tungsten, or, not

The price of tungsten beads always blows my mind ( I bought some today,
fresh reminder )

So, I have a couple questions for you guys that know your nymphing stuff

1) Is the tungsten worth it, does the extra weight really turn into more
fish hooked? for YOU

2) How the hell do you tell, a year or more later, looking into your boxes
which flies are tungsten, which regular bead

1) Is the tungsten worth it, does the extra weight really turn into more
fish hooked? *for YOU

I primarily use them in high water to get flies down without extra
bulk.

2) How the hell do you tell, a year or more later, looking into your boxes
which flies are tungsten, which regular bead

Thread color. Weighted flies that have lead or tungsten vice regular
beadheads, I tie with a red thread head, or in the case of the
beadheads, red behind the bead.
Frank Reid

"Frank Reid © 2008" wrote


I primarily use them in high water to get flies down without extra
bulk.


I've only used them, so far, for a specific situation, i.e. fishing midge
pupa patterns on a long leader under a bobbercator in stillwater ... the
extra weight is worth the extra $ since it saves a lot of fishing time that
would just be waiting time with lighter flies

But today when I was buying more small TungBeads for those flies I gave
thought to other uses ... thought also spurred by wanting to fish deeper in
my local river lately. I associate split shot with all the things I
don't like about nymphing, so other ways to weight appeal.

The colored thread is a good idea, do you tie the whole thing with different
thread or just add a collar after it's finished?



oh, I have used tungbeads in a second situation .... I like sight nymphing
and I have found that IF you get your fly to the right spot before you scare
him he seems to basically always eat it ... i.e. pattern doesn't matter much
in nymphs ( another reason I'm not too keen on nymphing, but that's a
different thread ) So, anyway, I carry 5 different nymphs tied more
for various sink rate than any other factor ( they are all pretty small, I
doubt even the nymph eating dummy is going to grab things too big ) ... the
fastest sinking is a tungsten ( 5 silver tungsten beads, to be exact )
affair I call a PS Nymph When I spot a fish for sight nymphing the fly I
choose is based on his postion and sink rate needed to reach that position,
not what's hatching or other factors

On Jan 22, 5:43*pm, "Larry L" wrote:
"Frank Reid © 2008" wrote

I primarily use them in high water to get flies down without extra
bulk.

I've only used them, so far, for a specific situation, i.e. fishing midge
pupa patterns on a long leader under a bobbercator in stillwater * * .... the
extra weight is worth the extra $ since it saves a lot of fishing time that
would just be waiting time with lighter flies

I too also use them for exactly that situation as well. It's a type
of fishing that many on ROFF may not be used to. Until I moved to
California and fished Lake Crowley I had never met anyone bobber
fishing with midges in stillwater. The tungsten beads I have are not
round but faceted so they are easily distinguishable from other bead
head materials - at least on my flies. There are two reasons why I
find them useful for stillwater midging. Sometimes the bobber is
adjusted so that the midge is rather deep (more than 10 feet from the
surface). If a fish takes on the drop it will not be easily noticed.
So I want to get to a tight line ASAP. The other reason is that when
there is an algae bloom the fast sinking fly seems to grab less of the
gunk. Again, algae bloom is also something that is peculiar to this
type of fishing.

The other times when I really need to get deep fast is when fishing
pocket water. However in most of the pocket water around here, having
a tungsten bead head really makes no difference - it just ain't heavy
enough. I lob one or two of the largest Dinsmore egg shots to get
down deep in the white water.

Regarding some of the other mentions of getting deep quickly I was
reminded of not any specific passage from but a general note from Lee
Wulff's "Salmon on the Fly" about the skill required to get a fly to
sink deep enough (without shot or bead heads of course) while having a
natural action and without spooking the (Atlantic) salmon.

Mu

"mu" wrote

Until I moved to
California and fished Lake Crowley I had never met anyone bobber
fishing with midges in stillwater. The tungsten beads I have are not
round but faceted so they are easily distinguishable from other bead
head materials - at least on my flies.


Crowley is where I was introduced to the technique, too. I've seen it
used elsewhere since that time, it's fairly common on Hebgen. It's amazing
how much more effective it can be than "traditional" stillwater wooly-bugger
stripping, at times. Another less common lake technique is very fast
sinking lines and floating, foam, flies ... the Brits call them 'boobies'
.... it's another very effective approach and one fish don't see much,
usually a plus .. slowly slide the line along the bottom, thus swimming the
fly just off it on it's short leader

I saw some faceted beads but never considered the idea that they would be
easy to tell from others ... just that they might flash more vigorously as
each flat caught and reflected light. I'll get some, somes like a logical
solution to my probem.

