Seaduced

 Part of the attraction for wanting to learn to fly fish was for me, the ability to make my own "lures". I had already been building rods for several years at that point, so the idea of being 100% self-sufficient in my angling was very attractive. Along with a vise and a myriad of materials I also purchased a VHS cassette (yes it was that long ago), called Basic Saltwater Fly Tying by a fellow named Jamie Dickinson. It detailed four of the classic patterns that included the Brooks Blonde, Lefty's Deceiver, Clouser Minnow, and the Seaducer. For whatever reason, I have never been a fan of The Deceiver or the Blonde....but the Clouser Minnow and the Seaducer I have gotten a TON of mileage out of over the years.

  It was in fact a Seaducer that gave me my first REAL saltwater sight fishing experience. Back around 1996, I didn't have any money for a boat or even a kayak, so I took full advantage of several places that one could park their car and wade in on foot. This particular morning I had a 7wt. I had just built along with a Seaducer tied in the classic red & white combo. Although it was a picture-perfect calm summer morning, I wasn't really expecting to have much success, as this particular location did see a fair bit of angling pressure.

  To my surprise, about 100 yards into my wade, a back/tail popped up over a shallow grass bed. I was still pretty green, and just assumed it was a Redfish...I was wrong. After moving to within casting range, and re-aligning an imperfect initial cast, the fish ate, and turned out to be a 24" Speckled Trout. 24" is a respectable fish down here, but the unique thing is that Trout are not known to tail all that often as Redfish do. I released the fish and continued my wade, and about 25 yards further up the flat, ANOTHER back popped out of the water. This initial presentation was much better and yielded a second Speckled Trout measuring in the mid-twenties, again on the red and white Seaducer. I was done...totally addicted because I realized at that moment that fishing in this manner...sight fishing with a fly rod without a boat could be done with significant success.

  You have to remember that in the early to mid '90s Texas wasn't really considered a fly fishing destination yet, and there was only a handful of folks fishing this way along the Texas coast. It wasn't like Florida that by that time had close to five decades of fly fishing history behind it. This was still the wild west over here, and on many occasions, in my saltwater fly fishing pursuits, I was ridiculed and made fun of by anglers wielding conventional tackle, often with multiple profane expletives involved in the hazing process.

  After that morning with the Seaducer though, I didn't care what they called me...I knew the payoff far outweighed the ridicule that came with being a fly fishing outcast (pun intended). The irony is that in the last decade or so, the conventional tackle fisherman in Texas are finally coming around to what fly fishing has to offer. They are in fact flocking to the sport in droves. I suppose it's great, but I miss the days of being a bit of an angling pariah.

  As for the Seaducer, I haven't used one in Saltwater in years. Mainly because I HATE dealing with feathers, and there are other patterns that serve the type of water I fish more effectively. However, I tied a few up not long ago with weed guards to serve duty on the local Largemouth Bass lakes this spring.

Martyn has a great tutorial on this classic pattern on youtube. The addition of bead chain eyes make it a much more useful pattern for depper flats I now fish. You can watch it here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgIw0seY4Pw

Hope you all are staying safe and healthy!

Andy