At last year's Fly-fishing Retailer Show, the new product that wowed fly fishing's Alpha Geek Elite wasn't yet another $800 fly rod or $600 tying vise but a little translucent plastic cone that costs less than a dollar and looks like an Elizabethan collar for postage-stamp-size poodles.

The latest in a long line of Marc Petitjean's fly-fishing innovations, the Magic Head binds to the hook shank and can be swept back for a streamlined cone streamer head or, with a flick of the finger, reversed to make your fly wiggle from side to side on retrieve like a real baitfish. You have only to see this in action on Petitjean's Web site to realize its significance. In addition, the soft silicone-like head reduces collision damage between your tungsten-cone or epoxy-head streamer and your rod. In fact, you no longer need epoxy heads at all; the Magic Head works just fine on its own. Available in sizes suitable for flies from 6/0 down to 18 imagine the swimming Baetis and damselfly imitations! The Magic Head breathes life into flies better than anthing I've ever seen.

Marc Petitjean is fly fishing's very own Geppetto.