Tab Eyes

Tab Eyes - Fly Tying Essentials

After many years of trials to find the ideal eyes for baitfish patterns we have settled on two types of eyes that meet our demands. The first type is a low-weight dumbbell design from Clear Cure (see here), the second type is a tab eye; these are stick-on eyes with a tab attached to the eye. The tab is tied in at the front of the fly to secure the eyes. The dumbbell design works well for tying styles that require materials to be tied in front of the eyes. The tab eyes are a bit more aerodynamic. Both are extremely durable compared to standard stick-on eyes, which tend to come off after a few fish encounters.

The tab eyes are tied in and glued. We use a general purpose, flexible, waterproof, clear contact cement. The result is a virtually indestructible set of eyes. We use these eyes on our "King's Candy" Chinook salmon flies, our tarpon flies, and on all our Peacock bass flies.

The eyes are available in one colour at the moment; silver with a black pupil. If you need, for example, red or yellow eyes, simply colour the silver part with permanent marker. This way you only need to buy the one silver variation for a range of economical applications. They come in the following sizes:

3mm (28 per pack), 5mm (24 per pack),  8mm (24 per pack), 10mm (24 per pack), 12mm (30 per pack)