Adding a sliding Cone-Head weight to the tippet:

 Adding weight to the fly will get the fly down to the bottom where the larger fish feed. Adding a "cone head" weight to the tippet will do the job nicely. Cone heads come in various sizes to control the depth of the fly. Our weedless  baitfish and shrimp patterns are finished with either red or black thread and are tied with either silver or gold bodies. Use black conehead weights with black baitfish heads and red conehead weights with red fly heads. Use gold coneheads with the gold body patterns of baitfish and shrimps flys. Use silver coneheads with the silver abitfish or shrimp fly patterns. Here I am using a gold cone head weight to match the gold baitfish body; this will get the fly down to the seagrass.

Adding a swivel to add weight to get the fly down to the fish:

Here I have added a swivel to the fly fishing system (tippet) to get the fly down to the deep feeding fish, especially to catch bigger sea trout concealed in the sea grass. By varying the size of te swivel, it is easy for the fisherman to cahnge the weight according to the depth of the flats. I usually insert the swivel about 12 inches from the fly; as you can see it works! 

Adding the swivel in the fly fishing system (tippet) also allows the fisherman to insert a  heavier line section called a "shock leader" at the fly. Shockleaders are especially effective for saltwater fish with sharp gill plates; like Redfish and Snook. This photo also shows the amont of grass encountered during saltwater  flats fishing. Our weedless flies will allow you to catch more fish in these conditions. The weedless flies also allow you to fish in heavy cover like mangroves and oyster bars.

This Kayak Live-Bait Fishing System is a bit unorthodox, although it uses the same Flyfishing Fly Rod as the Saltwater Flyfishing System selected above. It is specially adapted to fish live-bait using a conventional spinning reel and monofilament fishing line. This fishing system is designed for use in deep potholes, mangrove canals, salt creeks and channels encountered on the Gulfcoast Flats. I discovered this system when I was trying to find a way to cast light conventional fishing lures long distances with extremely light monofilament fishing line on the flats. The Saltwater Fly Rod is made-to-order for this type of casting application.

Knotted Flyfishing Leaders are simply comprised of different lengths of monofilament fishing line of different strengths (Lb/Test = Pound Test) connected by knots to form one piece. This type of leader is used by many experienced Flyfishermen, due to the fact that they can build their own leaders. Leader material can be purchased on large spools to prevent coiling while stored before use. Using this type of leader material will insure the leader sections are as straight as possible. Here is table with recommendations I have prepared based on the leaders I use when fishing the Gulfcoast flats.

UNI-KNOT: One knot for all connections

I use this one knot for all fishing line connections, here is why:

• Line to lure tight against the hook for jigs
• Line to lure with loop for live natural action
• Line to fishing line for leaders
• Flyline to leader connections
• Line to line for hand-tied leaders
• Inserting shock leaders in the terminal tackle; with or without a swivel
• The tag-end is tightend to lock the knot
• The tag-end can be trimmed against the line loops for clean knot