Sea Angling Ireland

Great idea Lumpy some very good flies there. I Like the last one looks very nice.

i find this quite a good early morning Bass fly.i like to tye it sparse as it allows a degree of light to penetrate through it, this i believe adds to the movement and flash of the fly

ive always been a great fan of minkies for swff. the movement the produce as a result of the mobile tail is amazing and great at inducing takes from letargic fish.you can also fish them quite slow and still impair a lot of action.

when Bass become pre-occupied with feeding on joey mackeral they can become quite difficult to catch on fly, with this i tied thies fly as a rough impression of a mack and it appears to have worked.i use marabou for the wing as it has excellent movement in the water, the only downside is that it does get damaged after a few fish

not much to say on these flies, just general baitfish patterns. i find chartreuse an extremely good colour for Bass on summer evenings when the day has been sunny and there is still alot of sunlight about

one of the rock marks i fish the pollock wont look at a fly unless it has an orange tail (i use minky or zonker strips) so i came up with this fly.i always like to add a bit of chartreuse to pollock flies as ive always had success with it.i generally tie this fly about 6 inches but have a few up to 8 inches should i require a larger fly.needs a 10wt to fish

Do those flys have stick on eyes and what size hooks are they tied on if you dont mind me asking? :D

there eyes i got from an arts and crafts shop, i glue them in place and then epoxy them when i finish the fly.tends to give them a pretty solid finish.the majority of the bait fish patterns are 1/0. the pollack fly is a 2/0 but most patterns i tie are in a varity of sizes from size 2 to 3/0, depending on the size of the fly.i generally use mustad stainless o'shaugnessys.

I need to get some bigger hooks then, the majority of my flys are on size 2. Good idea about the eyes! Cheers.

size 2's are fine for alot of flies, i just tend to fish relatively big flies so prefer bigger hooks. i'd have to mail order eyes to get the custom made eyes for tying,just happened to find a few packets in easons one day.seem to work ok

one thing to bear in mind with the hook size. I have used mullet type flies on a size 16 hook and landed Bass and when I bait fish I use a pennel rig with a size 4/0 and a size 6 on top to hold up the lug. I would say at least half the fish are hooked on the smaller hook and i never have a problem landing them.

the main reason for tying on larger flies is that it is significantly easier to tie a more effective pattern on a larger hook as you have more shank to work with, i.e it is quite difficult to tie baitfish patterns from one point on a shank as would be the case with smaller hooks. also if you have a 6 inch bait fish pattern i cant see the reasoning in using a size 6 hook.further more, because you generally have breezy conditions when swff you often get hooks catching off rocks on the back cast, lighter guage hooks like size 6 or smaller get bent quite easily, whereas larger size 1/0 and 2/0 tend to last that little longer.

absolutely Lumpy. ur dead right its the fly that should determine the size of hook. the point I was trying to make is that you dont need a massive hook to catch a big fish
cheers
Liam

It is alot easier to tie patterns on the bigger hooks. When i first started tying flies some of the flies were huge long things that didnt catch anything and the hooks were tiny. Nowadays the vast majority of my flies are in a lot better proportions to the hook and I had started catching more fish :D . What would be the average size of the flies you tie mine are all around 3-4inches? Biggest around 5.

4 inches would be the average alrite, i do have a few of each pattern an inch bigger and smaller but mainly fish 4 inches, although its better to "match the hatch" as in fish flies the same size as the bait fish in the area.

i agree with you liam on catching large fish on small hooks.i had pollack to about 4 lbs on size 12 long shank trout hooks this summer.

In a place where i fish the sandeels there are all only about 2 inches long there and i would only ever fish a fly around that size there.

exactly.its a case of matching what the fish are feeding on.the majority of my fishing is deep water pollock where the mainstay of their diet is 4 inch baitfish, its not worth fishing with anything else than a 4 inch baitfish pattern.

Hi Lumpy

Only just seen this database and to say thanks Lumpy, this really is great stuff. Particularly like the tips on sizes and where and why to use each type of fly.

Thanks

Tim

this is a little fly i got an idea of from a small minky fly used for rainbow and brown trout feeding on fry.its basically a small 3 inch minkey on a size 1.only difference is that the underside is made by applying several coats of 5 minute epoxy.this adds a little weight and thus helps the fly to sink every time you stop retrieving.it gives a nice erratic swimming motion

this is a new fly i tied last year for mackeral.this is a pollock size fly (5inchs).i caught pollack to 4lbs on a size 4 last year so decided to te this in a larger size. has a quite amazing action in the water.i think it could do quite well in an area where theres a good current running, has a very good action when left to sit in the current.also when in the water it tends to take on a quite streamlined profile like that of a sandeel