition Braid # 2 lb as tying tread on the deer-hair section. This superior line has all the right abilities for this project and is not expensive compared to alternative fly tying treads
Add drops of super-glue or similar to the tie-down-point at the tail and wing. These have a tendency to become loose over time. The glue will prevent this. Cover up the wing and tail with stationary stickers or something similar (not too sticky) This will aid you when you are going to shape the Dee hair body in step 8
Tie down a pencil size sections of deer body hair. Make sure to tighten each section securely with the Fireline. We do not stack the hair to tight on the Tube Bomber ™…We think it is better to have some air in the construction.
Ad all sections of deer hair and finish up the Fireline with a couple of hitches. We use belly hair from North American Whitetail – In this case, coloured Smurf Blue a Bomber colour very popular with salmon anglers in Newfoundland
Trim the deer body hair to a cigar-shaped style with your scissors or a razor blade. Ad a little hump of fly tying thread to make the wing stand slightly upwards. Remove the stationary labels carefully.
Tie in a quality hackle and run it down through the deer hair body securing that the stem of the hackle gets inside the deer hair structure. Run the Fireline ribbing upwards through the body and hackles. Secure and whip-finish.
Your new Tube Bomber
Trim any excess material and add a drop of super-glue to the head of your newly spawned Tube Bomber ™ Last but not least: add a tiny wide-gape hook – and a good salmon river…
A special tool for the job...
For small/medium diameter tube flies or metal tubes with inner-lining tubing – Bottle tubes, but more than anything this needle is designed for big and small tube dry flies like the Tube Bomber. Shaped to fit our 1.8 mm. tube with an inside diameter (Ø) of 1.1 mm. The total length is 97 mm. A needle that will enable you to tie big tube dry flies. See the special needle in our shop