Time for tying flies and getting gear ready for next season. I have been putting new line on fly reels, tying flies for bottom fish in the salt and rebuilding my new, old boat.
The new boat is a 1985 Almar 24 foot Jetline with a 460 Ford marine engine and Hamilton three stage jet. I had the motor and the carburetor rebuilt, I am replacing the old wooden floor boards with aluminum tread plate and refitting the motor with a new water pump, alternator, electronic distributor, and starter. But the best part is the new fish finder GPS combination, a Lowrance HDS-9 Gen2 Touch Insight.
The boat is in great condition for it's age, the hull has only a couple of very small dings in it. The stern is clean, without any of the regular boat projections that make fly casting difficult like knobs and rod holders. I will use this boat in lakes, rivers and small ocean.
The flies. I have had such a blast the last two years fly fishing for bottom fish. I have been working on new and improved patterns for rock fish, ling cod, halibut and greenling. These guys are eight to ten inches long.
Non-Pelagic Prawns, top row. Non-Pelagic because they are weighted to fish near the bottom and weedless.
Middle row, yellow eye rock fish and tiger rock fish imitations. Ling cod are veracious predators of rock fish, these flies are intended to target them. Bottom row, Klag Island Squids. Squid patterns have been extremely productive for all bottom fish and Pelagic rock fish, I am sure these will be killers.
Top row, sea lance imitations. Any time one of the bottom fish species hits the deck in the boat he spits up sea lances, I had to represent them in the fly box. Middle row, Chichagof Herring. Herring are picked on by everyone, to not have any in the fly box would have been a mistake.
Bottom right, China rock fish imitations, again for ling cod.
In the next couple of months I plan to show pictures of my progress on the boat and do some tutorials on these flies. Stay tuned, thanks for looking.
