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Gray’s Best 2006 -Petitjean Magic Head

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 anything I’ve ever seen. Marc Petitjean is fly fishing’s very own Geppetto.