Tinglers – SALMON FLIES

Tingler Tube Flies

The Tingler is a tube fly tied on a slim stainless steel Needle Tube armed with a lightly dressed single hook. It was devised in 2012 originally as a slim lure for sea trout night fishing but may be adapted successfully, in varying sizes, weights, colours and dressings for any predatory fish, in particular salmon, both Atlantic and Pacific, and steelhead.

A Tingler with assorted tails — **The Tingler with Assorted Tails**

The benefits of the Tingler include:

They are easily dressed, especially if the silver stainless needle tube is left undressed
The lightly dressed hook may be easily changed when damaged or to alter the appearance of the fly
The Tingler may be dressed on various weights and sized of tubes and hooks and the dressing varied to suit the quarry and conditions
With the growing awareness of the need to conserve fragile fish stocks, the single hook makes it easier to release fish quickly and without harm.
The use of a long shank, straight-eyed single hook, either dressed or undressed, allows the length of the lure to be extended without a significant increase in weight.
The use of a sparsely dressed lightweight single at the tail end of the tube allows the lure to swim, possibly more attractively, on a more even keel, with the bulk of the weight towards the front of the lure. In addition, a shorter and therefore lighter tube may be used (where a weighty lure is not required) in conjunction with a long shank single, which may be more easily cast, particularly on a light single handed rod.
A variety of lightly dressed single hooks, in various materials, densities and shades, may add some mobility and vitality to the tube fly and variously dressed single hooks can be readily interchanged with various tube dressings to create a wide range of colour/shade/shape options. For example, four tubes and four dressed single hooks, all with different dressings, give a possible 16 variations of fly, 20 if we include the possible use of an undressed single hook.

The Tinglers illustrated here have been dressed on slim stainless steel needle tubes, length 15mm and outside diameter 1.5mm. They are armed with lightly dressed size 8 Gamakatsu G-CODE F31 hooks and have an overall length of between 1.5 and 2 inches. They have been dressed with Atlantic salmon in mind but might also be effective for sea trout night fishing or for Pacific salmon and summer steelhead in lower flows. The length and weight of the tube, and the size of the hook, may be varied accordingly.

One of the major benefits of the Tingler is the ability to quickly change the colour of the tail to create, in effect a different fly. A change of tail colour may alter the appearance of the fly quite dramatically, as shown below. If we take, as an example, the three tubes and four tails shown in the photograph below, the angler has available to him 12 different colour combinations of interchangeable tubes and tails. Additional Tinglers can of course be created in a wide rangle of sizes, weights, colours and styles. The possibilities are endless.