Whilst the fly can be tied using materials such as polar fiber or craft fur or un-crinkled nylon materials such as ‘Fishhair’ I think that candies work better when tied with crinkly nylon fiber material such as ‘Superhair’ or ‘Supreme hair’. Also, both these materials take on a translucency when wet and I think this is one of the triggers to the fly’s success.
The original thing was pink and white and was tied by Graham White of Darwin the early 80’s. It got its name “pink thing” when one of his mates asked for “a lend of one of those pink things”. Whilst the “pink thing” was tied as a barra fly it has turned out to be a great dirty water fly for a range of tropical species.
A great fly to use when target fish are actively feeding on small fish such as sardines, whitebait and pilchards. You can either fish it on a floating line and strip it across the surface with dramatic effect or fish the fly on a sinking line, count the fly down and then retrieve it up through the water column using a fast stripping action or roly poly retrieve.
This is a prawn or shrimp imitation that has stood the test of time. Whilst I have seen it in all sorts of sizes and colours I have found that small flies tied in translucent shades of olives through to browns work best.
There have been many variations and adaptations. My version is based on the original tailed version and works well in estuaries on bream, whiting and flathead etc. I tie all my crazy Charlie flies much fuller with translucent materials rather than sparse with solid materials. I also tie my crazy Charlie flies longer than the hook shank and trim them down on the water if a shorter fly is needed.
The Clouser in my view is the quintessential salt water fly. It can be tied in sizes to suit Bream or Billfish and with the correct dressing and size is equally at home in saltwater, trout and bass fisheries.
In terms of popularity with salt water fly fisher folk it probably runs second only to the Clouser Minnow. The Deceiver was designed to be easily tied in a range of sizes and in a range of colors and consequently it has applications across a range of fisheries. The only change I have made to the recipe is to include a foundation of buck tail under the tail hackles and reduce the tail hackles from 6-8 to 2-4.
