Flies that need trying

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JW FunGuy
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Re: Flies that need trying

Post by JW FunGuy »

Since I first read here about Borski’s it has been my favorite fly, although not as fast to tie as Clouser’s .
But! Just to throw out something different and very effective especially on sandy bottoms is an epoxy spoon fly. Some say it’s not a fly, but I tie it on a vice first using mono for the shape, tie on eyes, tail whatever, and then coat and shape the mono by moving/rolling fly using hemostats. You can use color or glitter in the epoxy or paint the underside. This way lighter and thinner than other methods.
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karstopo
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Re: Flies that need trying

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I like those spoon flies. I did several early on. I built the epoxy scaffold out of some weird copper cored material I got at the craft store. I never was very happy with mine and just gave up on the whole project.

The borski slider isn’t as quick as a clouser to tie not for me either. I’m not quite sure why I like the Borski sliders like I do. It is a confidence pattern for me. Fishing with confidence is a good thing. I can think of one time last summer where I saw fish, Speckled trout in this case, reject the borski slider. I put on a couple different ones with some follows but no commitments. My buddy in the boat with me was fishing a silver tony acceta spoon and smoking the trout so I put on the most silver and flashy redfish crack I had and that started getting me trout too, but not quite at the rate he was getting them. A bet a shiny spoon fly would have even been better, but I didn’t have any with me.
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JW FunGuy
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Re: Flies that need trying

Post by JW FunGuy »

I wish I could take credit for this style of spoon. It was taught to me by my saltwater mentor Phil. He is a master and he has now elevated it to an art form, so much than when he gave me his latest creation there was nothing better to do with it than adorn my hat! The other? Maybe a necklace for my wife. Or me!
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Ron Mc
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Re: Flies that need trying

Post by Ron Mc »

here are epoxy flies I was throwing 30 years ago - the mylar spoon caught a red over 32 inches, and the epoxy crab a black drum over 25", both on Fence Lake
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Jerry is exactly right about the heavy epoxy fly - they work best on the bare sand, such as passes, sloughs, and the bare rim around the perimeter of a flat/lake.
The epoxy/mylar spoon is light enough that it sinks slowly.
but I just don't fish them, because my kicking shrimp fly replaces and out fishes both for me.

Hi-tie on a sinking line does my baitfish,
and one more fly we created 30 years ago, and named it Fence Lake roach - basic cockroach pattern with a marabou collar.
It casts easy on a floating line/long-leader and makes a big baitfish profile.
Everybody hooked up on this fly one day when schooling reds were beating bait against our feet.
It's also been a good fly for drift fishing specs - blind fishing the bait rod until we're on fish sign, reach to the rod holder for this rigged fly on a slime line.
The tail is hen saddles over rooster saddles.
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A simple whistler is a great fly for bottom-bouncing flounder, especially in a pass with a sinking line.
Caught 40 flounder on consecutive casts one December day at Cedar Bayou, slow crawl on the sand with a Teeny line.
The tail on this one is a pair of marabou feathers over a pair of saddles.
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Last edited by Ron Mc on Thu Jun 27, 2019 7:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
bones72
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Re: Flies that need trying

Post by bones72 »

Wow got a bunch to think about here. Ron would love to get that glass rod but need to get a yak to get out on the water first. JW I haven’t done spoon flies yet but know they are Texas staple. The flies you pasted up are masterpieces. They have the finished look of a Catskill style dry. Ron you hit on a fish I truly want on a fly, flounder. Not just because it is a fish that seems odd for fly gear but also because I love to eat ‘em. I understand that here flounder are kind of a normal catch on the fly and can’t wait to give it a go.
I have caught a couple of species of fish that seem unusual for fly fishing; sauger and walleye, catfish both channels and flathead (no blues yet), even got onto some splake and lake trout on an oppressively hot (for Colorado) August afternoon. On Otter Creek that runs through Ft. Knox and then onto a State Park in Kentucky flathead catfish and sauger were a normal catch in late summer when the fish from the Ohio made their way up into the spring creeks that led down into the river. The first time I got a flathead in there it shocked the heck out of me. I was swinging and Autumn Splendor through a riffle at the head of a big pool going after smallies and holdover trout and got a good grab. I thought I had a world record bronzeback as I could see really good flashes of brown fish with a white belly when it screamed for the pool below the run. To my utter astonishment the giant smallmouth turned into a 12 lb flathead when it was beached a half hour later. Flathead came to be a regular catch on Otter Creek in August through mid-October.
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Ron Mc
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Re: Flies that need trying

