My fly boxes

The number of fly boxes you carry is obviously one of personal choice. One difficulty you may encounter when you are setting up your fly boxes is which flies you should include, and how many flies you should carry in your fly box or boxes. The last thing you want to be doing is standing on the bank of a river madly pulling flies out to find a fly you know is there . . .somewhere, but it isn’t where you expected to find it or you fly box or boxes are so crowded with flies that the one you are desperately looking for is hidden away . . . somewhere.

Christmas Island Special – orange pearl

Orange pearl is one of my favourite colour combinations of Christmas Island Special (CXI) flies that my mates and I have seen on our various trips to Christmas Island and Aitutaki. It is generally in the top 6 producing colours of CXI flies on every trips.

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Last Updated: August 6, 2019
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Categories: Flies, My tropical Pacific sand flats & coastal flies, Trout flies
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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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Last Updated: July 22, 2019
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Categories: Flies, My tropical Pacific sand flats & coastal flies, Trout flies
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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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Last Updated: January 23, 2019
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Categories: Flies, My tropical Pacific sand flats & coastal flies, Other species, Saltwater - tropical, Trout flies
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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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Last Updated: August 11, 2018
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Categories: Dry flies, Flies, My "trout" dry fly box, Trout flies
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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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Last Updated: August 3, 2018
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Categories: Flies, Loch flies, My 'trout' lake wet fly box, Trout flies
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TBH / CDC river jig bugger – brown

In rivers they lend themselves to being swung down and across shallow water or to being swum down where the fish are holding in deeper pools. They also work well in a two fly Euro Nymph style team. In still water they are a great option fished alone at any depth to nervous fish and are an ideal middle dropper or point fly in a team of two or three buggers.

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Last Updated: July 20, 2018
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Categories: My 'trout' river wet fly box, My fly boxes
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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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Last Updated: July 7, 2018
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Categories: Emergers, Flies, Loch flies, Midge pupa, grubs & snails, My 'trout' lake wet fly box, Nymphs, Trout 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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Last Updated: June 4, 2018
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Categories: Boobies, Flies, Foam and poly flies, My 'trout' lake wet fly box, Trout flies
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Gusto – sunburst variant

This is my variant of Peter Morse' Gusto fly and is one of my go to flies when targeting barramundi in Lake Awonga.

It's dressed on a #3/0 34007 stainless hook which is quite a heavy hook and that creates an effective "keel" effect. It has a long marabou tail and a dense hackle collar which creates plenty of currents around the fly that really get the marabou moving.

The overall length of the finished fly is around 10cm long.

sunburst-p
Hook Eyes Thread Tail Tail Flash Body Front hackle
Tiemco 34007 stainless in size #3/0 Spirit River 'real eyes' 7/32" My preference is white cotton Yellow marabou blood plume Sure Strike violet krystal flash - 6 strands FNF jelly chenille in Picricish colour One red saddle hackle and one grizzly hackle died deep red

Process

A
  1. Starting at a point a little back from the eye of the hook wrap the thread in tight touching turns down the front 1/5 of the hook shank.
 sunburst-a

B
  1. Tie in your bead chain, dumb bell or real eyes on top of the hook shank half way along the thread base using figure 8 wraps. To tighten the connection wrap the thread around the base of the eyes on top of the hook shank. My preference is Spirit River 'real eyes' 7/32" with double pupils of black inside red.
  2. Continue winding the thread to directly above the point of the hook.
 sunburst-b

C

    Making the tail is a 3 step process

  1. Select two matching blood plume marabou hackles and tie the first one in on top of the hook shank. Make sure that the marabou is tied in horizontal not vertical.
 sunburst-c

D
  1. Select a couple of long strands of krystal flash and tie two along the front side with equal amounts projecting behind and in front of the fly.
 sunburst-d

E
  1. Take the strands projecting in front of the fly over the shank of the fly and face then back down behind the fly and lock them in that position with a couple firm wraps of thread
 sunburst-e

F
  1. Select the second blood plume marabou hackle and tie it in on top of the first blood plume marabou hack and the krystal flash.
 sunburst-f

G
  1. Trim off an excess hackle butt and lock the tail made up of the first blood plume hackles, the krystal flash and the second blood plume hackle in place along the top of the hook shank to a position directly above the point of the hook.
 sunburst-g

H
  1. Tie a length of FNF jelly chenille in on top of the hook shank directly above the point of the hook
  2. Take the thread forward half way between above the point of the hook and the back of the dumbbell eyes.
 sunburst-h

I
  1. Wind the jelly chenille forward in tight touching turns to the thread./li>
  2. Tie the jelly chenille off at that position and trim away the excess.
 sunburst-i

J

    This fly need a dense array of hackles that fill the remain free space on the hook shank so select hackles that have some fluffy barbules and a majority of hackle barbules that are about 1.5 times the gape of the hook. For this fly I have selected a red saddle hackle and a grizzly hackle that has been died red. Depending on the length of your hackles you may need up to 4 hackles.

  1. Tie the red saddle hackle in directly in front of the jelly chenille body.
 sunburst-j

K
  1. Tie the grizzly hackle in directly in front of the first hackle.
 sunburst-k

L
  1. Pull the grizzly hackle aside and wind the saddle hackle forward in uniformly spaced turns in the space between where it is tied in and just behind the dumbbell eyes.
  2. Lock the saddle hackle in behind the dumbbell eyes with a couple of firm wraps of thread.
 sunburst-l

M
  1. Trim away the excess tip of the saddle hackle with a sharp blade.
 sunburst-m

N
  1. Take up the second hackle and wind that forward through the saddle hackle in uniformly spaced turns.
  2. Lock the grizzly hackle in place between the saddle hackle and the dumbbell eyes with a couple of firm wraps of thread.
 sunburst-n

O
  1. Trim away the excess tip of the grizzly hackle with a sharp blade.
  2. Build up a neat cone shaped beak in front of the dumbbell eyes.
  3. Trim away any excess thread.
 sunburst-o

P
  1. Varnish the beak and the tie in of the dumbbell eyes with a couple of coats of red nail polish.
 sunburst-p

Last Updated: April 28, 2018
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Categories: Big fish flies - temperate & tropical destinations, Flies, My fly boxes, Saltwater - tropical, Trout flies
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Red TBH damsel

I first used this fly in Canada in 2016 at the Commonwealth Fly Fishing Championships. Tied by Josh Flowers from Tasmania I doubt that a session on the lakes passed without every team member tying this fly on for at lease some of the time. I have since learned that it’s a very successful fly in Central Tasmania at any time when damsels are around.

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Last Updated: January 19, 2018
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Categories: Flies, Loch flies, My 'trout' lake wet fly box, Trout flies
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