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I developed this fly to fish both the snaggy rock and coral waters for reef fish but more recently have found a place for it when fishing the open blue waters pelagics and estuary waters of Central Queensland when targeting bigger inshore fish which we regularly encounter including but not limited to:

Barramundi (both freshwater & saltwater)
Kingfish (Yellowtail and Cobia)
Lutjanids (Mangrove Jack & Fingermark
Javelin fish (Barred Grunter and Silver Grunter)
Flathead (both sand and bared)
Trevally (including Giant Trevally and Golden Trevally)
Queenfish
Reef fish
Mackerel

What I was wanted was a durable fly built from contemporary materials that has an obvious baitfish profile.

I also wanted the fly to swim hook point up and to achieve that I mounted the dumbbell eyes on the opposite side to the bite of the hook and moved almost all the dressing on the bite side of the hook so that formed a wing not only partially protecting the bite of the hook from snagging up but also encouraging the finished fly to swim hook point up.

I also wanted a couple of hot spots and achieved that by adding a little blood spot behind the dumbbell eyes and obvious lateral lines dividing the belly and the back of the fly.

Popular colours for this fly include:

Qantas colours of red and white
Natural colours of olive over shrimp
Jelly prawn colours of pink over white
Brown bomber colours of black over brown over orange
Dirty water colours of orange or red over pink

Materials

Process

A	I tie this fly in sizes ranging from sizes #2 up to #4/0 and the fly tied below is #3/0 which is the size I use most. I like to paint the hook shank and thread with nail polish from behind the eye of the hook to half way around the bend of the hook so as to camouflage the hook into the body of the fly. Once the nail polish is dry tie the big fly thread in behind the eye of the hook and build up a bed of thread along front 1/3 of the hook shank and take a half hitch in the thread. Understanding hooks

B	For the blood spot pull a few strands of UV flash material from a length of FL red Far North Fly Fishing FNF UV Jelly Chenille. Tie that in on top of the hook shank at that 1/3 position with the tips facing behind the fly.

C	Select your dumbbell eyes. I have matched this size #3/0 hook with a set of medium size (7/32") Hairline painted lead dumbbell eyes. Tie in your dumbbell eyes on top of the hook shank directly in front of the FNF chenille using tight figure 8 wraps. To make sure that the eyes don't rotate on the hook shank include a couple of tight wraps the thread around the base of the eyes on top of the hook shank and between every couple of figure of eight wraps take a firm wrap of thread around the hook shank. Tying in dumbbell eyes Take the big fly thread over the dumbbell eyes and lock it in position with a couple of half hitches in front of the dumbbell eyes.

D	Rotate the fly 180 degrees in the vice. Tie your Veevus thread in directly in front of the dumbbell eyes and over the half hitches in the big fly thread.

E	Trim away the excess big fly thread. Add a couple of drops of super glue to the half hitches in the big fly thread.

F	I generally position a rubber band on the vice to show me the target finished length of the fly. Cut a small bunch of white JBM pike skinz strands off the shank that is at least twice the length of the hook. Dealing with long strands of synthetic materials

G	Tease the end of the JBM pike skinz out so that when it's tied in there won't be a sold ledge where it was cut from the shank.

H	Tie that in directly in front of the dumbbell eyes with the tips extending behind the fly a distance equal to the length of the hook.

I	Trim away the excess forward facing pike skinz. Cut a small bunch of shrimp coloured flash blend off the shank that is at least 4 times the length of the hook. Tease the end of the Flash Blend out so that when it's tied in and doubled over the tips will all meld into the tips of the JBM pike skinz. Tie the flash blend in directly in front of the dumbbell eyes.

J	Fold the forwarding facing Flash Blend back over the rear facing Flash Blend and lock that in using tight wraps of thread. The forward facing flash blend that has been folded over should now extend beyond the rubber band marker on the vice. That will be trimmed as part of the final trimming of the fly.

K	Cut 2 long strands of sparkle flash and tie them in on top of the tie in of the body flash blend with the tips extending to the rubber band tail marker on the front side of the fly.

L	Take the thread and excess krystal flash over the top of the fly and tie the krystal flash in with the tips extending past the rubber band tail marker on the back side of the fly. The excess krystal flash will be trimmed as part of the final trimming of the fly.

M	Cut a small bunch of wild olive coloured flash blend off the shank that is at least 4 times the length of the hook. Tease the end of the Flash Blend out so that when it's tied in and doubled over the tips will all meld into the tips of the JBM pike skinz and the first layer of the shrimp coloured flash blend. Tie the flash blend in directly behind the eye of the hook with the rear facing tips just above the rubber band marker.

N	Fold the forwarding facing wild olive Flash Blend back over the rear facing Flash Blend and lock that in using tight wraps of thread. The forward facing flash blend that has been folded over should now extend beyond the rubber band marker on the vice. That will be trimmed as part of the final trimming of the fly. Build up a neat thread head, whip finish the thread and trim away the excess. I like to put a drop of super glue over the thread head and from the other side of fly also to the tie in of the dumbbell eyes.

O	The final step is to trim all those materials that were left extending beyond the rubber band length marker to create a neat fish profile that is twice the overall length of the hook. The #4/0 mustard 34007 is 46.5mm long making this a 93mm fly.

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