Coming from a different angle.

[philpot 4,928]

I am a bit of player when it comes to fishing in the sense that I am a carp angler, lure angler, some general coarse angling, sea angler and casting instructor and I used to be a fly angler, well as the saying goes,  'what goes round, come around' and I have just bought myself a new fly rod and reel although as I gave away all my flies (big mistake) I will have to start again.  Nothing unusual here except I don't expect to be going for trout other than the odd occasion, I will in fact be using the new kit for coarse fish including carp and in the salty stuff, bass and mullet.  I used to kayak fly fish for pike which I loved but at 72, I am not going back to kayaks so pike for now will still be on the lure gear. 

I just wondered if any of you guys had or still do fly fish for any of the above as input on successful fly patterns is my quest and any proven ideas will be gratefully recieved.

Oh yes, my new gear is a Greys K4ST-X 9' 6'' 7#  which will mean nothing to anyone who is not a fly angler.

Phil

[green lurchers 16,369]

Hi mate I’ve chucked flies at most coarse fish inc carp pike zander it’s a good buzz. 

[leegreen 2,100]

90% of my income is fly fishing. If you are going for Carp then it will be floating flies. Dog biscuit flies tied from deer hair are good. Bread patterns, the odd crane fly pattern will work. The later will work for Chub too as will many Trout flies. The same flies will catch Perch, I have caught many Perch whilst fishing for Trout and Pike, Rudd, Roach. I have also known people to catch all sorts of coarse fish while fishing for Trout, including eels.

your 7# kit will be ok for smaller carp or it may work on big open waters where you can play your fish out. It will also be ok for Bass if your flies aren't too big and it'll be good for Mullet if you get good enough to catch them. If you catch any Mullet on the fly, let me know and I'll be a little wiser. Bass will take sand eel patterns fished fast, larger streamer fly patterns work well. More recently I have had results with artificial shrimp fished around the lit up boat jetties at night. only landed small stuff and got broken off by big stuff around the pier legs.

Good luck with the finest method of fishing.

 

[philpot 4,928]

Thanks guys, I agree with your thoughts on mullet, very tricky to say the least but an old friend of mine was an England junior team member, coach and bloody good angler was telling me yesterday that he has caught two mullet in his life although never really targetted and next year we will be going for them in 4 local venues where we know they can be found. 

I went out with the new outfit yesterday for the first time, not fishing just casting as it has been a good 10 years since I fly fished and I could not believe how rusty I was, timing was out.................messy, so my friend above came to the rescue and put me right but I confess, to get back to where I was is going to take a bit of time and I am not sure about the Greys line that came with the kit. I used to use Snowbee Xtreme Distance which I found superb on my old Greys G-Tec rod so after I get back into the swing of things, I will be looking for another line I think. I intention is to pop into the field over my garden wall and have 15mins a day casting practice but not a good week to start that as it is heavy rain all week..................bugger.

Phil

[Arry 18,610]

Phil I know jack shit about Fly fishing but would have fancied a go at one time. But I have had some good Mullet over times gone by over 6lb and some of my mates  have had them bigger. In the brackish waters several miles in land the main bait is bread flake and I have heard them come on maggot. In salt water a mile from the mouth of a river or an estuary ( Salcombe being brilliant for mullet) then top bait imo is a fillet of Sprat. Stitched in and out up the line then pushed down onto the hook to form sort of a ball. We would free line that just behind the weed line on a rising tide cracking sport with the occasional Bass as well.

I don't know if this is any help mate.

Cheers Arry

[NEWKID 26,209]

21 hours ago, Arry said:

Phil I know jack shit about Fly fishing but would have fancied a go at one time. But I have had some good Mullet over times gone by over 6lb and some of my mates  have had them bigger. In the brackish waters several miles in land the main bait is bread flake and I have heard them come on maggot. In salt water a mile from the mouth of a river or an estuary ( Salcombe being brilliant for mullet) then top bait imo is a fillet of Sprat. Stitched in and out up the line then pushed down onto the hook to form sort of a ball. We would free line that just behind the weed line on a rising tide cracking sport with the occasional Bass as well.

I don't know if this is any help mate.

Cheers Arry

Had a lot of mullet up the river (Exe) mainly on maggot, but ad you know Arry a meps spinner infront of a single hook carrying harbour rag is deadly for thin lips up the river, spun slowly back to you... 

I guess imitating this set up with a fly could work? Or using a maggot immatation and fishing around the weed edges?

I've only done a little fly fishing, but this year we've had loads of bass off the boat, all on lures and some very close and surface feeding... I'm very tempted to get a fly set up and practice for a bit of sport next summer, I'd guess a Sandeel or white bait type imatuon would work well? I always like seeing what there feeding on and try to match as close as possible, early season fish were full of whitebait, the fish we were catching in Otober were full of whiting, up to 8 inches long, would be a pretty lumpy fly I'd guess?

