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Unfortunately, in the process of Tiewell being sold and reinvented the large rubber tails for #2/0 versions of my estuary fly never came back on the market. What I have come up with as an alternative is using the rear half of the 2.5? Z Man Grub Z. That has created an even better fly.

I have stuck with all the other materials from my #2/0 estuary fly and I am pretty pleased with what I have come up with.

This fly is now one of my key flies when targeting, flathead, mangrove jack, fingermark and grunter in Central Queensland.

Materials

Stick with the silicon for gluing the grub body to the hook shank and the super glue for the head of the fly as other adhesives may corrode the material the Z Man grub is made from.

Process

A	Starting at the 95% position wind the thread in touching turns to the bend of the hook and back to the 80% position. Understanding hooks Tie in your dumbbell eyes on top of the hook shank 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. Apply a drop of super glue to the tie in of the dumbbell eyes. Tying in dumbbell eyes Do a couple of half hitches in the thread and trim away the excess.

B	Take a grub Z tail and trim away the front 5 of the 9 segments with a pair of scissors. Take care to leave a core of Z Man grub where the last of the two segments is being trimmed away ... you will need that core to lock the Z Man grub to the hook shank.

C	Using a tooth pick put a small amount of silicon at the bend of the hook.

D	Take the hook out of the vice and insert the point of the hook into the middle of the Z Man grub core that you left when you trimmed the last 2 of the 5 Z Man grub body segments off. Carefully push the point of the hook down the remaining body of the Z Man grub and bring the point of the hook out at the point where the tail meets the body of the grub. Adjust the position of the grub so that it sits neatly on the shank with the tail of the grub pointing under the fly. If there has been surplus silicon squeezed out in front of the Z Man grub when it was slid up the hook shank just leave that where it is and remember to pick that up in wraps of thread in the next step.

E	Tie the thread back in behind the dumbbell eyes. Take the thread back and lock the core of the grub to the shank of the hook with firm wraps of thread. Take the thread back to behind the dumbbell eyes.

F	Strip the fibres off a length of crystal chenille and tie it in by its chord just behind the dumbbell eyes.

G	Turn the hook over in the vice. Take the thread in front of the dumbbell eyes. Select six pearl sparkle flash fibres and tie them in just behind the eye of the hook with half the length facing forward and the other half facing back.

H	Pull the rear facing sparkle flash fibres forward and lock them down , so all the sparkle flash fibres are facing forward. Do a half hitch behind the eye of the hook to lock the sparkle flash in position.

I	Pick up the crystal chenille and wind that down to the remaining Z Man body and then back up to the dumbbell eyes. Do a figure of eight wrap of the crystal chenille around the dumbbell eyes and on the last forward wrap of the crystal chenille pick up the forward facing pearl and pull that into position as a beard facing under the fly and partially camouflaging the business end of the hook. Finish that last forward wrap of crystal chenille and lock the chenille in position with a couple of firm wraps of thread.

J	Turn the fly back over 180 degrees in the vice. Build up a neat thread head and whip finish behind the eye of the hook. Apply a drop of super glue to the thread head.

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