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no
October 1st, 2003, 11:20 AM
I still have no clue how to skitter a elk hair caddis. At the end of
the dead drift I strip in the line and all it does is drag the fly under
the water.

walt winter
October 1st, 2003, 11:26 AM
no wrote:
> I still have no clue how to skitter a elk hair caddis. At the end of
> the dead drift I strip in the line and all it does is drag the fly under
> the water.

is the battery charged?

--waldo

riverman
October 1st, 2003, 02:20 PM
"walt winter" > wrote in message
...
> no wrote:
> > I still have no clue how to skitter a elk hair caddis. At the end of
> > the dead drift I strip in the line and all it does is drag the fly under
> > the water.
>
> is the battery charged?
>
>

I choose a fly with a particularly stiff hackle, give it a very careful
floatant treatment (just the tips of the throat hackle under the fly--not
the wings) and give it a particularly short dead drift. If the fish are
hitting skimmers, they aren't hitting dead-drifters as much, so I shorten
the drift a lot. Even still, I have to redress the fly after almost every 5
casts.
Also, don't try to skim it directly upstream....work it across the current.
I think the reason they tend to sink is if the eye gets lower than the body,
it will nose-dive in, so I choose a fly with a long hackle under the chin to
keep the eye up.

--riverman

Tom Littleton
October 2nd, 2003, 01:13 AM
no states:
>I still have no clue how to skitter a elk hair caddis. At the end of
>the dead drift I strip in the line and all it does is drag the fly under
>the water.

if you aren't lifting the rod, as you strip line, you will have a wet fly
retrieve, as observed. That will work, by the way, if one persists with the
technique....but, to skitter a palmered fly, you need a little lift in the
line, remove slack between rod tip and fly by lifting the tip smoothly.

Tom

daytripper
October 2nd, 2003, 01:54 AM
On Wed, 01 Oct 2003 10:20:29 GMT, no > wrote:

>I still have no clue how to skitter a elk hair caddis. At the end of
>the dead drift I strip in the line and all it does is drag the fly under
>the water.

This technique takes practice, but once you get it down it is deadly. Note
that the faster the rod action, the easier it is to manage, and that a very
soft rod will likely make it difficult to perform.

So you cast out and drift the run. After allowing the fly to drift to where
the line just tightens in your line hand, I lift the rod tip fairly high, then
flick the rod tip down and up to send a "standing wave" down the line all the
way to the fly, using the line hand to modify the line movement as necessary.
This flicking action gets the leader airborne high enough that the fly follows
it up and off the water.

That's just the beginning. Your fly is a few inches above the water.

Now the trick is to keep the rod tip "alive" while stripping in line, so the
literally fly hops all the way back to you. I send lots of little ripples down
the line, through the leader to the tippet, and the fly has no choice but to
follow.

I usually hop the fly back to where I have just enough line left out of the
tiptop to shoot the next cast.

This last trip, I probably caught two dozen extra fish that I wouldn't have
hooked without using this tactic...

/daytripper (who just watch Hamm get stuffed on a penalty kick. Uh oh...)

a-happy-up-yours
October 2nd, 2003, 02:25 AM
daytripper wrote:
> On Wed, 01 Oct 2003 10:20:29 GMT, no > wrote:
>
......snip.....

..... and up to send a "standing wave" down the line all the
> way to the fly,

Obviously *not* a conjugate match.......is this covered by Terman....?
1943 or 1955? ...... <VBG>

--
Tom

n4tab at earthlink dot net