Fly Fishing For Catfish: Tying And Fishing The Purina Fish Chow Fly
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My brother has a small pond behind his house, and several years ago he stocked some blue cats. Every evening around 6:30, he throws out several handfuls of fish food, which of course triggers a pretty predictable frenzy among the cats. Some of the fish will rise quickly to the surface, inhale a few pellets, then slap their tails and swim back down to the depths. Others will slowly cruise the surface in a straight line, greedily gulping every pellet in their path, just like the “gulpers” of Ennis Lake (okay, maybe not exactly like at Ennis Lake). So of course I decided to “match the hatch” and tie up a few “PFC” (“Purina Fish Chow”) Flies.
I had a sheet of tan foam, so I cut off a small strip and lashed it to the hook. I also tied a PFC Cluster fly to imitate a clump of pellets by lashing two strips of foam to the hook. Both patterns are quite intricate and involve advanced tying techniques, I would not recommend these unless you already have some tying experience.
I went to my brother’s house at supper time the other night (fish supper time, that is) armed with a couple of PFC’s. Britt chummed up the fish with several handfuls of fish chow, and just like clockwork, the catfish worked themselves into a frenzy. At first, I simply cast the fly into the middle of the vortex and waited for one of the cats to pounce. After about ten minutes, however, it became clear this tactic was not working, and so I began singling out specific feeding fish and casting the fly into their path. Much to my surprise, however, this technique didn’t work any better; time after time, I made perfect casts to feeding fish, who would swim up to the PFC, eye it for a brief moment, then disdainfully swim right past it and continue their feeding.
Finally, I got one of the cats to take. I suppose this fish was the equivalent of the village idiot; after all, countless of his brethren had already refused the PFC Fly. But I’m not complaining. I cast the fly into his feeding lane, and without missing a beat, he opened his maw, inhaled the PFC, and the fight was on. He may have been dumb, but he was a brute, boy, and on the little 3 wt. rod I was using, he felt like Moby Dick. It took me about ten minutes, but I finally got him up to the bank, and to preserve the moment, I set him down and took a picture before releasing him back into the pond. I thought about eating him for supper, but you’ve got to keep those stupid fish in the pond, it’s important that they spawn as often as possible and make as many more stupid fish as the pond will support.
Ah yes, the PFC Fly.
Sir Izaak Walton just rolled over in his grave.
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Video of the Day : Redfishing
This video – “Bulls on Top” – is just about the coolest fishing video I’ve ever seen.
Video : The Red Zone
Alec Griffin, Rich Waldner, and Bryan Carter fly-fishing for reds.
Fly Fishing : Bonefish at Palmyra Atoll
Outspoken sex therapist Allen May recently left for a bonefishing trip to Palmyra Atoll.
Armed with a box of flies tied by yours truly, May set out after the elusive Bones and has not been heard from since. Unconfirmed reports have it that in the excitement of his first hook-up, May spazzed out and dunked his camera in the lagoon, presumably never to be seen again. However, days later, the camera was found drifting on the South Pacific trade currents by a Taiwanese freighter, and these three pictures were the only surviving images on the memory card. May has not been heard from since.
Judging from the documentary evidence, it appears the flies I tied for May were a success.
RIP.
Tying Flies : The Midas Fly
Conscious of the adage that any color fly works for Redfish as long as it’s gold, I went in search of a metallic gold estaz-type material for wrapping fly bodies. My go-to source for hard-to-find materials is saltwaterflies.com, but, alas, they did not have what I was looking for. But one day while walking through Hobby Lobby, I detoured through the sewing department and there, to my surprise, was exactly what I was looking for: a spool of metallic gold “Decorative Trim,” nine feet for just $1.99. The stuff is very shaggy and has a wire core that allows it to be bent to shape. Thankfully, the wire is easily removed, leaving just the flash material. However, even with the wire removed, the material is very thick, and you must use a very strong thread to lash it to the hook shank when you’re through wrapping. Also, the material is so thick that it’s next to impossible to trim it close with scissors; instead, I use a mongo pair of toe-nail clippers to cut it when I’m through. I eventually quit trying to get a clean cut and just left the tie-off shaggy, as you can see from the pictures. A little dab of epoxy on the thread should keep the material securely tied down.
