Senyo’s Standard Intruder Trailer Hook Wire

If you like tying Intruder-style flies for steelhead and salmon, you’re going to like this one.

Deneki alumnus Trevor Covich has turned into one heck of a tyer.  Now a part of Olympic Peninsula Skagit Tactics, Trevor wrote up today’s post on his best solution for your trailer wire needs.

Thanks, T!

Senyo’s Standard Intruder Trailer Hook Wire

How many times has your articulated hook gotten tangled or made the hook ride in a position that brought solid hookups into question?

When I first started tying I used a lot of braided line to attach hooks to flies used on kings, steelhead, and trout patterns. The flies looked and moved like I wanted but there were also some things that needed to get ironed out. The hook would tangle and get caught on the head of most patterns depending on what you used for the head of your fly. The braid would also fray when snagged on sticks or other obstacles.

I found trailing wire this fall at Waters West fly shop in Port Angeles – it was much stiffer than braid and looked to be way stronger. It’s a Hareline Dubbin product that I decided to test out during my upcoming steelhead seasons in BC and on the Olympic Peninsula. What I found were a couple great advantages to this over braided line. Deciding whether this was worthy or not it would be tested on a few subjects such as, hook up ratio, strength, abrasion resistance, and how the hook rides in current.

When I tie in the Senyo wire, it’s not like braid where you have to tie it down on the entire shank and run through the eye of the hook. You only have to tie down about 1/4 inch of wire to the shank of your hook to hold.  No sissy wraps – only tight, strong wraps.This will leave you the entire eye of the hook for your leader instead of clogging they eye with braid.

You might be thinking to yourself that the wire might slip out when fighting larger salmon or steelhead. Doing tight, strong wraps down on the wire with heavier thread will sink into the coating for maximum grip. I had to see it to believe it before I could use this for my clients.

I found that not only does the wire hold the hook right in place, but it also performs well under high amounts of pressure. The times I would snag up the hooks would either bend or break with the strength of 15 pound Maxima.

I found that when fish were hooked the landing ratio was above average and that fish were pinned in the top of the mouth where they should be, preventing tongue hookups. After 20 days in BC and a full winter/spring season on the Olympic Peninsula I was very satisfied with the results of the wire. BC as always gave up good numbers of fish – test subjects were not hard to find. This also held true for winter steelhead when coaxed to a swung fly.

The wire did well against abrasion however sometimes the trailing wire kinked if it was snagged in a funny position. The wire can be tough to put through the eye of stinger hooks size 2 – 6 and easy on larger hook sizes. All hooks should be an octopus hook – straight eyed stinger hooks will ride funny. I use owners in a size 2 for steelhead, 4-6 for trout, and 1 – 1/0 for kings.

The trick to looping this wire through your smaller stinger hooks is to have a piece of leader material about 8 inches long.  Pass the tag end of the leader material through the wire loop so both tag ends meet. Bring both tag ends through the eye of the stinger hook and pull until the loop passes through the eye of the hook. End by pulling out your leader material and looping the wire around the bend of the hook so the barbless hook rides up.

Things to Remember About Senyo’s Wire

• It comes in a multitude of different colors.
• You can use a size 6 stinger hook or larger.
• Its plastic coating over the wire makes it easy to hold on the shank of the hook because the thread sinks into coating with every wrap for a strong hold.
• The wire is so strong that when snagged up most hooks tend to bend or break with a strong pull and 15 pound Maxima.
• It costs about 6 bucks per pack at your fly shop.
• Holds hook in position for good landing odds.
• The hook must be an octopus hook to ride correctly.

More on Fly Tying

• The Intruder
• Larimer’s Reverse Marabou Tube
• Be Creative