First bass in the local lake since the floods 8/04/2012

A few flies I'm tying for the current Tuna season and some bass flies plus my first bass in my lake since it has been repeatedly flooded since Xmas 2011. The Mooloolabah Longtail Tuna Chase was scheduled for this week end but had to be postponed till next w/end due to bad weather. Here are some of the Surf Candy flies I've been tying up for the competition. I have teamed up with Ross Beinke "Team Mako" but are limited to moderate to calm conditions e.g less than 15 knots wind as Ross's boat is only 4.8 m long an Makocraft Estuary Tracker not designed for offshore work. I will put up a post after next w/ends reschedule hoprfully holding a dirty great tuna on fly. Cheers Pat.

A few more flies March 11th 2012

Here's a Leech type pattern for Bass and Saratoga - marabou tail,body plamered olive crosscut rabbit,eyes 4 mm nickel dumbells. A couple of twists of Tan Estaz Chenille to create a little turbulence.Add caption

This one has a fuller rabbit body and bead chain eyes as well as a marabou tail both in olive colour. The hooks on both are tied on Gamakatsu B10S #2.

Fly Tying Fly Swaps Feb. 2012

I took part in a couple of fly swaps this last month one with a bunch of guys from Australian Saltwater Flyfishing Forum (5 others) and a solo swap with Ariel Levin a trout fly fishing guide from California from FlyFisherGirl.com forum. Both swaps have been fun and really worth while with some great variety and quality in the flies. The swap with the saltwater guys was a Jungle Perch and Sootie Grunter swap and the swap with Ariel was for large terrestial flies (trout) but all are suitable for surface fishing for our local bass. The saltwater swap basically consisted of six of us all tying one surface fly and one sub surface.The flies from Ariel are mainly variations of Hopper patterns with some awesome foam creations in there thanks Ariel the bass will love them. I've been tying up quite a few other foam patterns myself on a bit of a "foam binge" tying at the moment just wish the conditions on the water were a bit better. We've had over 600mm of rain this year with 240mm in the last week turning our rivers and creeks to muddy torrents. Hopefully I'll get the chance to fish some of these patterns before summer ends !! Pat