Forum & Tying Newbie

[Right Lane 0]

Just joined the forum. I'm a just-retired senior looking to return to fishing after a near forty year absence. Was prompted to join in my search for a basic, beginner tying book that focuses on saltwater patterns. Any suggestions and thanks.

[josephcsylvia 0]

Hello welcome to the forum, im a salt guy myself, not sure of books but were you just looking for specific patterns or good patterns for a species?

[Right Lane 0]

Primarily interested in the mechanics of tying saltwater streamers. Not so much interested in existing patterns. Plan to mimic the local baits (local to coastal Massachusetts, Narragansett Bay and adjacent rivers).

[FlaFly 0]

Welcome RL. I'm not sold on using books for your purpose. You'll find lots of flies on various parts of this forum, and on the Fly Pattern Database to inspire you. For that matter, go onto Google Images and search "streamer flies" or something like that. You can watch people tying lots of them on Youtube, to develop basic techniques.

 

And welcome back to fishing.... I did basically the same thing.

[josephcsylvia 0]

Primarily interested in the mechanics of tying saltwater streamers. Not so much interested in existing patterns. Plan to mimic the local baits (local to coastal Massachusetts, Narragansett Bay and adjacent rivers).

Ok, im originally from mass, so your fishing stripers and blues. Your go to fly is probably going to be a surf candy, and my opinion would be to start with ep fibers as you can tie any Bait fish pattern easily and they cast like a dream as they are synthetic, books are in my opinion antiquated with most newer relevant information being on the internet. I personally like in the riffle you tube channel he walks you through step by step

[josephcsylvia 0]

With ep. You can also tie crab patterns if you feel like fishing for tautog.

[Right Lane 0]

My primary target is squeteague with stripers coming in as a distant second (fished stripers commercially to the SE of Nantucket for several seasons in the 70s)

[josephcsylvia 0]

Ok alot of the seafront flies from fl will work well on them I never new squeteague to be healthy enough numbers to target. I usually caught them on accident.

[josephcsylvia 0]

And that was only if I didn't rip there lips off with my striped bass hook set!!

[Dave G. 0]

I'm from SE Ma and also tie most of my salt water flies with combos of synthetics, a little bucktail, zonker strips etc. Herring patterns and largely sand eels in my area. I highly recommend a trip to Bears Den in Taunton Ma, they will have just about anything you could need from vises to materials to advise ( one stop shopping).. If you haven't been around fly tying and fishing in 40 years you will be in awe at how it all goes down these days.

[flytire 0]

 

clouser minnows

 

from the internet

 

Weakfish feed on a variety of marine life. Grass shrimp is an important forage, partly because these 1-1 ½ inch morsels are so common in estuaries, marshes, bays, and other near shore habitats. The next larger prey include small fish such as silversides and bay anchovies. Like grass shrimp, these fish account for a large chunk of weakfish diet. When available, crabs, including shedder blue crabs and calicos, can be come the preferred food. Finally, during late summer, weakfish start chasing mullet and even small bunker as those fish school up and become more available.

Selecting a fly size that is similar to what the fish are eating is always appropriate. For most weakfishing, only a few flies are needed. Because these fish spend much of their time on or just above the bottom, I focus on that area by using relatively small (1/0 hooks, 2 ½-3” flies) weighted flies like Clouser minnows or jiggie heads, often on a slow or fast sinking flyline. Chartreuse and pink have proven best when fished slowly along the bottom in a jigging motion (short, sharp strips of the fly line). Clousers and jiggies induce strikes that are often rather delicate and difficult to feel. This is especially the case as the fly drops to the bottom between strips. Small weakfish are particularly troublesome this way because they often short-strike, hitting only the tail of the fly. When this happens, pros like Capt. Ray Szulczewski of the Tiderunner tells his fares to retrieve the fly steadily, with jerky strips. This allows an angler to feel the light strike of a weakfish and set-up instantly.

