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The ‘Thing’ TribePeter Morse delves deep into Things.

The exploration of any family tree can uncover all manner of secrets, some dark and some enlightening, but as part of understanding where we come from it’s always fascinating. Some flies are so successful they very quickly develop their own family trees with a multitude of branches, and some of these are unique enough to break off and form their own tree. The family of flies known in Australia these days variously as ‘Things’ has its own history that pre-dates Graham White’s celebrated introduction of the Pink Thing into the pantheon of Australian saltwater fly fishing history. It’s certainly a great fly, but its origins, derivatives and antecedents are equally as effective and interesting.

Some consider Dan Blanton’s Whistler flies to be the origin of the ‘Thing’ family and they are certainly part of its roots, but that distinction must also go to Lefty’s Deceiver and Ed Given’s Black ‘n Barred (which was in turn an early adaptation of a Whistler) - but is a Pink Thing just a Whistler – I think not. Here’s Dan Blanton’s brief description of the origins of the Whistler.

“I developed the Whistler in 1964. The Whistler was designed to take striped bass in San Francisco Bay. It was not created to imitate any particularly baitfish. Instead I ‘engineered’ the fly to mimic the look and action of a lead head bucktail jig – one of the most productive and versatile fish-catching lures ever devised by man. The local gear guys were kicking our asses with lead head jigs, all white and red and white versions. Our simplistic bucktail patterns of the era just didn’t work as well. Of course a bucktail jig and the Whistler emulate a huge variety of baitfish species, fresh and salt; mostly the deeper-bodied bait fishes.”

In 1970 Dan met Ed Given while fishing on San Francisco Bay. Ed rowed over to see what fly Dan and a mate were using – this in Dan’s words – “In the early 70’s I met Ed Given while fishing on SF Bay. A friend and I were slamming the stripers and Ed rowed over in his little pram, introduced himself and asked to see the fly I was using. It was a Whistler. Later he adapted most of the Whistler components into a fly he called a Night Crawler. It was similar to Russ Chatham’s Black Phantom fly. I later renamed Ed’s fly the Barred `n Black [you guys have it backwards]”.

Graham told me his earliest encounter with these patterns was through several US magazines in the early 70’s when he was living in Darwin. The first was a 1973 magazine published by the Saltwater Flyrodders of America called Double Haul and in there were stories by Dan Blanton on the Whistler and also a story by Lefty Kreh on bulking up Deceivers for fishing discoloured water for snook. A second magazine in 1974 was Sports Afield, which covered Whistlers and also Barred ‘n Blacks.

Graham immediately recognised the potential of both patterns for the NT waters, especially for barramundi. The Black ‘n Barred (Australian name version) very soon became a favourite of his. On Christmas Day in 1974, Cyclone Tracey hit Darwin and the city was obliterated (along with Graham’s magazine collection) and he was moved to Gove for a couple of years where the water was cleaner and there was no need for dark, bulky flies; white Deceivers were all that was required, so these new patterns were shelved for a time.

There was at least a decade between the Whistler gaining deserved and widespread recognition in the early 70’s and the emergence of the Pink Thing, which came about in the early 80’s after Graham had moved back to Darwin. He’s very clear that at the time his favourite dirty water barra fly was the Black ‘n Barred and his favourite clean water barra fly was the Deceiver, and that the shape of the Pink Thing evolved from an amalgamation of those two patterns,; however that’s not the full story. The original Pink Thing was tied up as a representation of an early model rubber tailed jig known as a vibrotail. Lou Murray was the initial catalyst for the development of the pattern and this came about after him fishing with this very effective jig during a friendly fly comp. In Graeme’s own words;

“On the business end was a pearlescent white jig with a long worm tail and a pink collar where the head and tail joined. Lou cast out, got a barra and repeated this immoral act twice more. Okay, so the fish were released, but this only slightly detracted from the foulness of the deed, which was compounded by Lou leaving early and not paying the fine on that day! (A reference to anyone who had resorted to using lures having to shout the group a case of beer – how Territorian is that!). Something had to be done!That night I retrieved an identical jig from the boot of my car and sat down at the vise. It had to be a good barra fly and my favourite, the Given’s Black ‘n Barred, was the best starting point. But I liked the way a Deceiver swims so that got added in as well. The first couple were a bit exotic until I realised that if it was successful it had to be repeatable and easy to tie from materials available to the average tropical river rat. At 2 am it was finished and I was itching for a rematch.”

This fly has gone on to be an iconic Australian fly pattern and is responsible for many barramundi captures as well as a multitude of other species. G r a e m e

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acknowledges that the Whistler is also a great favourite of his and he has a much-prized Dan Blanton original in his fly box that’s only pulled out when all else is failing. But as Graham wrote, his fly had its origins elsewhere. It was not a duplication of a Whistler with a few modifications. However, when Lefty Kreh saw the Pink Thing here in Australia, after some examination he declared it to be a member of the Whistler family and that’s where it resides in his saltwater fly book. Adding bead chain eyes and a collar of wrapped hackle doesn’t make a fly a Whistler, just a distant relative.

