Match
the Hatch Saltwater Style
By Richard
(Lips) Carter
When trout fishing, fly fishers
take the time to find out what food sources the trout could be
eating. Size, colour and type. Yet regularly in the salt we just
tie on a clouser, wade on in and start blind casting. Most times
not even thinking about what species we intend to catch as everything
will take a clouser.
How about you stop before you
get in the saltwater next time. Think about what species are
you going to target. Also to a greater degree what are you going
to tie on in the hope the targeted species is eating something
like it at the moment.
When I first move back to east
coast from Whyalla SA. I spent my first few trips without even
a fly rod in my hand. Mainly a scoop net, this to sample local
food sources to take note of colour, size and type. All this
pre-fishing work would save me much wasted casting with flies
the wrong size, colour or type.
I took a photo of the different
food source and taking note of size. Then when back home print
an image of the food source and start sketching on them materials
I may be able to use for representing parts of the food source.
An example is found below.
(Image 1)
The fly developed has fly has
help me catch two of the Giant herring that occasionally show
up in Lake Macquarie and harass the baitfish at the various power
station hot water outlets. From a distance the best you can guess
is an approximate length of the baitfish as it gets chased out
of the water. Having already found out what the local baitfish
looked like up close, isolating probable trigger features and
highlighting them in a fly. I was ready for the unpredictable
showing up of the giant herring the last time I was at the outlet
channel.
So heres the baitfish the herring
were chasing and the fly I used.
The eyes are larger, but that's
the trigger. The body is see through, lateral line and stomach
sac showing on both the fly and the real thing.
A clouser or a white deceiver
just would not of done the trick with these speedster giant herring
in this situation and location. Any one can blind cast a clouser
or a white deceiver. But as with trout when casting a predetermined
olive or dun mayfly dry to rising trout, casting a fly made to
represent a specific food source in the right size, type and
colour for a sighted species was the absolute pinnacle of enjoyment
when saltwater fly fishing too.
Just as blind casting for trout
is not the most favourite method for trout fly anglers, so too
should it be for salties. Yes, sometimes the conditions require
blind casting coverall flies. If sight casting to any species
of fish is the ultimate adventure, then having the match the
hatch flies for the fresh and the salt must be a priority for
all fly tier/anglers. Trout anglers have woolly buggers as fly
for all occasions, salties have clousers and deceivers (as well
as woolly buggers which work a treat in the salt too). Trout
anglers also have nymphs of many colours and sizes, dries in
many sizes and types too. What do you have in your saltwater
fly box - only cover all flies? Or do you have a few saltwater
match the hatch as well.
Most times a saltwater fish bites
first and asks questions later, but not all of them and not all
the time. You can guarantee it will happen when you are on the
water and you don't have a fly of the size, type and colour (contrast,
shade, blue factors or whatever) on hand.
Find out what your local fish
food sources are, what they look like, what sizes they come in,
what colours they come in and everything else you can find out
about them. Then find some patterns that can be used or modified
to represent them. Just in case you come across a focused saltwater
species, who will take nothing else but a near duplicate of what
it is currently eating. Enjoy your tying.
Here are the flies submitted
for the SW Baitfish 'Match the Hatch' Swap minus the SeeThru
Minnow.
(1) ALF Surf Candy, (2) Baby 3x2 garfish, (3) Baby Pilchard Popper.
(4) Eyes, (5) HiVis 3D Mullet, (6) Golden Shiner
Long casts, tight lines and fast
fish
Richard (LIPS) Carter