My Tube flies are packed up and will be mailed tomorrow. Twelve for the
swap and one extra in a different color scheme for the Swapmeister.
Sorry for being late. This fly uses up a lot of material, and I ran out
in the middle. Thought I had more but the second package was
inadequate. Spent two weeks trying to find more (and no, Byard doesn't
carry it), started tying the second color scheme to finish, then found
a package on a rack in a small store where I had already questioned the
owner.
I had tied a few with the 'inadequate' materials and results so I took
them for a field test in the surf on North Padre Island National
Seashore. Thats in far South Texas. Met up with about ten friends and
located a good camping spot. I sleep in the truck so while they were
all setting their tents I went down to fish. Tied one of these on my
ten-weight, cause we sometimes run into some LARGE fish there. Fourth
or fifth cast the fly just stops, then starts a strong steady pull
away. Redfish on. Know that because everything else in the surf tends
to slash and run. Five to ten minutes of the first real bend I've put
into the ten weight and the red comes to hand. Again, the red is the
only thing in the surf you lip because everything else has TEETH!.
'Course by now everybody else had abandoned their tents and grabbed
their rods. Fish measured out to 19 1/2 inches. I know you guys with
the brookies and 0 weights think thats a big fish, but the keeper slot
for reds is 20 - 28 inches, we ate steak that night. I haven't had a
keeper this year, 'bout an even split between too large and too small.
The next day we all piled into whoever had a four wheel drive and we
made the sixty-mile run down to the Mansfield jetties. Usually we make
the run down fairly quickly, stopping only if we see fish or birds
working, fish the jetties, then work our way back slowly in time to be
in camp by dark. Nobody caught anything on the way down, saw no tarpon
the whole trip. A few speckled trout were caught at the jetties and
some large jacks were missed. On the way back we occasionally found
some small schools of 15-20 inch Ladyfish (Skipjack) and worked them for
a while. Ladyfish is the first cousin to tarpon, smaller but with
teeth. Slash, run and multiple jumps. A couple of other guys and I
were the last ones working back when the guy driving in front of me
(Just moved here from Colorado and only experience was Trout), slammed
the brakes, got out of the truck and started babbling. Yep, the
Ladyfish here were in the 24-30 inch range. Usually they'll hit for a
while and then disappear. We worked these for a good two hours. A 30
incher will take a 100 yards of backing easy. I actually found that
tube flies are not the way to go with Ladyfish. I had tied some tube
Clousers in Electric Chicken colors. Lost two flies in three casts even
though I was using a 65 pound bite tippet. Felt like I would hook up on
the first fish, the fly would break away and move up the leader. But
Ladyfish attack in packs, and the rest would keep on hitting the fly and
cutting the tippet with their teeth. After the second tippet was bitten
off, I switched to an eight weight with wire leader rigged on and
finally started to get em in regularly. They were still hitting when we
decided we'd had enough. Luckily the rest of the guys were
understanding when we pulled into camp an hour and a half after dark,
since I had dinner in my cooler.
Jack
Austin
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