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Fly Fishing Flies

Mike Thrussell 01 January, 2006 11:05:00

The types of flies we need in our fly boxes are typically representing either sandeels or small fry. For fry we need flies that resemble small fish, so they need a wide body with a shortish length. For the UK these flies should be no more than 3-inches long. A 2-inch fly is often the most effective when bass and pollack are feeding on fry.

Fry imitators need their basic colour to be white, but have some tinsel or flash material included to represent the flash of the fish's scales as they swim. There is also some advantage in having a small amount of red just rear of the head to imitate blood or flaring gills. White is the primary daytime colour for bass, mackerel, scad and garfish.

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A selection of saltwater flies
Pollack though prefer gaudy coloured flies. Red or orange with gold and silver tinsel added are good combinations, and adding a hint of yellow via a beard hackle is also effective. You can use a stiff hair beard hackle just slightly longer than the hook to act as point guard to minimise snagging as the fly is drawn through the rocks and across the tops of weed beds, which is typical pollack ground.

As light levels fade towards evening, switch away from the bright white to a dark colour mixing reds and blacks. One of the best flies for both bass and pollack, and late evening mackerel is a totally black fly. Fish hunt from below looking up. AS night starts to fall, the predatory fish silhouette their prey against the lighter sky and black is the best target colour for fish to see against a lighter sky background. Black also works well on overcast days.

Also carry flies with silver bodies for use in bright sunlight. The silver catches the sunlight and reflects it back helping fish like mackerel and scad to home in on the fly.

Adding eyes, either painting a black pupil over a round white eye, or by adding bought plastic eyes helps increase the attraction of a fly. Use eyes a size bigger than looks right. Big eyes catch more fish.

Make sure the hook points on the flies are ultra sharp. Fly rods are relatively soft tipped and have minimum striking power at the take. The sharper the point is the more fish you will hook.

The main prey fish to imitate are sandeels. Virtually all our predatory fish eat these ate some time or other. These need to be slim and long bodied in profile, use white marabou tails, slim har bodies mixed with silver tinsel to imitate movement, and again have a definite eye by which the predator can target the prey. You can also use small fry pearl tubing as a body, then stiffen it with nail varnish to form sandeel body shapes.

Sandeel imitators need to be between 2-inches and 4-inches long and built on long shanked hooks. If you tie your own flies, keep the bodies slim and streamlined with short minimal tail fibres to imitate the fast swimming action of the sandeel.