Jan's Flies October 2006
While the winter months have been ticking by I have been on a couple of northern fishing trips one catching barra, threadfin salmon, trevally along with a couple of dozen other species. Trip number two was to New Britain which is part of New Guinea, we were fishing for the hard fighting black and spot tail bass, they are a remote fish in an absolute remote area of the world. It was a great trip and really is good to broaden one's knowledge into other fish species.
Anyway back to our own world famous fish trout and like many others I am waiting in anticipation for the better weather to take hold to get the insect life moving and normally with that the trout will be a lot more active. I was travelling in the north-east of the state the other day, stopped by a small stream for a while and watched a couple of small fish rising really consistently so that was a good sign of things to come.
It is normal for the rivers to produce dry fly fishing before the lakes so the rivers are just getting underway. One should always be prepared to fish wet as dry fly is more often not available. A basic selection of what flies in both small and large sizes are a must to have in one box , exciter flies such Matukas, Woolly Worms, English wets all serve well at the right time. Depending on the depth of water to be fished as what lines should be used, if there is good depth of water and the angler wants to fish the bottom its wise to have a sinking line or there are those like a floating line with a really long leader, so some experimenting is worthwhile to choose what suits the individual.
The following wet fly is one the Spencer's use from mid September on, it has weight to get down quickly but is light enough to also fish the shallows.
The fly is tied in various sizes from fourteen to eights. The colour is in shades of brown with a rib of amber Swannundaze, it's this rib, along with the bead head that makes the fly attractive to the trout. The fly can be fished as a single fly or with others but is always fished on the point.
Jan's Flies - Jan Spencer
Brown Bead Head
Hook Medium to heavy gauges sizes 14 €“ 8.
Thread Brown.
Bead Gold.
Tail Pheasant feather fibres.
Rib Fine amber swanundaze.
Body Brown seals fur with a little tan.
Thorax €“ Brown and tan seals fur mixed together.
Method
1. Push bead onto hook and push forward to the eye.
2. From behind the bead take the thread the full length of the shank.
3. With a small bunch of pheasant fibres tie in a short tail, tie in firmly, cut away excess tail fibres.
4. Tie in a short length of swannundaze for rib, with brown seals fur, dub on a nicely shaped body two thirds of the length of the hook shank, wind the swannundaze forward in nice even turns to the thread, tie down firmly and cut away excess rib.
5. With the mixed seals fur for thorax form a thorax finishing firmly behind the bead. Whip finish and varnish.
This is a fairly simple fly but very effective for catching trout.
