Circle of life

[Gerrit Viljoen]

I've created another simple pattern for Largemouth Yellowfish and it's called "Circle of life" Tied with Hare's Zonker only! It's tied on a circle hook and imitates/suggests a few things and hence the name of the fly.

You can fish it dead drift as it's pre-decesser but you can also now incorporate a few twitches in your drift if you don't get any bites. It has the profile / sillhouette of a freshwater Shrimp but also that of a Mosquito fish and other small baitfish. It looks very natural as you can see from the pics below, almost identical to that of a peeler Crab without the shell. It can also be argued that this fly suggests the larval stage of Damsels & Dragons!

My point is it suggests food and when fished correctly it's going to produce some beast fish I guarantee it watch this space!

Note: A circle hook is a better option for this type of fly and where it is going to be fished. A lot of times fish would run you around a log or tree in the water and just be stuck. By fishing a barbless J-hook you always have the risk of a fish pulling the hook by just moving it's head once you're stuck. Now at least you have better odds. I've lost fish already but nowhere near as many as before. Not on this fly but with another....

Hook: Gamakatsu Octopus #1.
Thread: Nanosilk 12/0 white.
Eyes: Silver bead chain. (Not to heavy)
Hot sport at bend: 70 Denier Hot Orange.
Tail: Natural Hare’s fur
Body / Legs / Peelers: Natural Hare’s fur.
Weedguard: 57lb Mono.
Hot thread head: 70 Denier Hot Orange.

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[gkieser]

They are lovely as always Gerrit!

Just wondering about the weedguard - wont it offset the effectiveness of the circle hook since one should not be striking with circle hooks? I am not experienced with weedguards so excuse the stupid question if it is so - maybe designed to move out the way easily?

[Gerrit Viljoen]

Thanx Grant not a stupid question but difficult to answer cause it's not a single answer type question! hehe

Because of the short shank of this hook and big mouth of the LM I almost always get a lekker hookup in the scissors. 9/10. The way I fish these type of flies = plop into current - drift - drift - drift - wham you hardly have/need to strike they are extremely fast in intercepting the fly and usually it's very aggressive and hence the good ratio of hookups but there has been times that I get a take... on / off and here is where I believe the weed guard comes into play. Maybe not 100% but enough to have you miss the fish! So ja I think you will miss the odd fish but the benefit of not getting stuck in a tree (overhanging branches on an edge or bank above structure is where you're suppose to fish this fly) out weighs the few missed ones. And in any case if you miss a fish the odds are good to get a second bite at the cherry they will come at your fly again.

Don't get me wrong nothing bad about Gama B10s hooks love them still tie flies on them like longer streamers but the need for circles arose when I got tangled around a log the one day with a fish on and as I came closer the fish was just gone...and that was because of a barbless hook. It happened a few times since varying from bend open hooks from the pressure of pulling to just coming off for whatever reason. It happens a lot with Smallies too (nymphs) they run you around a rock and when you approach there is nothing.

It's just with the circles I have better odds of fish not throwing hooks when tangled....and I've already succeeded in landing what would previously have been a lost fish too I'm sure about it! So in conclusion I say with these type of flies and the technique I use to fish them the circles are better!

Going to try land a bad beast tomorrow on one of these circle jobbies!!!