I have fished for sharks twice down off the Texas coast. It is real cool. I hooked two and landed none LOL. They put out a chum slick and blood and then we just threw in the fly that was tied to look like a clot of blood and they would come up and take it. Not much fun in the casting department but when you hook up it is a hoot.
Real nice flies you tied there but one bite and they will be history. Ron
Thanks for checking them out fellows. Yes I imagine that fly could work for a few species. Maybe even Dorado in the popper version.
I’d like to go Pike fishing someday. I see a group goes to gangler’s Lodge every yrear and getrs some huge Pike on the fly. Lefty goes up there.
Ron-Yes sharks are a blast. I went one time so far and between two anglers we landed 5. The two Makos I brought to the boat were around 70#s and fought wildly on a 14 wt rod. I don’t think I would want to hook-up with a Mako larger than around 150#s. My shark guide chums them up, teases them into a frenzy by casting cut bait to them and then removes the bait from the water. Now the angler casts to the fish once they are 30 feet away from the boat. That is minimum safe distance; because Makos jump a lot and you don’t want a fresh Mako in your boat. So we at least get to place a cast to the shark at a moderate distance on a heavy rod. It gets exciting…
GRAND looking bugs, FM.
What you have, we used quite similar in white/chart, very successfully for pike and lakers at Wignes Lake Lodge, NWT.
I am going to take the tube one step further this year and do both the head AND the main deceiver on tubes. I think it is the pliers that do the most damage and tubes should help, though building your bugs with much cement between steps seems VERY beneficial.
neseereeram,
Have you concidered gurgler heads on a tube to add to your peacock bugs?
…lee s.
I’ve found Makos are not very picky to fly details, but can key in on a particular size. We’ve had no trouble hooking them, but have had a very hard time keeping them on with IGFA 20# tippets and leaders, since they tend to both roll in the leader and jump. What do you do to try to keep the leader from abrading when a mako’s on? Do you try to get on top of it or let it have some line?
[This message has been edited by josko (edited 10 March 2005).]
I fish with Capt. Conway Bowman. He uses single strand steel leaders with a small section of 20# in-line with the steel and heavier mono butt sections. Since we are drifting chum, he doens’t move the boat; rather we just use what skills we have to fight the Makos. Again-these are not the big ones-and he selectively casts to fish so that he can pick our fights. He won’t cast to Blue sharks. Conway has had clients on 10 foot, 300 LB Makos for nearly an hour, so his leader system works. I let him rig my rod since I am not well versed on haywire twists and wire terminations.
josko-I don’t know for sure. I may be, because the section of 20# mono is a certain length. I don’t fish records-only for fun. You could search-up “Conway Bowman” on the web and e mail him. He has a site…
If you are interested in a “biggie-sized” shark fly, have you looked at the Raptor, a Fly-of-the-Week (FOTW) here on FAOL?
Also, your fly pattern would make a nice FOTW if you would like to share your tying steps with the community. What did you officially name your fly again?
The Mako fly I have shown is simply a large Lefty’s Deceiver. I used Yak Hair in place of the traditional bucktail. I used all barred hackle instead of the using only the barred hackle on the outside feathers like Lefty does. I up-sized the Krystal Flash to SaltWater Krystal Flash. Graphite colored SparkleFlash was substituted for the peacock herl usually put on the Back/Wing. I added 3-D epoxy dome eyes instead of painting them on as is the tradition with Deceivers. I used Loon UV Knot Sense to cover the red tinsil-wrapped head. Epoxy could be used instead, or just head cement for that matter.
So the fly is an Orange 8/0 Lefty’s Deceiver.
The popper head-well those are easy to come by and I cut mine from a gardener’s kneeling pad with a home made tubular plug cutter. Popper head construction is more like lure making than fly tying. You can see the details of the popper head in the tactics section of Fliflicker.com (non-commercial hobby site) in the Mako Madness article from a few years ago.
The new issue of Fly Tyer magazine has a “How to” on the correct way to tie Lefty’s Deceivers by Lefty. I attempted to follow those prescribed proportions in tying these Mako flies.
Ron
