Motor Oil Disco Legs

Motor Oil Silicone Legs with Black Flake

Motor oil is the color that doesn’t look like much in the package. Customers in my shops used to pick it up, frown, and put it back for something louder. Then the guides would come in and buy every pack on the wall. The guides knew something.

Nature’s Spirit Disco Legs in Motor Oil – Black have a translucent olive-amber base with black flake. In clear water over sand and turtle grass, that’s what shrimp, crabs and baitfish actually look like. Bright colors spook wary fish. Motor Oil gets eaten by fish that have seen every chartreuse fly in the county.

This is the leg I’d pick if I could only tie saltwater flies with one. Bonefish shrimp, snook baitfish, redfish crabs on gin-clear flats. And for freshwater, it’s a natural on sculpins and on big, dark muskie flies where you want movement without a neon sign.

I once fished a bonefish flat with a guide who looked at my box and sighed. Not good. Then he found my Motor Oil shrimp, picked it out, and said “this one.” He didn’t say another word for three hours, but we landed eleven fish. Best conversation I’ve had in years.

Best for: bonefish, permit, redfish, sea trout, snook, striped bass, muskie and pike, trout (sculpins), carp and smallmouth bass in clear water.

Recipe 1: Motor Oil Disco Bonefish Shrimp (bonefish, permit, redfish)

• Hook: Saltwater stainless, size 4 to 6
• Thread: Tan 140 denier
• Eyes: Small bead-chain or lead dumbbell, depending on water depth
• Tail: Tan craft fur with 4 strands of pearl or root beer flash
• Legs: Motor Oil – Black Disco Legs, 2 strands per side, tied at the bend to splay like antennae
• Body: Tan or Unicorn Predator Dub, with a grizzly or tan hackle palmered through and trimmed on top
• Wing: Tan craft fur, sparse, over the hook point

Tying: Tie the eyes at the front, on top, so the fly rides hook up. Tie in tail, flash and leg antennae at the bend. Dub the body and palmer the hackle forward. Trim the hackle flat on top. Tie in a sparse craft fur wing over the hook point to make it weedless. Keep it sparse. Bonefish don’t like heavy flies landing on their heads.

How to fish it: Lead a tailing or cruising bonefish by 2 to 4 feet. Let it settle to the bottom. When the fish gets close, use short 3- to 6-inch strips to make the shrimp hop and puff sand. If the fish follows, keep stripping. If it tips down, stop and wait for weight, then strip-strike. Light-colored bottom calls for tan and motor oil; dark grass bottom, go darker.

Recipe 2: Motor Oil Disco Double Bunny (muskie, pike)

• Hooks: Two 3/0 to 5/0 saltwater or pike hooks, joined with 50 to 80 lb wire for articulation
• Thread: Black or olive GSP 200 denier
• Rear section: Olive and black rabbit zonker strips, tied top and bottom, with black Flashabou
• Front section: Olive and brown bucktail, stacked and spun
• Legs: Motor Oil – Black Disco Legs, 4 strands per side at each section joint
• Head: Fish-mask or a spun deer hair collar, trimmed
• Eyes: Large 3D eyes, glued

Tying: Build the rear hook first with zonker strips top and bottom, glued together along the hook shank. Add a bunch of legs at the front of the rear section. Connect to the front hook with wire. Spin bucktail in layers, adding the second set of legs halfway forward. Finish with a deer-hair collar or head, and glue the eyes.

How to fish it: Use an 8 or 10 weight rod, a sinking or intermediate line, and a wire bite tippet. Strip it with long, erratic pulls and pauses along weed edges and rock points. The rabbit and silicone keep moving on the pause, which is when follows turn into eats. Always finish every retrieve with a figure-eight at the boat. Muskie love to follow to the boat and eat at your feet.