Bob Riggins
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Reading you post, I’m not sure if you are talking about surface flies floating hook up or hook up flies in general.
You need at least 10 feet if you are standing in the kayak. That would allow you to pole around in 4 to 5 feet of water, depending on how tall you are. Freedom Hawk makes a 12 foot aluminum kayak push pole for $99. The carpon fiber model runs about $180.
http://www.basspro.com/Freedom-Hawk-Kayaks-Push-Pole/product/11091707293219/257134
Shipping can get expensive, but if you have a Freedom Hawk Kayak dealer around you, you may be able to get one from them.
You could also get a fiberglass or aluminum swimming pool pole, which would be a lot cheaper.
To the extent possible, I would appreciate it if you could pay as we go if you have not already. I frankly thought we’d have about 25 takers here; with four times that I am looking at laying out over $1200 just to get the hats printed. If I were smart I would have set this up to make a profit so I could cover my butt, but since I didn’t, well, I appreciate you guys paying when you can.
Zach
Come on Zach, just rack up a few more billable hours and you’re set.
I use tube flies for sharks since I can use a wire bite tippet that is snelled directly to the hook. I’m fishing primarily for bull sharks, black tips, sand bar and bonnet heads. I find that bright colors work best so I use a lot of reds and oranges with plenty of flash.
Black tips will take a fly if they are feeding, but most other sharks would require some chumming to get them close and in a feeding mode. Shark have a lot of sensory receptors so they can detect movement, electical impulses, smells, taste, plus sight. That is why chumming helps. There is so much “food” taste and smell in the water, they can’t tell it’s not coming from the fly. The trick is to get the fly in their sight range, but entice them to strike before they realise the fly is not alive. I try to get the fly up close to their eye and do a quick strip away from them to get them to react.
Nice report Zach. Your mention of Cumberland Island brought back memories of staying at the Grayfield Inn. I think it is the only commercial establishment on the island. It is an old wood frame inn. I would call it a bed and breakfast, but since there are no restaurants on the island, it serves all three meals to the guests. We stayed on the island for 3 days and wandered (and bicycled) all over the island. At the time there were small herds of wild horses on the island, but I’m not sure if they are still there.
I think the flower may be thymeleaf bluet, better known as Houstonia serpyllifolia.
Yes, when hooked the fly tends to slide up and away from the sharks mouth, so they are not chewing on it during the fight. You are correct, it makes the dehooking process easier since you are dealing only the the hook, not the fly and the snell makes it easier to control the hook as opposed to a loop connection. Also, if you have to cut the shark off rather than dehook (I use relatively small fast desolving hooks) you can usually recover the fly.
Have you thought about tying it as a tube fly. It has some similarity to some shark flies I tie with the trailing hook. I like tube flies in this setup because I can snell the hook directly to the bite tippet rather than tying an internal knot to a hook shank. I think you get a more secure connection and better feel.
