The Kinky Banger

I am not an innovative fly tyer by any means.  I steal ideas from great tying minds to fit what I am trying get a fly to look like.  I wrote a bit about this here.

The past couple years I have been trying to fix the one thing I dislike about the majority of poppers / sliders used for salmon in the Pacific Northwest.  These patterns work exceptionally well and myself and others have caught loads of salmon on this style of stinger hooked surface pattern.  The problem I have is that I just don't like the aesthetic of these phallically shaped flies.

I have been looking for a way to tie salmon popper patterns with a more realistic taper from head to  tail.  I was wasting time on the computer the other day and found a step-by-step guide for Jonny King's Kinky Muddler.  The way the body was constructed I knew that I had found an idea to fix a problem only I have.

I used a Dremel to create some space on the backside of the foam cylinder to allow a smooth transition from popper head to the SF Blend body and I think this will be a success when it comes to Neah Bay coho this August.

I present the Kinky Banger.

The One

I've been busy tying clousers getting ready for a visit to Neah Bay in August.  I needed another white bucktail after picking the one on my bench clean.  I reached into the bin of hair and pulled out one of the finest bucktails I have had the pleasure to work with.  Crinkly, long, and amazingly soft.

I returned to the vise and started tying.  I grabbed the new bucktail with scissors in hand and hesitated.  I looked at this bucktail and wondered if it was too nice to use for clousers.  Should I save it for something more deserving?  Maybe something larger than #2 clousers?  It seemed like a waste not to take advantage of its full length.

When I couldn't actually come up with an actual pattern I would tie with it I squeezed the scissors and cut the first pencil sized clump of hair off.

I believe clousers are good enough.

Thanks for the Ideas

I believe that tying flies is an important part of fly fishing.  I do not tie as much as I know I should and usually spend too many nights before trips in a rush at the vise.

For some, the art of creating beautiful masterpieces is the primary goal.  The fact that these beautiful creations also catch fish only adds to the allure.  Some tie realistic insect or baitfish patterns while others tie ornate creations for Atlantic Salmon or Steelhead who's only constraint is the tier's imagination.  Others tie for more practical purposes, where function or speed of tying is important.

I fall into the latter category.  I am not a creative tier.  I look towards the creativity of others and use their lessons to tie flies that function how I want the fly to function.  Whether it is the illusion of bulk of intruders or the ease of tying of clouser minnows I am a tying mimic.

One pattern I used for fishing the surface while guiding offshore for coho salmon and bottomfish illustrates this perfectly.

First, I had to choose a color.  My favorite color of fly for saltwater is chartreuse and white, mainly from the success of fishing clousers with this color combination.  Flash is almost always an attractor for coho so almost all the flies I tie incorporate quite a bit of flash.

Second, I had to find the popper head I wanted.  This might seem easy with the amount of foam heads available, but few I knew were fishing poppers offshore.  There was the Miyawaki Popper that continues to be popular and successful for all saltwater species, but I wanted a popper that not only acted as a slider but could also make a huge commotion often needed for black rockfish.  The answer came from the opposite coast in Bob's Banger created by Bob Popovics for striped bass on the Atlantic coast.  The flat face combined with the hole dead center allowed the fly to track and slide perfectly with a steady two handed retrieve but could also make a ton of noise if stripped back in a traditional manner.

The topwater fly I fish most of the time for silvers at Neah Bay did not come to me while sitting at the vise.  It happened on the water.  A client had left a pattern on the boat after a day of fishing.  It was a clouser type fly but over the course of the day the eyes had come off his fly and it got left on the rear console on my boat.  He tied it with a trailing hook and used unraveled mylar tubing as the flash.  I had been fishing the original Bob's Bangers throughout the season and had a box of the foam heads on the boat.  I was out fishing a day or two later and there were some fish working near the surface and I saw the old fly and the Banger heads and I had that little "ah-hah" moment and pushed the foam head onto the old fly and started fishing it.  It worked and I started tying them for myself.  The only change in the original pattern was cutting the point off the front hook.

It turned out to be a Bob's Banger with a bit more flash and a trailing hook.  It is a truly all-purpose fly that works great for silvers and rockfish.

To the innovators, I thank you for creating the flies and techniques that we can then tinker with for our own particular fisheries.

Here's the fly

Here it is in action

Mushmouth

I have always been a fan of east coast striper flies.  There are so many possibilities for not only specific patterns but of techniques (such as Bob Popovics') for west coast salmon.  I recently was spending a bit of time watching tying videos online and came across the Mushmouth by Dave Skok.  It looks to be perfect for imitating herring and I liked the use of Softex within the pattern to minimize fouling.





I decided to make an attempt and while the first try was a little rough I was pleased with the second attempt.

Right now I have confidence that this fly will work well dredging for blackmouth in the upcoming months.  Of course I find that I always have confidence in the flies when they are fresh from the vise.  We'll see if that confidence lasts on the water.

Limitations

I no longer have the large saltwater boat that allowed me to enjoy the spoils of Neah Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The days of exceptional fly fishing that most people would not believe are mostly memories.

These days my saltwater fly fishing is limited. I am limited to wading saltwater beaches and fishing from a kayak. Being kept within the boundaries of where one can wade or paddle shrinks the amount of water one can fish in a day. I can no longer start up the engine and run ten miles to check out a spot. In the kayak I attempt to stay within a few miles of the launch and might even stay closer depending on the currents and weather.

While the memories of the past are always there, I think I really am enjoying these new found limitations.

Two days ago I launched the kayak from a local spot and paddled out to look for some pink salmon. I headed out into 150 feet of water and started looking around. I saw some fish rolling and occasionally a couple boils on the surface. I could also see numerous fish around thirty to fourty feet deep on the fish finder. I had on a heavy shooting head so I cast updrift and allowed the line to sink. I started stripping line back in and could feel light bites and taps, but no solid hookups. As the flies got closer to the surface I could see salmon following the fly. Finally after about thirty minutes and a couple fly changes I felt a strike and lifted the rod to solid weight. Of course, the pink salmon came loose after about ten seconds but I figured now I would start hooking more.

Well, I was wrong about hooking more. They continued to lightly peck and follow the fly but I could not get any more solid hookups. I left the water that evening itching to get to the vise and tie up some new patterns to increase the hookup rate.

Fast forward to this morning. I arrived at the launch armed with a box stuffed with new patterns to try out. The sun was just starting to rise over the distant Cascade Mountains barely visible through the summer haze. The water was as smooth as a backyard pool. My anticipation was sky high. I paddled out to where I started fishing two days before and started fishing. I saw occasional signs of salmon on the surface but nothing sustained enough to get close enough to cast to. The fish finder also marked fish at depths I could reach. The new flies were tied on and sent into the depths. While there were numerous signs of fish none of that translated to salmon at the end of my line. The only fish hooked was the smallest king salmon I have ever seen. Of course, I needed a fall guy for the lack of fish so I decided that it must be the bright sunshine. I’ll get to test that hypothesis over the next week as the forecast call for clouds to start moving in.

We all have limitations we impose on ourselves when fishing. Sometimes those limitations can make you feel like you don’t stand a chance. For me, the limitations have brought even more excitement into fishing. The fishing is more difficult and the successes are that much sweeter.