FlyGator

So how did this blog get its name? Two weekends ago while fishing with FW, we were night fishing at a small pond near my home on Pawleys Island. FW, was tossing a large rubbery crawdad like thing across the pond where it splashed near the opposite bank. The idea being bass often cruise the banks, or lay up pointed toward the banks and expect food to come from that direction. Makes sense. Minnows, polliwogs small, bugs all use the bank for cover. Putting a bait with a splash near the bank than realing in so that the bait is drawn away from the bank and hopefully right into the strike zone of an alert and hungry bass.

Several casts did not get the attention of the bass we have seen there in the light of day. Then we saw a pretty substantial wake vectoring in on the splashing in the moonlight. A big fish maybe. A really big fish.

Nope, it was a gator. There was a neighborly gator often seen sunning itself on the banks of the pond. He has grown in the year I lived there. Seems to be about 5 feet including tail. I would guess about forty pounds. My daughter has names him tiny. We always keep a safe distance and see him mostly by car. He's not huge by gator standards, but quite a bit more than most anglers look to tangle with. He kept on after that lure for a couple casts. Chasing the splash.

Now I didn't think for a minute the size 4 streamer and 4 lb tippet I was casting with a 3 wt. Winston would be of any interest to the beast. Heck, I rarely make a presentation good enough to fool a fish. What are the chances of an animal whose ancestors were around millions of years before ours being fooled?

As it turns out the chances are pretty darn good. One cast to the side of gator caught his attention as I stripped it by and he snapped at it. I should have known better but I thought I must have seen wrong and shot another cast in the dark his way . Again he snapped at the streamer as it stripped by, then again., and he was on!

My drag was to tight and a couple head shakes nearly took my rod. Winston has a lifetime guarantee, but this might have been a problem. For those who have not had the experience, a gator on the end of a fly rod is quite a sensation the head shakes and pulling that you know you can't stop. I broke him off after only a few seconds. I didn't want to harm him more than the already might have, and I had no intention of landing him and trying de-hook him.

So thats how the blog got its name. For the record the gator is fine. After I broke him off he continued to hang close to us, thinking we were a source of food. In fact he got closer than ever. He could easily be reached by a rod tip. He made no motion to leave the water though, so we fished a bit more. He was to big to catch but still to small to eat us. The next morning Tiny was out sunbathing on the bank again. So he is fine.

The fly used to hook tiny was tied by me. It was a very simple deceiver inspired streamer that used white puglisi fibers instead of feather and had a back of olive puglisi sparkle fibers. It had red stick on prismatic eyes which I favor, even though they tend to fall off.

Very simple fly. If you don't tie and ever though of starting, this very simple pattern will catch fish - and maybe other things.

So we are finally getting to the meat of this blog and talking about the important stuff. Fly tying and fishing down here where so few do it, and it can be so much fun.