How to Tie a Conehead Fly

Conehead flies have a small cone-shaped head attached next to the hook eye. Tie a conehead fly and experiment with different types and colors of feathers and patterns to attract trout and other game fish in your local streams. When fishing in murky waters, use nickel-plated coneheads to lure the fish. They have a little bit more flash and stand out more. Conehead flies work well for targeting brown, rainbow, cutthroat, lake and brook trout.

Things You'll Need

  • Hook, size 2 to 8
  • Brown or dark olive thread, size 8/0
  • Wapsi's Zonked Pink Squirrel in Olive
  • Hedron's Wing N' Flash in Red
  • Tungsten conehead, 3/16
  • Vise
  • Loon UV Knot Sense
  • Loon UV Power Light
  • Head cement
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Instructions

    • 1

      Slide the conehead through the hook from the hook point to the hook eye with the open part of the cone facing away from the eye. Secure the hook to the vise by the hook bend, with the shank pointing straight down.

    • 2

      Place one drop of Loon UV Knot Sense into the concave side of the conehead. Shine the Loon UV Power Light on the cone to completely cure the drop of Knot Sense. This locks the conehead on the hook.

    • 3

      Reposition the hook on the vise so that it clamps on the hook bend and the shank is parallel to the ground. Start wrapping thread behind the conehead to cover the entire length of the shank up to the start of the bend.

    • 4

      Cut a 5-inch piece of Zonked pine squirrel. Tie the pine squirrel at the start of the hook bend, making sure to leave a tail at about the same length as the shank protruding from the hook bend. Make five wraps to secure the pine squirrel to the hook bend. Leave the pine squirrel hanging and then continue wrapping the thread all the way to the base of the conehead.

    • 5

      Place a drop of head cement to the wraps securing the pine squirrel tail.

    • 6

      Start palmering or wrapping the pine squirrel around the hook shank toward the conehead. Do not wrap over the fur as you wrap along. Once you reach the conehead, make two final wraps at the conehead base and tie off. Slide the last wraps inside the cone to protect the thread and to give the fly a smoother finish.

    • 7

      Cut an inch of Wing N' Flash and loop it around the hanging thread. Position the flash to appear as the gill on the underside of the fly. Wrap the thread around the base of the cone and give it a whip-finish. Push and slide the thread inside the conehead. Secure with a drop of head cement.