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.
