Foam and poly flies

This is the lava of a Caddis fly (or Sedge) and is common from September through to December particularly in the flooded margins of lakes. Can be fished relatively static as a prospecting fly with a very slow retrieve or used as an ambush fly when polaroiding. Materials   Hook Thread Head Legs…

There are over 100 different species of Damselflies in Australia and the lava which are usually slender with three terminal gills, that present as tails, form a significant part of a trout's diet. Their bodies have around 10 segments, they have 6 legs and they often have emerging wings. Most appear…

On hot summer days or at almost any time for that matter you can get huge hatches of termites and flying ants. They vary in colour but the dominant hatches are of brown termites, red ants and black ants. When the fish are feeding on ants they just sup the insects down one by one often at the…

On hot summer days or at almost any time for that matter you can get huge hatches of termites and flying ants. They vary in colour but the dominant hatches are of brown termites, red ants and black ants. When the fish are feeding on ants they just sup the insects down one by one often at the…

If bass are not actively feeding they will generally sit deep and either in or close to structure and out of reach of dry flies and you'll find it easier to target them with a seductive wet fly fished deep and slow. When their active its a whole different story and they will be attracted to almost…

I have experimented a few times tying flies that have the wobbling action of a hard bodied lure. This is the closest that I have come to emulating that action. The problem of course is balancing the weight needed to make a lure work against the amount of weight that you can cast with a fly rod….

This is the lava of a Caddis fly (or Sedge) and is common from September through to December particularly in the flooded margins of lakes. The bead head version has been designed to be fished as an anchor fly when loch style fly fishing or as an anchor fly when fishing rivers. Materials Hook Bead…

One of the best search flies in slow moving or still deeper water using a sinking line and a booby. If fishing from a fixed position cast it out, let the line sink to the desired depth, and then retrieve the line using a constant stripping motion, a pumping retrieve or a combination of both. The…

If you fish fast water and need a very buoyant hopper or a buoyant fly to support a nymph try this one. Materials Hook Thread Tail & over-body Wing Legs 4 to 10 2X long shank or bass stinger 3/0 thread for trout flies Wapsie 210 Denier thread for bass flies for bass flies Closed cell foam Deer…

This is the big brother of my foam hopper which is a formidable trout fly. When I converted it for use as a bass and tropical fly fishing I added a sparkle chenille under-body and grossed it up dramatically so that it would withstand the aggressive nature of fish like Australian bass and tropical…

“Black Crickets” of the sub-family Teleogryllus move around freely at night and often find them self in trouble in the water. Like their hopper and locust cousins they are high in protein and sought after by trout. From a fly tiers point of view these crickets are up to 35 mm in length when mature…

When I fist tied this fly and asked my wife what it looks like her immediate response was "it looks like a guppy". Well it wasn't tied to represent a guppy and I don't think bass have guppies on their dinner menu but the name stuck. When bass are feeding on big insects like Cicadas and Hoppers that…

What does it take to make a nymph float? There are really two simple elements behind the science that explains why things float or appear to float. The first part of the science is pretty simple and is down to Archimedes who worked out that for something to float it had to displace at least its own…

There are over 100 different species of Damselflies in Australia and the lava which are usually slender with three terminal gills, that present as tails, form a significant part of a trout's diet. Their bodies have around 10 segments, they have 6 legs and they often have emerging wings. Most appear…

Large populations of red claw crayfish of the genus Cherax Quadricarinatus are native to Tropical Queensland and have been farmed as a food source and for stocking purposes very successfully for a number of years. There preferred habitat is still water impoundments but they also fare well in slow…

Both boobies and blobs are each tremendous search flies in their own right particularly for stocked rainbow trout. This fly presents the best of both of those worlds and has the head an tail of a booby and the body of a blob. With a little flash in the tail it's one screamer of an attractor…

Prawns and shrimp are crustaceans, of the family Isopod, and are endemic to our Australian estuary waters. They are toward the top of the food chain for a lot of coastal species of fish including bream, flathead and whiting. Prawns and shrimp are similar in form and function to each other and have…

I designed this fly to cast easily and to displace or push a lot of water when retrieved. The water displace by the head creates currents along the body which activate the body materials. This black over gold version (i.e. gold bomber colours) is particularly good over weed banks or in dirty water….

