Articulated bugger
It doesn’t matter which of the larger CQ species your fishing for … at 13cm long and with a great swimming action more often than not my articulated bugger in Qantas colours is my goto fly.
Flies
Estuary grub
in the process of Tiewell being sold and reinvented the large rubber tails for #2/0 versions of my estuary fly never came back on the market. What I have come up with as an alternative is using the rear half of the 2.5? Z Man Grub Z. That has created an even better fly.
Leaders for trout in lakes & rivers
When it all boils down setting up a loch style or river leader doesn’t have to be as complicated as it’s made out to be. I have set out below how I set up my trout leaders for both social and competition fly fishing and I hope that will provide some incite for you.
Foam back prawn
This fly is a floating version of my PET prawn fly and can be a real game changer and so much fun when estuary species, particularly bream and whiting, are feeding on the surface.
Chatto’s fizzer
This fly swims well and the propeller at the front adds an element of action that fish find enticing. You can tie this fly in any colour combination to mimic the colour of some of the more popular lure colours that your mates that fish the “dark side” use so successfully.
Jig fly
This fly is designed as a bait to jig along the muddy and sandy bottom of local rivers and estuary bays when targeting fingermark, grunter and and flathead in particular.
Articulated baitfish – big fish fly version
This fly has been designed to have an obvious bait fish profile and is my ‘goto’ fly when targeting sighted big ambush predators or pelagics or when prospecting for the same predators around structure. This is a big fly with the #4/0 version being 11.5 cm long but because it’s unweighted it’s relatively easy to cast.
Chatto’s jig fly – olive bait-fish
The set up of the jig hook and extension puts the tow point 15mm back along the fly so that a medium to fast strip will cause the fly to dart off in different directions much like wounded or fleeing fish. The 15mm of 8mm diameter closed cell foam tube above the hook eye give the fly neutral buoyancy so then when you pause the lure it basically suspends at or close to the level it was being retrieved giving predators time to attack.
Baitfish fly- pink over pink and / or white
My clousers have progressively mutated to being tied out of synthetic Flash Blend. This is my best mutation to date and as well as being very durable it is slightly translucent and moves well in the water making the representation of a bait fish better than the original. It also sheds water well on the pick up and back cast making it easy to cast.
Christmas Island Special – mauve
This is the newest addition to my top six CXI special colours. It’s a little more subtle than the electric camel but I think that adds to its appeal to bone fish.