Those that knew me within the pike fly fraternity, will have read on many a page strewn within my other blog "Pike fly fishing articles", that I was very fond of.....Sorry!! .......Actually let me just phrase that differently, I f*****g loved fishing for pike with Wiggle tails & were first introduced to me in 2009 by an ex Italian client, now good friend Giorgio Consioni when he came out to fish the island I was guiding at. On first inspection, I honestly was left with lingering doubts how he'd fare in the harsh Baltic sea waters with literally a full box of assorted wiggle tailed flies for seven days, Let alone withstand a barrage of pike teeth . The first two days my doubts seemed to be confounded, with only a hand full of fish being caught with his flies, but as the proverbial goes (Weather conditions)....shit happened!!! and the next 5 days both Giorgio & his mate Michele turned me in to what the " Trout tweed-boys" would call the "Dark side of fly fishing"........A wiggle tail convert! What encouraged me even more though that over the next 2 years every Italian client...& there were over 20 that I guided, all had several different styled wiggle tail flies in their boxes, and all were successful.
Anyway while rummaging through some boxes of materials early last year I stumbled across a batch Paolo had sent me some years back, and decided to dress ten or so hooks with the remaining colour's I had left, and the rest is history really. Those ten flies have been so prolific for me on practically every Bass dam that I have fished on here in the Natal Midlands, that I invariably end up taking only 5 flies out on the water with me....and three of those will be some kind of wiggle tailed critter.
Many purists though within the sport, frown upon dressing such things onto their hooks, let alone fish with them. Personally if I can cast it with a fly rod, It's a fly in my eyes. A number of fly fisherman I've met over here that have seen me fishing with them, questioned their longevity, but I still have the same ten flies in my box that have caught over 180 or so Bass and still going strong!
One only has to check out the impressive array of fish Paolo has caught with them (Peacock Bass, Tarpon, Trout, Trevally to name but a few) to see how effective they really are in both fresh & salt water conditions.) I personally, have fooled Northern Pike, Perch, Shad (Elf), Saltwater Bream, SA Barbel, Malabar rock cod & Bar tailed sand gurnards with a WT fly. Although I've caught several Small & Large mouthed Bass with the more flashier Scale skin tales they seem to prefer the softer Alcantara tails in White, Yellow, Black & Olive ( A white tail coloured in with an olive permanent marker pen)
Colours to look out for and that have been productive for the TFG team with Bass in SA are Black, Yellow, Tan, Blue, Gold & Holographic.
One of the most effective flies I fish with when bass have moved in to deeper water is this easy to tie wiggle tail bass jig.
Step 1
Take a Medium White Alacantra wiggle tail and colour over with an olive permanent marker. Then tie on to the back of the hook
First take a length of Dyed Olive/Brown UV Polar chenille and tie onto the back. Then take a length of Medium Rootbeer ice chenille and tie in front of the polar chenille. Then run your thread down to the hook eye.
Step 3
Wrap the rootbeer chenille around shank up to the hook eye. whip finish and cut tag end.
Step 4
Then wrap Polar chenille around shank up to hook eye. Whip finish and cut tag end
Step 5
Invert hook and slide a small Sculpin fish skull until it butts up against the chenille. Trip the UV Polar chenille to the length of around 10mm.
Materials
Small sculpin headstreamer hook size 3
Ice chenille (Medium) - Rootbeer
Dyed UV Polar chenille - Olive Brown
Wiggle tail - size (M)
Olive permanent marker pen
We are now stocking wiggle tails at the www.truefishinggear.com and are now available in South Africa.
