Spotted Trout Flies

[burch 0]

I live on the East Coast of Florida near Cape Canaveral. I need some ideas for Spotted Trout flies, Snook, and Red Fish. I`m new to the salt water fly fishing and need some patterns to work with. I was hoping to get tutorials on em but i`m not gonna be too picky about it. I just finished a couple this morning. The Mark Sosin Blockbuster and Joe Brooks Platinum Blonde. This evening`s plan is taking my daughter out for some fresh water Bream but was wanting to have a few salties tied up for next weekend.

 

Many Thanks,

Burch

[tidewaterfly 0]

I've yet to catch a Redfish on a fly, and have not caught a Seatrout for many years. Never caught a Snook either. I've tied many flies for all three when I was a commercial tier. Here in MD, in some of the tidal creeks, I used to catch some trout on simple patterns. These creeks flow through salt marshes, often with sod banks, and are fairly open, with mud or sand bottoms, and mussel or oyster shell beds in many places.

 

The Brooks Blondes were always good, and Seaducers & Deceivers were always in my fly boxes. I had some good success with a fly that was nothing more than a wrapped body of braided mylar tubing, a wing of bucktail, and a hackle collar. It was called a Seatrout Special. Red collar & white wing, red collar & yellow wing, and chartreuse collar & pink wing all worked very well. Originally the tying thread was black or red monocord, but I also used fl red or fl chartreuse flat waxed nylon. Body color varied, pearl, gold or silver, most times a few strands of Flashabou or Krystal Flash was added to the wing. When holographic flash came out, I started using it, I just liked it better. If you want you can top the wing with peacock herl fibers, but they usually get torn off quickly. 1/0 to 3/0 size hooks. Bright, flashy, attractor patterns worked, but then sometimes basic baitfish patterns worked just as well or better.

 

Basically you want crab, shrimp & baitfish patterns. There are many that will work. What type of fly you want will depend on the water, it's depth & clarity, and what types of obstructions you'll encounter. You'll likely want some tied with various amounts of weight, and some with none added, some with weed guards & for more open water, some without. Check the Fly Pattern Database. Search for patterns in listings for Tarpon, Redfish, Striped Bass, Bonefish, Largemouth Bass, etc. There's a lot of patterns that work for multiple species in both fresh & saltwater. Often just a substitution of a saltwater type hook is all that's needed, or a slight color change to match a particular prey species.

 

Here's some links to some patterns. While your viewing the patterns, take a look at other patterns the same tier has submitted, and what others have also bookmarked. You'll see that there are a ton of flies that you could tie!

 

http://www.flytyingforum.com/pattern7649.html

http://www.flytyingforum.com/pattern7561.html

http://www.flytyingforum.com/pattern7122.html

http://www.flytyingforum.com/pattern6924.html

http://www.flytyingforum.com/pattern8673.html

http://www.flytyingforum.com/pattern6142.html

http://www.flytyingforum.com/pattern426.html

http://www.flytyingforum.com/pattern1421.html

http://www.flytyingforum.com/pattern8276.html

 

Also, check out basic styles, like Deceivers, Bendbacks, Seaducers & Clouser Minnows, all of which will work on multiple species anywhere in the world.

[burch 0]

Thank ya kindly Tidewaterfly, that`ll give me more than enough to keep me fishing for a while.

[agn54 0]

For anything on the flats you can't go wrong with a chartreuse over white closer, it's always a good place to start. Lately, my favorite fly has been the polar fiber minnow in ll white or olive over white. Red/white seaducers work great, I have even caught mullet on them. My favorite fly for the flats when there are schools of finger mullet present is the finn deceiver For colors of flies, chartreuse is always a good choice but all white is often a killer, especially on the East Coast where the water tends to be clear. Bunny flies in all white will get destroyed by reds trout and snook. Finally, don't forget poppers and gurglers on top, especially early in the morning at this time of year.

[siestafred 0]

Clousers for sure. For Reds (and bigger trout) try the Merkin crab. Over in the Sarasota area it's my Redfish go-to.

This is my version.....http://www.flytyingforum.com/pattern10926.html....altho I now just do a single strand leg. Brown or rust work best.

 

Fred

[burch 0]

Clousers for sure. For Reds (and bigger trout) try the Merkin crab. Over in the Sarasota area it's my Redfish go-to.

This is my version.....http://www.flytyingforum.com/pattern10926.html....altho I now just do a single strand leg. Brown or rust work best.

