Trout flies

Christmas Island Special – chartreuse

In plenty of salt water fisheries the saying "if it's not chartreuse it's not any use" applies so it's no surprise that this fly is included in my top six CXI flies list.

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Chatto’s articulated slow roller

This is a variation of my very successful articulated swimmer and is my alternative goto fly when targeting barra in the relatively static water of Lake Awoonga and other barra impoundments. It can be fished on any line but my preference is a clear intermediate line. Retrieved with a slow roly poly or a long draw the fly has a nice shoulder role from side to side.

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Protected: Stephen Chatterton – medical information

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Christmas Island Special – pink

There are a lot of colour combinations of Christmas Island Special (CXI) flies that my mates and I have seen on our various trips to Christmas Island and Aitutaki. Some work sometimes and not others and some work more often than not. This is my list of CXI flies that more often than not consistently work.

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Pheasant tail and partridge TBH spider

If you were to suggest to a North Country (UK) fly fisher that there is such a thing as a tungsten bead head spider they would think your a rod section short of a fly rod.

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Hackled gold ribbed hares ear

On balance I think it fishes better than the Greenwells Glory. It works equally well on running or still water and is a little more buoyant than the Greenwell Glory and is buoyant enough to support a small bead head nymph in a wet under dry team.

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Perdigon (Spanish nymph) – gold micro glint

perdigon-f
A streamlined fast sinking fly that will anchor your team.

Materials

Hook Head Extra weight (optional) Thread Tail Body Thorax Coating
Hanak 300BL #14 / #16 3.0mm / 2.5mm slotted faceted gold tungsten bead 0.010 lead wire Fl fire orange UTC UV thread Coq de Leon Fibres Brown Micro Glint Black nail polish UV Resin and then Varnish.

Process

 

A
  1. Most beads have a large opening at one end and a smaller opening at the other.
  2. Slide a faceted gold tungsten bead over the point of the hook small opening first and position it behind the eye of the hook.
  3. Adding extra weight to the fly.

    On this fly my preference is to keep the bead size down a little and to add extra weight to compensate for that.

  4. The best way is to take several wraps of 0.10 mm lead wire behind the bead, worry of the excess lead wire and then to push the wraps of wire up into the rear opening of the bead.Take a length of 0.20 lead wire and push the front end into the back of the tungsten bead.

  5.  

  6. Tie your thread in behind the bead.
perdigon-a
B
  1. Wind the thread in touching turns down to the bend of the hook
perdigon-b

 

C
  1. Tie in a tail about the same length as the shank of the hook of 6 or 7 Coq de Leon hackle fibres
  2. Wind the thread back toward the bead forming a thin uniform under-body.

perdigon-c

 

D
  1. Tie in a length of brown Micro Glint behind the bead.
perdigon-d

 

E
  1. Wind the brown Micro Glint down to the 10% position of the fly leaving a hot but of thread and then wind the brown Micro Glint all the way up to behind the bead forming a cone shaped body.
perdigon-e

 

F
  1. Trim away the excess brown Micro Glint.
  2. Turn the fly over in the vice and paint on a thorax of black nail polish.
  3. When the nail polish thorax is totally dry apply a thin coat of UV epoxy to the fly taking care not to get any epoxy on the tail or in the eye of the hook.
  4. Cure the UV epoxy with a UV torch.
  5. If your UV epoxy is still a little stick, which is often the case, coat the fly with a thin layer of clear nail polish taking care not to get any nail polish on the tail or in the eye of the hook.
perdigon-f

 

Claret caddis

Any time there are caddis on the wing this fly is worth a swim in the middle position of a team of three loch flies. One of the most important things to remember when tying this fly is not to overdress it ... make sure you can see a gap between the two wings even when the rabbit fur is dry and fluffed out.

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Epoxy midge – black with hot butt & UV cheeks

When Chironomids are around they tend to be around in large numbers and trout become quickly switched on and gorge on them. There are number of techniques to target chironomid feeders and one of my favourite is to fish three chironomid imitations with the heaviest on the point with a long leader on a floating line and fish relatively static. You will be surprised how many fish find your flies.

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Booby blob

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 pattern.

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