After months of tying, picking the brains of those more clued up than me and drooling over Alphonse Fishing Co’s media, my visit to Farquhar is finally happening (I will probably be on the flats when this blog goes live)! This is how I’ve prepared my flies for Farquhar, anticipating a showdown with the full spectrum of target species on the atoll. 

Bulkheads

I’ve predominantly tied bulkhead style streamers in various sizes. The bigger sizes are mostly for GTs and Napoleon wrasses. There are some smaller patterns there, which will be for some of the reef fish and bluefin kingies. I’ve tied a couple of colour combinations in the bulkhead style, all tied in exactly the same way. 

The Flaming Lamborghinis are for Napoleon wrasses and geets. They’re meant to imitate some of the colourful tomato rock cod and swallowtail rock cod, or any other reddish coloured prey items that both of those fish chow. 

The rule of thumb is to fish dark over dark bottoms.

So for the coral grass areas we’ll use the Flaming Lamborghinis as well as the black bulkheads. The tan bulkhead pattern will be used specifically on lighter bottoms, although I think that’ll probably also work pretty well over grass bottoms too. I’ve also tied some white variations in that style.

Some of those bulkhead ties include marabou, which gives the fly some nice movement. I’ve tied them on a combination of 5/0 and 6/0 Ahrex SA270 hooks. 

Crabs

Then for things like triggers, permit and anything that eats a crab I suppose, I’ve tied a range of Alphlexos in various colours. Apparently the oranges do well. Black is a little bit experimental, although I think there’s been some success on black Phlexos.

I’ve tied them in a variety of colours to match certain scenarios, as well as a variety of weights to fish different depths and, depending on what the tide’s doing, different rates of flow. I’ve also tied some larger Phlexos for bumphead parrots in different colours.

Shrimp

Then I’ve tied some Jackal Fur Shrimps, along with a variety of other shrimp patterns, but the Jackal Hair Shrimp has got some deadly movement in the water. The jackal fur also doesn’t go fully translucent, but really is quite subtle in its appearance under the water, and provides a lot of movement. That could be used on permit, I think the triggers will go absolutely wild for that fly. Keep an eye out for the step-by-step video for the Jackal Fur Shrimp, coming out soon.

I’ve also tied some other bonefish flies, which are traditional Pillow Talks, Golden Knights, and some general small Gotcha patterns, which will be used predominantly for bonefish. Bigger bones will also have a crack and a Phlexo and the Jackal Fur Shrimp. That will hammer big bones as well.

Photo Nick Filmalter

This is where I am going to be playing for the next week. Stay tuned for the result.