Milkfish flies: Dreaming the Can-Can

The antics of this past weekend have given me reason to head back to the drawing board with regards Milky flies.

The fact that we had two enquiries and two hookups - that's four positive encounters - with flats Milkfish on a CanCan Girl (its actually a Gotcha variation) has altered my thoughts a little with regards the chasing of Milks on the flats. The fly has been working too well on the Bonefish lately and has accounted for my last 11 Bonefish, plus several smaller Permit and a Golden Trevally.

The name CanCan Girl comes from a comment that the line of finished flies looked like a row of dancing girls - naughty and ready for action. And also from the fact that the flats dwellers can't seem to say no to them!

A nice row of naughty CanCan Girls ready for action.

Back to the Milks - it all started last Saturday. With four Bonefish and a Permit already accounted for (the Permit was released ala long line just short of reaching distance), Dad presented a CanCan Girl to a moving shadow. A heavy cloud that had just pulled in above us caused the vis to drop significantly and we were struggling with sighting and identifying any fish that was further than five or so meters. I was standing behind the Old Man watching rather intently the regular movement of a tail about 80m away. I had just set off after the tail in question when Dad hooked up; I missed it and the first jump and was alerted by Dad's call and bent rod that he into a decent fish. With that I saw a Milk accelerate past within half a rod length of me. What blew my mind was the fact that it had a CanCan Girl right in the scissors. Two cartwheeling jumps and a burnt finger later Dad was standing with a limp fly line and knocking knees.

"That must have a fluke!" were the first words out his mouth. I was inclined to agree.

That was until the entire process was repeated, this time with a Milk we identified clearly - thanks to the clouds removing themselves - before presenting, about five minutes later.

You could have knocked me over with a feather.

Once more that day and again the following morning we had solid knocks from sighted Milks. Although the they did seem less interested in the flies than the first two.

So, at the desk I've tied a few unweighted CanCan Girls. I've also combined the body of the CanCan and Arno's Milky Dream fly.

CanCan Girl Recipe (Picture below):

Hook: Gamakatsu or Grip #2 - #6
Thread: Soft pink Danville 6/0 or something like it.
Tail: Red Bunny Fur
Body: UV Minnow Body wrapped over pink thread on shank
Eyes: Depending on weight - tungsten eyes to bead chain.
         For unweighted version just leave the eyes off.
Wing: White or cream calf tail.

Dreamy CanCan Recipe (Picture below):
Replace the calf tail wing with a fluorescent green or chartreuse egg yarn.

Skirtless CanCan Girl (Picture below):

Same as the CanCan Girl just without the red tag.

Now only time will tell as to whether those living torpodoes are going to repeat the mistakes of last week end.

An old used and abused CanCan Girl showing the rigours of the hard work on the flats...

Another Fun Morning

This morning was great. An early start. Fish moving all over the place. Its a pleasure when your local spot is productive.

But forget the four landed Bonefish, permit lost at my feet and golden's in the distance. And forget the fact I landed my 75th Inner Island Bonefish, which I'm very chuffed about. However I'll remember this morning for the two definite Milkfish hookups.

Dad played it well. Perfect presentation. As ecstatic as I was, I put the first one down to fluke. The fish, not large, but a Milkfish none-the-less, did three cartwheels before throwing the hook. But Dad soon put my fluke to rest when, with still adrenalin pumping and our tails up, we soon spotted another cruising fish and with an identical cash and retrieve Dad hooked up again. Unfortunately it threw the hook on the first one.

The fly was not a typical Milkfish fly but rather an unweighted Gotcha variation (which has had happened to be catching everything lately). Put in front of the Milk, it was barely moved - just enough to keep contact. The light take of a Milkfish belies the crazy acceleration that soon follows a hookup.

Hopefully tomorrow we will find, hook and land one.

Fixing Focus

Getting cracking photos of your fish is quite an important part of fly fishing. It is awesome being able to share the surreal landscapes, magical streams and endlessly blue oceans of our fishing experiences. And let’s not mention the being able to email all our friends the latest bus we landed - we love to stroke our egos don’t we?

When taking photos with your own camera, it’s easy. You know the settings, understand the focal lengths and know how to manipulate its nuances to get the best picture. It gets a little more complicated with a DSLR. But you learn the camera like you learn the action of your rod coupled with your line.

But when it’s your turn to have the pics taken of yourself, be sure to check that the settings are correct before handing the camera over. After he snapped his rod today, my old man was relegated to cameraman. I didn't realise the focus was still on manual and after 30 odd photos of a bonefish; Photoshop worked hard to sharpen, clear and fix the images. 

Dad has now had a lesson and a practice session in the basics of using my Nikon. Hopefully the next round of photo taking will be more of a success...

After Photoshop was employed - all shots were edited in Camera RAW (if you have a DSLR get Photoshop and start shooting in RAW format) - the photos are clearer and sharper. The simple steps to cleaning up your potentially lost images are below.

Step 1: In the details tab, pump up your sharpening, radius of sharpen and detail of sharpen.

Step 2: In the basic tab, play with contrast and clarity.

While this is a great way to salvage photos where your subject is a bit further away, your close-up shots will probably stay blurred. And in general this is not a magic way of making those blurry photos suddenly magazine cover quality. But it may just keep some memories a little clearer!

Above and below: The before and after Photoshop

Left photos are prePhotoshop and right is cleaned up. As mentioned, this isn't going to turn your photos into magazine covers but they'll look a lot better in your albums!

Always a great memory: sending it back...

A good morning

Some days are just special. The type of morning that is used as a reference point in all future conversations that involve the discussion of good fishing. You really wish they happened whenever you walked out onto the flats...

And of course you love to tell everyone about it: "Dude! You should have been here last week!"

And after a weekend of fishing like this one past, I just can't but help think of those great days I've had. The wind has been up and, after a week of perfectly clear skies, the weekend was cloudy (thanks Murphy). And wind and cloud make for tough fishing. We blanked pretty hard this weekend. So sitting on a Sunday evening I really can't help but share one of those days that we didn't blank!

This particular morning was a while back at Anse la Blague on Praslin Island, Seychelles. Spent with JD Filmalter and Fabien Forget.