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A social group of dedicated fly fishers who are passionate about fly fishing in the tropical north of Australia and equally as passionate about the close camaraderie this sport brings. This passion and dedication led to the creation of the NT Flyfishers Social Mob blog site; an interactive and creative outlet where everyone can share our wonderful fly fishing adventures and link into the “after fishing” social events we enjoy in this incredible part of the world.

Saturday 23 August 2014

BUCKTAIL BAITFISH - FROM THE STIG

See The Stigs blog at   http://swoffingntwaters.blogspot.com.au/

life is crazy busy - worse still no fishing happening!

A friend and long time Darwinite tells me, he never goes fishing in the month of August due to the winds
Now I understand him, every morning lately 5-10 knots of wind and rising in intensity through the day
That is except when I can't take a day or even a few hours off and wouldn't you know it - the wind dissipates   
              - uuurrghhhh!    --    Soooooo  frustrating!

Still there is fly tying.......
I have so many flies tied as the wind howls outside, that I may not need to tie anymore till Christmas

I may have to donate a few to local fly club again for door prizes - so I have the excuse to tie some more


These ones are one of the very first saltwater flies
The main ingredient is bucktail

BUCKTAIL BAITFISH - catches most SW predator species
I tie a little flash at bend of hook
Over this I tie some polar fibre - pink or white but mostly white
From hook bend to half way along shank tie some ice chenille - I mainly use pearl ice chenille
Then reverse hook and tie on a bunch of white bucktail with the tips point past the eye of the hook
Put hook right way up then tie on contrasting bucktail colour
wind thread all the way to the eye of the hook being careful not to tie last few wraps of thread too tightly as it may flare the bucktail too much
Ensure all fibres are flat on hook shank, then on front quarter of hook shank apply a few wraps of lead wire up to eye of hook
Apply a few wraps of thread over the lead wire - then apply a little super glue to hold it all in place
Place thread at start of lead wire
Fold bucktail back over the hook shank
Wrap thread at this point to form head of fly - you want the head to bulge a little - the lead wire helps do this
Again be careful not to tie last few wraps of thread too tightly as it may flare the bucktail too much
Tie off thread - optionally I have tied on a band of red thread here to form gills
Give head a lite coating of epoxy - place on drying wheel
Once dry (better if still a little tacky), place on a prism eye on each side of head
Give head another lite coating of epoxy - place on drying wheel
Tie twenty or so or more, and go fishing!

Enjoy!

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