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Clarifying here, it wasn't the flies that caught the 32+" redfish and 25+" black drum.
It was the mile wade across Fence Lake each of those two days, seeing each fish feeding from a half-mile away and,
especially, making multiple stealthy presentations to both fish who each decided from my activity that I was a heron.
(Sight-fished other smaller fish on the stalks to find these.)
I know guys who, with the same effort, would catch those fish on a black nickel Johnson silver minnow.

Likewise, the schooling reds was all about seeing it coming, lining up at the right structure (the shoal the fish were using), and patiently waiting for it to get to us - gave us time to tie on our baitfish flies.

40 flounder? Even in flagstone creek bass fishing, a whistler pattern variation is the perfect bottom-bouncing fly, keeling hook up and brushing up a good mud-ball.
With a good bottom bouncing technique, any gamefish will pick up the fly when it's sitting still - rainbows, big bass, stripers and of course stringers of white bass.
The 40 flounder came from the boat ride to see the surf at Cedar Bayou, a good tide (dues paid-up luck), and suffering the elements - could have caught more, but it was cold and long boat ride to get back to Goose Island.
Same technique caught 50 white bass on consecutive casts one day - with particularly good timing, the lake level forming a perfect pinch point, and every white bass in the lake wanting to get by me. It was a weekday and everyone else out that day didn't make the 3-mile hike to the pinch-point, but were fishing the pools upriver.
It's also the technique that catches white bass when no one else is, and other's don't even know they're still in the river.

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Aside from improving your odds of catching a 4-y-o male, nicest thing about fishing harems late in the white bass spawn is all the crowds have gone home, thinking it's all over.
cody1614
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Re: RE: Re: Flies that need trying

Post by cody1614 »

karstopo wrote:No secret sauce flies. I just got into using ones I like. One is the well known Borski Slider. ImageImage. For whatever reason, I like tying and fishing them. They do work on most of the fish that swim inshore in Texas. ImageImageImage

Redfish crack is another favorite. ImageImage
I like tying them too and that’s a big part of why I fish a particular pattern. I never really liked tying clousers so I didn’t then fish them once I burned through the ones I did tie.

One fly I used to fish a lot was a shrimp fly, but I don’t like tying them so much either so I don’t fish them as much anymore. ImageImageImageImageImage

There’s other patterns I use from time to time. Avalon permit fly, some Steve Farrar Blend Baitfish.

Lots of things work. Finding the fish is the main thing.
Hey what is the difference between the borski slider and red fish crack? They look kinda similar.

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karstopo
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Re: Flies that need trying

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Here is a tan borski slider I tied next to a redfish crack I also tied. Both might be a little wet from washing off the salt. Materials are different, except for I always use craft fur in the tail of the borski slider and usually use it in redfish crack. Everything else is different on the materials.

They move a little differently. Redfish crack with the weight more forward has more of a pop up and fast down jigging motion. The borski slider, more of a sliding motion, horizontal aspect when stripped.

I tend to fish them a little differently. I tend to let the borski slider drift longer in current with minimal strips and like them in the surf. I’ll use the borski slider if I’m after sighted sheepshead.

Redfish crack, I like to put them in the path of a redfish and give them a little quick, short strip as the redfish gets into range. The borski slider will pop up and the redfish will pounce on it.

Every redfish crack I’ve done has the eyelash yarn and Estaz. Some omit the EP fiber, some substitute Arizona Simi Seal for the EP. Some, I use Steve Farrar Blend as the tail instead of craft fur. I’ve used different weights from bead chain to small tungsten dumbbells. Most, I do with x-small lead dumbbells. Hooks are almost always size 2 Gamakatsu SC-15 or size 4 Mustad big game light.

I only have used gamakatsu SL-45 hooks on the Borski sliders and almost all on the size 4 ones.
cody1614
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Re: Flies that need trying

Post by cody1614 »

Thanks for sharing!

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