April FOTM - Brush fly

[Tony Ong]

Made popular by guys targeting Giant Trevally.
If you’re serious about chasing BIG GT’s, you need to get serious about the gear. 11 or 12 weight outfit as a minimum. My preference is Gamakatsu SL12S hooks. 6/0 is the smallest size that I would use. If you are going to be fishing heavy leaders in rough terrain, 8/0 or even 10/0 hooks would be the go. Colours are entirely up to you

What you need.
Hook.
6/0 Gamakatsu SL12S.
30 lb hard mono or fluorocarbon leader material. This acts as support for the tail.
Tail.
EP Gamechange Fiber.
EP Sparkle Flash.
Hedron Lateral Scale
Head / Brush.
Blood Quill Marabou.
EP 2.5 Inch Anadromus Brush
EP 3 Inch Foxy Brush
Eye.
Fish Skull Fish Mask #7
Oval Pupil Eye 5/16

Some additional suggestions.
Slinky fibre, Steve Farrar Flash and slinky blend, and various other synthethic materials can be used as an alternative to EP Gamechange Fiber.
Tail can also be made out of feathers.
Benefit of this is feathers are less prone to foul.
Disadvantage of using feathers is that the fly needs to be wet down before the shot. Otherwise, there is a chance that the fly wants to float. Feathers also tend to hold water, making it heavier to cast. When we go up to larger sizes, this can make a big difference.
Flies can be tied on smaller hooks. If tying 4/0 and smaller, I will skip the Marabou. 6/0 and larger, I like adding the marabou, as to me, it fills in better for a nicer baitfish profile.
Other brushes can be used. Take note of how long the brush fibres are. The whole idea of brush flies is to minimise trimming of the final product. At each step of the tie, think about the profile of the finished product.

[Tony Ong]

A club member asked for some help with tying brush flies. Please see below.

Step 1. Start with a 6/0 Sl12S. Whip in a length of hard mono as shown. This will help the tail from fouling. I use a drop of head cement at each step of the tie so the fly will last longer. The idea is a light coat of head cement on the tread to seal it to the hook shank.

Step 2. Tail of fly is tied in stages. I take a length of EP Gamechange fiber. Length of tail is roughly 1/3 the total length of material. Cut gamechange fiber at tie in point, taper and tie into rest of tail. Top this with a little EP sparkle flash. This step can be left out if you don’t want too much flash in your fly.

Step 3. Second stage of tying in the tail. This time, ¼ length of material is used. This gives a nice taper to the tail. Again, top this with some EP Sparkle flash. You will also need to add some EP gamechange to the bottom of the hook.

[Tony Ong]

Step 4. Finish with 1 strand of Lateral Scale. Note taper/shape of tail.

Step 5. Onto the brush section of the fly. Palmer (wrap) marabou. Keep this as far back on the hook shank as possible. This will give you more room to work on the head section. Go gently here, as it’s quite easy to break the marabou stem. I like to tie the marabou feather in by the tip. I feel it gives a better finished shape.

Be sure to keep brushing out fibres, so they aren’t trapped under each wrap. Two marabou feathers used here, but it all depends on what quality of marabou you have on hand.

[Tony Ong]

Step 6. Anadromus Brush. Note fibres brushed to underside where tied in. 6 wraps of this. Keep wraps tight to each other.

Step 7. Using a bodkin, pick out the fibres that have been trapped underneath when wrapping the brush forward.

Step 8. Repeat wrap with Foxy Brush. 6-8 turns is all that is needed. Do not get tempted to use more turns of the brush. If too much brush is used, the fly will want to tend to float. Ie, it won’t get down to the fish’s level. Again, brush fibres so they are all on one side of wire. I start off with two tight turns. If there is a large gap to fill to the end of the shank, the next couple of wraps are loose. I finish off with tight wraps right at the eye of the hook. This will give the fly a ‘fuller’ look.

[Tony Ong]

Step 9. Eyes. I like adding eyes, as to me it completes a fly. Fish Masks by Fish Skull are a nice way to finish off the fly. Super glue gel to fix fish mask to fly. Build a small dam of thread between the mask and hook eye, and seal with either head cement or uv glue. This will help keep the fish mask from slipping off.

[Stephen Bradbury]

Awesome brush fly Tony thanks, and you probably wrote that all up, took all the photo's and tied a dozen of them in less time than it took me to stuff up my next FOTM post !

[Martin Kuhn]

Many thanks Tony. Great tie with some good tips included.
Cheers