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Ron Mc
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nothing to it

Post by Ron Mc »

Decades of saltwater night-lite dock fishing, this whistler is the most effective, and imitates glass minnows to swimming crabs.

Image
Size 6 stainless hook, I tie some with medium and some with large stainless bead chain.
for a change-up, I'll fish small Hi-ties.
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El Gato Diablo
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Re: nothing to it

Post by El Gato Diablo »

Looks nice. Well done.
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Ron Mc
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Re: nothing to it

Post by Ron Mc »

thanks - these are zing-them-out flies, simple to tie and a variation on the very first white bass flies I ever learned to tie copying Billy Trimble's flies (1980).
(his had a grizzly hackle collar, shorter tail, and smaller size 10 hook for white bass - caught many sandies in the dark with blue chenille and blue marabou)

A photo from Arroyo City last Nov with an 8' 1960 Harnell 7-wt and fat Arroyo nursery trout.
Will be back there in 8 days for the glorious dock fishing and morning power boat runs to LLM, with my 90-y-o dad.

Image
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karstopo
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Re: nothing to it

Post by karstopo »

Looks like relatively quick tie, which is always nice. Marabou tail, is that tinsel in the middle? a chenille head?

My uncle has a place on the San Bernard River in the tidal zone. I bet those whistlers would be a hit there when the trout move in.
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Ron Mc
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Re: nothing to it

Post by Ron Mc »

the body wrap, they call sparkle chenille.
yes, shrimpy-colored chenille head wrap and thread to match.
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Re: nothing to it

Post by JW FunGuy »

Nice multipurpose fly Ron. Fish Candy!
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Ron Mc
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Re: nothing to it

Post by Ron Mc »

Jerry, a couple of Octobers ago in Palm Harbor canals, this was the view.
Managed to get three of these to together chase a small popper and caught one.
Image
Image
Image
It was a fool-me-once thing, after that had to switch to the slime line and whistlers to catch more.

Seen the same canals in summer when there were big trout sitting on those lights, and enough bait to walk across the canal.
The big trout kept the nursery trout out in the dark.
The trick then was having a matching-size lure waiting when the big trout decided to flare and eat, and jigging a 2" swim shad on the XUL rockfish rod was the technique that paid.

ps - my buddy was walking back to the boat on Fence Lake one morning, simply dragging his floating line with one of those little size 6 stainless poppers, and caught an unintentional trolling slot red.
Last edited by Ron Mc on Fri Oct 25, 2019 6:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
Ken S
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Re: nothing to it

Post by Ken S »

slime line?
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Re: nothing to it

Post by karstopo »

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Ron Mc
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Re: nothing to it

Post by Ron Mc »

Ken S wrote:slime line?
the old-fashioned name for intermediate or neutral-density sinking line - you can see one on my reel in the first photo.
They cast farther than a floating line because they're smaller diameter, slice the wind better, sink at a very controlled rate for counting down, eliminate the need to use weighted flies, and eliminate hinge and weighted fly yo-yo. They fish the Zone kinda like a TSL grasswalker.
They basically disappear in the water, and fish great with 5' leaders.
I fish them in the salt anytime I don't need a floating line (shallow grass) or a really fast sinking like a Teeny TS shooting head (jetties, offshore, ripping current in a tide pass). Slime lines are especially good for dock and canal fishing. I go to slime line most often in the bays, and it's also go-to line for the surf.

here's a rat red on LHL, wading at the first duck blind, and fishing into a mid-thigh-deep hole. Had pretty good fish sign in jumping small bait, caught this rat and a good ladyfish, but I think you can see the transparent fly line in the photo. I have 3 of these, one from SA Mastery (bonefish intermediate) and two Airflo ridgelines. Two are monocore, and one of the Airflo is coreless, transparent, and really thin
Imageboth fish are on my kicking shrimp, which will also work for change-up for dock fishing, but a bit more complicated to tie
Image
Ken S
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Re: nothing to it

Post by Ken S »

In other words,, a Mono? I'm just getting into fly, so am learning .
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Ron Mc
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Re: nothing to it

Post by Ron Mc »

way cool, bro - monocore lines usually have a 3-strand monofilament braid with a coating over that.
The coreless lines are a continuous extrusion with diameter and weight varying with taper - all the strength in that extrusion, and usually a small air chamber down the center, but it makes them thinner than the monocore lines for the same performance.
Check out Airflo Beach Intermediate - it comes in clear, but consider going down a line weight, because usually they size these lines with really heavy grain-weight, as much as two line sizes heavier than the line rating they give them. I think they do it for many salt rods being too fast for the rod rating, and slowing the whole casting process. It's worth comparing head grain weights to AFTMA line weight specs before choosing one.
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Re: nothing to it

Post by bones72 »

Add description
Add description
Well here is my attempt at the pattern did a few color combos with what I had on hand. Used diamond flat brad in place of the chenille for the body. Also put a little crystal flash in the tail on a few of them.
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Re: nothing to it

Post by Ron Mc »

that works -- one thing that saves your marabou feathers, or makes them go a lot farther instead of just using the tips, and even improves fly action.
Go down the stem and clip it in short segments, grab couple of those and twist them together, and you can tie in a short fluffy tail.
You can also adjust the length of the body by where you position the bead chain when you tie it in:

cats whisker finishes with bead chain and imitates a cyprinid minnow so that you can't tell the fly from the minnows schooling around it
Image

my north fork whistler imitates a sculpin or blenny for bottom bouncing, and begins with the bead chain tied 1/3 back on the 3x-long hook shank
Image
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Re: nothing to it

Post by bones72 »

I used athechickabou/marabou like feathers at the base of a white saddle cape I had on hand. On the black ones I used marabou but because the tail is short it allowed me to use the smaller feathers that usually get scrapped on bigger patterns.

What's the wing on the Cat's Whisker ? Need to start getting them tied up for the whitebass run that should start here in around March.
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Ron Mc
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Re: nothing to it

Post by Ron Mc »

That's arctic fox - I have a few colors in patches, but best to buy the zonker strips if you can find them - clip a small piece, twist and tie in.
Here's the full recipe that I published in an article 20 years ago
http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/foru ... 8#p1627038

David Train invented the fly for Scotland lochs, using yellow body and white marabou wing and tail.
Mike Dawes and Ian Colin James also published in their books - I contacted all of them for permission to use the fly, back in the respect for intellectual property days.
I added the krystal flash and arctic fox

I fish it 100% of the time in warmwater using a T130 sinking line, and it's caught nortnern pike, carp, gaspergou, big rainbows, to stripers and gar, cichlids, and of course every centrarchid in Texas.

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Re: nothing to it

Post by Kayak buddy »

I like these

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Ron Mc
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Re: nothing to it

Post by Ron Mc »

a February dock-fished 17" spec
Image
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