Saltwater
Fly Concepts Part II
By Richard
Carter
Previously….
We discussed the speculative reasons a fish takes a fly in Part
1.
Lets now look at our targeted species…..
The knowledge of each targeted
species physical characteristics and their feeding trends will
help in selecting the best fly to design, tie and use. The position
of the eyes and mouths on their heads, their favoured habitat
and their dietary tastes which differ from species to species
and all should be reflected in fly design, selection and use
for each intended target species.
The position of the fishes mouth
and eyes will generally indicate their feeding, travelling and
resting positions in the water column. Thus how best to design
a fly, assist in the placement of materials plus the proportions
of those materials and finally where to position the fly in the
water column to hopefully hook a fish if not sight fishing.
Picture: Whiting on a fly
from the Whiting swap - a Charlie Chuckles by Ken.
The position of the eyes and
or the mouth on the body can determine the level the fish travels
in the water column. Look at a silver whiting for an example
it's mouth is located on the underside of the head. With the
upper jaw extending over the bottom jaw. This would suggest it
gets most of it's food from the lowest portions of the water
column, predominantly the bottom substrata. Knowing this I tie
most of my flies used for this species with the hook riding up,
in most cases with flies weighted and sparsely dressed to get
it to the bottom fast. As the fish moves over the fly, the up
riding hook gets that extended upper jaw every time (well most
times). Most bonefish patterns are designed this way too.
A Saratoga's or a Tarpon's mouth
and eyes are focused towards the upper layer of water, particularly
the surface. Although, at times caught on deeply presented flies,
the tying and use of surface or just sub-surface flies would
see far better results as their whole lives are focused on the
water surface and any activity on it.
The size of any fish species
mouth should also be considered as this helps in hook selection.
The most often mistake in saltwater fly tying is the use of too
big a hook for the fish to be targeted. You would not for instance
tie a synthetic green weed fly on a 1/0 size hook when chasing
Blackfish. A better choice would be a size 10, a size hook more
suited to a blackfish's small mouth. Even better still one of
those green coated hooks Mustad make specifically for blackfish.
Picture: Bream on a fly from
the Crustacean swap - a Reverse SHP.
Bream is a species that, by most,
is fished for with hook far to large for the size fish being
caught particularly by bait anglers. A fly made with a hook in
sizes 8 - 4 will still catch as many 1.5+kilo bream as will a
1/0 hook, but the 1/0 hook will not catch as many legal size
ones as a size 4 hook or smaller. With most of the bream caught
these days being just legal. Which hook would you use, on the
off chance of them all being kilo plus fish. Great if you can
get them all the time of course, but logically and with the current
rape and pillage of commercial fisheries and some shamateurs
in mind, most times I use hooks in sizes 4 and 6 on what is left
(if any at the current rate of commercial fisheries destructive
prawn capture methods).
Another thing to keep in mind
is the habitat a species prefers. The most suited to a particular
species would find more fish of that species near it then other
locations. Bream can be caught in open waters, but most would
be found near rock walls, bridge pylons and oyster leases. While
silver whiting prefer shallow sand bars, grass beds and more
open waters. Kingfish love channel markers and jetties. Even
though kingfish are found elsewhere, you'd be best to cast poppers
or squid patterns at the markers, not just cast anywhere in the
middle of a bay for example. As are reef fish which are called
that for a reason, it's their prime habitat. You will rarely
catch a coral trout or other reef fish far from reef cover. If
ninety fish out of a hundred are caught near reef and the other
ten in open water. So too must you cast your fly where the fish
are most likely to be - the reef structures in this case.
Picture: Size 8 Silicone Surf
Candy & a brightly coloured 5" Sar-Mul-Mac fly. Depending
on what size baitfish are being eaten so should your flies be.
All fish have different favoured
foods, don't you! So, what a fish usually eats and what it eats
seasonally should be reflected your tying efforts and your fly
selection as well. If pelagics or some sort of tuna are eating
small 5cm glassy see through baitfish and you are tossing around
a heavily dressed brightly coloured 20cm Sar-Mul-Mac baitfish
fly, you would catch a lot less than a guy casting a size 8 Silicone
Surf Candy baitfish fly. The later a perfect clone to what the
fish is eating at the time. "Match the hatch" in speckled
feral (freshwater trout) terms. Yes, you would catch some on
the 20cm monster fly, but on percentages you would catch less
overall. This is an extreme example, but even a fly 2cm too long
could effect you success on say mack tuna totally focused on
smaller baitfish like glassies and other small whitebait type
baitfish.
