Stumbling on my vice

Notus and Eurus have combined their efforts into a humping South Easterly that has blown us daily off the flats. It has littered the otherwise pristinely white beaches with tons of Sargasso weed and loose turtle grass that fouls line and flies.

With seven weeks until the departure for South America, I figured the wind was a good excuse to spend some quality time with my vice. What I hadn't counted on is that I've spent so much time tying saltwater flies that I'm struggling to get back into the rhythm of small flies.

Tying a simple and old favourite pheasant tail yesterday led to a case of severe frustration and thread breaking. I eventually gave up, made some Bovril toast with too much butter, opened a beer and put the Patagonia edition of Trout Bum Diaries into the DVD player.

It proved rather inspirational and got me amped to tie again! Off I went and...

FAIL!

Again! Twice in an evening was too much! I opened another beer and watched Running Down The Man.

So I've decided that I should step it down slowly. Start with a few tarpon flies, then move to a few bigger freshwater streamers and smaller brush flies. Gradually decrease the hook size and thread diameter until I can once again tie up tiny, delicate flies without catching a case of the losers!

From these....

To these with much frustration!!!

Planning or Doodling?

We all do it. When you're really not focussed as fully as you should be on something or when the mind is free to wonder and float. The pen close by and a scrap of paper become the canvas of your daydream. Whether its simple stick drawing of fighting fish or intricate multi-layed masterpieces they all have a similar theme - things fishing.

Looking back over my journals I had to chuckle at the variety of pictures and scribbles. Some lucky stick men catching tailing stick permit. Some over zealous stick fishermen about to get smashed up! And then there are some interesting things.

Drawings of flies. Variations. Ideas. Concepts. Without realising it my doodling is a form of brain storming for the flies. Notes, musings and thoughts litter the scribbles. And these are the scribbles and doodles - I'm not including the actual thought recording writings and musings.

The Ugly Crab was drawn before I finally tied it. There's a picture in there of a creature come shrimp come crab that I still want to tie. Colour variations of Charlies, Clousers, Sar-Mul-Macs and Brush flies. I don't remember putting the details, the notes and colours, into the pictures. But there they are scribbled in the corners from the corners of a fly fishing mind.

I'm sure many of the lines came from flies I'd seen, read about or fished with. While other ideas are my own. It's the combining of the two that make these scribbles so unique and interesting. I'm now sorry I sent my last three journals home last month. How many ideas did I leave in the margins. Who knows - maybe no good ones or maybe one that could change my fishing totally!

The point of all of this? I guess it is a bit like those adverts that played for awhile on SA television of people coming up with great ideas at the damnedest times or in the strangest places. You never know when a new great idea is going hit! Write it all down somewhere. I remember Peter Coetzee, author of borntoflyfish.com, saying he started his blog to keep a record so that he and others could remember.

So keep day dreaming and doodling - you may just get your next best idea just when you should be concentrating on something else!

The Ugly Crab was still in its infancy when this was drawn. I never realised then that bit of a Merkin, an Avalon and some funky eyes would turn into my favourite flats fly.

This drawing came about watching Needlescale Queen fish and Big Eye Trevally decimate a school of sprats. I tried every colour combo in my box and eventually when dredging in disgust. Couldn't 'match the hatch'. I eventually tied the fly six months later because I bumped into the picture while paging through my journal.

The Evolution of JD's Creature Fly

JD Filmalter, like me, has had an obsession with Golden Trevally since his first encounter with them on the flats of the inner islands. We have chased them, theorised about them and worked out their habits.

Obviously this all led to our own fly development for Gnathanodon speciosus. What would get the best results most consistently? While I have stuck to crabs and ended up with the “UglyCrab”, JD has gone with the shrimp direction. Taking inspiration from famous Spawning Shrimp and Avalon flies, JD has created his own “Creature” flies.

These crustacean imitators have proved successful in both JD’s pursuit of Golden Trevally and in catching a variety of other flats species including Carangoides ferdau  ( which is the Blue, not Bluefin Trevally) and Bonefish. I’m pretty sure it’s just a matter time until JD gets a good permit on one.