Weakfish aren’t always a bottom fish. When light levels are lower, such as at dusk, dawn, and during the night, weakies do come to the surface and you can sometimes see or hear them chasing small bait or sipping shrimp or other small food items. Deceivers fished below the surface or even near the bottom can work at these times. Late season flies (September into October) can be bigger, imitating mullet and even peanut bunker. Large Clousers (including half and half Clousers – with hackles included in the wing), Deceivers, and even some spun deerhair flies that push water below the surface can work very well. It’s simply a matter of trying flies until you discover which one will work and testing how you should retrieve that fly to elicit a strike.

At night, black snake flies (black deer hair spun to make a head a trailer of black mylar) can work well when fished slowly and seductively. An intermediate or slow sinking line works best, although a floating line can work if the fish are right on the surface. Short, very slow strips or a slow steady retrieve can do the trick. If there is a moon out, simply try dawn and dusk tactics – a chartreuse or other Clouser minnow fished on or near the bottom. Always fish your flies slower at night.

Dredging the bottom for weakies using clousers or jiggies often yields other treasures. Summer flounder (fluke), croakers, small bluefish, and striped bass are the usual bycatch when fishing for weakfish, but seabass, northern stargazers, sea herring, and some others are not uncommon. I’ve even foul-hooked skates, blue crabs, and horseshoe crabs. If nothing else, foul hooking these bottom dwellers tells you that your fly is where you should be.

Fly fishing for weakfish seems so natural. The food that weakfish eat are easily imitated with a fly and weakfish usually feed very close to shore in calm conditions. This makes it easy to present a fly to them. And, finally, weakfish fight beautifully on a flyrod. It almost seems as if weakfish were created to be caught wth a flyrod.

[mikechell 0]

Not so much interested in existing patterns. Plan to mimic the local baits (local to coastal Massachusetts, Narragansett Bay and adjacent rivers).

Welcome to the site, Right.

Kind of a funny sentiment here. We all like to think we're tying something no one else has thought of before ... but that's close to impossible. There are SO many flies that mimic the forage in your area, or anywhere else, that trying to start from "scratch" is not the wisest course.

Look up existing flies patterns, work on those, then modify as you see fit for your area.

[josephcsylvia 0]

 

 

Not so much interested in existing patterns. Plan to mimic the local baits (local to coastal Massachusetts, Narragansett Bay and adjacent rivers).

Welcome to the site, Right.

Kind of a funny sentiment here. We all like to think we're tying something no one else has thought of before ... but that's close to impossible. There are SO many flies that mimic the forage in your area, or anywhere else, that trying to start from "scratch" is not the wisest course.

Look up existing flies patterns, work on those, then modify as you see fit for your area.

Well said mike take the everglades special for example, excellent baitfish fly. Tie it in silver and white add a black dot and you have a mullet or pogy tie it in blue and silver add some black sharpie and you have mackeral. Ect ect... saltwater fishing can really be done anywhere in the world with a hand full of flies.

[Right Lane 0]

I have no expectation of improving upon patterns that have decades of approval behind them. I simply want to make my own interpretations of baitfish local to the areas that I fish. My OP used the term "pattern" but that was a brevity thing and I should've said that I was looking for saltwater streamer tying technique. My goal is to catch fish on flies that were not tied using a pattern recipe but created from something totally different than a pattern found in a book or video. I'll bet that there are a few forum members who also subscribe to the same notion. Oh yes, any book recommendations?

[Goose77 0]

Hey Right, welcome to the site. I DO like books, and there are alot of them out there. I like Jaworski's saltwater flies maybe the best...has good classic flies for several categories. Popovics' Popfleyes is good, but I wish there was more detail on the bucktail deceiver and semper fleye. Drew Chicone's Featherbrain has some new ideas and good tips...the streamers are a more contemporary style. These are some of my favorites...I read them over and over, learn something new every time. Good luck and cheers, Ed