Species

Lakes – loch style … fast sink lines for ‘deep sulking or feeding trout

As long as it’s not too windy the ‘fast sink lines for deep sulking or feeding trout’ system described here provides a way that you can present moving flies that may induce a strike to fish that may or may not be actively feeding but are holding in deeper water.

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Squirmy worm

Over time they have endured and their reputation of, on the day, being an exceptional fish taking fly has grown and grown. They have also become very well accepted in competition circles and consequently I have fallen into line and have added them to my fly box.

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Packing for Christmas Island

Each time I go on a major fishing trip I modify my packing list. My latest trip was to Christmas Island in the Pacific. These are the revised lists for my High Sierra bag when it is used as my carry on bag and for the same bag when it becomes my fishing bag as well as my list for my check in luggage. I will modify these list as I head off to other destinations.

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Metalic pink TBH brown woolly bugger

This is a variation of a bead head woolly bugger that has worked very well for me in Lake Eucumbene and Tantangara Reservoir on brown trout and on Lake Maroon for bass.

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Humungus – black and gold

The tie of my fly is very close to David Downey's fusion of those two flies which he describes as perhaps the best still water fly in the world. I use it as a top dropper attractor and for that reason use a brass rather than a tungsten bead. Particularly in water that is a little discoloured I am confident this fly brings a lot of fish to my team.

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Todd’s Vampire (variant)

Based in Maple Ridge, B.C. Todd Oishi designed his "leach" (Vampires are also a blood sucker hence the name) fly with a tail of black rabbit fur or black marabou and with Vampire Vippy as the body. I have not been able to find any Vampire Vippy and tie my Vampires with UV straggle fritz.

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Fly suggestions – Christmas Island fly suggestions

This fly box is very much a work in progress. I am pre-occupied tying flies for the Commonwealth Fly Fishing Championships at the moment so have had to do the unthinkable and have purchased a range of Fulling Mills Xmas Island Specials to start my Christmas Island fly box off. I will find time to tie the rest of the flies I need and will add other venue specific flies to this post over the next few months.

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Destroyer – Chatto’s variant

My variant does not include the shroud of mara wool tips around the zonker tail. I have left that off because for me the currents around the body of the fly produce more movement in the tail when it is not shrouded. I like hot spots on flies and accordingly have added a hot spot of red Wapsi palmer chenille under the tail. For my deeper water flies, as many other users have done, I use bead chain eyes rather than the unweighted plastic chain eyes as on the original.

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Foam cicada – Chatto’s ‘black prince’

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.

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UV cruncher

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.

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