One of my favourites flies is a Sandeel imitation called the Surf Candy, originally developed by Bob Popovics as a style of baitfish fly tying. You can vary the size, length and colours to match the baitfish that are around but I generally tie up a batch of sandeel patterns and a batch of white/silver patterns then use permanent felt markers to colour the white flies as mullet or mackerel fry depending on the season
This design starts with a Kamasan B984 Size #4 hook with a small amount of whipping just down from the hook eye.
A sparse bunch of white bucktail is tied in and around the hook, whipping it along to the bend of the hook then bring the tread back up to the eye again.
Next tie in a bit of olive or golden olive flash just behind the hook eye (I'm usually a bit over-generous with the flash
).
The next step is to tie in a sparse bunch (and I emphasize SPARSE) of olive or light brown bucktail along the top of the hook. Make sure you keep the darker colour on the top of the hook, don't let it spread around the hook. I find using a natural Bucktail is perfect for this fly. The white being used for the bottom colour and the brown/black hairs used for the upper colour. You can also tie in a length of Peacock Hurl along the very top of the fly but I find this both expensive and unnecessary.
Once you've decided on the top colours whip in the top bucktail and the centre line flash down along the hook to the start of the bend (to the same point as the lower colour) then bring the thread back up to the head. Build up a tapered head and whip off to finish.
The Surf Candy has an expoxied or varnished body/head to make it hard and shiny so the next step is to put on several coats of varnish along the whole of the head and whipped body section or use quick setting clear epoxy (I use epoxy which sets when I shine a UV light on it). The final step is to add some eyes, give a final touch of varnish to seal the eyes in place and trim the tail to length.
The almost finished fly:
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