The end result was The Midas Fly, so-named for obvious reasons. I made the eyes on the fly above from 5mm black plastic beads (another Hobby Lobby item) and monofilament. The tail is unraveled gold mylar tubing.
The Pattern: Hook – TMC 811S 2/0; Thread – UniThread 210 denier; Lead Eyes; Tail – medium or large gold mylar tubing, unraveled; Plastic Eyes – 5mm black plastic beads epoxied to appropriate size monfilament; Body – Hobby Lobby gold “Decorative Trim.”
Below are several variations of The Midas Fly. On the left is the same basic fly minus the plastic eyes plus a weedguard. On the right I have replaced the mylar tail with short split bunny tails and added a throat of polar fiber. I also set the eyes farther back on the shank and did a figure-eight around the eyes with the gold trim material.
[author] [author_image timthumb='on']http://johnmurrill.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/About-me-pic.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]John Murrill, progenitor of The Midas Fly, spends more time slumming through Hobby Lobby looking for new tying materials and trying to avoid being recognized than he will ever admit. Click here to see more photographs of his flies. [/author_info] [/author]
Video : Fly Fishing for Reds
Here’s a short video I put together using Final Cut Express. The video is a compilation of footage taken over the last 2-3 trips I’ve taken, in late 2010 and early 2011.
Tying Flies : Bonefish and Giant Trevally
Allen May – noted anthropologist, former Baton Rouge resident and member of the Red Stick Fly Fishing Club, and current resident of Bozeman, Montana – recently called me from the sports bar in the Mirage Casino in Las Vegas (because, after all, where else would you expect a world-renowned anthropologist to be?). It was difficult to hear him over the background noise, and conversation abruptly halted on several occasions while he cursed the televisions around him (apparently his bets were not going well), but he eventually managed to communicate that he was heading on a week-long trip to Palmyra Atoll in the South Pacific to do some fly-fishing for Bonefish, Giant Trevally, and the elusive Milk Fish, and he wanted me to tie some flies for him. I agreed, on the condition that he send me some pics when he returned. Hopefully, I’ll have some action shots for the website in another few weeks.
Recent reports from Palmyra indicated the fly of choice for the Bones was a small Spawning Gotcha, which is a standard Gotcha with a splash of pink. The Gotcha is usually tied with a tail of braided mylar tubing (unraveled), but I did not have any pink braided tubing, so I used Krystal Flash instead. The body is pearl Diamond Braid wrapped around the hook shank. Charley Craven ties the Gotcha with Silli Legs, which I liked, so I included legs on my flies. You can always cut them off on the water if you want.
Given my vast expertise (none) bonefishing, I took the initiative to to tie up some Crazy Charlies as well. I tied the Charlies by twisting several strands of Flashabou together and then wrapping them forward up the hook shank, followed by an overwrap of clear V-Rib. The wing is calf tail, and tying the wing in securely is the only tricky part of the fly. I tied the Charlies in a tan color scheme and a pink color scheme. Both the Gotchas and the Charlies were tied using a TMC 800S in sizes #2 – #8.
For the Giant Trevally, I tied some Pearly Poppers and Sea Habit Bucktails. “Tied” is misleading when talking about the poppers – there’s no thread anywhere to be found. The Sea Habit Bucktail is an all-purpose Trey Combs pattern. Reports from Palmyra suggested that when the GT’s weren’t pounding poppers they were hitting baitfish imitations, so the SHB should fit the bill.
“The” fly for Milkfish is Arno’s Milky Dream – not exactly a household name. Milkfish look like a cross between a Ladyfish and a Bonefish – Jarid Malone says they look like a giant mullet. They are apparently finicky eaters, and catching one on the fly is supposed to be a real accomplishment. The only thing they eat is small chunks of algae, and Arno’s Milky Dream is not much more than a small chartreuse blob that is supposed to look like – you guessed it – a small chunk of algae (or a bugger). I was never entirely satisfied with my attempts to tie the AMD, so I ended up a tying some chartreuse Y2K’s on a #8 TMC 800. To my eye, they look as much like a small piece of algae as the AMD’s, but I guess we’ll have to wait till May returns to know whether the Y2K’s were effective.
Palmyra is located just north of the equator one thousand miles south of Hawaii and is a possession of the United States. The picture of Palmyra below is taken from The Nature Conservancy’s website. Makes you want to pop open a cold Corona. Hopefully, May will catch lots of fish and send us lots of pics, and in a few weeks we can post – as Paul Harvey used to say – the rest of the story.