The first stage of the standard Pink Thing is a plain old white Deceiver tied on the back half of the hook and it could be very successfully fished just like that. But with the addition of barred feathers over the bucktail collar, the wound hackle, and the bead chain eyes it becomes a hybrid. Very early Whistlers I’ve seen had no feathers in the tail (except for one version which had a barred feather down either side), they had simple bucktail tails, a heavy chenille body with a dense hackle collar and bead chain eyes which whistled when you cast them. Dan tied them on short shank live-bait hooks and

added the chenille to increase the forward weight of the fly and to add to the head down sinking attitude and as a gill impression – it also created a dense head and contributed to bulk and profile.

The element of ‘push’ in the water is crucial in this fly (the Whistler) and was something Graham had read about earlier in a Dan Blanton article published in 1973. From those articles he’d read, and from experience, Graham recognised that ‘push’, an unmeasurable (to humans anyway) vibration or pulse that a bulky fly puts out underwater, is a key element for attracting strikes in the dark and dirty waters barramundi so often inhabit. But he did not add the chenille body that contributes so much to the ‘push’ shape to the Pink Thing because he had no chenille with him that night and it has remained out of his version ever since.

Although Whistlers were fundamentally a striped bass fly, Dan had also adapted them to catch tarpon in the discoloured river waters of Costa Rica (still the number one fly in those waters). In those jungle rivers the sparsely tied, clean water

OPPOSITE: The billabongs of the Northern Territory, especially during the run-off season when there’s flow coming into and going out of the systems and the water is dark but clear, are where smaller Pink Things really excel.

ABOVE: A weed guard is an essential addition to Pink Things that are going to be used anywhere near cover.

LEFT: Peter Fry holds a Wessel Islands GT that fell to a Pink Thing fished deep over a reef point.

BELOW: The author with a 115 cm Hervey Bay threadfin pulled from a Great Sandy Strait gutter mouth on a Black ’n Barred when the fish were feeding on jelly prawns.

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tarpon patterns of the Florida Keys failed because of their lack of ‘presence’ and impact on a fish’s lateral line when it mattered most – in dirty water. Dan’s tarpon Whistlers began to be tied with feathers in the tail but retained the standard Whistler head profile.

So, like kelpies and cattle dogs, the Pink Thing is really a mongrel that has with time, because of a great combination of desirable traits, (and a pretty solid ancestry as well) developed into its own true blue pedigree. Although it had its overall concept in several flies, and like the original Whistler was tied as the result of the effectiveness of a jig, I believe it can stand pretty much alone. I think attempts to simply call it a Whistler are wrong because of that Deceiver tail and the lack of a chenille collar.

Interestingly Dan also told me about the development of the ‘flashtail’ concept in his flies which he first began using in ‘71 as a consequence of being out-fished by Mark Sosin.

“In 1971 I started tying them with flashtails using 1/64 inch Mylar strips. I was inspired by a jig Mark Sosin was using to slay the snook with. He was out-fishing me horridly. I went back to camp, tied a Whistler with a flashtail exactly as I do today, and they next day I pounded the snook and Mark too! Today I use various colours of Flashabou in the original saltwater size. My favourite colour is a 50:50 blend of pearl and silver”.

Like the Whistler, the Pink Thing now has many variations, but the original is still an extremely elegant and deadly fly, a real masterpiece of effective design adaptation and amalgamation. The original can be adapted into a slimmer fly for cleaner water, or a much bulkier fly for the deep and dirty stuff. Eye weights can be varied from none to monstrous and of course there’s no reason why they should all be tied in pink and white – there are many possible variations – Graham thinks yellow with a blue collar, (like the deadly Nilsmaster spearhead), is perhaps an even better fly and I tend to agree. One of my biggest barra to date came on that colour combination.

A modern adaptation, probably brought about through the lack of decent long, webby hackles for the collar, and to reduce the cost of commercially tied flies, is to use cross-cut zonker as the wrapping material – again here’s what Dan has to say about rabbit on a Whistler – “The hackles were a mix of soft and stiff barbs which provided extra action and water pushing ability. ‘ [Rabbit does not push water, lying down flat when wet]”, and I agree with him completely when its applied to Pink Things.

A few years ago during a tournament at Corroboree Billabong I spent some time with NT fly tyer and fisher Chris Rainbird and he showed me his simple and clever marabou variation of the pattern; a fly I’ve gone on to have tremendous success with. He calls it a ‘Fluffy Thing’, giving credit to the original.