Good luck with it Phil..

[Arry 18,610]

16 minutes ago, NEWKID said:

Had a lot of mullet up the river (Exe) mainly on maggot, but ad you know Arry a meps spinner infront of a single hook carrying harbour rag is deadly for thin lips up the river, spun slowly back to you... 

I guess imitating this set up with a fly could work? Or using a maggot immatation and fishing around the weed edges?

I've only done a little fly fishing, but this year we've had loads of bass off the boat, all on lures and some very close and surface feeding... I'm very tempted to get a fly set up and practice for a bit of sport next summer, I'd guess a Sandeel or white bait type imatuon would work well? I always like seeing what there feeding on and try to match as close as possible, early season fish were full of whitebait, the fish we were catching in Otober were full of whiting, up to 8 inches long, would be a pretty lumpy fly I'd guess?

Good luck with it Phil..

Reckon Mackrell Fly fishing would be great fun from a Kayak Kev and only take a little adaption for Bass.

Cheers Arry

[NEWKID 26,209]

47 minutes ago, Arry said:

Reckon Mackrell Fly fishing would be great fun from a Kayak Kev and only take a little adaption for Bass.

Cheers Arry

I've not had the kayak out this year Arry, got a small boat in Exmouth Docks with my brother, so we've made use of that, getting lazy! Lol

I agree though, even off the shore when the mackerel are driving the whitebait up the beaches would be great fun on a fly rod, not like you need to cast far is it!

[philpot 4,928]

Thanks guys, the mullet will wait until next summer along with the Bass. I have caught loads of bass with both lure and bait from the kayak and again from the kayak I did a lot of pike fly fishing which I loved.

Phil

[philpot 4,928]

12 hours ago, NEWKID said:

I've not had the kayak out this year Arry, got a small boat in Exmouth Docks with my brother, so we've made use of that, getting lazy! Lol

I agree though, even off the shore when the mackerel are driving the whitebait up the beaches would be great fun on a fly rod, not like you need to cast far is it!

I used to keep my caravan at Woodbury so spent many many holidays at Exmouth fishing off the harbour front using fresh shrimp/prawn caught at the other end of Exmouth beach.  I also used to fish for some very large flounder at Lympstone along with an assortment of fish on what used to be the Carlsberg landing dock in Topsham including some nice strap conger but that was many years ago.  I believe they stopped the bass fishing from Exmouth beach, sad if true.  An area I have been to for over 20 years and I really should go again although I have neither my kayak nor rib so the fishing would be different I am sure.

Phil

[NEWKID 26,209]

You can still fish the full length of Exmouth beach Phil, its really popular for bassing with a live eel or lure, unfortunately there's aren't so many big flounder around in the Estuary, but we're now seeing more and more Giltheads from there... I was born and bred in Countess weir, about a mile up river from Topsham, spent my whole life along the river mate, its always been a pretty interesting place to fish, both for coarse fish and sea fish... glad you've enjoyed some good times on it as well...

[South hams hunter 8,837]

On 26/10/2023 at 10:13, philpot said:

I am a bit of player when it comes to fishing in the sense that I am a carp angler, lure angler, some general coarse angling, sea angler and casting instructor and I used to be a fly angler, well as the saying goes,  'what goes round, come around' and I have just bought myself a new fly rod and reel although as I gave away all my flies (big mistake) I will have to start again.  Nothing unusual here except I don't expect to be going for trout other than the odd occasion, I will in fact be using the new kit for coarse fish including carp and in the salty stuff, bass and mullet.  I used to kayak fly fish for pike which I loved but at 72, I am not going back to kayaks so pike for now will still be on the lure gear. 

I just wondered if any of you guys had or still do fly fish for any of the above as input on successful fly patterns is my quest and any proven ideas will be gratefully recieved.

Oh yes, my new gear is a Greys K4ST-X 9' 6'' 7#  which will mean nothing to anyone who is not a fly angler.

Phil

https://www.amazon.co.uk/MULLET-FLY-Colin-Macleod-MacLeod/dp/1904784968

There's plenty of info online and colin macleod has done several books on it. Mullet seem to be maggot, shrimp and flea patterns

[South hams hunter 8,837]

Bass flies seem to be bait fish type

[philpot 4,928]

Thank you very much for that, some really interesting stuff there. I like the shrimp fly for the mullet and it is one that my buddy is preparing for our foray into the mullet next year.

Phil

[leegreen 2,100]

On 04/11/2023 at 11:19, Arry said:

Reckon Mackrell Fly fishing would be great fun from a Kayak Kev and only take a little adaption for Bass.

Cheers Arry

Pound for pound when caught singly, Mackerel go like stink and they have loads of stamina too.