For many years I caught estuary species such as bream, flathead, trevally and whiting in estuary waters around Wollongong and in various South Coast fisheries on lures and in particular on soft plastics. In the mid 90′s I started experimenting with flies but with limited success. On analysing what was happening, it wasn’t the delivery system that was the problem, it was just that I couldn’t make any of my flies do what a soft plastic would do so I set out to change that. I needed a fly that could be fished like a soft plastic but could be delivered as a fly. The outcome was this estuary fly. This fly has now accounted for bream, flathead, whiting, trevally, mullet, tailor, flounder, bass and trout. I expect it will be attractive to many other species also. My preferred colour is green but of course other colours work very well also.

On a floating line this fly works well in water up to about 2 meters deep. Vary your leader length depending on the depth of the water. For most species the best strategy is to cast into structure and then retrieve with very short strips with stops between each strip. Whiting seem to like a slightly faster strip and flathead favour a very slow continuous retrieve.

This fly fishes well in deeper water on an intermediate line through to full sinking line depending on the depth. The most rewarding retrieve involves counting the fly down to the desired depth and then retrieving the fly with repeated medium length strips followed by a one or two second stops. A good alternative is a fast figure of eight retrieve.

Whether fishing this fly on a floating line or sinking line keep in contact with the fly as takes can be at any time from when the fly is settling through the water column right through to the lift and they can range from subtle inquiries to dramatic whacks.

Some proven colour examples are:

As an all rounder in clearer water – tie it with cherry crystal chenille, black tail and black bib
For Bass – dress it in Bass Vampire colours i.e.. black crystal chenille, chartreuse tail and purple and black bib.
For Black Bream – tie it with cherry crystal chenille, pumpkin seed tail and chartreuse bib.
The hook type and size and dumbbell weight are important because I have found that thicker hooks such as the 34007 Mustard are too thick and heavy and wont turn over unless you use a much heavier eyes and then the fly is hard to cast and the action of the tail may be impaired.

Materials trout version of estuary fly

Process

	Starting at the 95% position wind the thread in touching turns to the bend of the hook and back 2/3 of the way toward the eye of the hook. Understanding hooks Tie in a set of eyes on top of the hook shank at the 2/3 position using figure 8 wraps. I think “Real Eyes” are better than Dumb Bell eyes because the sockets are convex and easy to paint. Tying in dumbbell eyes Positioning of the eyes at the 2/3 position described above is important because you need to leave enough room in front of the eyes to tie in the bib dressings and to form a nice shaped head. Position the tail along the side of the fly and tie it in tightly just behind the eye of the hook.

B	Tie the tail in all the way to the bend of the hook shank and then back to just behind the eye of the hook. The curve of the tail should fall below the hook and the wraps of thread down at the bend of the hook should be softer toward the tail than they are close to the eyes. This helps eliminate break off of the tail. Strip the fibres off a length of crystal chenille and tie it in by its chord just behind the eye of the hook. Tie the crystal chenille all the way to the bend of the hook. The wraps of thread down at the bend of the hook should be softer toward the tail than they are close to the eyes. This helps eliminate break off of the tail.

C	Wind the crystal chenille forward using tight touching turns of the chenille all the way to the eye of the hook. Take the Crystal Chenille over the top of the eyes and tie off on top of the hook shank in front of the eyes.

D	Trim the excess crystal chenille off in front of the eyes. Turn the hook over in the vice. Take around 8 or 10 strands of sparkle flash that are around twice as long as you want the beard/legs to be and tie them in directly in front of the eyes. Managing synthetic fibres

E	Double the sparkle flash over on itself at the tie in position and take a couple of folds of thread over the tie in position to secure them in place. The beard/legs should extend beyond the bend of the hook anything from just a little to around the length of the hook shank. In any case the beard/legs should partially obscure the bend of the hook. Build up a nice head with thread whip finish and varnish the head.