Saltwater
Fly Concepts Part I
By Richard
Carter
Picture this.
A new prey to eat presents itself
slightly to the side and a few meters ahead of a saltwater predator.
The predator tenses as the prey pauses its forward motion, sinking
slowly. The fish has just had a couple of appetisers a few minutes
before, tasty and filling. This new prey is behaving just as
expected too and is in the right place, but it darts a little
further away. Again the prey pauses, hoping to disguise its escape
it sinks slowly, almost motionless. The fish follows, gradually
it's excitement and anticipation rise in the predator, but to
attack too early may result in danger or in a missed opportunity.
On closer inspection, the fish
sees similar traits to past meals. Still it is slightly different
somehow, maybe that extra shiny curved feeler or is it a fin.
Again the prey moves away then pauses, the fish follows. There's
the normal dominate eye showing, maybe the hint of a lateral
line. The fish feels it better stop this morsel before it gets
away, it can always spit it out. As the predator moves forward
, the prey again starts to move off as if to escape. With no
more hesitation, the fish inhales the prey before its misses
the chance of a meal. (Remember that all this takes place in
the matter of a few moments)
Before it can taste the new meal
it stings back. It's first thoughts are of that crab that bit
it recently or the impact caused by the spines or fragments of
hard shell that any of it's other food sources may have. So it
clamps down harder to crush the life from its prey but something
starts to cause a strain to one side. Panicking the fish bolts
for the safety of deeper water. With too much side strain to
continue to the deeper water the fish changes direction. It strives
to reach a known pile of reef and rock with its sharp edges,
hopeful to scrap away the thing in it's mouth that must be causing
this abnormal occurrence in its life.
The side strain is too much again, with its last strength it
launches itself from the water rattling its gills and mouth to
dislodge the once thought piece of food. Soon exhausted it lays
on its side on top of the water meekly flapping its tail. It
is then pulled towards a large object floating on the water.
Wet unfamiliar hands gently cradle it and the object it thought
was food is easily removed from its mouth.
Picture: Releasing a Flathead
It is then placed back in the
water and faced into the life giving current. On regaining its
strength, the hands release their gentle grip and the fish races
back to its brothers, sisters and cousins only slightly worse
off for the experience. Within minutes again looking for the
next meal.
In the moments immediately after
the release, the fish tells itself it will be more careful, but
tomorrow it will make the same mistake again, but only if your
well presented fly happens it's way.
What made the fish take the
Fly.
Ever had someone touch a spot
on your shirt and as you looked down, they flip your nose. Yes,
we all have. Did we learn from it the first time? Yes. Have we
ever been caught by this trick at a later date? Yes, we all have.
Will we get caught again? Yes. In a split second we remember
what is about to happen, but it is too late we have already looked
down and had our noses tweaked. A mistake was made regardless
of our past experiences and so called superior intelligence.
So too will the fish make a mistake, who has far less intelligence
than us (though hard to tell at times given the amount of times
they suss us out and easily avoid our offerings).
The fish made its mistake because
of the need to take advantage of what it had in front of it at
that point in time. The decision to do so is based mainly on
past experiences and instinct, but includes the fact that it
has little time to choose the right course of action every time.
It must survive, it must feed as the next opportunity may not
be until tomorrow, if ever. If it means eating something it shouldn't,
so be it. It can always spit it out as it has done before.
A fish is attracted to and considers
an object to be food for many reasons. Due to this our flies
must have one or more of those reasons, features or qualities
designed and tied into them. Most flies fit into one or more
of the following categories.
(** note:- to pre-empt any arguments
or other discussions, flies mentioned below can fit in to any
of the groupings mentioned depending of dimensions and materials
used, they are only mentioned as examples not as gospel truth
or absolutes. The thoughts expressed in this part and the next
2 parts in this series are just mine, given to stimulate thought
about your own reasons for fly design, selection and use.)
Trigger.
These are flies that because
of one reason, feature or quality cause the fish to react. For
example a fly that creates a noise or gives the impression of
a motion made by favoured prey at certain times. Even one splash
of colour it associates with one type of favourite food. Regardless
of other features present or missing that should tell the fish
something is wrong, this trigger overrides all instinct and experience.
Examples include various poppers which make the sound of a panicking
baitfish on the surface of the water. Saltwater yabbie or Nipper
patterns or the Shallow H2O (an egg cluster pattern) used for
Bonefish and whiting. All these types of patterns are using the
egg sack colourings as a trigger to invoke a strike from the
fish. Even a bare hook with just a little flash that in the light
reflected looks like a small baitfish for an instant, has caught
more than one fish at times over the years.
Picture: Trigger flies - SW Yabbie
pattern with egg cluster, Shallow H2O which is just an egg cluster
and a few bucktail hairs. The other pattern is a similar egg
cluster US bonefish pattern I use on local whiting.
Generalist.
These are flies that could represent many species of prey. Due
to two or more qualities like size, profile, movement or other
fly qualities we will talk about later.
Examples - Clouser Minnows -
which can represent prawns or baitfish, Deceivers - which can
represent baitfish and squid, Baited Breathes - which can represent
squid, prawns or baitfish, Flashy Profile Flies which can represent
squid or baitfish.
Picture: Generalist flies - Chartreuse
Clouser, A chartreuse and a white Baited Breathe, and a White
Deceiver which can all be taken for squid, baitfish or crustaceans
depending on materials used, dimensions of fly and retrieval
methods.
Attractor.
These are flies that because
they are different to everything else attract interest but with
a hint of "eat me" in the pattern.
Examples - poppers, sliders, pink flies, white flies with red
heads.
Picture: Attractor flies - a
couple of Bream Puffs, Fishscale popper, Purple marabou Clouser,
Fun Foam Popper.
Imitative.
These are flies that replicate a prey species as closely as possible.
Show anybody the fly and they will tell you what it is meant
to be. As an example a fly like the SeeThru Minnow or Surf Candy
where other real baitfish will join with it for safety of the
school, it is that realistic. These types of fly have most if
not all the qualities the fish recognises food by. Examples -
Estuary Critter, Silicone Hackle Prawn, Del Brown's Merkin (crab),
SeeThru Minnows.
Picture: Imitative flies - Silicone
Surf candies, Del Brown Merkin, Velcro Crab, Success Flies Squid,
Bomber Squid and Success Flies Minnow.
We now need to know about a few
more things to help in fly design, selection and use.
We will discuss some of these
things over the next two articles in this series. Part 2 will
discuss the intended species to be targeted and how its characteristics
should be considered in fly design, selection and use. Then part
3 will discuss the food sources we are attempting to imitate
and how their characteristics should impact on fly design, selection
and use.
