tungsten, or, not

"JT" wrote


On the same lines, do any of you ever slip a bead on the tippet and then
tie on your non-beadhead nymph...? Is this effective?

Thanks,
JT



I have NOT, but yesterday when I was buying beads I asked my buddy that owns
the shop if he thought any given color was better ( I tend to like subtle
and use mostly black ) He then told me a story about fishing with a
PT nymph for a while in a given spot with zero success, clipping it off,
sliding on a gold bead, ala your post, tying back on the exact same fly, and
then catching 3 fish in 4 casts in exactly the same place !!!

I asked if he thought it was fishing depth that had been the factor ... his
impression it was the 'flash' of the gold bead .... I bought gold beads
yesterday G

"Larry L" wrote in message
...

"JT" wrote


On the same lines, do any of you ever slip a bead on the tippet and then
tie on your non-beadhead nymph...? Is this effective?

Thanks,
JT



I have NOT, but yesterday when I was buying beads I asked my buddy that
owns the shop if he thought any given color was better ( I tend to like
subtle and use mostly black ) He then told me a story about fishing
with a PT nymph for a while in a given spot with zero success, clipping it
off, sliding on a gold bead, ala your post, tying back on the exact same
fly, and then catching 3 fish in 4 casts in exactly the same place !!!

I asked if he thought it was fishing depth that had been the factor ...
his impression it was the 'flash' of the gold bead .... I bought gold
beads yesterday G


Cool... I also would like to give it a try while bugger fishing, I suppose
you could add a couple beads if you wanted.

JT

In article ,
Larry L writes
) How the hell do you tell, a year or more later, looking into your boxes
which flies are tungsten, which regular bead

Finish the head off in a different coloured thread.

QED

I f you just want your nymph to sink why not flatten some fine lead wire
to make a thin ribbon, and wrap that under the regular tying. Use a
different coloured thread from your non weighted nymphs for easy
identification.
--
Bill Grey

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

"mu" wrote

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.




I've seen those indicators but never tried them ... the idea of sliding down
the rubber sleeve for a bit of bobbicating then sliding it back up to return
to 'real' fly fishing G appeals a lot, I'll give it a try


Larry L ( who points out to skeptics that fly fishing can be talked about on
ROFF, too ;-)