The Whistler and the Black ‘n Barred are relatively forgotten and unknown flies amongst many of today’s younger generation of Australian saltwater fly fishers, but NT guide Graeme Williams cites these as his number one threadfin salmon and barra flies. He also ties a Whistler/Clouser hybrid for flats fishing. My variation of the original Pink Thing patterns is a very conscious intent to increase that ‘push’ and the bulkiness of the profile, and for this I began using the heavy chenille body Dan ties into all his Whistlers, something not used in Graham’s original Pink Thing, (but then again he wasn’t using an original Whistler as a template). To me this collar is such an obvious and effective part of the Whistler, and its fishing strategy I thought it could do nothing but improve the Pink Thing and firmly believe it does.

The other advantage of this chenille collar is that it increases

the vortex behind the fly head, giving the hackle tips and flashtail a subtly enhanced vibrancy. In a complete turn of circle, and to keep the tying process simple, I now tie my Black ‘n Barreds to the same pattern as the Pink Thing and would never visit barra or threadfin water without some of these. I’ve even seen mackerel in oceanic blue water refuse everything but a Black ‘n Barred. A Pink Thing in bluewater is a standout pattern, especially for large queenfish and trevally.

In sticking with the lure imitation theme I also tie these flies in a very wide range of colours and weights – especially the Fluffy Things which I use mostly in billabongs. A simple, unweighted version of the original, both as a Pink Thing and as a black pattern, has also been a deadly shallow water fly that I’ve used on the flats and recently in impoundments. Although the billabongs of the NT are the home of the Pink Thing, it has also gone on to be extremely effective in the saltwater on a very wide range of species and is even John Haenke’s number one fly for impoundment bass in south east Queensland.

OPPOSITE: Original Whistlers, designed by Dan Blanton.

BELOW: The deadliest billabong colour amongst a wide range of

Fluffy Things. 41

PINK THING TYING SEQUENCE

Hook: Gamakatsu SL12S or Tiemco TMC600SP (my favourite for many species; it’s painfully sharp and gorilla strong).

1. Tie in 8 to 10 matched saddle hackles curve inwards as per a Deceiver. Tie in a mix of silver and pearl flashabou down either side - flash amount used is dependant on water clarity and species, although better too much than too little as it can always be removed.

2. Tie in the eyes about 2-3 mm from the hook eye. I like to tie the eyes in early as they become a reference point. Eye size and weight is dependant on where you want to fish the fly. Tie in a collar of shorter bucktail as per a Deceiver.

3. Then tie in a second sparser collar of longer bucktail over the first collar. This is Graham White’s very clever method of adding bulk to the fly.

4. Tie in 4 (2 per side) grizzly neck hackles curved side inwards along the back of the fly like a tent – they should lie in an upside down ‘V’. Tie in a clump of red chenille behind the eyes. Note the gap left between the eyes and the chenille. Saltwater sparkle chenille can also be used as a very effective method of adding bulk and gill flash.

5 & 6. Search for the largest, webbiest hackles you can find – big neck hackles are okay as well. In this particular case a single hackle is fine because its so large. Tie it in by the tip and wind it into the gap between the chenille and the eyes, starting against the chenille and wind forwards.

If I’m not adding a weedguard I’ll finish off the head with chenille as well.

FEATHER SELECTION.

Left: saddle hackles for the tail.

Middle: big webby saddle hackles for the collar.

Right: Grizzly neck hackles for the overwing. Grizzly saddles are also okay for this.

BLACK ‘N BARRED

1. This is a method I use for bulking up the Black ‘n Barred, it can also apply to Pink Things. Tie in a long clump of bucktail.

2. Tie in the 8 - 10 black saddle hackles either side of the bucktail as per a deceiver.

3. The rest of the B ’n B is tied as per the Pink Thing.

ADDING A WEED GUARD

Because these flies are so often fished around cover such as snags, mangrove roots, rock bars, lily pads and so on, it’s a really good practice to fit them out with a weed (or snag) guard.

I use 60 lb plastic coated multi strand wire. Lefty Kreh put me onto this material and it produces the most durable and effective weed guards I have ever used, with a minimum of hook up interference. This is how I tie them in and it certainly beats any other weed guard method I’ve come across hands down.

Place the fly in the vise at a slightly upward angle. Put a decent dab of Loktite gel between the eyes and the eye of the hook. Prepare the piece of wire by bending it into the shown shape – don’t bend it into a point – I get this shape with a pair of needle nosed pliers.

Place the wire over the hook into the Loktite gel and let it hang until set. Placing the fly in the vise at an angle allows the weed guard to set at a slightly raked back angle.

Put it aside for half an hour to let it set completely, then coat the head with T-shirt paint to really cement the weed guard into place. UV cement or even epoxy would also work. When its dry, trim the wire to length and bend to shape.

The guards can be repaired and even replaced in the field.

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