Getting Ready...

With Spring firmly entrenched in the Northern Hemisphere, it is only a matter of time before the oama start coming in to the shallows. And behind them will be the predators that need to fatten up on oama. I was stuck in town the other day (really bad westbound traffic) - so I thought I stop off at Charlie's Fishing Supply. I ended up buying some yellow crystal flash that is close to the color of the oama back. Here's a Clouser tied up with the new crystal flash. I also tied up another orange fly... just because... I need to get out and tie these on (maybe Saturday morning???).

Slowly Getting Back into the Swing...

Through different means, I have slowly been getting back into fishing. There was the obvious, last weekend when I took Marlon out - but here are a couple more. I had a business lunch recently and instead of talking golf, the customer and I got to talk fishing and the bane of all lures - the kaku (barracuda). I said I'd dress up a couple of kastmasters with a bite tippet. Well - here they are... Then La came home from volunteering at Laniakea Beach to keep the general public and tourists back away from the green turtles sunning on the beach - and at some point looked down and found these flies - Heck yeah I'll fish those! And then today I actually got off my butt and picked up the flyrod again! I did have eyes on about five oio, but they were never lined up (but that's pretty much what flyfishing is all about ain't it...)

Drive By Flies

On our way up to see my sister and her family, we stopped off at Emerald Water Anglers. Nice shop with awesome flies. These guys should catch papio.

Kaku Candy and Versatile Bite Tippet

On one of the fishing outings, I tied on the mylar tubing baitfish. And after three casts, I felt pressure come on, and then suddenly slack. That means only one thing - barracuda on, barracuda off after it cut through the leader. Good news - I stumbled on a fly that kaku hit without hesitating. Bad news, I didn't have any more tied up so time to do something else. Moving on - here are the reinforcements. I tied these with lead wrapped around the shank to help it drop through the water column. Stripping will bring it back to the surface so these should cover more water and find more fish. To address the cutoffs, I also got some tiny snaps and swivels and wire tippet. I have been tying on flies or kastmasters for barracuda using the wire tippet and 12# fluorocarbon joined by an Albright knot. The problem with those setups is you can't change out the fly or lure. I didn't use snaps before because the ones I had were too big and not conducive to fly casting. With these small bite guards and lightly weighted "kaku candy" flies, fishing this weekend should lead to some catching. I hope. More to follow...

Small Baitfish Fly

Tied up with the cord braid I bought from JoAnn's back in Tacoma. AWESOME!!!

Positive Results on the Rock Resistant Measures

I didn't catch anything with the flies I just tied, but none of them (with the 40# mono twin post weed guards) got hung up on the gravel or the bottom. Weighted with bead chain eyes, the flies did still make a 'plop' when entering the water. The plop was greatly diminished, but still there. It'll be interesting to find out if the reduction is enough to stop spooking the bones. The simple fly without eyes had tons of motion, even when stripped slowly. Crosscut rabbit and marabou... I hope to nail some papio with this fly... Despite the positive results, it still sucks not catching anything. Skunked!!!!

More Flies and the Continuous Study of Albula

These are some more ammo for bonefish stalking. The brown fly is a Salt Creature that I bought at the Bass Pro Shop in Tacoma. This thing was one of flies that I've used that consistently avoided hang ups in the gravel chunks and limestone base. The Fish Skull weight/head and the weed guard did their jobs well. The only issue with this fly is the water entry - it's too heavy to make a gentle, splash-free penetration so the bones in a 10' radius get spooked. The orange fly is the Beaker with a separate wing. I tied off the body at the eyes and just added another length of yarn for the wing - I think this makes a cleaner fly. I spent a majority of Saturday morning casting these flies to plenty of bones, and mainly studied how they reacted. If I cast well in advance of their approach, they weren't spooked, but guessing their path correctly was 1 in 30. Cast too close to improve the chances of them crossing paths with the fly, and the 'plunk' of the fly entering the water put the fish on guard. I think I am going to use wire to weight the next flies I tie, and bulk up the bodies with zonker strips or chenille/estaz with the goal of drastically reducing the entry splash. Fishing a pressured flat is work... and frustrating.... and addictive ;)

