SEA TROUT INTRUDERS - TUBE FLIES

Sea Trout Intruder Tube Flies dressed on Needle Tubes

Intruders originated in the early nineteen nineties on the rivers of the Pacific North West. Anglers fishing for Chinook salmon and Steelhead devised the style of tying hoping to create a lure which would provoke an agressive response from the salmon to an Intruder into their territorial space. The idea worked very well! Since then, the Intruder style of fly, first dressed on long shank hooks, then on wire shanks such as Waddington shanks, have been developed on many rivers for a variety of species. Their popularity has also spread to the salmon and sea trout rivers of Europe. In recent years, fly tyers and anglers have recognised the many benefits of dressing their Intruders on tubes. Illustrated below are just a few simple sea trout intruders dressed on stainless steel Needle Tubes, length 35mm, diameter 1.5mm. These Intruder Tube Flies are as slim as an Intruder dressed on a Waddington shank and about the same weight. They are fairly easily cast on a single handed rod and sink as quickly and to a similar depth as a Waddington lure.

See Tying a Simple Sea Trout Intruder Tube Fly

In my view, tubes offer several advantages over wire shanks for the dressing of the Intruder style of fly:

Tubes are much more easily dressed
The hook is more easily fitted to the tube and more easily changed when damaged
The tube can slide up the line when a fish is hooked, reducing damage to the fly
If dressed on a stainless steel needle tube, the slim shiny polished silver body may be left undressed, simplifying the tying procedure

A Few Sea Trout Intruders

Shown below is a small selection of Needle Tube Flies dressed simply in the Intruder style on 35mm long stainless steel needle tubes, diameter 1.5mm. The hooks are Kamasan B983 size 8, allowed to swing freely behind the tube, protected by a heat-shrink Knot Guard, which can be very easily made at home. The flies shown here are about two inches in length – small perhaps by Intruder standards but well suited to late night time sea trout fishing on our British rivers.

Black Sea Trout Intruder Tube Fly — **Black Sea Trout Intruder**

Squirrel and Blue Sea Trout Intruder Fly — **Squirrel and Blue Sea Trout Intruder**

Black and Orange Intruder Tube Fly — **Black and Orange Sea Trout Intruder**

**Black & Blue Intruder Tube Fly dressed on a 30mm needle tube**

Sea Trout Black and Blue Intruder Tube — **Another Black and Blue Sea Trout Intruder**

Red Intruder Needle Tube Fly — **Black & Red Intruder Tube Fly dressed on a 30mm needle tube**

Sea Trout Intruder Tube Fly Black and Yellow — **Black & Yellow Sea Trout Intruder**

Needle Intruder Tube Fly — **Another Black & Yellow Intruder dressed on a 30mm needle tube**

**A Magus Intruder Needle Tube Fly dressed on a 30mm needle tube**

Sea Trout Intruder Tube Fly - Black and Pink — **Another Black and Pink Sea Trout Intruder**

Colour and size may of course be varied according to conditions, circumstance and preference, to create a wide variety of Intruders for sea trout, or for any other predatory species.

Pink and Blues Sea Trout Intruder — **Mixed Colour Sea Trout Intruder Tube**

Mini Intruders

This style of Intruder Fly might be dressed small or large, as situations require, on any length of tube. The two Mini Intruders shown below are dressed on stainless steel needle tubes, 25mm length, 1.5mm diameter and fitted with free-swinging size 10 Kamasan B983 single hooks in heat-shrink Knot Guards. Although a bit smaller than the Intruder tubes shown above, having an overall length of around one and a half inches, these, like the flies above, are intended for sea trout night fishing.

Mini Intruder Tubes — **Mini Intruders dressed on 1 inch Needle Tubes fitted with free swinging single hooks**

The tube flies can be fitted with single, double or treble hooks, which may be allowed to swing freely, as in the above examples, or held in place by a short length of flexible silicone tubing, as shown below.

Sea Trout Intruder Tubes with treble hooks — **Mini Intruders fitted with Treble Hooks**

The Intruder is just one of many styles of dressing which may be applied to Needle Tubes. Other examples of simple dressings are shown below.