Three Fives

 If I was starting over, I’d probably take a more systematic approach, at least in the beginning. The first thing is I’d limit myself to just two or three colour options. If you remember from the other week my mate Stevie had been carrying fibre baitfish in loads of colours and that was predictably letting him down. Two colours would probably cover most conditions, but a third would make me feel better.  I wouldn’t be too specific about which colours either, just something bright, something dark and something natural looking. The way to decide would really be to find out the most popular lure colours in the area.. a great excuse for a trip to a fishing shop! So I’d be going for one from each category below

Bright: red head, fire tiger, hot orange, parrot or something.

Dark: Black, blurple, Olive

Natural: grey/white (roach or other silver baitfish), perch, brown over copper (bream)

If I was still living where I grew up, I’d go red head, black, and grey/withe.  This is just a starting position remember, over time I’d build a couple of others in for different water clarities and light conditions. Of the three I’ve chosen, two are almost opposites red head(mostly white) and black are quite extreme in terms of visibility and offer loads of contrast  and strong silhouettes in a variety of light and water conditions.  The third is a nice generic bait colour that can represent a range of prey species and isn’t so in-your-face for days when something more subtle is the go.  Also limiting the number of colours means you don’t need to buy as many materials.

So that’s the colours out of the way and we can start thinking about what I think is more important: actions.  It’s no use just carrying loads of flies with the same action you need flies that will do different things on the retrieve.  I think you keep it to under half a dozen patterns when starting out. That’s manageable and will do almost everything provided they’re the right ones.  So here’s my list;

Something that pushes water, in the POD I’ve put a single Buford. It can be waked or fished deeper, it’s swimmy, will show the fish its side at times on the retrieve and can be fished at a range of speeds. 

Something that jerks, I’ve gone for a big articulated delivery man. It’s high narrow shape and light back end means it cuts and on an aggressive strip will give the fish that big side profile target. Ideal if the conventional guys are banging them on jerk baits.. Oh and it has a rattle too.

Something that goes up and down. A flashabou jig fly with a rattle and plenty of weight for plenty of action when retrieved on a floating or intermediate line in shallower water. Plus, it fishes hook up for dragging the bottom in winter and can easily be fitted with a wiggle tail if you like that kind of thing.

Something glidey. The EP fibre baitfish profile is ideal for this. It’s not a particularly fast material in the water, but if the fly is keeled it will continue to move after the end of the strip, ideally off centre but that will depend on the cadence and force of the strip vs the pause.

Something that goes down and up. A big foam headed Dahlberg, the best top water  in my opinion. They almost always outfish poppers on top and they’re more versatile because the head lets you work it way beneath the surface and keep it there much better than a popper head.

So that’s 5, which would mean 15 flies or 30 if you want a spare of each.  It covers everything and if you just have 3 lines you can cover everything from the surface to the bottom in very deep water with actions, sizes and profiles that will probably do a job on a pike in most conditions. Better than 30 different colours of the same pattern.

I’m sure not everyone would agree with this list, but I think I’d be happy with it as a starting point, maybe later I’d add a tube fly or something else to the equation and perhaps another colour or two.