A few years ago, I tied a series of older flies for the Tying Board that have been used in saltwater fishing. One of them was the Whistler. Another was the Comet. Both have bead chain eyes. I’ve modified the concept a bit and now tie a bead chain fly in two versions. One is a small, very sparsely dressed bucktail on a bend back hook. The other is a more literal interpretation of the Comet, but tied very sparse. In either case, I think the fly looks a bit shrimpish.
There are a few spots and situations that these flies work and I cannot explain why, except that they do.... Here’s what happened that got me tuned in to them as a useful tool.
I was fishing a sandy point in an estuary up here. The water was running over the bar so that the deep pocket of water behind the bar was on the bar’s lee side. I had caught a few fish with a normal drift using a floating line, but nothing exceptional. I knew the fish were there. Incrementally, I added split shot to the leader and kept trying without substantially better results. I also knew that there were shrimp in the water, cause I could see them in the calmer shallow water when I had poked around with my flashlight. I knew that I wanted a bit of weight, but not so much that the fly would drag on the bottom, like a small closer would. So, I pulled out one of the small bucktail bead chain flies and tied it on as my lead fly. On the third drift, I got a fish. Then another. A few doubles were mixed in as well. This went on for about 45 minutes then finally tailed off. I went home happy.
This fly has produced like that on several occasions when nothing else has quite worked. I have never been able to precisely sort out the reason for the fly’s success at those particular times, other that it must have to do with the balance of the fly in the current when it has the bead chain tied on.
PS: I love the sound of them as well. No wonder they’re called Whistlers!
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