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 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!

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!

April Drought

My good friend and Angling Partner informed me the other day of how many blank sessions I had so far endured since we recommenced Fishing in the Salt. I say 'I', because My friend has managed to catch on two occasions recently! Once on The Fly, and once on a Lure. The Lure caught Fish was a good 3lb'er and was caught from one of our 'Back of the Island' marks. Although they were good captures and well done, they have been slighlty disappointing in that there have been no follow-ups or multiple captures, just two odd fish out of the blue. This shows that they are not present in any significant numbers.

It's been really frustrating as despite the bright sunny weather We have been experiencing lately over here, the Easterly winds that have been blowing for the last few weeks have really kept the Temperatures much lower than they should have been. This time last year things were well under way, and the Fish were already about in considerable numbers, the bizarre thing is that the average Sea surface Temperatures are actually slightly higher than the corresponding time last year.

I keep asking myself if We started too early this year, but to be honest, you have to start somewhen and We could only make a judgement based on last years results. Luckily the Weather forecasters are predicting a change for this coming weekend, with the Wind switching around to a Southerly direction and a significant rise in Temperature. Could this be the trigger to bring the Bass inshore in good numbers? I hope so, because at the moment I'm going a bit stir crazy!

I have a number of Fly patterns that I'm raring to try out this year, and some new materials as well. Nothing fancy, most of My patterns are derived from classic one's and adapted to My own Ideas and findings. Thats the great thing about tying your own Flies, once you are proficient, you can customise to suit your own findings or certain situations and scenario's.

Rest assured I will be reporting back on how they perform plus any tweaks or twists if necessary. One Fly that was very successful for us last season, was a small white one based on a Glass Minnow pattern. It proved to be very effective in the shallow water over some Sand Flats where we discovered vast numbers of Fish chasing Fry inshore on virtually every Tide we fished there.

We tried some of the other usual patterns, but this little one was by far the best for two reasons, firstly, they fished very high in the water, probably no more than a few inches below the surface which was where the Bass were striking, and secondly they were a good imitation of the type of Whitebait being predated on. None of the Fish caught at this venue were big by any stretch of the imagination, but they were fantastic and frantic sport, and each one was handled and returned with as much care and respect as possible.