Tips/Techniques – Page 3 – Taurangas only local saltwater flyfishing guide.

Busting Loops

That fly you’ve spent an age tying to get the most out of in the water is now ready to tie on. Let the loop knot debate begin…

best kingfish flies, baitfish, salt water fly, fishing, new zealand, rattle piper — A rack of Rattle Piper kingfish flies ready for action.

If you’re after unrestricted movement then it’s really hard to go past loop knots. There’s a few to choose from, each with their own merits. Leftys, perfection, homer rhodes, open uni et al. For me I utilize a knot for each stage of set up, each one being a potential weak area to be exposed.

It makes sense to choose a knot that’s not only strong but is easy to tie. A huge bust off, urgent fly change or rocking boat will always try to hinder your best efforts to re-tie a salt water leader. Find a knot that suits your set up requirements and test it, try other options if needed. Then learn to tie it opposite handed, behind your back, blindfolded and as fast as possible – this might just be the difference to connecting to a fish under pressure.

Salt fly knots — The beginnings of the graveyard of tested knots

Harking back to my school science fair days (1st place in Applied science Hawkes Bay Science Fair 1990 something) I use a simple tug of war test. A different knot is created in each end of commonly used material. These are then pulled up evenly until one fails. To keep things fair three tests are done under each configuration, one by one an eventual winner is found.

Salt water fly fishing knot test — Who’s going to win? Leftys or Perfection

Although I knew the eventual winner was always going to be Leftys loop, I mostly wanted to check which of my commonly used loop knots were a close second to retie quickly and rely on in pressure situations. This placing goes to the perfection knot, quick and easy plus it’s a good looking knot to boot.

Interestingly was the Homer Rhodes and how it was tied. If you look at the records you’ll see 1/2, 2/1 and 2/2 listed. These were the amount of overhand passes through each stage of the knot when tied. For example; 1/2 is a basic over hand knot to begin with and then finished with a two turn. This ended up the preferred way of tying this knot in 30lb Hatch flouro leader.

Some points to note:

Not all knots perform to the same extent through various weights and types of material. Nor do they behave well with other brands/types of leader material at times.
In order to function to their potential knots must be trialled for effectiveness prior to use. No point letting the fish show you your knot choice sucked.
This experiment was more for my peace of mind than to prove the exact tolerances of each knot. And also rank my top 3 loop knots in conditions I’m familiar with.
Sometimes knots fail, don’t cry about it – try and figure out why. Was it an old leader, had it sustained some damage, not enough turns to secure it, tag end cut too short? These are some realities of potential failure, eliminating them for next time is a valuable lesson.

Connections – Backing > Fly line

Winter is a great time to sneak out for the odd decent day of fishing but it’s also a time to service gear, prep rigs, tie flies and think about your plan of attack for the coming season.

Something that came to light while changing fly lines recently was how many shitty backing to fly line connections I’ve seen. There’s no denying powerful fish need strong connections.

Marc Clinch about to hear his backing knot sing.

Strong fast runs see the backing knot tested rigorously.

My flats Kingfish assemblies tend to step down from 60lb fine diameter backing to fly line (approx 35lb) and ending with around 20-30lb straight section of fluoro leader. This is to help avoid losing fly lines but also try to prohibit fish carrying excess line around if they bust free (barbless hooks should also get a mention for this reason).

At a pinch you can double your backing and make a doubled Bimini loop. This has twin loops and is better than a single strand which can bite into a fly line.

My favourite is to create a sleeve of braided 50lb mono and use this as the load distributor through your loop-loop connection. The steps below should get you underway and have more confidence in your connection as it sings out the guides.

All the tools you need for this connection

Cut a length of braided mono to make a loop big enough to pass your reel through – this makes changing lines easier if you need.
Braided loop should be big enough to pass reel through.
Pass backing through braided mono and leave tag end of 50cm
Thread whip one end of mono. Give it a light dab of super glue and roll in fingers to absorb.
Smooth the mono tightly to the other end, ensuring no slack. Repeat whipping/gluing.
Now double the backing up to form your mono sleeve loop. Make the two whipped ends slightly offset – this should help taper the transition of finished knot.
Plait braid back down onto the mono whipped tag ends. Start far enough up from mono ends to create a 4-5cm plait.
Once you reach mono start half hitching, using opposing hitches. These should start to trap the braided mono.
Work hitches down until you’ve covered previous whipping and secure tag with a rizutto finish.
Cover knot with Loon soft head or similar flexible glue.
Tied, glued and dried. Ready for a beating.
Allow to fully dry, nothing worse than winding fly line on and discovering you’ve glued it to your backing knot!
Attach fly line by passing backing loop fully through fly line loop then passing reel through large backing loop. Finished connection should resemble a reef knot.
Finished loop to loop connection.

