Stock up on proven, go-to saltwater flies with the D.L. Goddard Saltwater Selection
by D.L. Goddard

Flies that are proven to work well and work often are not easy to come by. Fortunately, I’ve been tying flies for decades and have learned a lot from fishing new patterns, and having other anglers fishing them to figure out what works best.

I design my flies around two criteria: First, I find a material I like, and I create patterns around that material. Second, I choose a bait form and try to mimic that bait, but nothing that’s too exact. I find that a great fly simulates bait but doesn’t look just like it. Replicas’ don’t usually have the right look, movement, or action, and are time consuming. My flies have to catch fish, period.

The Green Hornet is one of my very best streamer patterns. Its combination of gray over chartreuse colors closely mimics baitfish and gets a lot of strikes. It’s fabulous for stripers, false albacore, bluefin tuna, and redfish. The first time it was fished, it proved itself to be a winner. In fact, a fly shop in Nantucket had a customer from England who had such great luck on it he came in and bought all the stock of the Green Hornet to take back to England with him. It’s not a huge fly—just a few inches in length, but it really packs a punch.

The Bay Anchovy also proved a success right away. I had a request from anglers fishing in Bermuda for yellowfin tuna, some of which weigh as much as 90 lbs. The color blue is mostly ignored in most flies. I don’t know why, because it’s a great color that’s always worked for me, looks great in the water, and looks a heck of a lot like a baitfish. Put simply, it works. So, I used it in my Bay Anchovy pattern. The Bay Anchovy is a simple streamer pattern, but man it works! The folks in Bermuda came back with raves about it, and that sold me on it. Ever since then, it’s gone on to catch all kinds of saltwater fish, including redfish.

With the Silverado, I tie the bucktail so it’s up on top of the hook shank, which is wrapped with heavy 6-ply fluorescent. The Marabou beard looks like gills or blood and acts as a strike trigger. I try to use the biggest eyes I can find—the eyes are also a strong strike trigger. The Silverado works particularly well on redfish and snook because it’s mostly white—it looks a lot like a minnow.

The Pulsator, a tarpon fly, is one of my newer patterns. It’s got a lot of motion tied right into it both with the design and the materials I use. The big marabou blood plume combined with the crosscut rabbit, keeps this fly “moving”—it never stops. The tan and the chartreuse are particularly good colors for tarpon, but I’ve also had great luck with the black and purple, too.

There are some “tricks’’ to getting the most out of this fly, or any tarpon fly. When fishing for tarpon, a lot of anglers don’t let the fly get down to the fish. Fishermen get excited when they see this big saltwater fish (who doesn’t!?) but it’s really important that you let the fly get down to the depth of the tarpon. Also, keep in mind that tarpon kind of suck the fly in—they don’t bite it—so you need to wait to let the fish close its mouth and turn, so you can get a good hook set on it. The angle is important, too. Twitch the fly down to the tarpon. What you’re trying to do is keep that fly in front of the tarpon as long as possible, so it takes the fly out of either hunger or aggression. Twitching lets you keep the fly in front of it a lot longer, which usually results in a strike. If your target is moving fast, you’re going to have to match your speed to it more than you would with a fish that’s laid up.

I first tied the Red Bone Fluff in 1999. It’s a fantastic bonefish fly, and I’ve caught a lot of other fish on it too: tarpon, permit, speckled trout— everything I know has taken this fly at one time or another.

The Winged Snapping Shrimp is new pattern that I designed as primarily a bonefish flats fly, but it works really well for snapper and grouper, too. Made with crystal flash chenille, it’s a great southern fly, but I know it’s taken bonefish in the north, too.

I designed Stealth Fly as a bonefish fly. I’ve modified it since, and put silly legs on the back of it, but it’s still really the original, proven pattern. It’s a go-to fly for bonefish and permit. But it is also a versatile fly. If you fish for hickory shad in the northeast, or tripletail, this fly is one of the best I have ever used. I’ve sold 8,000-10,000 Stealth Flies through word of mouth alone, but now anyone can enjoy fishing with them.

The Mylar Minnow is another exceptional pattern that’s been proven over more than 15 years by anglers around the world. A famous fly, highlighted in numerous books and magazines, it’s a real killer for a lot of species. It’s made of one-piece mylar tubing, epoxy, and eyes. With the tubing stretched just right, it’s a very, very effective minnow. I tie it from a six to a one-aught or so.

How to get the best success with the selection? Twitch the fly. I seldom fish these flies with a straight retrieve. I’ll give the line a twitch now and then. I will, from time to time, stop and let the fly go to the bottom and give it a twitch. But watch out for slack. Keep in touch with your fly, with no slack. Keep your rod tip right in the water to avoid any slack. Then, when you give it a twitch, the fly throws up a little puff of mud. The fish thinks it’s a crab or a shrimp or something, and strikes hard. Avoid giving a really hard set—use a little hand strike, which helps the fly stay in sight of the fish if you miss. It helps if you vary the speed too. If a fast retrieve isn’t working, switch to a slow retrieve. Let the fly sink a bit and bring it back up again. Both speed and the rod twitch are important and will definitely increase your luck.

When choosing flies, factor in the color of the water, the depth of the water, the presence or absence of current. They’re all factors in figuring out what’s going to trigger that strike reflex.

Put these flies and some of these tips to use and your saltwater fly-fishing success is bound to pick up.

D. L. Goddard is a commercial fly tier, photographer, and author. He lives in Easton, Maryland.



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