Fish-Skull Articulated Fish-Spine

The Fish-Skull® Articulated Fish-Spine is an innovative system of interconnected, articulated shanks that combine to form a multi-jointed, “fish spine” upon which incredibly animate and realistic baitfish patterns can be tied.

The Fish-Spine was co-developed with Blane Chocklett who is one of the fly fishing industry’s most forward thinking and innovative fly tiers.   By daisy-chaining a series of articulated shanks, Blane conceived of a way to impart incredibly realistic action into baitfish patterns that has until now been impossible to achieve. Multi-jointed “swim flies” with ultra-real action!

Key Features:

•     Four specially designed articulated shanks of varying lengths.
•     Tapered effect creates life-like action.
•   Stainless steel for saltwater flies.
•  Six Fish-Spines per pack (24 individual segments).

•  Articulated Fish-Spine Q & A:
• Q:  What is a Fish-Spine comprised of?
• A:   A Fish-Spine is comprised of four specially designed articulated shanks of various lengths i.e. 25mm, 20mm, 15mm and 10mm. These shanks are connected together to form a highly articulated, tapered fish spine.

• Q:  What is the basic method for tying flies using the Fish-Spine?
• A:  The concept is very simple. Flies are typically created in four or five sections, i.e. a hook (at front or back) plus three or four articulated shanks all “daisy chained” together to form the body and tail of the fly.
• A fly is tied in segments. Each segment is tied using one of the 3 or 4 articulated shanks or the hook. Typically, a fly is tied by starting first with the tail segment and once completed, more segments are added on one at a time until you finish at the front of the fly.
• To explain in a little more detail… each segment is created by tying the materials (natural or synthetic) onto an articulated shank which is held in your vise.  Once a segment is tied, the articulated shank is removed from the vise and connected to the loop of the next size of articulated shank.  In turn, this new shank is held in the vise and the materials in turn are tied onto that shank.  This process continues until the segments of the fly (shanks and hook/s) are all connected together.  The fly is then trimmed to shape and any final features like eyes or body markings can be added to finish off the fly.
• Shank direction: For flies that have a hook positioned at the front of the fly (as illustrated), then the daisy-chained articulated shanks can face in any direction and it makes no difference to the performance of the fly. However, for flies that have a stinger hook positioned at the back of the fly, then the shanks will need to be positioned with the Big Loop facing towards the back of the fly… so that the hook can be slipped onto the big loop on the last shank in the chain.