 

Fred

 

Thank ya Fred for the crab pattern. I do have a few Clouser`s i`ve tied up already.

[Tailn'Jax 0]

I tie up a funky chicken type clouser with a little flared deer hair head. It works pretty well for is in the winter when we focus on trout....

The tail is rabbit strip pierced through the hook point to prevent fouling. They eat it up.

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

In the 'Glades we do quite a bit of trout fishing (usually in places where they're holding in a current near the bottom, occasionally in winter when they're holding in shallow spots with a current. My all time favorite is nothing more than a small popping bug at dawn or all day long if there's no wind. Pop it, let it sit, pop it, let it sit, the fish will actually come blow it up while it's motion-less (and if the bug is close enough you can actually watch a big trout come up very slowly and sit under the bug for a moment before the attack...). Once the wind is up it's all streamers for us, using a special Clouser style fly or a Silhouette in different colors.

 

Everything we do for trout holding in a current is done with the fly worked across the current, never against the flow or with it. On a popper the first strike is usually a miss, if you keep it moving the second strike won't miss at all. For streamers every bite is from a "committee", rarely a single fish. If you don't hook up with that first strike, again keep it moving and there will usually be a second, even a third pass on a single retrieve....

 

Now for some pics, the Speed Bug with a #1 hook, the Whitewater Clouser in 2/0, and Silhoutte's on an Owner Aki 1/0 or 2/0....

 

Tight Lines

Bob LeMay

[tidewaterfly 0]

Capt Bob, those are great looking flies! I tie a lot of Seaducers in similar fashion as your Silhouette, with barbell eyes & leaving the fluff on the palmered hackle, and a lot are tied with wide neck or saddle hackle to give a different profile. Basically the same fly. Are you using the AKI hooks for a particular reason? Awesome hooks, and likely much stronger than is needed for trout. Is it that you may also encounter Tarpon so the fly does double duty? Just curious!

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

I've been using extra strong hooks on my signature pattern for many years now. I started with the old Tiemco 800S, then went to the Owner Aki when Tiemco quit making the larger sizes. From the beginning this bug has been a big fish pattern and you certainly don't need the premium super strong hook for specks.... Here's why I've kept using it, along with being strong enough for fish of any size it helps the fly sink at just the right pace... I still have anglers that order them 100 at a time to fish canal tarpon in the Keys but my favorite target with them is that big snook. My biggest ever on fly was a 21 or 22lb fish and that hook just fills the bill. The Silhouette also works really well when you're live chumming with small pilchards. That was the original idea...to come up with a baitfish pattern that matched the silhouette of a given forage species. We're mostly using them in two to six feet of relatively dark water with every kind of sunken tree or old snag so a wire weedguard is an essential element to be successful.

 

Where we fish them you never know what's likely to bite... not unusual to have 10 or more different species on fly in a day's fishing and you rarely have any notice before a giant has jumped on a relatively small fly... It's pretty much a universal pattern inshore, offshore in the shallows or right on the bottom in 13' or more depths...

[burch 0]

In the 'Glades we do quite a bit of trout fishing (usually in places where they're holding in a current near the bottom, occasionally in winter when they're holding in shallow spots with a current. My all time favorite is nothing more than a small popping bug at dawn or all day long if there's no wind. Pop it, let it sit, pop it, let it sit, the fish will actually come blow it up while it's motion-less (and if the bug is close enough you can actually watch a big trout come up very slowly and sit under the bug for a moment before the attack...). Once the wind is up it's all streamers for us, using a special Clouser style fly or a Silhouette in different colors.

 

Everything we do for trout holding in a current is done with the fly worked across the current, never against the flow or with it. On a popper the first strike is usually a miss, if you keep it moving the second strike won't miss at all. For streamers every bite is from a "committee", rarely a single fish. If you don't hook up with that first strike, again keep it moving and there will usually be a second, even a third pass on a single retrieve....

 

Now for some pics, the Speed Bug with a #1 hook, the Whitewater Clouser in 2/0, and Silhoutte's on an Owner Aki 1/0 or 2/0....

 

Tight Lines

Bob LeMay

What material is the weed guard on the Clouser and how is it tied in ?

