Soft plastics like the savage gear soft plastic eels have done me very well in the past for pike in up here in Scotland, and I'm pretty sure the J series Rapalas are so good fished slowly because they look so eel-like.
But how to get this movement on a fly?
I remembered those soft pipe cleaner snake-like things, and after various google searches, I found they were referred to as the magic worm.
A very simple tie on sakuma 2/0 aberdeen hooks. After securing thread to the hook, a simple lock in of the worm similarly to a zonker, parting the synthetic fur and securing with a few turns of thread, then securing the head end. A quick trim of the top thin end of the worm, chamfering the head a little, and the addition of some eyes built up with UV resin, job done!
Really looking forward to giving these a go and seeing how they look in the water. A slow twitch should have them irresistible for pike, imitating eels or the big leeches present in some of the lochs around Argyll. They should work for pollack too, the big long tail should be pretty enticing in some current, or even behind a texas rig or chebarushka weight.
Update
They look phenomenal in the water, even wigglier and softer than expected! I actually had second thoughts about removing this post.. but I will definitely be catching on them with the fly this year, and also tying some onto jigheads.
HOWEVER, The first version was very heavy to cast; it went out on a 10wt, but it wasn't easy!! So I made some cut outs to make it lighter (pic below), and also made them a bit shorter, maybe 2/3rds of the total length.
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