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...

Thinking Milkfish Flies

Was chasing Milkies again yesterday, and as Murphy the shit would have it, now that I was ready they were nowhere to found. A change of wind direction and they had disappeared. New flies to test and no test subjects.

Oh well. Below are pictures of two of the Milky flies I had ready and hope will work. The first is a copy of Arno Matthee's original Milky Dream fly and the two in the following picture are an example of what happens when Mr Avalon meets Miss Milky Dream and they get it on. The darker green is to match the colour of the weed floating in the windlanes and the bright chartreuse is because so many chaps who know more than me say it is a must!

The sink rates are slower than before - which is good - but still need to determine if it's the right rate.

Can't wait to find them again :)

Arno's Milky Dream

Avalon come Milky Dream - time will tell.

More to come...

Missing the Milkman

I've started to take this personally! This evening I had nine shots at Chanos chanos.

Jono Shales with a magnificent Milky (photo courtesy of Exmouth Fly Fishing)

And nothing. Denied every time.

Drifting the wind lanes is a patient game. It's so easy to get distracted by the huge amount of fish activity in these naturally food rich areas. Eight of the nine swim-bys happened late in the afternoon - the sun was well down and made watching my fly below the surface absolutely impossible. A lot of guess work and an even greater amount of hope was applied to every cast - it didn't pay off.

A clear and typical windlane with a Milky I thought (for a second) I may have hooked! (photo: Anne Davis)

Obviously the go to fly is Arno's Milky Dream. Developed by Arno Matthee on Alphonse it (and he) did the so called impossible: catch Milkfish regularly. 

I've been tying a fair amount of these bad boys but I don't have sink rate right for the windlane Milkies. The more I read the more I realise that this is the crucial element. An interesting note comes from that online bible of saltwater fish: Fishbase.org. Apart from soft algae - which I would presume is the basis for Arno's Milky Dream - Milkfish also eat cyanobacteria, small benthic invertebrates and, how's this now!, even pelagic fish eggs and larvae!

Cyanobacteria is what causes algae blooms and often is a bright green or blue-green colour. This explains the success that has been had with bright green chartreuse weed flies and why Arno's Milky Dream is often seen with chartreuse loop. 

Small benthic invertabrates are the tiny chaps that live in the mud and sediment of lagoons and flats areas. This explains why you sometimes see smaller Milkies in shallow water eating stuff off the bottom at random. And also why some guys have caught them on really small Charlies.

But I'm really interested in the last one: the fish eggs. Maybe a Milky dream with suspended plastic or glass beads as fish eggs. Or just a clump of fish eggs. I'll be in the windlane with mask and snorkel tomorrow evening planning and plotting.

These Windlane Milkies seem to act like they down at Alphonse. While they do stick those odd mouths of theirs out the water filtering away, they don't daisy-chain and they don't come buy in shoals of hundreds. They cruise the windlanes in shoals of anything from 3 to 30 fish and although they are visibly feeding - sometimes even swirling and doubling back for a quick second look - they don't hang around for pudding.  

My emails bugging the gurus are primed and ready, the tying bench is set out and my thinking cap is on. I am absolutely frothing for another shot tomorrow... and the next day... and the next day... until I come tight!

I thought this was it!!!