Big Bunker Flies

[carpflyguy 0]

I'm not much of a saltwater fly fisher these days, but I have a buddy who loves to fish striped bass around bunker schools and he wants some bigger flies to try out next season. Big being 12-14", really large profile flies.

I don't have much experience tying in these sizes. I've browsed around, but was hoping that some of you may have some pictures to share for inspiration or recommendations for materials that will remain castable. Yak, and some of the synthetic alternatives seem to be most commonly used from what I can tell.

I've been reading about Mark Sedotti's mass-balanced flies, and how adding a certain amount of extra weight (in the form of lead wire) will actually improve castability significantly, even with flies up to 20". Has anyone ever experimented with Sedotti's Slammer style flies tied this way? 

Thanks in advance. This is not a style of tying I know much about, so I'm just hoping to get a little inspiration and maybe recommendations on patterns from the forum. Would love to see some bunker fly pics if anyone here ties big ones! Anything helps! 

[Philly 0]

That's a big fly.  Hope he has a heavy duty fly rod for it.   I tie bunker flies but most of mine are under 5 inches.  The big bunker show up in South Jersey, usually the mid to end of May.  I usually don't hit the salt until the fall, when the peanut bunker start moving out of the back bays and inlets.  Here's a smaller bunker pattern, about 5 inches, tied out of Mirror Image.

 

I did make one attempt to make a large bunker fly for the May run many years ago.  I tied it as a tube fly using Mirror Image.  It ended up about 11 inches long.  Here's what it looked like.

Here are the front and back pieces.

That said I never did fish it.   I test cast it with my 8 wgt, which is the heaviest rod I own, and was able to chuck and duck it about 25 feet.  Later I turned the back piece into a smaller bunker fly, and scavenged as much of the material from the front for other patterns.

One pattern you might want to look at is Bob Popovics' Hollow Fleye.  With a long shank hook, 4/0 or 5/0 you should be able to get  at least a 10 inch fly.  A couple more of his patterns you might want to look at are his Beast Fleye or his Cotton Candy Fleye.   All of them can be tied to imitate large bunker.  He uses mainly buck tail when he ties them but other materials can be used.   Good Luck. 

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

Here's an alternative to tying a single, really big fly, that Al Pflueger came up with years ago - and was kind enough to show to the fishing club we belonged to back in the seventies... What he did was take a big fly as his starting point -then he tied up a tube fly that was all bucktail in matching colors, about five or six inches long to be used as a veil with the big fly.... 

Here's how it's rigged, using a big game leader with shock tippet to start,  he slid the tube fly up onto the shock (or bite) tippet first then slid a single tube sleeve up onto the shocker behind it, then tied the big fly at the bitter end.  All that was needed at that point was to adjust the tube fly so that the rear of it slightly covered the front of the fly with the hook - then set that tube sleeve into place and gave it a crimp to hold exactly where wanted.  The end result was a rig with a 10 - 12" lure on the bitter end for sails or other big fish when you needed a very large profiled fly - with only a single hook positioned exactly where it had to be to ensure a hookup...

Of course you'll be wanting a very heavy rod for such a setup... One of my 12wts with a 13wt floating line comes to mind - the same setup I hand my anglers when we just have to hook up a shark that we've chummed up behind my skiff... 

[Philly 0]

Capt Bob, since we're talking about big flies.   I was talking with my niece over the weekend and she told me her father-in-law was planning a fly fishing trip for marlin.  I've no idea where.   Anyway, I told her and her husband, I'd try and tie a couple of marlin flies for him.  I've got the materials I need.  What size hook would you recommend.  I've got salt water fly hooks between 4/0 and 6/0 would they be suitable.   I've also have some 10/0 hooks left over from shark fishing years ago, though I doubt I could get them in my vise and they might be a bit heavy for even a 12 wgt.  I plan to use the method you described, tying basically a tube fly.   Any color suggestions?

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

Pink and white, blue and white, blue and pink… I wouldn’t use any hook larger than a 5/0 .

Here’s a tale related to me by a friend,  a very skilled big tarpon fly angler… They were down in Panama and when it was his turn, he was told not to set any drag on his reel at all.  They raised a small black marlin, about 200lbs.  He made the short cast,  hooked up, and the marlin went screaming straight away - only moments later was jumping 200 yards in front of their boat… they’re that quick.  If he’d had the slightest drag on his reel the water pressure on the line alone would have parted the leader…. They went on to lose the fish - but that lesson about the drag setting stayed with him..

Wish your friend some luck,  he’s going to need it…

[Philly 0]

Thanks, Capt Bob.  I'll pass on your advice to him.

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

Hard to imagine - line screaming off the reel straight the rear of the boat - and that fish already 200 yards ahead of the boat, jumping... must have been 3 to 400 yards of backing in the water in a huge belly of line....

[chugbug27 0]

Fantastic!