With a renewed interest in using my Outback as a fly fishing platform, my thoughts have turned to a need to fill a void in my fly tying line up, specifically some saltwater patterns which I had no use for until now. 

I will disclose the fact that species such as rockfish, greenling, halibut, and flounder are typically not very choosy in their menu selection. For fly tiers at my level you might say that is a blessing in disguise. In the saltwater world those that hesitate go hungry. So attention to the finer details of a pattern, i.e. matching the hatch, are not critical compared to freshwater fishing. When you watch footage of halibut and rockfish repeatedly striking sinkers, shiny spreaders, and even GoPro cameras you get the idea.

It was time to hit Youtube and research tying appropriate patterns which would be fitting for the Alaskan environment. After dozens of videos I still felt I was on my own since no one ties weighted flies () so research switched to UW footage of sand eels (Sand Lance/needlefish), herring, and hooligan (smelt) to see what I really need to imitate - not only in shape and color but action too.

The one take-away I got from the fly tying videos was the discovery of how valuable Ultra Violet Resin (UV resin) can be in the construction of large, heavy patterns for deeper water ocean fish. Perhaps I am the last one to become enlightened about this terrific fly tying material. But its now integrated into my war chest for building more durable patterns.

My fishing conditions will vary from enticing a flounder at 10 feet with a shrimp pattern to getting the attention of suspended pelagic rockfish hanging out beginning at 30 feet below sea level down to well, uh, far deeper than I'll be able to reach....without chumming them into "range".

I'm using a menagerie of components to create the weight I need. Lead dumbbell eyes, brass coneheads, lead wire and lead strips as well as meaty hooks should do the trick. The UV resin has made it a piece of cake to secure all these items together into something a fish would be interested in. The bonus is the hardened resin adds its own weight to the mix.

Mind you the flies in the photo are my first attempts but as I progressed through my learning curve I realized another trip to the fly shop area of Sportsmans was necessary to fill in the blanks on my materials list for more realism. I also put in an order for another bottle of SolarEZ thin, hard resin on AMZ as I expect to be using a lot of this in the future. 

What weight rod and reel combinations are you using for your saltwater fishing? 

Those look good.  Definitely should catch some fish.  I have been surprised how many rockfish are feeding not very far below the surface.  I think the majority of rockfish I have caught on the fly were no more than 5-15 ft below the surface.  I use a full sink line and flies weighted similar to yours.  They are so much fun to catch on a fly rod.

One of the charters out of Seward back in the late 80's use to offer an after-work special at 5pm for flyfishing rockfish. They would position over a pinnacle and chum the black rockies up to the surface for the fly boys. That was my incentive to start thinking about taking the fly rod along when fishing Resurrection Bay. (Well...and this year's prize list in AOTY Fly category had something to do with it too.  ) Looking forward to it.

I don't expect to see a non-pelagic on my line as the yelloweye, china, copper, and quillbacks are very deep and just won't leave their home base more than a few feet to hit a jig or bait. But you never know.

What weight rod and reel combinations are you using for your saltwater fishing? 

I'll be using my salmon rig for now. 9 foot Lamiglas 10wt with an Okuma SLV 8/9 reel. This rod/reel combination has literally caught a ton of sockeye on the Kenai River over the years. In spite of the Okuma being a consumer level brand, I found out the drag system on this reel is the finest I've ever used on salmon. It uses a combination of one way roller bearing along with cork and stainless drag discs for extreme fine tuning that is butter smooth. The large arbor will take up 12" per rev so its great for "catching up" with a salmon that decided to U turn and charge straight at you.

Since this summer will be my trial by fire for saltwater fly fishing there may be equipment changes for next year...or maybe I'll get lucky out of the gate.  I need to work up some additional Surf Candy patterns in the hopes of perhaps sneaking up on a bait ball the silvers and pinks are working.  I've used a Point Wilson Dart (needlefish jig) cast around bait balls in the past and picked up silvers and pinks in Res Bay. So the Surf Candy pattern should match the hatch and won't need much weight if any. Not much room in the pattern to hide weight.

A ling is possible but with our minimum size limit of 35 inches around here it would be a long shot to hook and land a legal one on the fly.

I like my Okuma SLV 4/5 reel which is nice on my 4 wt. rod.  I asked rod/reel weight as I have a 9/10 Pflueger Trion reel with a 9 wt. St. Croix rod and I was curious if the combo would have enough backbone and line capacity in the salt.

For more weight try using Tungsten raw weights by Pro Sportfisher. The are used on tube fly patterns and should slide over some hooks. Then there are Tungsten dumbbell eyes too. On your coneheads if you don't already do it you can fill it up with UV resin to gain some weight and you can always add extra dumbbell eyes the fish don't seem to mind one bit.

LOL!  I noticed some expert tiers had put dumbbell eyes on both ends of their shrimp patterns for added weight. As you say the fish won't seem to mind. When the dinner bell rings, if they snooze they lose. I've seen two-headed trout in fish hatcheries....why not 4-eyed shrimp?

Thanks for the tip on tungsten weights. I'll look into them.  The "fill the conehead with resin" was one of the first revelations I encountered as soon as the pattern was assembled. The shiny interior of the cone allowed for great reflection of the UV light to insure all the resin was activated. When I took it from the vise I realized the second revelation...this stuff is heavy! Thus the large 2 oz bottle on order!

I like my Okuma SLV 4/5 reel which is nice on my 4 wt. rod.  I asked rod/reel weight as I have a 9/10 Pflueger Trion reel with a 9 wt. St. Croix rod and I was curious if the combo would have enough backbone and line capacity in the salt.

I've taken 20 lb. kings on the rod in Ninilchik River with no problem and 10-12 lb reds in the Kenai's fast flowing waters and am impressed with the backbone on the rod for handling the fish.

My steelhead rod is a 9' Orvis Clearwater II 8wt and I've handled the occasional 10 lb fall coho on it and didn't notice much difference compared to my 10wt. So I think anything from 8-12wt is ocean-ready.

Now when it comes to line capacity, I will have to head over to the school soccer field and stretch out what I have on the spool. It was set up to handle river fishing and not an ocean with 300 feet of depth below the boat. I might have to add more backing since halibut are frequent mid-water feeders and one of them would head straight to the bottom and could spool me. Wouldn't that be a thrilling moment.

(P.S. I "fished out" a St. Croix Imperial 9 ft 9wt from the river in my backyard a few years ago after the level dropped to winter minimums. It appeared the angler had a sockeye on that took their entire kit and kaboodle and eventuially wrapped the line around a rock. My good fortune. Haven't decided on a reel for it yet as the original was destroyed from beating on the rocks as it drifted and was pulled downstream.)

Didn't "steal" was gifted" and it's an 8'6" 10wt

And if I'd ever had a chance to see it before it was stolen, I'd have remembered that.  Sheesh.