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

Hi Burch, the wire is just #5 coffee colored trolling wire, cut into pieces about 1.5" long, then one end is bent into a small tight hairpin 1/16 to 1/8" long. That hairpin end is tied in under the shank after every other part of the fly is in place except the head. Once the hairpin end is tied in place you finish the head of the fly (being very careful about that wire sticking out right where your bobbin hand is working..) with that wire sticking straight out (I'll see if I have a pic to illustrate what I'm talking about...). Once the fly is completed the wire is bent down almost into position and a drop of superglue is applied to the thread. Once the glue is dry, any finish is added and you're ready to trim that weedguard to length (just short of the end of the barb on the hook, then a final bend at the end of the wire as shown. Note: on flies like the Silhouette I don't bother with any finish at all, the superglue on the thread is all the finish it will have.

 

I have an article coming out this summer in Flyfishing in Saltwaters, the July/August edition, on another pattern the Tarpon Snake. Many of the tying techniques for that fly are the exact same as the Silhouette, including the weedguard. Most of the patterns I tie will have that same weedguard (even Clouser style flies). It allows an angler to fish right in the tangles without snagging most of the time and the fish never even notice it....

 

The only good pic I have is of a batch of Swamp Rabbits waiting to have a final coat of finish. If you look closely you'll see the wire sticking out on every one. Those wires won't be bent down into position until the final coat of finish has dried...

Tight Lines

Bob LeMay

[Capt Rob 0]

Ilive in Flagler Beach Fl. and fish a lot of off color water for trout. The best pattern I have found was developed by my buddy Rich Santos from Jacksonville, Fl. It is a form of a clouser he calls Rich's HD clouser. You can find the tying instructions by going to You Tube and in the search typing in Rich's HD clouser. I came up with the color pattern of black and purple. Purple HD flashabou with an all black body. I fish it on an Intermediate line. Believe me the trout love it. you can use any color combination you want

[burch 0]

Well I tried my luck this morning using a Clouser, Crazy Charlie and a streamer. I didn`t have any luck but the flies i`ve tied seem to swim pretty nice except the Clouser minnow. I used the bead chain eyes with the hook point swimming down. I tied white bucktail hair over the eyes and a dark bucktail hair under the eyes and over the hook point. The problem is the fly swam with the white up. Now i`m no rocket scientist but doesn`t the white represent the belly of the minnow ? I`m guessing the Clouser minnow is suppose to swim hook point up and the bead chain is the wrong thing to use. I`m fishing the flats and was hoping someone could let me know what size dumbell eyes to get so the minnow will swim hook point up. Also, do any of you guys tie in a weed guard and do you use mono and what lb. test if so ?

 

Many Thanks,

Burch

[tidewaterfly 0]

Burch, it all depends on the hook size & bead chain size combination for Clousers when using bead chain, and they should be tied on the back side of the shank to invert the hook so the point swims up. It's just a matter of balance. A regular "J" type hook will almost always ride point down. The heavier the hook, the more weight is needed to invert it. Bead chain works, but you still have to use the proper size bead chain to have enough weight to invert the hook. Also keep in mind that bead chain is made with different metals (steel, brass, stainless & copper). So the same size bead will not be the same weight.

 

"J" hooks can be made to ride inverted without added weight, like a Bendback, but the materials used have to be buoyant, and tied in properly. There are some flats type flies used for Bonefish that are tied in this "blind eye" fashion.

 

If you use lead, brass or tungsten barbell eyes, even the small size eyes should invert most hooks up to about 3/0. However, you can counter act the balance by using materials that are too buoyant in the wrong place. If you're tying your Clousers with bucktail, don't use the hair near the base of the tail for your belly hair. Instead, use the hair more up towards the tip of the tail. If the hair flares a lot it's likely not what you want to use.

 

 

You can also use jig hooks, which usually invert due to the shape. A lot of guys who fish shallow saltwater here use tinned 60 degree bend jig hooks for Clousers & other patterns that they want to invert and use small barbell eyes, or even large bead chain.

 

As far as the white being on the wrong side, they'll still work. Wounded, stunned or dying baitfish often swim belly up in their struggling, making them appear as an easy meal. Saltwater fish are accustomed to seeing belly up baitfish, especially around schools of bait that they're attacking & feeding on.

 

I add weed guards to some flies. I use 30-40lb test Mason Hard Nylon, and tie in a two prong type weed guard. Here's a link to a previous discussion about weed guards. Scroll down the page, there's a picture of a fly that Kirk Dietrich posted in that discussion that shows the the two prong type very well. http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=56403&st=0&p=443569&fromsearch=1entry443569