Some useful knot links.

Plait – https://youtu.be/2uUWS7dzOn0 NB: stop at 1:20 mark, don’t use finishing knot in video. Start hitching instead.

Rizutto finish – https://youtu.be/H09wT8r8dC8

That’s a wrap

That’s a wrap. A term used to signify the closure of an event or season. But since Tauranga’s season doesn’t seem to be quite over I’ll apply the phrase to those pesky tail wraps some larger fly patterns tend to acquire.

Over time my top fly patterns have been developed and adjusted to suit the many factors required in everyday fishing. To me durability, practicality, castibility and some other key assets are always top of the pile.

Tail wraps are a (insert cuss word here). While they can’t always be avoided they can be mitigated during the tying process and best avoided with some slick casting.

Something I’ve found key is to build an internal core that will support the more supple fibers without compromising movement. Faux Bucktail is now a firm favourite for this task. A few thread wraps tucked under the fibers near the bend or solely around the fibers themselves adds to the value.

Faux Bucktail, the best thing since sliced bread

SF fibers perched upon Faux Bucktail ready for more layers

Building heads that hold their shape also allows the fly to keep itself in order. Anything more than a third of total length may prohibit action so be mindful of this and also not restricting the gape of the hook.

I’ve been a huge fan of Loon Soft Head for this purpose for a long time, recently I’ve tried Plastidip also and found this to be just as good. Although it takes a while to prep and better suits finer material. A light head of Senyos Lazer Dub will be enough to cover the other synthetics nicely and bind the adhesive better.

The water pushing head and initial air trapped inside the front cone will get the attention of any super predators nearby. Nothing says eat me like the noise of a bubble trail.

There’s other tricks out there also such as building mono tail guards and using shorter tails so it is really a case of finding what suits your fly. Another quirky trick I picked up while twiddling a fly cruising the flats is the dreadlock theory. As most of the flies I tie and use are synthetic they can be twisted at the tip to lock the fibers up a little and stop wayward hook wraps

Dreadlock the tips, great time killer while on the water

With all these things now going in your favor it leaves more time for fishing and less time untangling or even worse throwing twisted, matted flies away.
The countdown is on for the new season now, although there’s still a few to be caught between low pressure systems. With 16c water and lots of bait it comes as no surprise there’s still a few stragglers about.

Piper, Garfish, Hyporhamphus ihi, Halfbeaks or Ihe

Call it what you want it’s also known as kingfish candy to a lot of sea fisherman. At this time of year we have big numbers of piper seeking refuge around the eel grass (Zostera muelleri) in the shallow sand flats of most New Zealand harbors.

Our cunning Yellowtail Kingfish are well aware of this and that is why my go to fly normally resembles a piper of some sort. Subtle colour variations are rarely needed but it does pay to carry a few options, not only in colour but also size. With an average size of 200mm but micro or larger sizes always present it pays to mix things up.

Kingfish tagging program

Midway through last season a group of us joined forces with the objective of tagging kingfish caught on fly, in particular the ones found in the skinny water here in New Zealand.

What started as a curiosity about these creatures habits and desire to protect them and their habitat has now gained the attention of Bluewater Marine Research, New Zealand Sportfishing Council and Legasea. Having the backing and support of these guys gives us a solid platform to work from and collate data as it comes to hand.

A recapture rate of around 7% gives us insight into the Kingfish movements and growth, already we have had 2 reports back. The most recent having travelled 190km in 160 days with a growth of 4cm over this time.

We encourage you to get out there and catch these fish but bear in mind they are a valuable resource for data collection. Please measure nose to fork of tail and release with care. Also record the tag number and send all info to the site provided on each tag – a close up pic of the tag is a good way of getting that info quickly for later transferal. And if you don’t have a tape just lay your rod beside it take a mark and measure later.
Some points on fish handling:

Use barbless hooks – it’s far easier to release them and less harm

Net the fish preferably or cradle in the shallows

Keep time out of water to minimum

Lay on a wet towel on boat decks, use an edge to cover eyes if needed

Keep fight times as quick as possible