Weedless Flies

I've been thinking for a while about tying up some weedless flies, having had so much success on weedless lures it seemed a logical step to replicate the same results using fly fishing gear. One particular species that responds well to weedless lures fish in amongst structure such as weed and rocks is Wrasse. To hook a Wrasse on fly gear would certainly be an interesting proposition as they are renowned as power house fish that test your tackle to the limit. So I set about making some prototype weedless flies based upon what I have learnt from lure fishing, and this is what I came up with :

Pretty funky eh ?

The Clouser style design puts the weight where you want it ready to deliver the fly down into the danger zone, the stiff mono prong weed guards should deflect the majority of obstacles and the use of a purpose design weedless worm hook should make the design work more efficiently. I don't think I'm far off with this design but I may add a bit more weight to the bottom of the hook to ensure it sinks positively and gets down quickly.

I look forward to testing these on a few fish in the near future, once the water warms enough to bring the Wrasse inshore and within fly casting range.

Clouser Minnow

If there is one Fly that is a 'go to' fly in any Saltwater anglers box it has to be the Clouser Minnow. It was one of the first flies I ever tied and fished with and one of the first I caught fish on. I will often start my fishing sessions on some variation of the Clouser, be it colour, size or material type. There are many ways to tie it and different materials perform different tasks so it is worth thinking about what you want the fly to do in any given situation and choose accordingly. A fly constructed from Bucktail for instance, will sink faster and more easily than the same pattern built from synthetic materials such as Slinky fibre or H2O. It may not seem important at first glance but sometimes it is necessary to get the fly down to deeper fish quickly, or sometimes you want it to sink slowly and fish at a shallower depth, all depending on where the fish are sitting in the water column.

Where I live, smaller flies work well early season and so I have tied up a batch of Clousers in various colours in readiness for the new season. As the season progresses I will move up to larger flies as the fish begin to feed on larger baitfish, but I will always carry the small ones as well for situations when the predators are feeding on large numbers of fry. Often they will become very pre occupied on theses tiny baitfish and it is impossible to get a hook up unless you can 'match the hatch'.

I have a limited number of surplus Clouser's for sale at the moment which you will find in the Saltwater Flies for sale section.

Clouser Variations

The humble Clouser has many guises depending on what you tie it with and how you tie it. Some might say a Clouser is a Clouser, but believe me it isn't. I have experimented with many different materials for this pattern and they have all caught fish. My favourite and the best fish catcher by far is SF Flashblend, using this material produces quite a bulky fly and needs to be tied quite short. Bucktail on the other hand I feel produces a much better result tied fairly long and Sandeel like. Flashblend is much slower sinking when compared to Bucktail.

As the strong Easterly winds are persisting at the moment I had an hour at the vice today and tied up a couple of Clouser variations using UTC tinsel wrapped around the hookshank to produce a shiny belly which I think adds another dimension to them. I also tied a simple generic baitfish from Bucktail. Just a bit of practice to keep my hand in while we wait for these winds to settle a bit!

More fun at the Beach

Had another short session at the weekend with number one Son in tow with his spinning rod. We spent about an hour fishing but with no joy, and then the wind decided to become awkward and fly casting became a bit dangerous! So we thought we would turn over a few rocks and see what life might be lurking underneath them. Amongst the Shrimp, tiny Crabs and miniscule Ragworm was this critter, a Common Prawn or Palaemon Serratus.

I took some Macro shots of it with a view to tying up an imitation to try at some point. Although this is only a small specimen for the species, as they can grow to 8-10cm, many Saltwater fish must include these in their diet as they are packed with protein.

All Bucktail Decievers

Tied these featherless Decievers today. Hoping they won't hang up in the air quite so much as the feathered variety.



More Epoxies

Very taken with these, larger versions tied on size 2 hooks this time and in tri colours white chartruese and olive, and a white topped with grey.

Epoxy Minnows

Think these could be quite effective, the heavier Epoxy head should give good movement  ( like a clouser), as well as getting the fly down quicker when needed.

The Army marches on!

Can't seem to stop tying flies at the moment....

I'm really enjoying it though, and most evenings are spent in front of the vice at the moment. I actually find it very relaxing, and a great way to unwind after a hectic day.

Did get some fishing in yesterday, took advantage of the break in the weather to pursue some Roach. Things were very slow to start with, and my Pole float remained motionless for the first couple of hours, until the swim fell into shade, whereupon it was as if someone had flicked a switch and the bites were non stop for the next few hours. Sadly the fish were not of a great stamp, certainly not what I'm looking for in my quest for a two pounder! I didn't even get any over half a pound which was a bit dissapointing.

Still a bit of time left yet, but my heart and lungs are yearning for the Salt air, the swish of a fly rod, and the pull of a Bass...

A couple more

Been messing around with a couple of different patterns today, the first is another variation of the white Minnow / fry pattern for smaller Schoolies.

The other one is a baby Pollock pattern for when the Bass are targeting these.



Time to Tie

No fishing this weekend, but I have been tying some flies ready for the new season in the salt.
Over the last couple of years I have tended to use synthetic materials more than natural ones, and the results have been quite good, and my 'artificial' flies have caught plenty of fish.
This year I decided to play around with naturals a bit more and see if there was any difference,  in the ( my ), tying of them, and the amount of fish produced. The latter part of that will have to wait until the Bass arrive, but I can say that I have found the Naturals to be much more to my liking than I had anticipated from a tying aspect. My pals and I did very well on SF flashblend last season, utilising the material for Clousers as well as a few other patterns. It's fairly easy to work with, though a bit messy, and you can produce a nicely pre-shaped ( tapered ), fly.
The only thing is that it lacks any real movement in the material itself compared to naturals like Bucktail, which has lots. I love the Flashblend but am curious as to whether there will be any marked difference in catch rate with the Bucktail Clousers. The Bucktail is also enormously easy to work with and you can get just the right amount of material you need simply by picking out any excess hairs or stray ones that are the wrong length for what you are doing.
Bucktail is incredibly versatile too with literally hundreds of different patterns suiting its combination of rigidity and mobility. Of course this is all very well known, but it will be an interesting experiment never the less. My gut feeling is that it probably won't make any odds the the fish, either way, but half the fun of fishing is in the experimenting with different methods and tactics, and if it makes my life easier when tying, then all well and good!

Here are some of the patterns so far....

This is a variation of the little white Minnow that has done me proud, now available in Bucktail!

Chartruese variant

Standard Clousers

Olive



Charteruese



Black

Some Sandeel versions, with all the material tied on the inside of the Hook to achive the profile and stop wrap arounds.

Olive

Black

Pollock fly



Gurgler

So nothing very revolutionary there, simple basic patterns that will be the bread and butter catchers, I will be trying some other patterns from time to time when the need or opportunity arises, I am working on a version of a Mackerel Flatwing at the moment plus various 'Ray's' fly versions in different colours like this :

This is the Mackerel Flatwing prototype, I have chosen Olive as opposed to Blue, as I believe the fish only turn  that blue colour once out of the water?

As I said it's a work in progress at the moment, a few bars on the olive bucktail perhaps, or some peacock Herl to top it off maybe.



I have only tied a few of each colour and pattern so far but will be tying some more when time allows. Roll on April!