1. Whip on the thread.

2. Wrap to the bend.

3. Catch some white bucktail beneath.

6. Tie off and, finally, add a hokkai head.

4. Add some strands of silver Krystal flash.

5. Tie in some chartreuse bucktail.

Whether or not you tie your own flies, when you come to put theory into practice one of the first things that you should do is to look for the type of habitat which is rich in the kind of food that bass prefer. To my mind this immediately suggests rocky marks, sand at the edges of rocks, sandbanks at the mouths of estuaries (where sandeels congregate in their thousands) and rocky gulleys, where a reasonable tidal flow sweeps bait along a predictable path to where the bass are waiting for them at the end! There are also beaches where bass chase food ashore, sheltered bays, slipways and a number of other locations. In some places - most places - you will have to give up some sleep and fish either late at night or early in the morning for the bass since these can be very cautious. (Leave the tilley at home and go with a small headlamp instead. A bright tilley will spook them and leave you in a fishless zone.) However sometimes they can be preoccupied chasing fry ashore and, at such times, tend to lose their usual suspicion, making them ripe for a saltwater rodder. Cast the fly to a likely spot, allow the fly to sink to the required depth and then retrieve it in a series of little twitches and runs. Then, when a bass takes, get the rod tip high and keep in contact with the fish for, if you give him slack, then there is a good chance that he will throw the hook.

After you have caught your first fish on the fly then I suspect that you will have a lot better idea as to why a growing number of anglers are finding it so addictive. Personally, as a lover of light tackle, I have been using it for more and more of my fishing trips. I thoroughly enjoy it and hope that you will too.

Sandeels are a natural prey and probably the best type of fly to experiment with.