Fly fishing enthusiast Chris Holland gives us a meditation on tying a simple but effective saltwater fly pattern.

 Transcript: 

hey folks chris here from the saltwater edge we have another classic fly tying video we'd like to share with you this time on the white water witch this is a great fly for fishing aggressive surf hence the name the white water witch the white water witch was developed for fishing along our ocean drive this is oceanfront being fish from the rocks the reason for the nylon was that it would help this fly to sink they would try to cast very distinct silhouettes and were fished in a manner which carried them along with the currents this fly would be cast parallel to the shore into a receding wave the wave in fact would carry the fly out in a natural manner which would depict a small bait fish that has just been cracked against the rocks and is kind of a little bit disabled and is being washed by the current bass seem to station themselves off these rocks and we'll pick up a fly like this uh thinking it's a bait fish and uh it's it's a very effective way to fish this type of water okay we're tying a white water witch

i'm bringing this down to a point right above the point of the hook

the first step in tying this fly is to throw on a tail and in this case i'm going to use black fish here and in the amount of about the size of a wooden match

this is tied on just behind the eye of the hook

and wrap down to a point just in front of the barb of the hook the length of this fly is about five inches and i'm going to trim this material at another point on my vice which will be above the post and it's trimmed at an angle

which creates a staggered end on all the fibers i'm going to bring my thread forward at this point to apply the body uh the body is a silver material this in fact is a braided mylar

i try to embed this body material into a good coat of lacquer which i've applied to the body

this just makes for a more durable fly this is a flat reinforced

mylar which in fact i mark it as bill's body braid and we're just going to wrap this forward to a point about a quarter of an inch behind the eye of the hook

and tie it off

i have a hook

there's a throat on this fly which is either red nylon or red bucktail will use bucktail in this case

and it's a substantial amount of bucktail extending just about to the point of the hook

okay

the wing of this fly could be either the nylon or bucktail i'd prefer to use bucktail in that it's a little more buoyant than the nylon and it's going to help to hold that fly in a traditional position with a point down

the wing is usually tied to just beyond the bend of the hook

drop of lacquer and whip finish and your white water which is complete

thanks for tuning in with us today we hope you enjoyed our video for all your fly tying and fly fishing needs for the white water witch be sure to check us out in store or check us out on the web at saltwateredge.com if you fish a white water witch be sure to comment below please like and subscribe to our page as well thank you