PMS      

Hook:    Tiemco TMC 5212 # 6-10 

Thread:   Red 6/0 

Over Wing and Tail: Polafibre Olive

Rib: Gold Wire

Under Body and Head: Light Green Super Bright Dubbing

1/ Start off by laying a base of thread. After you have done this break a section off from your roll of lead wire and tie it in flat on top of the hook shank as shown. Wrap up and down this until it is in place along the top of the hook as shown. Finish with the thread at the rear of the hook ready for the first tie in of materials.
2/ Now take a pinch of your polafibre material. Stroke the fibres out so they are flat in your hand. Measure the bunch off against the hook shank and try and get it about equal in length. Tie in at the rear and secure with half a dozen or so tight wraps. Trim any excess and move on.
3/ Cut a piece of gold wire from the spool. Tie this is at the rear as shown. This will be used not only for ribbing on this particular fly but also to hold the wing in place 'Matuka' style. Trim any excess wire and then pull it out of the way to the rear of the fly as shown in the photo.
4/ Take some dubbing and attach it to the thread. We have broken this procedure into two parts here with diagrams to assist. The first involves dubbing just the first couple of centimetres. Do this very tightly as shown so that we can cover up the red thread underneath as we do not want this showing through at the rear of the fly. Now move to Step 5.
5/ Now that we have covered up the rear section and obscured it from sight we can add the rest of the dubbing. Use plenty of it and dub it loosely so that we can scratch it up later with the Velcro. Tie a chunky body, winding forward to a point just behind the hook eye. Remember leave enough room to tie in the wing.
6/ After completing the last step this is what you should have. A nice fat body of loosely dubbed Super Bright dubbing that will be easily teased out into an attractive baitfish pattern. The two toned effect of this fly really works well and when wet and streamlined looks remarkably like so many of the small baitfish we see in most of our freshwater ecosystems.
7/ Select a bunch of polafibre materials. The bunch should be roughly a centimetre in diameter and twice the length of the hook shank. Tie in at the front of the fly with it hanging back over the top of the fly as shown. This will form the overwing of the PMS and give the two toned profile.
8/ Trim the excess wing material and trim as close to the thread as possible. Be careful to not cut the thread. Once you have completed this keep adding wraps of thread to totally cover up the trimmed stubs. This is more for looks than anything although you would not notice if you didn't was it will be covered up in coming steps. Pull the wing upwards and start making your first turn with the gold wire rib.
9/ When you have brought the wire around and are about to go back over the top of the fly body take one quarter of the wing (nearest to the hook rear) and pull it straight back, flat along the hook shank/fly body. Use your ribbing to catch it and hold it flat as illustrated. Slowly and firmly wind the wire under and back to this side of the hook ready to go over for the next rib.
10/ Again grab the nearest third this time of the remaining wing material and pull it back to the rear of the fly. Make sure it is flat and straight along the top of the fly body. When you have it in place again bring the rib around firmly and catch the wing holding it in place against the top of the fly body. You can see this demonstrated in the photo. This is the Matuka style of tying in a wing that is so popular the world over.
11/ Now divide what remains of the wing in half. Take the section nearest to the rear of the fly in your thumb and forefingers of your left hand and hold it flat against the top of the fly body. Use your right hand to again bring the wire rib around firmly and catch the wing holding it in place against the top of the fly body.
12/ Take the last remaining section of wing that has not been tied down and catch it with the rib as in the previous steps. Wind the wire around to the thread and catch it and tie off. Add a half hitch for security and then add a couple of wraps. You now have a fine looking wing.
13/ Now I like to trim the wing slightly. Take the wing and slightly stroke it to the rear of the hook to give it a streamlined, elongated look. Then starting about halfway along the hook shank trim the top of the wing on a slightly downward angle towards the rear of the wing. your scissors. This is to suit the anglers eye and you cannot really muck it up here as long as you keep the trimming to a minimum.
14/ Again add some dubbing to the thread. Not too much as we only want to put the slightest build up for a head that ca be teased back and obscure the red thread that suggests the gills of the fish. Only a small section of dubbed thread is needed.
15/ Wrap the dubbed thread to construct a small head in roughly the same plane. As you can see the red is almost lost from sight. Build this head from the front of the hook going slightly back so that the thread is left on the small section of visible red.
16/ Take your whip finisher and build up this red section so that it is a little more pronounced. Use up to a dozen turns if needed. Tie off and you will have a solidly constructed head. When you have done this go to Step 17.
17/ Take your piece of Velcro and start teasing out the body fibres. Be careful not to catch the wing and pull it out, only tease the body dubbing. Do the underneath and sides until you are left with a shaggy body. It will look messy while doing this but don't worry. Also do the forward section of dubbing we used to make the thread. Teasing this out will largely obscure the red and give flashes of it when wet.
18/ Use your fingers to gently stroke the fibres you have 'scruffed' up to the rear of the fly. This will give a very translucent almost alive look to the fly. All that remains now is to go to one of of the states stillwaters and find a smelt chaser. Not a bad variation on the B.M.S.

