Salt flies

[phearless]

Is there anybody else out there messing around with salt water ties?
I have been doing more and more of this exciting type of fishing every year.
Nice thing is you can still find lots of areas to fish all day by yourself.I really enjoy the exploration aspect of it.Lots of days with no fish, but it is fun.
I will post a few pics in the galley later.
Mostly small sparse patterns for the beaches.

[tinpusher]

I have been experimenting with SRC flies and big flies for the tropics. I will try and get some pics posted. What I would like to see is a barbless nickel plated hook. I find when I crimp the barb it cracks the nickel coating and it is no longer rust proof. I too enjoy the salt as it is the last frontier still widely open for experimentation and inovation. Not to mention no crowds!

[SalaR]

For we Canucks,Polar Bear hair is a god send for Salt Water Flies, both inshore and off shore. The off shore flies typically use the longer straight hairs up to (Yes) 6 inches long...wonderful thing about Polar Bear is that it can be dyed fairly easily with Kool-Aid or other food dyes. Some commercial dyes are ok. Art Limber ,here on the Island is good at that as is Gerry Hardy in Courtenay/Comox. Shorter hairs are exellent for smaller Mickey Finns,Needle fish patterns and the like for the inshore fishery...these flies are rarely longer than 3" and more likely 1 1/2 -2 " long. Tim Tullis has been working with Llama hair and has shown flies that shape extremely well when wet. In fact I did a class on Salt Water flies several months ago and had the entire class in awe with the look of these flies when wet. If you are tying Minnow Patterns eyes catch more fish! Combine Llama hair and accent layers of Angel Hair and see for yourself.
I hate to let too many secrets out of the bag(some are already useing it) but for the past 5 or 6 years I have been using a lot of coloured synthetic hairs from Haloween and other Wigs...stable colours and these hair fibres have characteristics similar to Polar Bear. For larger flies use with Llama or Polar Bear...for small inshore flies sparse is the ticket.
I will also post a few pics in the coming days
C