The Creature has had a full evolution of growth and, keeping true to Darwin’s theories, has shed its weaknesses and grown in its strengths.  The first Creatures were rather shabby, woolly affairs that incorporated a few triggers. They worked, but JD wasn’t happy and tweaked or revised with every Golden encounter.

At a fairly rapid rate – which highlights his understanding of fish and fly fishing – JD has turned the Creature  into a serious fly that has a impressive and growing list of caught fish. Even I have a sneaky one in my box just-in-case.

The most recent - and best - version of The Creature sits alive on the grass of the flats, daring a fish to eat it. The combination of a hot pink underbody and an EP or Frizz Fibre overbody give the fly a translucent and realistic shrimp look. The feelers double as pincers and move alluring in the water. The eyes stand out on stalks adding to the realism. A weed guard prevents snagging over the grass and the tungsten beads tied in as a keel provide adequate weight, an upright swimming position and the added bonus of some noise.

I have no doubt there will be more changes and adaptations made to this fly. And while, like so many different fly patterns, I'm sure it has been tied by somebody, somewhere else; JD's talent as a flyfisherman is highlighted by the growth of this great fly.

One the first creatures.

Getting the shape and the eyes right. First use of silly legs as feelers and moth apparatus.

The Creature becoming more streamlined. Colour experimentation . And note the first time addition of the keel.

Almost there - the rostrumless (this one has a small, understated rostrum) Creature.

The most recent Creature fly showing the addition of a pronounced rostrum,  pink hotspot, weed guard and barring.

Keel position

A backlit photo which gives an idea of the translucence of the fly. This much more noticeable when underwater.  

JD and a Golden Trevally with a Creature in the scissors.

Eyes for Flies #1

Over the years I've realised more and more the importance of the role of eyes when tying flies.

Years ago I used just burn the end of a piece of mono and waalaa, nice tie eyes that looked real enough. These were used on crab, shrimp, creature and any other fly that needed stalk eyes. As far as fresh water eyes went I barely bothered. Only the biggest streamer flies got the most basic black dots.

My first trip to the Seychelles in 2001 taught me a little more with regards to the importance of big, shiny eyes on big flies as triggers. I hadn't until then given much thought as to why fish ate flies and those all important triggers. I was young and the realisation as to why realisitic flies weren't always the most effective was rather profound.

Production line eyes. Trying to cut down on the time. These have been burnt, painted with pink (left)/red (right), had a silver glitter added and are waiting a black eyeball and final epoxy/polish finish.

As my Dad had always said, flies aren't tied to catch fisherman; they're tied to catch fish. Until then I had always taken this statement as a tongue-in-cheek excuse for the not so neat and tidy array of flies that adorned his fly box.

I began in earnest to read and experiment with colours and movement in my trout and yellowfish flies. And the results started to show. One of friends once called one of my flies an abomination and should never be cast at anything except bass, yet he still asked for one at the end of the days fishing.

As I explored the salt more and more, I began to take heed of the fact that eyes were of critical importance in the triggering of fish aggression and fly-eating behaivour.

I started playing with different materials for eyes. Glass beads - silver, red, orange and even blue. Using mono, heat and superglue I was able concoct a number of different eyes types. Sometimes even the use of tungsten beads in the eyes to change the angle of drift or swim of a fly.

A rough epoxy finish and ready for tying. Still working at final polished finish that I'm happy with.

It was recently that I saw a fly with the most amazing eyes I have ever seen on a fly. These had taken time and effort. Layered with colour, sparkle and shine. I'm a fly tyer who doesn't like spending hours tying a fly, let alone making one aspect of the fly. But realised I may have to revise my attitude on time when it came to these eyes.

And so the playing began. Melting mono, playing with nail polish that that always brings raised eye brows when purchased, covering with glitter and finishing with Hard-As-Nails or epoxy.

The results have been mixed but I have settled to two types that I'll be using on all stalk-eyed flies for awhile!