What's in your fly box??

Well with my fly boxes that I carry in the boat - there are several boxes to choose from
Let us explore their contents.

The main box is a two-sided boat box a mate got for me
              - Thanks Simon best present ever! (that i didnt have to buy for myself!)
See thru lid is great, so I keep the flies I use the most in it. always on the deck - not in the tackle bag

Fly Box #1 - Side A

This side has my 'go-to' white goat clousers - a must have in tropical waters - and a few larger clousers if the bait being eaten is bigger.

It has a few barra flies (bucktail minnows, whistler variations) but most of my barra flies in another box - these are just there for quick access when needed

It also has in it my new favourite flats crustacean fly the Bynoe P&C (see this blog for details) a prawn-crab mutation of a fly

Fly Box #1 - Side B

Then SideB has my surface flies - Hot Lips Gurglers, Gurglers in a few sizes, crease flies and hard bodied poppers. It also has 30 or so silicone surf candies  (there is a second row that are slight longer in length under tails of the first row on lower left) for the ever-present trevally, queenies and small macks that hang off nearly every rock bar in Bynoe and Darwin Harbours. It also has one algae fly (bottom left corner - used to have four there but they got used - must tie more) for milkies if some come cruising past sipping scum off the waters surface.

Fly Box #2 - Clousers

This box is assorted extra clousers in different materials, colour, size and eye weight combinations. There is also a few crustacean patterns mixed in the box as well

All greens for early morning, Wild Things in fluro orange and chartreuse - used to be hot pink and chartreuse in the box too - will have to tie a few more of those as well.

Also in top left the box has four BFCW Flies

             - that is Bynoe Flats Crustacean Wannabe flies - see previous blog - BCFW Fly

This box is looking a little empty

           - will have to fix that before the Bynoe Sheep Station Stakes later this year (October 10th & 11th)

Fly Box #3 - Big Arse Minnows box

This one has my mega flies in it

Big flies for big fish - the ones on right are whistler variations - big barra, big Gt's - 4/0 to 6/0hooks, some tandem hooks, most with mono weed guard loops. Also a few really heavy flies for bottom bouncy for black jew (hooked a few but haven't stopped one yet!!!) and reef dwellers but very boring fishing waiting for the fly and line to get deep enough!)

When I see big bait being harassed and bursting through the surface - this is the box of flies I go to - My 10weight rod is always rigged in the boat ready to cast with a large fly on the leader - just in case the 'big one' comes along!

Bottom right are my tandem hooked garfish flies for big Spaniards - worked well on east coast, no so yet here in Darwin region.

Left side has some double bunnies, some segmented baitfish with two heavy duty hooks 

Bottom left - are some new flies tied recently my version of the GnG Hollow Mullet - see previous blog for details

Finally top left - a heap of bend backs in popular hard bodied lure colourings  - tiger, elton john, gold bomber. These on quite strong and heavy hooks.

Fly Box #4 - Baitfish

Ok, this fly box on the left side has a heap of epoxy surf candies and some jelly bean candies (fatter surf candies). A heap of white polar fibre minnows on various hooks and eye configurations. Some on worm hooks designed to be weedless. Got five good fish on one of these versions of this polar fiber fly in succession before putting the hook through my thumb when releasing the fifth fish and the leader got tangled in the fish's thrashing and it dragged the leader thus the hook, through my hand and the hook point drove into thumb. Great fly - but that mishap cost me 6 hours waiting in emergency (I left barb not crushed and it was resting against bone, so was quite painful when I tried to de-hook it myself). And three hours driving round trip to hospital and back to tournament to fish next day!

Top left has a few mackerel flies that are nothing more then a hook, a tentacle off a rubber squid (those that are used in trolling applications on the head of a fresh garfish) and the tiniest touch of flash. These are for certain times when very, very big macks visit the tip of Indian Island, right up in the shallows each year sipping small baitfish as gently as a trout would sip a mayfly. I was amazed first time I caught a huge Spaniard in such shallow water on such an anorexic and small fly - almost didn't use the fly when it was suggested - but listen to the locals when you first arrive in a new location - always!

Also on middle right side are some flashy profile flies and above them some silicone coated fat boys for dirty water - great presence in the water - they give a big and noticeable bow wave when retrieved such is their profile and punch through the water. Also a few extra 3/0 bendbacks spoken about above in between the red/white and all yellow silicone fat boys (the yellow ones here were nicknamed 'Canaries' on a trip to Weipa some 25 years ago when it was the most productive fly I took - everyone in the group wanted one!).

Top right of the left side are some chartreuse rubber tail coneheads, these I used for Mr Twister soft plastic substitutes on the east coast (a staple fly for me some 10 years ago) for big flathead in Jumpinpin. Who knows what species might take a preference to them up here in the tropics when everything else fails?

Fly Box #5 - Thing Box - Barra-Threadies-Toga

These are mostly barra buster style flies - variations of whistler and pink things

Barra busters have rabbit zonker as their prime tying material. Most have weed guards as they get cast  more often then not far into mangroves and billabong weed beds. The red head white tail version is my favourite colouration for toga - yet my usual fishing partner uses orange/black colourations and we both catch plenty of toga! Its a confidence thing I guess. The pink and white colourations are great flies for Bynoe flats when barra are cruising about - depends of course on water colour at the time. This box is crammed full of these, even have a foam insert to squeeze in a third layer of flies into this fly box.

Fly Box #6 - Crabs

Always have a box of crabs in neutral colours in case of blue/black bastards. And if the fishing gods are smiling your way - and you are out the front of Bynoe and close to its sandy islands - the whispered presence of the elusive Permit becomes a reality

So here are the boxes I take on the boat - many if not most - just in case of the off chance something unique and different (hopefully big!) comes along. 

But so too plenty of the usual 'go-to' flies if the usual species are about at the location we find ourselves SWOFFING

The wooden boxes I use for my flies are what my students make in Yr8 wood work class from recycled wooden pallets- each year for examples to the students I make a box or two for me or gifts for others as well

As much fun as they are to tie.....................  (if u need any recipes or tying instructions - contact me)

Go use your flies, they cant catch fish when not in the water!

                  

               The Stig.