HiVis Mullet Baitfish Saltwater Hook : Long shank. Thread : White or dark dun. Weight : Lead wire or substitute plastic eyes for painted lead eyes. Tail : White bucktail. Body : Spun and trimmed HiVis - dark dun, white. Gills : Red HiVis. Eyes : Plastic stemmed doll eyes - black on yellow or black on red.
Tying Instructions 1) Grab long shank hook with your long nose pliers, bending the hook shank at the half way point of the hook shank bending away from hook point to form the keel type hook profile of the standard bendback fly, if a little longer than normal in the eye end the hook shank. 2) Insert hook, with hook point up, into vice. 3) Lay a bed of thread from hook eye to start of bendback keel of hook shank. 4) Join two small stemmed plastic dolls eye by filing/sanding away half the eye stem lengthwise and gluing the two shafts together. Then for added strength bind joined stems with thread, then add another coating of glue to thread. I usually make up a few at a time for later use. 5) Add a drop of super glue or head cement to the tie in point of the eyes. 6) Tie in this dumbbell of plastic stemmed eyes on top of the hook shank one or two eye lengths from the hook eye. (If using painted lead dumbbell eyes tie them in on the opposite side to the hook point) 7) Tie in a small bunch of white bucktail on top of hook shank, length of bucktail should extend past hook. 8) Tie in a few strands of Krystalflash or other flash material again extending past hook bend. 9) Tie in a long clump of dark dun, length of HiVis again extending past hook bend with about a centimetre of HiVis extending towards the hook eye past the tie in point. Once tied in bend this back towards the hook point (to which the next clump will be tied against). 10) Tie is a 2 - 3cm length of white HiVis at its half way point, as you would when spinning fleece, on the bottom of the hook shank. 11) Tie in some dark dun HiVis on the top of the hook shank above the white HiVis you just tied in, as you would when spinning fleece or deer hair pushing all material tightly against the last clump of HiVis applied. 13) Repeat tying in the white on the bottom then the dark dun HiVis on the top of the hook shank until at the rear of the eyes. 14) Below and to the rear of the eyes tie in a small amount of red HiVis or fleece to form gills. 15) Continue to apply white and dark dun HiVis till rest of hook shank towards the hook eye. 16) With scissors, or what ever, trim body material to form head and body of mullet fly. (I like to use very sharp scissor tips in little cuts from the hook eye back). 17) Once trimmed you could darken the back of the fly with a black or dark brown permanent marker. Even a black line made with permanent marker along the lateral line another optional extra. If you really want to dick around and get real fancy, after tying in the white HiVis and before tying in the dark dun HiVis top half of the body, tie in a thin layer of flash material to form a shining lateral line.
Fly Notes Can be tied using fleece or other types of wool spun on instead of the HiVis. Even using deer hair for a floating version. Colourations are only limited to the colours available in HiVis or similar synthetic materials. You will find this spun version of synthetic materials far easier to cast then a water logged wool version.
Fishing Notes Fished with either a floating line (best with plastic eyed version) or sinking line (weighted or unweighted versions). Depending on where in the water column the baitfish are travelling and the intended target species resides. Can be targeted on most estuarine and inshore species - flathead and bream. Mulloway and other larger estuary predators will take this fly. Tropical species like giant trevally, barramundi, threadfin salmon and black jew will also find this pattern enticing.
Location Notes Anywhere in the saltwater a baby mullet would be swimming.
Prey Notes Baitfish representation of a juvenile mullet
Tier Richard Carter

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