Manic Flies
Alistair McBurnie test drives a cool range of flies.
While fishing our way around the North Island of New Zealand about 18 months ago we stopped by Mike Stent’s shop in Taupo, to get the who, where and what-with, as is the norm on most of my trips. My travel companion Richard, who has a zest for anything new in fly-fishing, or any fishing for that matter, was drawn instantly to a few full trays of gaudy bright red, blue and purple rubber legged flies.
I could only roll my eyes when we were told they are great in the backcountry. My theory is that not many anglers actually get into the backcountry, or know where it is, so they can say anything works in the backcountry, or the moon for that matter, without reprisal.
We left the store and actually headed to the backcountry, or the closest thing to it except for all the feral goats, pigs and gorse. We started fishing and it soon became obvious that I wasn’t having much fun, having thrown everything (including rod, hat and backpack) at the water with only one for my efforts. Richard was almost at his dozen using flies that I originally considered to be a con for tourists. That day the fly of choice was a nymph known as the Batman. When I went back to the store the next day to buy some more, to my surprise, the full tray was now very empty.
The flies were the then ‘new to the scene’ Manic Flies, marketed and distributed by Rene Vaz. Rene has a long standing in the New Zealand fly tackle industry and with fish as fickle as those in NZ, something had to be right with these flies. Manic has a simple goal: to design and distribute ‘cool’ products and teach people everything it can about fly fishing.
Subsequently I arranged for Rene to send me a few flies, and I fished with them for a season in Australia. To say they are deadly is an understatement given that some patterns with rubber and bling look like a well-tied joke. They are no joke and work better than anything I have used to date.
There are hundreds of patterns in the range, from your regular Wulffs and Pheasant Tails to those designed for Manic by Kiwi anglers Carl McNeil, Chris Dore, Gary Lyttle, Mike Davis, Rob Vaz, Simon Chu and Zane Mirfin. Patterns from the Montana Fly Company are also marketed under the Manic banner in Australia and NZ.
Given that the Manic website is as good as its catalogue, all of the patterns can be viewed there. There is literally a trout pattern for any encounter with many flies a twist on traditional themes. I recommend the Swisher’s Rub-Dub Hares Ear and Tungsten River Ninja Redhead early in the season. Later, when the fish are looking up, the almost un-sinkable Rene’s Improved Humpy and Mirfz BLT are deadly. For fishing in the third dimension, I am hard pressed to go past Kyle’s BH C-N Superflash Pheasant Tail, BH Batman Nymph and Tungsten Flash Prince.
Manic uses a mix of Daiichi, Kamasan and Tiemco hooks with most hackle provided by Whiting Farms, however, Montana Fly also provides a lot of the base materials.
As a fly-tier I am always dubious about flies I haven’t tied, but I am more than impressed with the durability of the Manic range. They are well tied and well proportioned.
So far Manic has about 9 retail dealers in Australia, and over 50 in New Zealand. You can’t purchase through the Manic website but they will be more than happy to pass enquiries to their retail outlets. While the current focus is flies for trout, it won’t be long before Manic starts to develop flies for warmwater and saltwater species.
www.manictackleproject.com