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Monthly Archives: July 2012

Made a trip to the marsh this past weekend with Blake and his dad. Conditions were excellent for kayak fishing and the redfish were hitting lures very aggressively. I caught a few over slot reds on the day including one that was pushing 30″. Catching larger fish gave me a chance to try out the camera feature on the GoPro and I’m pretty happy with the result. That little camera is sweet.

Sightfishing conditions weren’t the best, water levels were high, clarity wasn’t great, but I still managed to land a red on the fly and on a woolly bugger no less. I’ve got a little personal experiment to see how many fish species I can catch on the woolly bugger. Arguably the most versatile fly out there.

We also chased down a popping cork that had what we thought was a redfish under it. Turns out it was about a three foot long blacktip shark that managed to finally pop the line before I could land it. Probably a good thing. Just another reminder that there ARE sharks in the marsh.

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Fly of the month for July is a variant of Beck’s sili legs. It was a Beck’s sili legs that slayed the trout and ladyfish on July 4th. It probably wasn’t originally intended to catch Gulf Coast speckled trout, but proved effective on Independence Day. As with every fly of the month, this version was tied by Blake Leblanc.

Materials:

–          Hook: Mustad 34007, Size 4

–          Thread: 3/0 Monocord

–          Flash: Pearl Krystal Flash

–          Weight: Dumbbell Eyes

–          Wing: Calf Tail

–          Legs: Silicone skirt material

1. Start thread on the hook. Wrap a smooth base layer from behind the eye to above the barb. Tie in a few strands of flash and wrap them up to a point about one eye length behind the hook eye.

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2. Tie the flash back down the shank to the spot above the barb creating a smooth under body. This also creates a small bump near the eye of the hook that will aide in tying in the dumbbell eyes. Bring thread to the bump behind the eye

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3. Coat the shank with a layer of Hard as Nails and wrap the flash around the shank. Tie off at the bump. I will normally put a layer of hard as nails on top as well.

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4. Tie in the dumbbell eyes, using figure 8 wraps, pressed up against the bump made by the flash. I think this secures the eyes a little better. This should leave you with just enough room to tie in the wing and legs.

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5. Tie in the legs on one side first. Then fold them back to the other side and tie them in on the other side. I like to tie them in on top of the dumbbell eyes. I used the rubber material that I bought from here. http://www.jannsnetcraft.com/skirt-making-material/036620300008.aspx. It’s good for everything, but great for nothing.

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6. Tie in an over wing of calf tail. I try to even the tips a little, but not so much that I lose the taper.

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7. Whip finish, coat with hard as nails. Finished Fly. Enjoy

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