Nomad77

Awesome, Mike!

Good Point...I had one do that just the other day on a 3/0 hook similar to this one...Thanks Mike!

This is my first go at a big catfish fly, or actually a fly for any big freshwater predator. It's a musky fly called a 'Swim Jimmy' by Brad Bohen and I tied this on an 8/0 Owner 5130-181"Beast Twistlock"..It's not a fly hook, but it was quite right for creating a 'hook point up' fly that might better surrvive being pulled in and around heavy cover:

That'll hunt!

JZ- Please post pics, regardless of the outcome!

I was told nothing less than an 8/0 hook would be appropriate...that is only if you are preparing for an encounter with a 50+ lb fish (or bigger). I am going off of data from a guy who gets after big cats with live bait and he said you have to put a lot of pressure on them right away so they cannot get into brush piles and break you off...The hookset and fight would need to be a very direct effort and a short of a fight as possible...Thoeretically, anyway.

You could do the "Build your own" route. Anyone know anything about http://www.eclecticangler.com/ ?

This is true!

I've seen some saltwater crab patterns that use spun deer hair to create the shell...could be done the same for a turtle.

Nice Fishypieter! Those gave a bit of a tug, I'll wager...

Outstanding, Kirk! THank you...That's what I'm after. I'm inspired

cool and Thank you. I will look him up...I'm doing a lot of what if'n at the moment and I found out that there is a huge may fly hatch on the Santee-Cooper Lakes in April and anything that swims in the lake including shows up usually at night to feed on the large numbers of mayflies (bream, bass, shad) and the big cats that act like predators show to eat the bream, or sunfish, as they are known. I found that interesting and thought I'd share.

I've never been a bait fisherman, except when I was a little tyke so that can't be helped. I did a day trip with a friend who chases cats with a trolling setup using live bait, stink bait, chickens soaked in a secret mixture...you name it. I thought if I could a Swim Jimmy on a sinking line and get down to hover and pulse it would mimic a large sunfish or shad and be a possible contender...probably will use an 8/0 hook on a 12 weight rig but I did tie a Swim Jimmy on a 3/0 that didn't turn out well, but the hook point is up: Very crude and unfinished head, but you get the idea.

SO then one would want to know, do their American cousins behave in a similar fashion? I live in South Carolina and big cats live in the various impoundments and the Santee-Cooper Lakes (Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie) produce very large specimens. 40 lb + is not uncommon. SInce no one in their right mind is trying to catch big cats in the US on purpose, I thought I would at least try to craft a rod/reel/fly solution that would in theory be able to land a large cat. If, for nothing else, to say "that's how you would do it". Most bait fisherman will troll in 25' of water with live perch attached to a Santee Rig about 2 feet from the bottom with some type of float that keeps the bait hovering and you won't get hung up. I'll open the floor to any suggestions as to how you might do this on with fly tackle.

I thought I'd start a separate thread on this to get some ideas for targeting big channels and blues...Apparently this guy has some experience: