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This fly is designed as a bait to jig along the muddy and sandy bottom of local rivers and estuary bays when targeting fingermark, grunter and and flathead in particular.

Presented to scrounging fish it can then be jigged along the bottom or close to the bottom suggesting it's a wounded bait fish.

With the lead shot mounted below the shank extension and the line connected on the jig hook extension the jig fly swims with the bite of the hook up so it's relatively snag safe and more often than not it can be jigged over gravel on the bottom structure fairly safely.

I like to fish it on an intermediate line with a 2 meter T14 head extension connected to the fly line with a loop to loop connection and then with a 1.2 meter leader of 30lb Maxima Ultra Green leader connected to that with a loop to loop connection. It's a bugger to cast but it can be managed.

The only colour combinations I tie this fly in are:
Qantas – red over white
Natural – olive over white or shrimp
Grunter - orange over UV pink

Materials

Process

A	This example of a jig fly is being tied on a size #3/0 jig hook. This hook is 45mm long and the finished tail should also be 45mm long and the hook extension projects forward of the hook 17mm so the finished fly should be 107mm long. Starting at the front end of the straight part of the hook shank wind the thread in tight touching turns about one quarter of way down the hook shank.

B	Take your whiting hook and cut of the business end of the hook from where the bend of the hook starts. Tie the whiting hook extension in on top of the jig hook taking care to ensure that the extension forward of the hook 17mm and that the eye of the hook extension is horizontal. Do a couple of tight double hitches in the thread and trim away the excess thread. Apply a coat of super glue to the thread that has attached the hook extension to the jig hook.

G	Take the half the flash blend that is facing forward and fold that back over the backward facing flash blend. Stroke the flash blend back along the under-side of the fly. Lock them in using tight wraps of thread and a single half hitch. Turn the hook over in the vice. Take the thread forward over the lead shot and take a half hitch of the thread infront of the lead shot.

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