The Sand Candy is a 4 cm short surf candy variation that has evolved over the past season, primarily to imitate the estuarine round-herring (Gilchristella aestuaria), also referred to as a sprat. The Sand Candy is one of several small sprat patterns I’ve been using along the Garden Route to target sprat-hungry spotted grunter.
When grunter exhibit baitfish feeding behaviour, it’s usually a response to an overabundance of baitfish. This occurs when an estuary remains closed off from the sea, leading to elevated freshwater levels that trigger population booms, particularly of estuarine round herring and Cape silversides. On many occasions I’ve noticed grunter chasing down sprats which have led me down this approach and has proven remarkably effective for sight-fishing them when ideal conditions arise.
When using a Sand Candy specifically for sight-casting to grunter, focus on fish in water depths of around 60 cm to 1 meter and ideally under clear blue skies with a good amount of wind present.
Materials:
Hook - Grip 21711 NSL #6
Thread - Veevus 8/0 White (50D nano thread is ideal)
Wing material - Sybai baitfish dubbing/STF baitfish dubbing aka ghost hair - White, tans, greys and olives.
Polar fibre grey (substitute for grey STF)
Fishient Shiner flash, mother of pearl
Eyes - Grip 4mm 3D stick on eyes, Pearl (3mm is ideal)
UV resin - Thin and thick solution or an in between viscosity
All-purpose adhesive, Pattex ultra gel super glue or silicone (for applying the eyes)
Bodkin or toothpick
Scissors
Cigarette lighter
Start your wraps at the eye of the hook and stop your thread just on the bend of the hook.
Add a good amount of fishient’s shiner flash as dubbing to your thread. Wrap the whole shank and position your thread 2 mm from the eye of the hook. Form a dubbing loop and position the main thread against the eye of the hook.
Take a fairly generous amount of white STF fibres. Pull them apart and re-stack them so that the fibres are laying somewhat parallel with each other. Place fibres into the dubbing loop at a 50/50 ratio.
Spin the dubbing loop. Brush out all the trapped fibres and pull them straight so that they’re facing to the left as shown below. Wrap the fibres clockwise or forward with touching wraps towards and against the hook eye. Trap the looped thread followed by two whip finishes. Brush out all the fibres
Take a very sparse amount of tan STF and grey polar fibres at equal amounts and lengths. Mix them together.
Place half of the tan/grey fibres on top and over the body of the fly. Secure the fibres with one wrap against the eye of the hook.
While holding tension on your thread, fold over the rest of the fibres and secure them with two wraps over the fibres against the hook eye.
Take 2 to 3 strands of shiner MOP flash and place them horizontally with the eye of the hook. Catch the flash with a single wrap.
Swing the protruding flash fibres over to the opposite side of the fly. Align them with the hook eye and secure with one wrap. Finish off the fly with two whip finishes and cut your thread.
Gently brush out all the fibres, dampen your fingers and stroke the fibres back until you’ve got a slim profile as shown below.
Dab a tiny drop of gel-based superglue, all-purpose adhesive or silicone onto the eye using a toothpick. At the head of the fly pull materials back and slightly upwards and gently place the eye 2 mm away and slightly above the hook eye. Check that the eyes align from the top and frontal view.
When the eyes are set, dampen your fingers again and stroke all the fibres back to achieve a slim profile with minimal to no straggling fibres around the head and belly area.
The first coating of thin uv resin is intended to saturate the head. The second thicker coating is to smooth out and finish off the head.
Invert the fly. Lightly pull back the belly fibres so that they touch the dubbed flash. Start applying resin from the head to just past the hook point. Work your way over the eyes and around the whole head area until the resin saturates the materials. Before setting the resin, fine tune its shape and make sure you have no straggling fibres.
Finish off the whole head with a coating of a thicker uv resin. Burn off any bubbles with a cigarette lighter and make sure the resin is evenly coated around the head/eyes. Rotate the fly and set the resin while rotating.