The Pattern

We know what you are thinking! Why the PMS  and have we gone mad? Well the pattern is basically a variation of of the famous BMS and it has excelled over past seasons when fishing in the Pondage. The Pondage Monster Special has fooled a lot of trout in all size ranges in this put and take fishery and at all times of the year. In every month in fact. But it is not only in these stillwaters that it has taken fish, working well in most places were smelt or small baitfish are present. The fish in our private lakes are rather partial to this pattern in a #10 and it works well in the Goulburn as is and with a beadhead. Fished down and across during low water levels in Spring and Autumn it has taken a lot of fish for us when other flies have failed to produce. Limited trials in the lakes to the west of Melbourne have brought similar success and a medium to fast short strip retrieve to moving fish often brings results. Also the tried and true fishing to smelters method of casting into the carnage and letting the fly sinks work well too. This fly sinks at a reasonably slow rate and as such gives the fish a chance to see it before it hits the bottom.

As all of you will no doubt be aware the BMS tied by Murray Wilson and developed by several other tiers including Rick Keam and Andy Scott has been around for some time now. It has some interesting design features which Murray recently discussed in FlyLife Magazine Edition 23 in which he uses words we are very fond of. He talks of 'triggers' which make the fly so effective. Firstly you have the wonderful translucency of the materials used for the body and although we have not opted for the exact same material you will find that this is at least the equal of the SLF. The translucent body gives a very lifelike appearance when wet. It tapers down well and looks for all the world like the body of a baitfish. The over wing material also pulls back, especially as it is tied with a Matuka style and when wet almost becomes indistinguishable from the under body in all ways except colour. The combination of darker back, lighter under body and translucent materials are very suggestive of most baitfish. As with Murray's Pattern we have opted for the red thread build up to suggest the flaring gills of the baitfish but have instead preferred to put them under some thinly teased out dubbing preferring them to flash red rather than be highly visible all the time. Whether this is more effective who can say. Triggers are sometimes more effective when they are over emphasized rather than subtle and more in tune with the naturals. Take the eye on the BMS. Eyes have long been recognised as a key trigger when fishing baitfish patterns particularly in salt water and the prominent eyes on the BMS obviously works in such a way. I have tied many versions of the BMS over the years and the ones lacking the glass bead have not been as effective as those with it. Also when I first saw and copied it I didn't tie it with red thread, not having instantly grasped the logic of the design and found these to not be as effective as Murray's originals. 

So there you have it. Yet another smelt pattern to tie and carry for the coming winter months where short sojourns to wet, cold and windy stillwaters are the norm. We would suggest this this fly should be carried in sizes 8-10  at all times as well as the ever reliable Tom Jones and BMS. Due to the amount of emails requesting it we will feature the BMS in the coming weeks.