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Saturday 2 July 2016

Flies Simplified


What fly do I use? With a multitude of flies on the market and online choosing the right fly can be a confusing issue. What fly and to use when and how. So here I thought I would give a quick breakdown of the main flies and their uses. Most flies come under a few categories and everything else is a variations of this. The categories I would use are:
  • Clouser
  • Deceiver
  • Half n Half
  • Interceptor/snapper snuffer
  • Synthetic flies
  • Carbs and shrimps

Clouser


Probably the most popular fly in the world and the reason for that is it just works. If I had to fish with just one fly this would be it. You can catch just about every type of fish with this fly and in fact 90% of my fish caught are on this fly. It can be tied with natural or synthetic materials. The main differences for fish type is the type of retrieve. Snapper and trevally like their flies slow and Kahawai and kingfish like theirs medium to fast.  There are however always exceptions to this.
I have caught Kahawai, Snapper and even Kingfish on this fly and my favourite sizes are 2 and 1 although i am now making bigger flies for deeper water in sizes 1/0-2/0. Anything larger than this is to hard with bucktail so a synthetic would be best.
Sizes: 4 and bigger
Colours: olive/white, chart/white, pink/white, all white

Deceiver

Another classic fly that can be tied with a range of materials.  This fly has no weight so is best for species that hunt near the surface such as Kahawai and kingfish.
Fish them in anything from a size 2 and up but primarily I would use 1/0 or 2/0 for kingfish.
My first ever flats fish was on a deceiver but unfortunately I got smoked. The great thing about this fly is the feather tail which moves well in the current. To aid this further the feathers are usually splayed rather than placed back to back. You can use this fly in shallow water or add some weight under the body or as per the next fly the half n half

Half n Half
This fly is half clouser half deceiver. Used mostly when you need clousers in bigger sizes and need to get some depth.
Same size/colours as deceiver but some good options are
Orange/black (fanterella) -good on snapper
Pink/white -good on snapper or trevally
Chart/White - good on just about anything 

Interceptor/Snapper snuffer

The interceptor was created by Craig Worthington for fishing for snapper. The fly has lots of weight to get down deep and the tail sits up and waggles in the current.  You can experiment with how large a dumbbell you want to reach your desired sink rate and depth.
Craig has  great success with yellow interceptors but my favourites are chartreuse, pink or pearl.
Size: 1 and bigger although my favourite sizes are 1/0-2/0
The snapper snuffer is the same fly but with saddle hackles added in a splayed arrangement. This gives extra movement with the feathers as they snap together when pulled through the water. Mainly used on the larger flies 2/0 and larger. May also goes by the name FBI (F@#ing big interceptor)

Synthetic flies


These flies are ones that are made entirely from synthetics such as EP flies and SFF flies. Mainly they are used for bigger flies for kingfish. Anything 1/0 and larger

Crabs and Shrimps

There are numerous different ones out there.  Charlies and Gotcha are a good imitation of shrimps and you can even use a small clouser.
Crabs you can go for either an EP style crab or something with more movement like marabou


Most of the time the presentation is more important than the fly so that means making sure you have enough weight if your trying to get to the bottom and the retrieve. I will be posting an article on retrieves later.

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