how do u catch blacktail in gullies

[Bullie]

Hi guys I'm trying to catch blacktail in gullies does anyody know of a fly that works well in the eastern cape any advice will be appreciated and what line to use.

[MCC]

Hi there

You can complicate things by fishing shrimp and crab patterns but small Bonefish patterns work more than well enough. Tan or light pink Charlies tied with Craft Fur and a couple of rubber legs is all you need.

Fish it on an intermediate line and a light tippet.

Enjoy

MC

[briansflyfishing]

Good advice there MC. Know of any definite rubber leg Charlies that has resulted on a few catches?

[MCC]

Try something like this:

Hook: #2 to #4 SL12
Body: Pearl Mylar Tubing wrapped.
Eyes: Small dumbells
Wing: Four strands of pearl Krystal Flash, sparse Tan/Sand coloured Craft Fur and a couple of clear or tan rubber legs.

Cheers
MC

[Bullie]

Thanks for the advice will be tryinig it soon

[Kevin James]

Mate, for what it's worth I used to catch quite a few blacktail on fly as a kid.

We never had the types of materials they have these days, but my go to fly was something with quite a bit of flash in it. I used yellow and white marabou for lots of movement and bead chain eyes, similar to the Whistlers fished on a fast sinking line in the white water washes.
The white water was the key as the fly used to wash around and I believe the flash played an important part in it to be seen. You could see the fish swimming in the surges darting in and around looking for scraps.

Used to catch stumpies, karranteen, blacktail, shad and even 'stinkies'.

The heavier line got down and the lighter fly with bead chain as opposed to lead eyes got a lot of movement. Also, with the heavier line it was easier to detect bites.

Just another perspective that may help.

[firephish]

if you can get close enough to moving water, a mustard caddis under a strike indicator is pretty deadly ...

[Conrad Botes]

I think success with blacktail depends a lot upon finding numbers of feeding fish. If you can see them you are bound to catch, and I have found that fly pattern is not so important. If they seem to have lock jaw, try smaller flies. But they will really take a large variety of patterns when feeding actively. Here is a pic of one that took a gurgler.

[damage]

Nice one Conrad
Flippers you gotta love them!!
/d

[dtayl13]

Not sure how on topic this is, but how easy is it to catch stumpies on fly. There always seem to be thousands around in estuaries, but never targetted them on fly. I'm assuming it will be similar to targetting blacktial.