super_fly

HELLO I USE A CLOUSER PATTERN THAT I THREW TOGETHER. I AM IN FT LAUDERDALE AND I FISH THE INDIAN RIVER 3 TO 4 TIMES A MONTH AND I HAVE CAUGHT REDFISH AND SEATROUT ON THIS FLY THAT I CALL HOTLIPS. TRY BEAR POINT PARK JUST NORTH OF THE POWER PLANT AND SOUTH OF THE INLET. IF YOU AND/OR YOUR DAD COME TO FLORIDA YOU CAN GET IN TOUCH WITH ME AND I CAN GIVE YOU EXACT DIRECTIONS OF SOME GOOD SPOTS. TIGHT LINES FRANK Frank, that's a nice looking fly. I like the blending of the crystal chenille. I'm also in the Ft. Lauderdale area. Bear Point is a nice area and you can wade around there (there are some soft spots though). Olive colored streamers also can be productive. Frank, shoot me a PM and maybe we can get together for some fishing. Ken ps - just looked at original dates on this thread. oh well, somebody will read right?

You might also look into craft fur & polar fiber. I have some nice golds I've found in both of those materials. I use a lot of clousers for fishing in South Florida (fresh & salt). I love bucktail but I tie most of my clousers using craft fur these days. Seems our fish (both fresh & salt) have too many teeth and they make short work of bucktail flies. Craft fur is more resistant to the toothy ones. I generally prefer craft fur (not extra select, just plain 'ol craft fur) for my clousers and polar fiber for streamer patterns. Craft fur (at least the stuff I get) is just about perfect for clousers in sizes 6 - 2, and can work on up to 1/0.

If you're still monitoring this topic... I really like the DVD/Tapes that come with the Bass Pro Shops tying kits. You don't have to buy the kits to get the videos. I think they sell them for $10-$15 or so separately. There are four: Saltwater, Bass, Trout/Panfish & Jigs. Lefty Kreh does the intros on all of them and all of the saltwater one. He does parts of the other ones. The other guy on the tapes is a guy named Mike Hough/Huff (sp?). His sections are pretty informative as well and they both give some good tips. The patterns they cover are useful and effective. I spent a lot of time watching the videos when my daughter was born and I'd take my turn on the middle of the night feedings.

Sally Hansens - thread wraps Loctite Gel Superglue - most anything that needs to be stuck good Fletch-tite - eyes. Had a fly that took a couple of dozen mayan cichlids (toothy little buggers), oscars, & largemouth. The actual eyes fell off after about a dozen fish. The silver backing the eyes were attached too was still there. It's "expensive $10 for a tube I think. But that tube lasts a loooong time. I'd still have the fly but I was caught in the moment and forgot to re-tie the frayed leader. :wallbash:

Thanks. I honestly wouldn't know about their table quality though. I hear they're pretty good but I don't like to eat anything out of South Florida freshwater! Next time I head out to the glades I might keep a couple. Probably the same mercury levels but at least the water's clear and there are fewer tires.

FWC did intend to use the peacocks as a financial instrument. It's stated in their reports & descriptions. They felt it would be a beneficial addition to the fishery. Population control of exotics and a new target for anglers. How well did they do? Pretty well overall I think. No noticeable impact on native species (although probably no noticeable impact on non-native species as well ;> ) and it's a great fish. It's my favorite target when I'm fishing local freshwater. Bass are fun too. But you know what one of my other favorite fish is? The Mayan Cichlid. Those little (and not so little) guys really put up a fight. I've had peacocks on the line that seemed tired. I've never had a Mayan on the line that put out half effort. Absolutely fun fish. Here's one I caught awhile back. Had a blast with him/her/it. As to the canals & ponds - I think the thing to keep in mind is that they do connect to the natural waterways. Not all of our water here is a ditch or borrow pit - just a lot of them. In the ditches themselves it probably doesn't matter all that much. As to the glades itself? Who knows. Once upon a time we had nice pristine mangrove environments blending into the everglades. Now we have big ditches and borrow pits connecting with water control structures and big dikes with the everglades on the other side. You can fish the dikes. On the east side you have the ditches & pits that hold everything from tarpon, snook, jacks, bass, peacoccks, oscars, mayan cichlids, snakeheads and who knows what else. The west side is pretty much limited to (at least that I've caught/seen) bass, bream, mayans & maybe oscars. We probably won't have to worry about it much though since the pythons are established and taking over the glades. ;> South Florida is definitely an interesting place to fish. Probably our best fish control is the people who use the canals for subsistence fishing. But they also show how resilient the fish populations are. I've seen people leaving with huge tubs full of cichlids that are intended for consumption. And I don't mean 5 gal buckets. I mean big rubbermaid wash tub things. Sometimes there are peacocks in there though and that's sad. I have seen peacock spots disappear to overfishing. There's never a shortage of the cichlids though.

