Author Archive
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{{+1}}Foam cicada – Chatto’s ‘black prince’{{-1}}
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This fly sits well into the surface film like the natural and has a very realistic profile when viewed from below. I have made it smaller than the natural on purpose as flies tied as big as the natural are frustratingly cumbersome to cast on #8 weight outfits that are my preference of the target species mentioned above. The fly lands with a good audible fish attracting 'plop' and with its outstretched wings that are only about half as long as the natural still wiggle with the slightest movement in a very enticing way.{{end}}
Last Updated: January 29, 2016
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{{+1}}Muskins PTN{{-1}}
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This is very popular Northern hemisphere fly and whist it more popular in still water it also has its uses in running water. Appealing to fish that are on mixed diet that includes mayfly nymph and midge.{{end}}
{{+1}}UV cruncher{{-1}}
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More of a class of fly than a fly in itself because you will find UV crunchers tied a all sorts of colours from black right through to dun colours and pale olives. I like this particular tie because it incorporates peacock herl which is one of my favourite fly tying materials.{{end}}
Categories: Flies, My 'trout' lake wet fly box, Nymphs, Trout flies
Tags: Nymphs, river, trout 
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{{+1}}Topwater sand stripper{{-1}}
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This fly is modelled on the most successful estuary and inshore fly that I have ever fished with my prawn fly. For me in those shallow water salt water environments where you need a fly that you can fish deep in and around snags and other structure, can be fished at a range of depths depending on fly line and retrieve and swims hook point up to reduce hooking up on that very structure that holds fish my prawn fly out-fishes every other fly I have tried.{{end}}
{{+1}}Leaders – set ups for trout{{-1}}
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When it all boils down leaders don't have to be as complicated as they are made out to be. I have set out below how I set up my trout leader and I hope that will provide as a minimum a reasonable starting point. Keep in mind however that I fish 10 foot #6 weight fly rods when fishing for trout in lakes and consequently if your using a shorter or longer rod you may need to adjust some of the measurements that I have used.{{end}}
{{+1}}Knots – Loop to loop connections – native fish{{-1}}
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Using this process if I decided that I want to swap from my existing leader to one of my pre prepared leaders that is stored on a 'leader pad', complete with its fly or team of flies, all I need to forfeit is around one minute of my fishing time.{{end}}
{{+1}}Hardy Ultralite 10000 SDS fly reels{{-1}}
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These reels are beasts and have an impressive capacity of backing. I have gone for 70lb braid for backing and so that the backing is not the weak point in my system and even then 300 meters of backing fits easily. The reel also has a drag that locks up and needs 13lb of direct force to give line and then it does it ever so smoothly ... OMG..{{end}}
{{+1}}Floating red claw{{-1}}
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This fly is a variation to my original yabby pattern and has been designed to be fish on a sinking line. I like to fish them, in water from 1 to 4 meters deep, either as a single fly or in a team of two flies as a point fly. If fishing them in a team I like the dropper with the second fly to be 25cm long and 1.2 meters above the point fly.{{end}}
Categories: Bass, EP's, perch and saratoga flies, Flies, Foam and poly flies, Other speciesTags: Bass, Saratoga, Wet flies No Comments »
{{+1}}Chatto’s foam mouse{{-1}}
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This little mouse lands right way up most of the time, swims well and has a reasonable mouse profile. The eyes and the ears are really only for the angler and hopefully add a little confidence that the fly is a least a little representational.{{end}}
Categories: Bass, EP's, perch and saratoga flies, FliesTags: #fishonfly, #spotters, mouse No Comments »
{{+1}}Updated my PB barra on fly yesterday{{-1}}
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On Monday this week I fished a deep snag in the Boyne River and made contact with a big barra that came out of the snag and took my fly. Unfortunately the 24lb fluorocarbon leader wasn't up to the shock and as the fish took of in panic the fly and the leader parted ... what can you do.
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Whilst the fish was I am sure momentarily spooked I was pretty sure that it would just retreat to its snag and sulk for a day or two.
Yesterday I went back to the same snag. Initially I prospected it from the same area from where I had touched the fish on Monday and then I gave the snag a two hour rest whilst I worked over some other structure up to 500 meters away ... nothing.
The incoming tide went to its ebb and slowly turned and along with just that little bit of moving water the water colour quite quickly went from relatively clear to a little milky. I moved back down to the snag and this time put long casts in keeping as far away as I could, allowing the fly to sink and then slowly twitching it back hopefully in an enticing way. I must have covered every inch of the snag and then out of the blue the line went tight and sped off to the right ... a good fish.
I quickly got the line back onto the reel and at the same time swung the electric so that it would take me away from the snag. It was a great fight with 4 fantastic jumps, well more like belly flops, out of the water revealing a fish, probably about the same size as the one I had touched on Monday. Whilst playing the fish I also put my net handy, the fish was never going to fit, even half, into my net. Thinking of options I put my boda grips where I could easily grab them and continued with the fight. The barra took a couple of big runs back toward cover but by then we were well away from the snag and in relatively open water so I let the rod and the drag of the reel do their work and just concentrated on not loosing touch with the fish as it desperately sought freedom.
The fight took about 10 minutes in total before I was ably to lip grip the barra with my left hand holding the boda grip and then hang over the side of the boat and get my right forearm under the belly of the fish and lift it into the boat ... didn't think I could do that but I was a bit pumped up.
When it fist showed itself I knew it was close to the magic meter mark one way or the other and whilst I could have been dissapointed when it only came up at 952 mmm I wasn't, I was chuffed as could be. A couple of quick photos that you can see above and the fish was carefully returned to the water, swum until it was ready to POQ and then released to grow that extra few mm.
The rod was my 8 foot 3 inch Redington Predator #10 weight rod, the fly line was my new SA #11 weight Tarpon WF-11-clear intermediate and the leader was 8 foot long and not the 24 fluorocarbon that I had used on Monday but this time was #30 lb Maxima Ultragreen. This has been my leader of choice for a few years and it was only in the last few weeks that I had swapped to the 24lb fluorocarbon hopefully to increase hook ups.
The fly was one of my 8cm prawns, this one had orange and black legs ... it's a ripper and whilst you can see in the photo it was a bit dishevelled by the action it easily was manipulated back into shape and ready for more action.
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