Some trout anglers go to extremes
examining the stomach contents of their catch to determine the
best bait or fly to cast next. When preparing for a days trout
fly fishing I would go to the local public telephone box the
night before. Not to make a phone call but to examine the insects
attracted to the lights in the phone box and that get caught
in any spider webs inside of the phone box. I can then decide
on the best flies to take the next day - size, colour and type
based on what has hatched over the last few days. Well, at least
it gives me a head start for the next day, every bit helps when
I go trout fishing!
Pictures: Baitfish, squid
patterns. & Worm & prawn patterns.
Applying this methodology in
saltwater terms on the next flathead outing and deciding what
flies to take, I tie and select flies that would match a flatheads
main diet - small baitfish, crustaceans and worms. 2 -3 inch
deceivers, clousers and bendbacks would cover most baitfish situations.
Tied mostly white, translucent and a bit of flash with maybe
a touch of yellow to match the fins of a silver whiting. Also
a darker backed versions to match a small mullet. Some with a
little extra weight in the nose of the fly to help skip and flit
along the bottom while retrieved, like the real baby whiting
would do. A few weedless patterns to pull through tidal weed
beds. A few worms and a few prawn patterns in case. Match the
hatch saltwater style - flies on hand for what the flathead may
be focused on that day, that tide, that location.
Picture: If a predator species
bit either of the flies pictures here past the red line towards
the tail Which fly would hook up on the fish, the top one of
course.
When selecting a hook type or
style to tie your patterns on and defining the flies proportions,
you also need to understand the way a fish eats, the way it may
first grab its prey for example. Tailor and most species of mackerel
hit their prey towards the rear of the body. Most times cutting
the tail off or the body in half, then come back on the next
pass and finish it off the bits left. We have all had flies with
the tail bitten off. The next plastic skirted lure to be sliced
off just behind the hooks by a wahoo will not be the last. Would
it not be wiser to design your fly in this case with a long shanked
hook with most of the pattern towards the eye of the hook. Though
long shank hooks also have leverage issues, it is all a matter
of deciding which hook style has the most going for it in any
particular application.
At a tackle store I work at once,
we kept some bread and butter estuary species like flathead,
whiting, bream and squire in a fish tank. The customers use to
like to feed them, while at the same time I took the opportunity
to observed the fish to see how they ate. The bream eight times
out ten grabbed the live baitfish place into the tank head first
or at least in the region of the head. So I now tie most of my
bream patterns with short shanked hooks, with the point just
behind a dominant eye.
Most of the fish travelling in
the upper layers of water most times attacked the prawns and
nippers from behind when the prey source were on the bottom of
the tank. So have tried to create and use patterns that represent
these types of prey when targeting these species with the hook
point over the carapace. This to ensure the first thing and the
deepest thing in the fishes mouth is the hook point.
The flathead in comparison swallowed
the nippers whole as they landed on the bottom of the tank, this
led me to believe the hook point is better down with their bottom
jaw extending past the top jaw. While baitfish introduced to
the flathead where most often grabbed from the eye to back along
the body, nearly always holding the baitfish first time side
on about the middle of the body. This is why most of my flathead
patterns are proportioned to be twice the length of the hook.
This places the all important hook point right in the middle
of the fly where the flathead grab it most times.
So now we know about our intended
species. How and what it eats. If you don't, do a little research
yourself. American fly fishers have complete books on what Bonefish
eat and when they eat it. I hate using the Americans for examples
but in the some areas of saltwater fly fishing they are way ahead
of Australian swoffing methods. Really, would it hurt to know
more about the species we target in Australia to such a degree
or to focus in on a particular species while swoffing.
The more information you gain
on a species or its prey, should result in more success. My grandfather,
a very successful fisherman and a dry fly purist who to his dying
day could not think of saltwater fly fishing as anything other
than coarse angling, but aside from that fallacy one other thing
he did say had much truth in it. "A good fisherman is one
who looks first and then applies his art based on what he has
seen". All of the ramblings in this article series are about
just that - looking first and fishing the appropriate method
and flies based on what was seen. Don't predetermine anything,
set no rules and they will not be broken and better still by
not setting rules, you will not then restrict the methods available
to you, nor impact on your chances of success. The only boundary
to your fly fishing should be your imagination and what you want
out of the sport.
Next time in Part 3, the last
in this series, we will discuss the food sources we intend to
imitate. Particularly how they should impact on fly design, selection
and use.
