Martyn White | Thursday, 12 March 2026
This week it's the Sedotti slammer. Ages ago I wrote an FP about Mark Sedotti's weighting system that allows large flies to be cast with relative ease. It's essentially the opposite of what was, for the longest time, the received wisdom on big flies.
The system is pretty simple, add weight to overcome the wind resistance of the fly making it easier to cast. This means you can have a beefier fly that is castable on a more comfortable rod, and you don't have to sacrifice the physical presence of the fly as you would by creating the illusion of bulk with high or hollow ties. This is something I think is pretty important because most predatory fish aren't relying 100% on vision to locate prey. Something that is displacing a volume of water commensurate with its size is, I believe, a trigger factor that can make the difference between getting an eat and not.
The other advantage of the weight in the internal box keel is that helps the fly to swim. It ensures it will track properly even moved at speed and much like it overcomes the wind resistance on the cast, it helps the fly to continue moving between strips rather than stalling due to drag. Don't worry about the sink rate though, even with all the lead the fly isn't going to dive to the bottom because there is so much drag and resistance from the material (assuming you've tied it right) that the fly will sink slowly , and will even briefly hang if allowed to.
The slammer has become my favourite seabass fly at big bait time and I generally fish them between 25 and 35cm. The POD fly is pushing 38cm long, about 10cm deep and maybe 3.5 wide and is easy easy easy to cast on a 10 weight.
Here's the material list:
Hook: Something beefy like an SL12 6/0
Thread: Flat waxed nylon 210den
Weight: Lead wire
Body: Yak & flash or a stiffish synthetic like SF blend
Eyes: 3D probably 12-15mmm
Marine Goop and some head cement
You can watch mark tying one here
If you need something really big, that is castable do consider the Sedotti Slammer, it's an absolutely underrated style of fly.