Just a quick clarification on the Butterfly Peacock (aka Peacock Bass). FWC intentionally introduced that species into South Florida. The theory was that there were so many exotics in the water (mostly Tilapia, Mayan Cichlids & Oscars) that the introduction of one of their natural predators, the butterfly peacock, would help control the population. Here's a link with some brief history on the how & why the state introduced them. http://myfwc.com/Fishing/docum/butterfly.html Paul Shafland, the person who introduced them to the state, is still with FWC. He gave a very interesting presentation to our flyfishing club last year. It contained his current data on the impact of non-native species. It's still a work in progress but the indication was that the impact was far from cataclysmic. From my own experience I generally find that I catch a variety of fish when I hit the South Florida canals, lakes & ponds. On any given day I can catch peacocks, largemouth, oscars & mayans all in the same area. I now see snakeheads on a regular basis. I've had a few strikes but haven't landed one. About the only thing I don't see on a regular basis is bream. I do find them, and in some areas they're prevalent, but in general it's Mayans & Oscars instead of bream. Down in the everglades it's a different story - lots of native bream down there hanging around with the mayans & oscars. I did catch a monster bluegill in an odd place though. I was fishing a Miami canal for peacocks. It was like an aquarium - the water was so clear and there were exotics roaming around. Big schools of peacocks, mayans, oscars, jaguar guapotes, various other cichlids. Didn't see a native fish at all. Other than oscars & mayans nothing was biting. I spied a wooden pallet on the bottom of the canal next to a shopping cart (the joys & beauty of urban Miami). I toss my 1/0 clouser down and bounce it in front of the pallet. Instant strike, hard fighting fish. I assumed I had a Mayan or an Oscar. I pulled out the monster, copper headed, bluegill and was totally shocked. That was probably the only native fish in that section of the canal. He could obviously hold his own. Sure wish I had a camera that day.

I live in South Florida and they're established here. I haven't caught one yet but then I haven't specifically targeted them. FWC advises "kill" on all of the non-native fish except for Peacock Bass. Some of our club members (south florida fly fishing club / www.sfffc.org ) hold IGFA records on snakeheads which were caught down here. They tell me that they can be pretty challenging fish to target and they don't always bite anything that moves. They also tell me they're quite a bit of fun to catch. I've seen them when fishing and they didn't bite. They seemed pretty wary even though other species were biting. Or maybe I just didn't have the right fly. But yeah, they're here and it's doubtful they'll get rid of them at this point.

signed up for the hatches page. also sent an invite. Ken

Agree, which location are you going for? Or at least region - Southeast Florida or Southwest Florida?

I started with a BPS saltwater kit about 6 1/2 years ago. I'll always know when because I got into fly fishing/fly tying right before my first child was born. I was interested but had no idea if I'd like fly tying. Also I had limited budget with the impending birth and basically no free time. I did take a few lessons at Bass Pro (Charlie Richter taught them) and talked with the guys there about tools & such. They suggested that if I really liked tying then go for upgraded tools & materials. But in my situation the kit worked well. I went into it with the following expectations: The tools would have to be upgraded if I liked it The materials wouldn't be great It was a fairly low impact cost if I didn't like it I loved the kit. The best part was the video. Lefty Kreh did the entire video for the saltwater kit. I learned quite a bit just from that video (they also sell it in the store for $10 or so). Being housebound with a new baby it was a big help. My wife and I dealt with the baby in shifts and on my shift the baby watched the tying video with me. The video taught useful patterns and focused on tying techniques as much as learning the patterns. I ended up enjoying the kit so much that when they went on sale at thanksgiving I used my BPS points (from the visa card) and picked up the other kits. I've learned quite a bit from them as well. Regarding the materials - I found that the cost of the basic materials & video evened out the price of the kit. For instance lead eyes, head cement, craft fur, thread, mustad hooks (if you use them), plastic eyes, krystal flash, flashabou, & the like are commodities that are the same no matter where you buy them. Deer hair, hackle, marabou, bucktail & such ideally need to be inspected before purchase. But if I added up the cost of the commodities that came with the kit it came pretty close to the cost of the kit. That being said, the bucktail ranged from okay to bad. But it still worked to tie with. I even caught fish on those flies. The tools were functional. I quickly upgraded the bobbin (kept cutting my thread) and tied on the vise until I wore it out. By that time I had a better idea of what I wanted in a vise and it made purchasing a new one easier. So I had a positive experience with the BPS kits. I still watch the videos from time to time and I've taken the techniques and used them to create some flies that are my "go to" flies in many situations. I didn't find any of the materials so bad that they frustrated me with learning the patterns. And many of the materials worked just fine and produced some nice flies. Also a fair amount of people in my club used the BPS kit to get started and they had similar experiences. I haven't tried kits from other companies so I can't really speak to those. I did supplement the videos & kit with a lot of reading (yay for books), forum/mailing list participation, swap participation, and local fly tying club meetings. I think if you approach the kit with the correct expectations & attitude it can be a positive. Especially if you catch them on sale for $40 which they run from time to time. Also, joining swaps was great because it really reinforced the repetition of tying a particular pattern. I just let everybody know I was a beginner tyer. Of course, if you already know you'll like tying, and have some good local advice/shops/clubs & such then I'd skip the kit and go for a more targeted approach. For me we have a couple of great local shops but they're mostly open when I'm working. BPS was my most viable option. Fortunately a lot of well known (local & not so local) people worked/shopped there so it was like a local fly shop. Good luck PS - nope, I don't work for Bass Pro.

I've done this with tulip fabric paint and it works well. Read about it in an article in Florida Sportsman awhile back. I bought the thin vinyl you can get in the fabric stores. I cut the eyes out in a teardrop shape and tie them in with a drop of adhesive on the back to hold it to the fly. Great looking eyes!

Clousers work consistently down here in SE Florida. Also great for peacock bass. I also do pretty well with glades minnows and craft fur streamers for both species.

From a consumer's perspective I'd look into a relationship with the local fly fishing club. In our club we have relationships with the 3 or 4 of the local flyshops as well as Bass Pro. The local shops give us a discount and periodically will run an "open house". This is an event for club members where they host us, have snacks & sodas, and show us hot patterns & new materials. We've had a couple so far and every one left with people loading up on materials & gear that night. One I didn't make it to was a co sponsor with a material manufacturer & the shop. From what I hear a ton of that manufacturer's product moved that evening. Bass Pro lets us use their tying area for our club's monthly fly tying seminar. If a local shop had the room for the event we'd go there as well. Ken

Glad to hear you're out of there Mark. Stay safe! Ken