When it comes to commercial spey/swing style fly patterns (i.e. those that you can pick up at your local fly shop), one manufacturer in particular has been standing out amongst the crowd; Aqua Flies.
We’ve been pointing anglers bound for our lodges in Alaska and British Columbia towards Aqua Flies for years. Why? Aside from the fact that more than one of our alums have contributed patterns to their lineup of late (admittedly, we’re a little bias), they also uphold an impressive level of quality control and utilize some of the highest quality materials we’ve seen on commercial fly patterns. All good things.
One recognizable material found amongst their line of intruder-style patterns that we’ve always appreciated has been their custom hourglass shaped brass eyes. Painted in a multitude of fluorescent colors and molded in a tighter shape that better complements the sparse head of an intruder, we always wanted to know how we could get our paws on our own..
Clearly, we weren’t the only ones, because recently the good folks at Aqua Flies decided to release the exact eyes used on their patterns to the public. They’ve dubbed them Intruder Eyes, and when it comes to intruders, we think they’re as good as it gets.
What do we like about them? For starters, they’re available in almost every color common in salmon/steelhead patterns such as blood red, blue, light blue, fluorescent pink, fluorescent orange, fluorescent salmon pink, fluorescent flame, and fluorescent chartreuse. Secondly, they’re concave hourglass shape seems to add more weight despite their small appearance making for a tidier looking (but still heavy) fly which we really like.
If you like to tie/fish intruder style flies, we highly recommend giving Aqua Flies’ new Intruder Eyes a shot. Available in two different sizes (5/32″ and 3/16″) via packs of 20, you can now pick them up at your nearest Aqua Fly Dealer. For for information, check them out on Aqua Flies’ website by clicking right here.
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