Re: I need some coaching

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Date: February 02, 2003 at 11:30:16
From: ken, [pool-64-223-40-76.prov.east.verizon.net]
Subject: Re: I need some coaching

Date: October 14, 2002 at 00:06:15
From: ken, [pool-64-223-43-55.prov.east.verizon.net]
Subject: Re: Help! I Need some coaching.
Hi Gary, sounds like you are going to figure this out.
There are some people who are giving you some experienced advice. It is good advice. I think that you must match the size of the bait with your flies and take a look at the baitfish boards and look under menhaden. I think that your flies may be the problem., A Razzle Dazzle is not a fly I would be using to imitate small menhaden and I do not know what a Ray's fly deceiver is - as the beauty of a Ray's fly is it's sparseness and the thin bucktail profile. A Ray's fly is a silverside imitation. A Ray's Fly Flatwing is not tied as a deceiver it is thin and does not have bulk from materials and it is also a silverside imitation. Tie up some sparse flies even though they may not have the deep bodies of most menhaden flies and tie them with an eye to the size of the bait - meaning the length of the bait - do not be overly concerned with the deep profile.
I do not know this ...but am guessing from your descriptions of your flies that they may be big and a bit heavily dressed. I do not know for sure but if they are it is not helping you catch fish. Try to make the flies a bit smaller if anything right now and try to have flies that bracket the size of the baitfish. For droppers try three, a fly that is smaller, just the right size and perhaps a bit bigger or perhaps a different color. These fish are not going bonkers and grabbing anything that swims past them so you are going to have to take that into account and try to be a bit more precise in your fly selection. If you prefer to use the flies that you mentioned then tie them with 1/3 the materials if they are close to the norm sold in the shops. If that doesen't do it than take off a 1/4 more of the dressing. If the flies look stiff, like sticks in the water, than try to tie some with some flex in them so they swim when they are moved just by the current. Tubing is stiff in the water and flies tied with splayed hackles are very bulky looking in the water, sometimes this is good but often it is the opposite of what you need when dealing with selective fish. These things I mention to you are fundamental fly fishing techniques. They do work for lots of people. They will work for you but you may have to abandon the ideas that don't work first and as John says stop and really look and see just what is happening. There are flies that are attractor patterns and they work but they don't work very well on fish that are being selective as the norm. Lots of Salt Water fly fishing information is about fishing for aggressive fish and lots of the flies and techniques that have been promoted are effective for that type of fishing. The type of fishing you are dealing with is much more sophisticated than that. The reason for this lack of information relating to difficult fish is simple. This part of salt water fly fishing has been ignored because those modern techniques are extremely unreliable with selective fish and demand that the fish chase the flies as the M.O. everything else that fish do is ignored by those techniques. What you are dealing with is the best part of Salt water fly fishing to me and many others who have been around for a while. It is hard but satisfying when you become successful. It is not for everybody but it is for those who what the most they can get out of fly fishing in the salt. It is about developing personal skill and savvy.
The fish make the rules.

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