New Baitfish Pattern I Have Been Working On

Well work and play came to a screeching halt this week as I was stricken with a bad case of gout in my left foot.  Man o man it sucks getting old.  The price I paid for eating like crap for the past few weeks and working like a dog.  Well after the pain subsided a bit and with nothing else to do (I am stuck in my game on the Xbox) I decided to tie a little. 

This is a small (size 10!) bait fish pattern I have been working on.  Most of the smallies I catch where I fish are in the 8 to 12 inch range.  That is not to say that there aren't some big boys and girls lurking as I have caught two over 17 inches in this particular river.  The river though is not known for being a smallmouth fishery.  In fact, quite the opposite.  So given the size of the smallies, I tend to make my flies in the 8, 10 or 12 size range.  Here are the photos showing how it has evolved since I started working on it a month or so ago.  The tail is Micro Pine Squirrel, the body is orange Cactus Chenille with so wool and the Micro Pine Squirrel is pulled over and tied off in front.  I did add some lead wire to it to make it sink a little.  Without it, I found out that the wool keeps it up and floating on the surface.  Please let me know what you think and remember it doesn't look pretty right now as I am still working on the pattern.

Here is the first prototype:

Here is number two:

And here is the current model:

Sorry for the crappy photo on the third guy.  We finally bought a new camera and I am still learning how to use it.  Anyways, I like both the second and third models.  I think on the third one though the red wool needs to be angled down more towards the bottom of the hook shank.  Overall though I like them.  They are had to do in such a small size.