Now, moving on. I assume you know the trick of attaching your forceps to
the fly and slowly lowering it to touch bottom to measure depth and help set
the bobbicator to keep the fly just off the bottom ( obviously you remove
the forceps after the measuring ;-)

One problem I've never solved is the difficulty landing fish if your fishing
depth is more than about 8 feet. The bobber jams onto the rod's tip and
keeps you from reeling in far enough to get to the fish easily with a net.
So I sometimes end up grapping the leader and praying for the last few feet
as I pull without the shock absorber of the rod ... the better the fish, the
more fervent the prayers ;-) This risks breaking off a good fish, that
may have been played a little too long since that tendency follows from not
being able to land him quickly, and I always hate that few seconds.
Have you come up with a better solution to this "can't reach him OR reel in
any farther" problem with long leader bobber fishing?

On Jan 26, 9:00*am, "Larry L" wrote:


One problem I've never solved is the difficulty landing fish if your fishing
depth is more than about 8 feet. * * The bobber jams onto the rod's tip and
keeps you from reeling in far enough to get to the fish easily with a net..

The use of forceps as depth gauge I learned from Tom Loe.

Regarding deep midging, first, I use the pop-top indicators which can
be removed without having to slide down to the end of the line.

http://sierrapac.com/terminal_tac.htm

It's a dicey proposition to remove the indicator from the leader while
you've got a good fish on but this indicator is about the easiest to
perform such an operation.

Second, when I know I will be midging I bring along a landing net with
a 6 ft long handle.

BTW, one more nice thing about the pop-top indicators is that when on
the stream and not nymphing I leave the little rubber sleeve at the
end of my fly line and then slide it down the leader when I need to
quickly switch to indicator nymphing w/o having to re-tie. There are
several indicator designs which permit this too but I like the pop-
top's ability to communicate a lot more information about what is
going on underwater (while stillwater midging and on rivers) as
opposed to yarn indicators which can be removed w/o retying (via half
hitch) or the slit foam indicators with the rubber insert which do not
provide a nice drift. The little stick also shows me if my midge
leader is really hanging straight down.

Mu

On Thu, 22 Jan 2009 23:15:49 GMT, "Larry L"
wrote:

The price of tungsten beads always blows my mind ( I bought some today,
fresh reminder )

So, I have a couple questions for you guys that know your nymphing stuff

1) Is the tungsten worth it, does the extra weight really turn into more
fish hooked? for YOU

I use it instead of lead if I want a nymph to sink quickly, especially
in fast or deep water.

2) How the hell do you tell, a year or more later, looking into your boxes
which flies are tungsten, which regular bead

As Frank sez, thread color near the bead - black for tungsten, light
brown for lead. Or, you could do a nice pastel color, Larry. You
know, Idaho Pink and California Fuschia d;o)

Dave


\

"Dave LaCourse" wrote



Or, you could do a nice pastel color, Larry. You
know, Idaho Pink and California Fuschia d;o)




:-) I've been trying to find some nice paisley print waders .... Maybe
I'll wait to tie the flies until I can pick a matching color


ASIDE: Your TR brought something to mind when you spoke of frustration
casting to fish you know are rejecting your efforts. To show how
different we can all be, I don't think that would frustrate me, just
increase my determination. BUT, a few casts "fishing the water," without
results, wondering if there were even fish seeing my fly, would have me
frustrated to no end. That is the major reason I've never pursued most of
the 'lots of casts per fish, but big fish when you get one' venues and
styles ... I get frustrated too easy UNLESS I can see him, but, if I can see
him, I can put hours into the catching, no problem. Your report made me
consider the sea-run browns of TdF as a possible dream location for the
first time, mainly because I had always assumed it would be hours and hours
of blind casting for every big fish ... and, sure I like big fish, but ....

On Fri, 23 Jan 2009 01:43:05 GMT, "Larry L"
wrote:

ASIDE: Your TR brought something to mind when you spoke of frustration
casting to fish you know are rejecting your efforts.

These are fish that are coming into the river to spawn, and like
Atlantic (and Pacific) Salmon are not striking the fly to eat it but
because they are ****ed and annoyed by it. They weren't striking the
fly because it didn't look delicious, but because they weren't angry
at it. I could make them angry only by placing the fly very near
their snout. I believe that depth played a very big part in their
aggression. If I didn't get any strikes with a heavily weighted
nymph, I would change to one that was not weighted at all and relied
on the sinking leader to get the fly down. Other times I got hits by
removing the sinking leader and tossing tube flies at them, just under
the surface. It was a learning experience and *really* made fishing a
three demensional sport. Neither the guide nor I know why they boil
or roll on the surface, sometimes coming completely out of the water
like a whale. It's really something to see. I did get an eight
pounder by skating a fly across the surface - a salmon fishing Bomber
on a size 10 hook, white and red. Go figure. d;o)

I'm going to look into tying some tube flies for my local waters.
Don't know how to tie them, but I have a good source that can teach
me.

Dave

"Larry L" wrote in message
...
The price of tungsten beads always blows my mind ( I bought some today,
fresh reminder )

So, I have a couple questions for you guys that know your nymphing stuff

1) Is the tungsten worth it, does the extra weight really turn into more
fish hooked? for YOU

2) How the hell do you tell, a year or more later, looking into your boxes
which flies are tungsten, which regular bead




shouldn't this involve lead vs. no lead?

john