Poppers are a bit harder to cast than a normal fly because of the wind resistance but if you slow your cast down a little I'm sure you'll soon get the hang of it. Once you do you have another tool in your arsenal which is useful in three diverse situations: When pelagic fish are actively pushing…

If I could only carry one surface fly when fishing for Bass, Yellow belly and other native species my black Poll-Head-Popper would be it. When Bass or Yellow belly are feeding on big insects like Cicadas and Hoppers that crash onto the water they also become susceptible to poppers cast around their…

From what I can gather the original Wiggle Minnow was conceived by Mark Felty of Felty’s flies in Sydney. By varying the materials used, the colours and size I have accounted for trout, bream, flathead, mangrove jack and even barramundi on wiggle minnows. The recipe I have set out below is just one…

The Black Prince cicada can be found along the full eastern coast and hinterland of Australia. It is prolific in many forested areas in the wormer months and when it inadvertently falls or flies into the water more often than not provides a big protein rich snack for a range of fish species…

This is definitely my preferred popper for targeting Australian native bass in their natural river and lake habitat. Bass strike for 3 reasons. The fist and most obvious is when they are actively feeding. At those times bass can have an appetite for everything from nymphs, yabbies, small fish,…

For a few years now I have fished for bass on and off with wiggle minnows. I always thought they should have worked but the limited success made me wonder if it was all about the shape. Being pretty confident that bass take frogs I decided to modify the wiggle minnow concept so that it would look…

Boobies are a fantastic bass fly when fished on the surface but occasionally they hang so low in the water they get a bit hard for me to see. To overcome that when seeing the fly is necessary I added a back of 2mm closed cell foam – works like a dream. This is undoubtedly my favourite bass fly….

This is a nifty little fly that merges the hares ear nymph and the traditional booby both very high pedigree flies into one very useful loch fly. It also has a bit of flash about it which helps the fly fill an important role in my fly box for an attractor fly to use on my middle dropper when I loch…

Designed by Jack Gartside this fly is one of those flies that just works. It's amongst the most successful surface flies for American small mouth and large mouth bass type flt fishing. In Australia it is also a very useful fly and when tied along the lines of the original it takes Australian bass…

One of the things we try to do when we fly fish is "match the hatch" in form and function. Well if you put a burley trail of bread out have a look at a bits of bread floating around they really doesn't have any one single form – there just bits of bread. They do however have function in that they…

Poppers are a bit harder to cast than a normal fly because of the wind resistance but if you slow your cast down a little I'm sure you'll soon get the hang of it. Once you do you have another tool in your arsenal which is useful in three diverse situations: When pelagic fish are actively pushing…

A great fly to use when target fish are actively feeding on small fish such as sardines, whitebait and pilchards. You can either fish it on a floating line and strip it across the surface with dramatic effect or fish the fly on a sinking line, count the fly down and then retrieve it up through the…

Whilst not tied to imitate any particular insect this down wing style of fly can be tied with your favourite materials and in your favourite colours to imitate a range of insects. It is a good prospecting fly when nothing appears to be happening. In larger sizes it can be twitched or fished dead…

As the name implies these flies are built using a soft plastic lure body. I am happy to call this a fly because I fish it on a fly rod and fly line, cast it, retrieve it and land fish caught on it in the same way that I do when fish a traditional fly made of say fur and feather for say a brown…

Foam beetles have probably been around since not long after foam itself was first invented but I'm not sure if any of the traditional foam beetles are of the scale of this monster. Ray Ellis has scaled up the basic foam beetle to create a great representational fly for Christmas beetles, other big…

Whilst there are over 2000 species of Grasshoppers and Locust in Australia there are really only three "hoppers" that are of significance to fly fishers. My bullet nosed foam hopper has a general hopper type form and function and works well in smaller sizes as a representation of a Trouser-Brace…

Whilst there are over 2000 species of Grasshoppers and Locust in Australia there are really only three "hoppers" that are of significance to fly fishers. Hoppers are normally fished as dry flies but it is worth noting that as some hoppers drown and sink and consequently fishing a hopper pattern wet…

Beetles are of the order Coleoptera and there are over 28,000 species found in Australia. Terrestrial beetles Many different types of beetles are fond in the vegetation throughout Australia. There are those that live in forests, other that live in pastures and yet others peculiar to tussock ridden…

This is more of a class of flies rather than just a fly. Perhaps the best known Para Dun Emerger is the Parachute Adams. It was derived form the Adams Irresistible and whilst the Irresistible sits high on the surface film the parachute version sits comfortably in the film making it a very useful…