03.04.21 Nice evening with Ben Whalley....

      Wednesday night I sat in on a Zoom class offered by the South Shore Fly Casters. The featured tier was Ben Whalley from Maine. He's someone I have seen on Facebook in the last few months and have followed. What first caught my eye were his mackerel flies, seen below. I was thinking

this pattern might be something I could replicate for herring flies for the Delaware River. After I got through the introduction where Ben would be tying flies "That Popovics pioneered this man perfected" I sat with a drink and watched him tie. I had to leave before he tied a Beast, and learned this morning that Bob came in at the end of the presentation, would have liked to have seen that. What was interesting was his take on bucktails, in that not everyone has those super rare and long tails available to them, and one can still tie a Beast or a Hollow with lower quality and smaller tails. True is, unless you know how to pick through a super quality and large tail you're probably wasting it by cutting it down, or tying a poor version of the fly itself. 

     So here is one benefit to two things I dispise, technology and Covid. Up until last spring I never really heard of Zoom, it was only after Covid his and the world started to use it. With the shows cancelled this past year it is nice to be able to sit in the comfort and safety of your own home and still be connected to fly tyers and fisherman who would only get to see in person at the shows or local group meetings. 

     In recent years we have seen a change in where the bass show up. Those days of bass on the beach are less and less, and the days of 20-40 pound bass chasing bait onto the beach are far and few. We have seen the boat bite be red hot while in clear view the beach anglers watch and wait. The bunker have pulled those big fish off the beach, coupled with beach replenishment, so it is important to match the hatch. 

     When fish are keyed in on 8-14 inch bunker that have a wide profile, your 6 inch Deciever isn't going to cut it. Big flies, with big hooks, 6/0- 8/0 is whats required. Now those flies, while large, don't have to be "bulky" they just need to appear bulky. Tie too much material and its like trying to cast a mop head. So the idea, I think, is to have some bulk, as in "Bulk Head" in the front followed by long feathers out the back covered by sparser bucktail from back to front. Outside of Popovics, several tyers I know do a get job with these larger flies, Taylor, Stryker, and Warshauer. 

     If your going to fish from a boat, big bunker flies are the ticket, especially if Omega Protein leaves any around for the bass to take. When you're out near the three mile line in 50-60 feet of water and the bunker schools aren't showing a tiny fly swam 25 feet above where the bass are hanging isn't going to tempt one swim up and grab it. That is why the "Pop and Swap" technique works so well, a spinning rod with a barbless popper on it gets their attention, followed by the cast of a big fly, that'll get their attention to strike. 

     Well, winter looks its coming to a close. I said I would organize all my stuff and tie plenty of flies for the season. To this dat, no organizing and no production. This weekend I have to go through my stuff, I'm sure I have a broken rod that needs to go back to Orvis. 

Nicely done Ben!. He sells his flies but he states he has a long waiting list. You can look him up on Facebook or follow him HERE