Scrounger – baitfish

 

I developed this fly to fill a place in my fly box for a fly that can be fished in all those areas where scroungers including: Flathead, Mangrove Jack, Fingermark, Grunter and Salmon and other predators scrounge are targeting small fish that are being flushed out of mangroves, rocky shores, drowned timber and weed beds on falling tides.

This fly can be cast onto a muddy bank, right into mangroves and onto rock bars and then can be retrieved over and through all manner of structure with an extremely low incidence of getting snagged up.

SCROUNGING AROUND THE MANGROVES

  • As the tide is rising small fish, shrimp and prawns become vulnerable as they move into the mangroves and other structure where they can feed and feel relatively safe. In the early part of rising tides it’s still too shallow for the Mangrove Jack, Flathead and Bream and to a lesser extent Fingermark, Grunter and Salmon to follow those small fish, shrimp and prawns into the mangroves but they do move closer to in front of mangroves so they can pick of small fish and shrimp as they run the gauntlet to get into the cover of the mangrove roots to feed. Presented on intermediate lines this fly is a great small fish imitation at this stage of the tide.
  • In the latter part of the rising tide when the tide inundates deeper into the mangroves Flathead, Mangrove Jacks, Bream and to a lesser extent Grunter and Fingermark will move into the mangroves proper to ramp up their feeding. For most of the deeper part of the tide that pretty well take all of those predators out of our range./li>
  • As the tide starts to fall below a comfortable depth for those predators they move out of the structure and often station themselves close to the edge picking of small fish, shrimp and prawns as they run out of water and run gauntlet to get back to deeper water and again this fly comes into its own.
  • Once the escaping flush declines, and the run of small fish, shrimp and prawns spreads out in deeper water, the Flathead, Mangrove Jack, Bream, Fingermark, Grunter and Salmon retreat to mud flats or holes and other deeper structure close to where they were feeding and they scrounge around those areas for a feed until the next high tide approaches and the feeding cycle starts again in earnest. During this period they remain targets for this fly.

I tied the original version on #2/0 hook in olive over shrimp for use in the 2021 Boyne Tannum Hook Up and that helped me secure a win in the flathead on fly section of that competition. Qantas colours of red over white has turned out to be a great option.

It's tied on a worm hook which in soft plastic parlance is also referred to as a weedless hook and more often than not this fly can be retrieved not only through weed but also over or around most structure such as detritus matter, drowned timber, rocks etc without being snagged up.

I like to work it through a range of retrieves including continuous retrieves at various speeds and retrieves with plenty of pauses that allow the fly to either sink through the water column or bounce along the bottom.

 

MATERIALS FOR NATURAL BAITFISH SCROUNGER - OLIVE OVER BAITFISH


Hook Thread Weight Body and tail Lateral line (optional) Back Eyes Finish
Size #2/0 Shinto Pro worm x strong Denier or Kevlar 100 thread 0.30mm lead wire Flash blend in shrimp colour and gold sparkle flashabou Mackerel coloured Sparkle Flash Olive Streamer or Super hair Stick holographic eyes or dolls eyes Two part 5 minute epoxy or UV epoxy

 

 

MATERIALS FOR MANGROVE JACK BAITFISH SCROUNGER - RED OVER ORANGE


Hook Thread Weight Body and tail Lateral line (optional) Back Eyes Finish
Size #2/0 Shinto Pro worm x strong Denier or Kevlar 100 thread 0.30mm lead wire Flash blend in pink colour and gold sparkle flashabou Mackerel coloured Sparkle Flash Red Streamer or Super hair Stick holographic eyes or dolls eyes Two part 5 minute epoxy or UV epoxy

 

MATERIALS FOR QANTAS COLOURED BAITFISH SCROUNGER - RED OVER WHITE


Hook Thread Weight Body and tail Lateral line (optional) Back Eyes Finish
Size #2/0 Shinto Pro worm x strong Denier or Kevlar 100 thread 0.30mm lead wire White Flash Blend Mackerel coloured Sparkle Flash Red Streamer or Super hair and pearl Krystal Flash Stick holographic eyes or dolls eyes Two part 5 minute epoxy or UV epoxy

 

Notes

  • All the sizes in this post relate to tying a size #2/0 baitfish. Size range for this fly is size #1 to size #5/0 ... adjust the sizing to suite the size of the hook.
  • The 2/0 hook is 47mm long and the target length for the finished jelly prawn is 94cm.
  • For the weight that you pre-tie onto the hook I recommend 10 turns = light weight, 15 turns = medium weight and 20 turns of the lead wire = heavy weight.
  • With such a small amount of hook shank being used to anchor all the materials in the fly I urge you to apply a small drop of super glue to the tie in of each material as you proceed.

 

Process

A
  1. Lock the back of the bend of your #2/0 hook already loaded with its lead wire weight into the vice.
  2. I have painted the lead weigh red to represent a bleed and the shank of the hook as far as the bend of the hook with nail polish the same colour as the body and tail material I'll be using.

  3. Tie the thread in half way along the small flat section of the hook shank that is just back from the eye of the fly.

B
  1. Select a small bunch of Flash Blend, in the body and tail colour, that is 20cm long.
  2. Select 3 strands of Krystal Flash that are 20cm long and as evenly as possible disperse those into the bunch of flash blend.
  3. Tightly tie the Flash blend and Krystal Flash bunch in with half facing forward and the the other half facing back ward behind the bend of the hook.
  4. Take a half hitch in the thread and apply a single small drop of super glue to the tie in of the Flash Blend and Krystal Flash.

C
  1. Take the forward facing Flash Blend and Krystal Flash and fold that over on top of the rear facing Flash Blend and Krystal Flash.
  2. Take a half hitch in the thread and apply a single small drop of super glue to the tie in of the Flash Blend and Krystal Flash.

D
  1. Select a 10cm long bunch of Streamer Hair or Super Hair and tie that in, with tight wraps of thread, to form a back covering the Flash Blend and Krystal Flash.
  2. Take the thread forward to behind the eye of the hook and build up a neat head in the gap between the tie in of the Streamer or Super Hair and the eye of the hook.
  3. Don't be concerned that you have a relatively large amount of thread in that small flat area behind the eye of the hook as that will be hidden by the stick on eyes in the next step.

E
  1. Whip finish the thread behind the eye of the hook.
  2. Trim away the bobbin of thread.

F
  1. Stick a holographic stick on eye or a baby doll eye on each side of the head of the fly directly behind the eye of the hook.

G
  1. Mix a small quantity of 5 minute epoxy and use a tooth pick to apply epoxy around the stick on holographic eyes and the head of the fly.
  2. Rotate the fly whilst the epoxy goes off so as to ensure a nice symmetrical and round head.

H
  1. When the epoxy has cured, stroke the body materials back into place and trim the body so that the finished fly is 94mm long and the tail of the fly has a nice tapered finish.