Fly development

Fly development is something I'm always playing around with and have been looking for a fly for some years now that could do a number of things for me. It should be totally snag free (Over rocks & through thick weed beds) & light enough to cast either with a single handed rod or a double spey set up. Steve Silverios hightie method was somthig that interested me a lot so I tied up these for starters. They have worked fantastic and have caught me some nice size fish over the last month. Unfortunately this design has some flaws with my synthetics that needed to be improved. Tying the materials onto a streight up turned hook like this was fine but as with all synthetics no matter what you try, once wet they always pencil out and I was finding firstly that the materials were clumping up a lot around the hook point, which although still allowed the fly to move freely through weed beds it still had the tendancy to get snagged often & secondly was mainly hindered hook ups. Coupled with the beaded wire counter balance (Which actually isn't necessary) I lost a lot more fish than I liked.

I then decided to try the same method except this time onto a bendback style hook and the the rest is history really. The Ultimate weedless weed guarded fly. By changing the angle of the tying platform its improved the performance of this fly 100%. Firstly its stopped the synthetics penciling out and improved the overall profile of the baitfish pattern, which in turn has allowed the hook point to be less clogged up. Secondly changing the angle of the hook point has for some reason also improved the amount of fish I have hooked & thirdly the bendback has now given me a fly I can fish over distance while wading that rides over every rock and snag and can be chucked into the thickest weed or lilly bed without ever getting snagged. Trust me I have been testing these flies the last 3 weeks,chucking them into some of the thickest reed beds and retirieved the fly back without a single snag up.

I've also found through trial and error that its also benificial to have an epoxied head at the front. A couple of eyes bug bonded works a treat. Not only is this fly awesome for wading and thick weedbeds but am positive it will be the perfect fly for my double handed spey endevours. Anyway this fly I used fluoro yellow vibrant chenille to attach the seperate clumps of blended misty green deadly dazzle and natural belly mirror image.

This perch pattern I used hot orange vibrant chenille to attach the blended clumps of misty yellow deadly dazzle and steelhead silver mirror image for the 1st four clumps and then placed a final clump of of chartreuse slinky fiber ontop. the chin is red arctic fox.

This one comprises entirely of white and olive slinky fiber and a chin of red arctic fox again. I'm busy doing a tutorial whic I will post next week for anyone who wants to give them a bash.

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A small platoon of blended synthetic baitfish patterns tied up a few weeks back for the summer and autumn period. With the first three, I blended Mullet brown with varying sized clumps of steelhead silver, natural belly and misty black mirror image while the underbelly on all these are SF Flash blend - Bucktail white. Total lenght 80mm - 100mm

With this one I blended steelhead silver with light brown funky fiber and mixed some SF Blend bucktail white and while deadly dazzle for the underbelly. Total length 70mm

Positive feedback

Mike Lembke out at Wollaston lodge sent me this the other day of a fantastic fish caught by one of his clients with one of my Tiger softbelly baitfish patterns. Looks like Orange is just as productive there as it is here.

Fly Candy

Again, I'm not sure what it is about orange being such a good colour to fish with here on the island but pike seem to love eating these flies. They certainly aren't as productive in fresh water here as they are in the salt. Anyway as my last batch of synthetic flies got mullerd this spring so I've tied up some more for the autumn if & when I decide to fish with them.
I've combined & blended Hot orange mirror image with red funky fiber for the main body area and blended white bucktail SF Flash blend with white funky fiber and steelhead silver mirror image for the under bellies. These are a little longer than the baitfish I'm fishing with at the mo at around 140mm. Being the tight arse that I am, I also re-used the hooks from the last batch of orange baitfish patterns I'd tied. On a different note I'm stoked to have my flies featured in "Fishheads flies n lore" this week.....Thanks Terry for spreading the love on your site brotha!

Bread n Butter fishing

With the shoals of baitfish increasing around the island I been using a couple of Silver assassins the last couple of evenings while out wading. Tied onto 3/0 partridge ultimate predator hooks.Total length 100mm. Pike just are'nt interested in anything unless they look fishy and have been feeding close to the surface.This has been evident by how many breech themselves as they shoot up from below to hit the shoals. I've tried poppers but they just leave them alone.So I've been fishing with a floating line and a 6ft 20lb mono leader with varying success. Several Fast strips with a lengthy pause seems to get them interested but I've lost count how many follow the fly as close up to my stripping basket then veer away at the last second

Have also been fishing with this 80mm fly the last week tied onto a Tiemco 811s 2/0 and have had numerous 70cm - 75cm jacks to hand. This was just one of 6 from last nights 1 hr session. I call it bread n butter fishing, Cause I'd rather be out fishing everyday catching bread n butter jacks in the summer....than not fishing at all!

Bread n butter fishing from Simon Graham on Vimeo.

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With these I blended "Tan brown" frizz fibre with "Misty green" deadly dazzle and "Off white" mirror image. The top fly has a black raccoon fur chin while the bottom one has an olive raccoon fur chin. I also added 4 brown microbarb saddles half way into the tie. Both have the medium sized fishskulls added.

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Three variations of fishskull baitfish patterns using Olive & white frizz fiber blended with pastel yellow deadly dazzle. To all you guys coming out here to fish with me this season...bar the musky flies, the last three months worth of tied flies seen on this blog are waiting for you to use, including these here. I'm looking forward to May 20th when my first clients arrive on the island. Meeting new faces forging new freindships, experiencing all the trials and tribulations that goes with fishing is why I love being a professional fly fishing guide. Its going to be a good, good season,I can feel it in my bones!

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Soft belly baitfish tied with electric yellow slinky fibre and yellow marabou hairline. Since this photo was taken I've added some black retro funky stripes down their flanks.

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Blue is a very productive colour here on the Baltic especially with the plastic treble chuckers and whenever I've used a blue fly I've caught fish with it. Anyway I had a couple of unused packets of Shaded pink and Sea blue slinky fiber which I split into equal sized clumps then blended different shades with some plain white for the belly.


I like this striped one and might actually add stripes to the rest of this set, i'll see!

I might bring these out in the summer or late spring for a test run. Having not fished with this purple/blue colour combo before I'm not sure how they'll fair....fingers crossed they're the nuts and the pike love em!

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This was one of my favourite softbelly baitfish patterns I fished with last season, tied in perch colours. This top one is a plain version of the stripped model below. I must admit the stripes do give it a little edge over the top fly,whether it fishes better I don't know.So many variables one must take into consideration.

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I cant put my finger on it why Orange and black is such a productive colour here around the island, and to be honest I don't think I ever will. The only hypothosis I have is this colour gets attacked through sheer agression for being within that pikes patroling area.

I can remember on a number of occassions last season fishing with some perch patterns that didn't get a look in, yet as soon as I chucked an orange pattern on, either like this softbelly baitfish or the orange n black banger below over the same area, the fly was hit pretty much instantly.

Orange....It has absolutely no qualities or similarities to any of the fish we have around the island but yet It seems to be a snotrocket magnet!......Why oh why?

Fly Candy

After the last week I've just had I sure could do with a spot of fishing. Some time on the water would do me the world of good. Unfortunately I'm left with 45cm of snow still to plough from around the house. Anyway its nice to be able to post again. These soft belly baitfish were very productive for me last season, especially during the autumn.

I like to use these with an Intermediate and am going to be tying up a set with some fishskulls to be used with a floating line. Out of all the synthetics I've come across Mirror image is my favourite to fish with as the strands are fine which give off a surprisingly wavy action under the surface and retain very little water once the first false cast has been made. This Natural belly with the olive marabou give it a nice bream look.