Berger

Ah ok. Those big eyes looked like they were mounted on dumbbells. I've used keel flies for bonefish, but tied with a rabbit fur strip.

A Clouser, or have you bent the shank a little?Nice fly and superb pic. You're obviously a perfectionist!

I was a member, and served on SAFFA's council for a while. I left the club because my interests took me overseas, and because the politics in the club were becoming.... unpleasant.

Anyone who remembers SAFFA from the 80's and 90's will certainly remember Paul Bourne. He left SA to be a full time fly guide in the Jindabyne region. He's still there, and doing well. Top guide and top bloke.Anyway here's a pic of him tying a Surf Candy. Blue was the gun colour on the east coast (Tura Heads). Paul into a good fish (silver in the water, doh). If he sees this he'll probably be a little sh-tty with me that I'm showing a pic of him catching salmon and not trout, but hey, where were the trout that April, Paul?Paul and an east coast salmon. Not as big as the ones we get here in SA, of course

Dazz, Those are great looking flies in your last post (now that I get a chance to see them on the home computer).

Never having fished a fly' date='but I reckon that "matching the hatch" is common amongst[b'] all[/b] forms of fishing these days......that's what gets results Granted,it started with fly fishing,but has spread to the "mentality" of hard-bodies,soft plastics,poppers etc

Thanks Jack. Regarding matching pilchards: I've tried tying surf candies that size but I found the fly ridiculously heavy to cast. So I resorted to a conventional Leftys Deceiver, 7" long, with only just enough epoxy to hold the jumbo eyes.These flies have the problem that their tails will wrap around the bend of the hook, which is a problem that the Candy solves nicely.To be honest, I'd be happy to stick with whitebait-sized Candies since the salmon love them, but I was chasing larger pelagics when I tied the flies in the pics.

Dazz, not questioning your integrity. Call me old fashioned but I like to see the original tyer and name duly credited. And in the interest of spreading knowledge, I posted the tying instructions.Do you believe in "matching the hatch"? It would be great to see our local baitfish matched in simple and effective patterns.

In flytying there is not too many true patterns left these days as all flytiers take a bit from here and there and try and come up with something different' date=' it's called progress.[/quote']Dazz, agree. I've been fly fishing for 24 years now, and in that time I've seen too many folks "invent" a fly along the lines of "well so-and-so's fly has 350 nylon fibres and mine has 351, so mine is a new invention" or some such b.s.I stopped reading fly life a while ago since I find the editorship to be just a tad partisan, if not also parochial. Anyway great to see you keeping a fine old sport alive.

Darren, that's a great fly, but why are you calling it a salmon lolly? Bob Popovic's Surf Candy has been around since the 1980's. http://midcurrent.com/flies/tying-the-surf-candy/