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Aug 03 2016

Rigging Stinger Hooks – The Twisted Hitch

Rigging stinger hook style flies.
Jerry’s Dirty Hoh (clearly abused by some fish) rigged with a twisted hitch.

Today we present you with some rigging wizardry courtesy of Alaska West  guide, Jerry French. You may recognize Jerry’s name as part of the original brain trust behind the Intruder. However, intruder style patterns are hardly the only flies Jerry fishes..

In fact, he’d be the first to tell you that great anglers evolve, constantly pushing the envelope to try new things. That’s the driving force behind his latest ‘evolution’ of fly patterns, including the ever popular ‘dirty hoh’ which utilizes a leech-like bunny strip (amongst some super unique techniques which is a topic for another post).

It’s hard to argue with the sheer fishiness of bunny strips in the water. Although the downside to most leech-style flies incorporating a bunny strip and a stinger-style hook is that they’re most often tied with the rabbit strip attached directly to the stinger hook (see an example by clicking right here). This provides great action to the fly, allowing the hook and tail and swim together in a natural manner, but doesn’t allow for an easy hook change should your hook become dull. That means more flies that get tossed before they’ve reached their full shelf life, and that’s no bueno.

Instead, when fixing a stinger hook to a bunny tail style fly, Jerry utilizes a super clever way he refers to as the twisted hitch that allows for easy hook changes with unhindered movement of the tail and hook of the fly. It works pretty darn well, and here’s how he does it.

Rigging stinger hook style flies.
Step 1: Draw your stinger loop tight to allow the loop to be pushed through the eye of the stinger hook. Jerry likes to use as limp a braid as possible here to produce the most action as possible to the fly.
Rigging stinger hook style flies.
Step 2: Pass the stinger loop up through the eye of the hook. This will allow for the hook to ride up in relation to the bunny tail.
Rigging stinger hook style flies.
Step 3: Pass the loop over the bend of the hook.
Rigging stinger hook style flies.
Step 4: Twist the loop clockwise a half turn.
Rigging stinger hook style flies.
Step 5: Pass the loop back over the bend of the hook so the loop is now on top of the shank of the stinger hook as shown.
Rigging stinger hook style flies.
Step 6: Twist the loop a half turn again, this time in the opposite direction (counter clockwise).
Rigging stinger hook style flies.
Step 7: Pass the loop back over the bend of the hook positioning the loop on the underside of the stinger hook shank as shown.
Rigging stinger hook style flies.
Step 8: Wet the tip of your bunny tail for easy handling and slide it through the stinger loop.
Rigging stinger hook style flies.
Step 9: Slide the bunny tail through into position until straight.
Rigging stinger hook style flies.
Step 10: Pull on the head of the fly and the stinger hook to tighten down the loop, trapping the bunny tail.
Rigging stinger hook style flies.
Step 11: Pull the loop tight.
Rigging stinger hook style flies.
Step 12: Pick out any fibers that may have been trapped between the braid and the hide of the rabbit strip.
Rigging stinger hook style flies.
Step 13: Trim the tail to just shy of the bend of the stinger hook and get fishing! The hook is now fixed directly to the tail for killer movement, while still allowing the hook to be changed.. Brilliant!

More Rigging Tips

  • Rigging Beads for Trout – 3 Methods
  • Quick Change Sink Tips
  • Fishing Dropper Rigs

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Eric says

    August 3, 2016 at 10:47 am

    Brilliant indeed! I had already been using AK West guide Grant Turner’s trick of just running the bunny strip through the hook loop with no hitches. Already learned that if I didn’t leave sufficient tag (about 3/8 inch) at the end of the bunny, it would slip out. Also learned on smaller flies if I left the amount of leather tag I wanted, I had to trim fur off the end of the strip to get the tips of the fur to match up with the bend of the hook. (I think that is important to minimize short strikes, especially with steelhead)

    This adds an extra element of security. Great timing for this post, because I am pounding out the bunny strip leech and sculpin ties right now for the Kanektok rainbows, dollies and silvers in 10 days!

    See you soon, boys!

  2. Eric says

    August 3, 2016 at 11:51 am

    One other comment. You mention that Jerry uses limp braid to maximize the action of the bunny strip.

    However, in the photos, I note that Jerry has both strands of braid that form the loop secured to the front shank.

    I have been taking one strand of limp braid and tying an overhand loop(NOT a perfection loop) about 1 1/4 inches long in it (may need to up that a little for this hitch technique).

    That loop is long enough to swap hooks out. The remaining single strand gets threaded through the eye of the front shank, wrapped back over itself down the shank 5 turns or so and whip finished. So you only have the one limp strand coming off the front shank, (for maximum action) but still have the loop at the end of that strand to loop hooks on.

    I have been using 35lb braid, and have never had that overhand loop fail against 16 lb tippet on Great Lakes steelhead. If you use significantly heavier tippet for kings maybe you have to test it further.

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