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Whilst not designed to represent any particular bait fish I have designed this fly to have a shape, form and function similar to many of the little fish that predators hunt.

This #2/0 estuary fly is 9 cm long and because it's unweighted it's relatively easy to cast. It's a great fly to use when targeting estuary species including but not limited to:

Bream (yellow tail, pikey and black bream)
Lutjanids (Mangrove Jack & Fingermark
Javelin fish (Barred Grunter and Silver Grunter)
Tarpon
Flathead (Dusky and Bartail)
Smaller trevally (including Giant Trevally and Golden Trevally)
Smaller queenfish

It can be used in a number of different ways including:

• As a prospecting fly work the fly over and past where fish are holding or are expected to hold and retrieve at a range of jerky retrieves at various speed and with the occasional stop.
• For sighted fish put in clean cast which is inside the fishers current swim path so when the fish sees the fly it will have to make a slight change of direction, instinctively taking it a little out of its comfort zone. The tendency of fish once they have made that change is to take the fly much quicker than they would had the fly been directly in their path. As soon as you think the fish is in range rip the fly in as fast as you can strip or roly poly. It's important to keep your line under control at all times as strikes are always hard and mostly followed by blistering runs and you have to be able to clear the stripped line and get the fight back on the reel as soon as possible.
• It can also be used as a trailing fly for my articulated popper combination that I use to target predators in very shallow water or actually feeding on the surface.

The fly below is dressed in Brown Bomber colours but I also like it dressed in Qantas colours or natural colours of olive and shrimp..

Materials for trailing hook

Process

Right from the start it's important to get an understanding how much body materials you will need to achieve the desired thickness and density of the fly.

There are 2 bunches of H2O Slinky Fiber and two bunches of Steve Farrar's Flash Blend and an optional one or two bunches of Flashabou or Flash Blend to be tied in and it can be a bit of a learning curve getting the quantities right. The goal is to use just enough body materials to dress the fly without making the fly too thick. I suggest you start with bunches as thick as a match stick or tooth pick and then go up or down from that for successive flies.

Also, because your going to fold the Slinky Fiber and the Flash Blend over on themselves it's important to tease each bunch of Slinky Fiber and Flash Blend out at the end that was cut off the hank so when it's tied in and doubled over the tips will all meld together and you don't finish up with square ridges of Flash Blend, from where it was cut from the hank, in the middle of the fly.

The second part for building an articulated fly is to attach the articulated shank and to dress that to represent the thorax and head of the fly.

Materials for articulated head

L	Fold the forward facing Flash Blend back over the rear facing Flash Blend. Lock that in position with firm wraps of thread. Take a couple of half hitches to make sure that nothing comes loose.

M	If your adding flash to the back of the fly as in the Brown Bomber inspired version now is the time to do it. Cut a 12 cm length of black Flashabou Tease the Flashabou fibers out at the end that was cut off the hank so when it's tied in and doubled over the tips will all meld together and you don't finish up with square ridges of flash blend, from where it was cut from the hank, in the middle of the fly. Position the Flashabou with the tips extending 4.5 cm facing backward and 11.5cm facing forward. Lock it in position with a couple of tight wraps of thread. Fold the forward facing Flashabou back over the rear facing Flashabou. Lock that in position with firm wraps of thread and take a couple of half hitches to make sure that nothing comes loose.

R	Do a final trim of the fly to finesse the body into a bait fish shape with an overall length of 9 cm. Bend the two structure guards into a position so that they are facing slightly backward in a V shape.

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