Tracy&James | Sunday, 26 November 2023
Before Tracy and I headed out for our holiday I decided to tie some flies specifically for garfish. Anyone who has been fishing in the Caribbean will know how common garfish are, they will also know how hard they are to catch. Not hard in a 'getting them to attack a fly point of view', in fact they are quite easy in this respect. However, getting the hook to hold in their boney beaks, with rows of tiny needle-like teeth is very much a hit and miss affair, with a lot more misses than hits.
Prior to tying I decided to ask a question on the board regarding effective patterns. I was already aware of a technique that involved using a material to tangle in their multitude of teeth and was pointed in the direction of a product called 'silk hooks' or 'Silkekrogen' as they are named in Scandinavian parts. I should point out here that this product is not without controversy, with some commentators suggesting that they could leave a fish with its jaws locked together if not fully removed. I weighed this up and decided that I'm actually pretty thorough with getting hooks out of fish, sharks included, and I would be equally careful in making sure I removed every strand of the silk hook. As such, I placed an order on a website that seemed to have the rights for the product.
Anyway, a couple of weeks passed and there was no sign of the product I'd ordered. In fact there was no contact whatsoever, i.e. no receipt of payment, no shipping information etc. I tried the contact e-mail on the website and on other websites that were listed as being associated with the one that I paid money to – all with absolutely no response. After a bit more investigation it became obvious that the website was effectively abandoned, so I instigated the process to get my money back – it wasn't a large amount of money, it was more about the principle. My money was returned without any further hassle.
I still wanted a fly for garfish though, so I looked in my tying box for the tangliest material I had and I settled for some synthetic long, white hair (with a hint of flash). I usually use this for big streamers for sharks and cuda etc. Taking a cue from the silk-hooks, I took a small bunch of fibres and tied them into a loop maybe 15 or 20cm long. I then made up some pretty basic Clouser type flies, whipping the loop down tight behind some heavy dumbbell eyes. The knot I'd tied in the synthetic hair was perfect for making sure the whole loop could not slip easily backwards from under the whipping. After the addition of some chartreuse deer hair the fly was done as far as I was concerned – I'm sure Paul would have been proud of this design, it was certainly on a par with some of his FU flies.
The first use of this fly didn't quite go to plan. I can't remember why we hadn't gone bonefishing that day, probably due to the weather or the tides, but Tracy and I found ourselves walking down our local beach in the direction of a blue hole. We had three rods with us, the shark outfit (we saw a lot of really nice sharks on this beach but couldn't persuade any to take a fly), a rod with a standard Clouser and a rod with the garfish fly. At the corner of the blue hole I decided to do some blind casting with the Clouser as previous experience told us that fish often hang out there, usually snappers or jacks. It wasn't long before I hooked quite a nice jack and once it was out from the blue hole and over the sandy perimeter it was clear that it had a much bigger companion. I shouted to Tracy and she cast the garfish fly into the area where I was playing the fish. As is often the case with jacks, this got an immediate response and the large jack smashed the fly. Unfortunately it smashed it so hard that it popped the leader. We both learnt a bit of a lesson there to not be so lazy and change the whole leader to something more appropriate rather than just tying a big fly on the end of our bonefish leader.
The next fly (I tied four) was more successful in actually landing fish, jacks and snappers, but proved to be no better than a standard Clouser in holding on to garfish. This fly got barer and barer as the teeth of the jacks and snappers took its toll until it needed to be retired. This second fly and the third were attacked by many, many garfish often three or four times within the same cast. As such I was coming to the conclusion that my tying was a complete failure in terms of its design intent. That is until Tracy did it! She caught a garfish that was well and truly tangled in the synthetic hair – the hook was nowhere near the fish. This garfish was so comprehensively 'tangled' that I wonder how the other fish had avoided it. Peeling every strand of the material from the fish before release made me very happy that day.
As a final aside, when we returned home there was a small envelope in the large pile of mail (mostly junk) that had been delivered whilst we were away – yep, it contained a pack of Silkerogen.
I've no idea what happened to fly number four by the way.
Have a great week, James.