New and Improved Horderve

Okay - here we go. First off - find a hook that you like and will give you some room to tie on a bunch of stuff. For my horderves (all two f them), I have been using Gamakatsu SL11-3H - they have a slightly longer shank than the Mustad 34007 that I normally use for saltwater flies. Get your thread bed going and tie on some medium bead chain eyes pretty far back on the hook close to the eye. You're going to also tie on a piece of mono to act as a weed guard and wrap some lead wire across from the hook point. You are going to want this fly to get down to the bottom fairly quick. The weight front and back will help it get down, but you shouldn't be sacrificing presentation since all the parts that stick outwards and the foam body will help soften the landing. For the weed guard, I recommend using #12 mono. Last time I used 25# Mason and I think it was way to rigid - I believe I had the fly mouthed by two different bonefish and both times I tried strip setting the hook to no avail. The lighter, more flexible mono (#12 in this case), should resolve that problem and still help keep the point from getting fouled. Now take a second and prepare the eyes. I use tiny glass beads on mono. Melt the ends of the mono, getting the bead to the burnt end while the mono is still hot and you're done. Because these eye stalks are going to be epoxied on later, it's ok if the bead slip a little. The melting is just to make sure they can't fall off the mono. Put the eye stalks aside from now and tie on 4 strands of rubber legs. These get tied on to the bottom of the hook, close to the bead chain. In the pictures, I tied these going toward the hook point. After the majority of the fly was built, I pulled them backwards. In the future, I'll just tie them so they go straight out from the hook (so they are closer to the final product). Now flip the hook over and tie on the material you will be using for the crabs pinchers. This goes on roughly opposite the legs. I use McFlyon, but you can use whatever - hackle would be good too. Now comes the hard part - set the eye stalks on the foam body. The points opposite the eye stalks should point to the back center of the fly - these will become tie down spots shortly. You'll want to get them over the bead chain. When you get it laid out, get some epoxy on it. If you are lucky, you can get the epoxy covered crab on in one step (remember it goes on the top of the hook). This one landed a hair too far forward. Ideally the body would have been another couple of millimeters back toward the hook eye. Tie in the mono weed guard and at the same time wrap over the mono stalk ends. Use some more epoxy and coat the pinchers. Trim to your preference and put some 'v' markings on the ends to make them look a little more like pinchers. Lastly I put half a velcro tab on the top of the crab foam body, mostly for looks, but on the first horderve, the foam started ripping along the stressed areas. I believe the velcro should stop the splitting. Another difference from the first fly is that I didn't poke the eye stalks through the foam body - that was where the stressed areas emerged from. I may try that again in the future (that step made epoxying the body on to the hook way easier), but for now this is how I plan on building these flies. I am looking forward to casting this to the bones this weekend!!!

Hors d'oeuvre

When you think of hors d'oeuvres, you think of a fancy meal. Well - considering the bonefish I've been stalking have snubbed everything I've thrown at them, it has become apparent to me that I have to take it up several levels and bring out the fancy dishes. These fish want to play snobby, I'll lose the redneck and break out the bow tie and toecapped shoes. Behold the "Hor d'oeuvre"!!!! With all the time I've been spending on the flats, I have seen a lot of details that could easily go unnoticed. I've been studying the rocks and what lives on, in and under them and besides the mantis shrimp, these crabs are pretty prevalent. I also tied a "weed guard" on to the fly to prevent the other most frustrating thing on the flats behind the prissy bonefish laughing at you all day long - getting the fly hung up on a rock just as a bonefish is closing in on the fly. We'll see if the bones will eat this crab...

Papio Flies

I'm posting this mainly for reference later (VIC - DON'T FORGET THESE FLIES FOR CATCHING PAPIO)

Small Pink Shrimp Flies

I tied these guys up yesterday. Size 8 Gamakatsu Octopus hooks. Pink Estaz and some pink deer tail hair. I used black small bead chain for some weight to get them down deeper, quicker.

It's Been A While - Time For A Little Tying

I keep my eyes open when I hit the Fly Shops. Having been to a couple over the past weeks, the kids had seen enough and wanted to tie today. That gave me a chance to tie up a few of what I've heard the shop guys said were catching. Surf Candy Clousers and Schminnows. Well see how the real judges rate these (the fish).

Sand Crab Fly

Gearing up for Virginia Beach...