[author] [author_image timthumb='on']http://johnmurrill.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/About-me-pic.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]John Murrill, the author of this drivel, has never even seen a Bonefish, Giant Trevally, or Milkfish, much less fished for one. But that won’t stop him from passing himself off as an expert on the subject. Click here to see more photographs of his flies.[/author_info] [/author]
Tying Flies : Bunny Flies
I enjoy tying with rabbit strips (“zonkers”) more than with just about any other material. They’re easy to tie with, come in a wide arrange of colors and styles, and have a fantastic, undulating action in the water. Plus – and this last factor should never be underestimated, particularly when, like me, you don’t have enough time to fish and are left to get your thrills at the vise – the finished flies look great.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot – they catch fish too.
For me, the only downside of rabbit is that the strips hold water like a sponge, and as a result, the flies can get heavy. Plus, rabbit strips tend to have an almost neutral buoyancy, so lead eyes are necessary to get the fly sub-surface. A crisp back-cast will help to shed water and make the fly easier to cast, and keeping the tails short will also help to keep the weight down.
I tie these flies primarily for redfish, but they will catch just about any other inshore fish you’re likely to encounter. I tie the flies in all sorts of color combinations, and I can already hear the chorus of comments that two or three basic color patterns are all you need for redfish, and anything beyond that is a waste of time. But I enjoy tying for its own sake, and I like the way the flies look, and the redfish seem to like the garish colors as much as the natural ones, so I’m going to keep on doin’ what I’m doin’.
The basic pattern consists of both a rabbit tail and rabbit body. The tail is actually a split tail consisting of two short rabbit strips, one tied on each side of the shank of the hook, with the fur facing outward and the leather sides of the strips facing inward. I keep the tails relatively short in length, which helps to prevent (but does not entirely eliminate) them fouling around the hook. Some flash material is tied in between the two halves of the tail. If you like, you can also tie in some silly legs between the tails.
The body of the fly is formed by wrapping a rabbit strip forward up the hook shank, “palmer” style. Most people use cross-cut rabbit strips for this purpose, but I don’t like the way the hair on cross-cut strips tends to lie almost completely flat along the shank, reducing the fly’s action in the water. Instead, I use standard rabbit strips for both the tails and the body, and I overlap the wraps on the body to force the hair back, creating a nice skirt for the fly but still giving the fly more action than if tied with a cross-cut strip.
I use the smallest lead eyes that will still cause the fly to sink. I tie these flies primarily for shallow-water reds, so I don’t need a fast sink-rate; instead, I want just enough weight to start the fly sinking. Under different conditions, you may want a faster sinking fly, and so heavier eyes may be necessary. A little bath-tub experimentation can help you find the right amount of weight. The lead eyes will also cause the fly to retrieve upside-down, helping to make the hook weedless.
I will also tie the fly using EP fibers instead of rabbit for the body. In addition to adding a little variety, this will also help to keep the weight down, since the synthetic EP fibers retain no water at all. I’ve been experimenting with both the EP Anadromous Brush and the EP Streamer Brush. I really like tying with the brushes, but they are much more expensive than the rabbit strips. Uptown Angler in New Orleans has a great selection of EP materials, and I always try to drop in when I’m in the Big Easy.
I tie the flies in two sizes. All things being equal, my preference is to tie the larger version on a 2/0 TMC 600SP. Alas, all things are not equal, as the Tiemco hooks ain’t cheap. I’m going to give the Gamakatsu SC152H and the new SC16 in size 3/0 a shot and see if I like them. I tie the smaller flies on a 2/0 Gamakatsu SC15. As a practical matter, however, I often end up tying the flies on whatever saltwater hooks I happen to have available at the time. I always add a weed guard, but will often snip it off depending on conditions.
I photographed the flies using the Nikon 200mm f/4 macro lens. This is a great lens that I’m still learning my way around; in the near future, I plan to take some close-up macro photos of the flies and post them on the web-site.
Clicking on any of the pictures will pull up a much higher resolution full-size image. Also, you can click on the SmugMug link below, which will take you to my SmugMug page and a more complete gallery of my bunny flies.
Peace.
