The fly of last resort: A sort of TR

In article ,
says...


The great thing about them besides being easy to tie is that they work
in almost evry type of water we fish. In Colorado I caught lots of
fish on them from my belly boat in lakes either dead drihting them or
slowing paddling and slow trolling them. If neither of these methods
worked I made a cast then let them sink and striped and twitched them
back. I fished them in streams like mentioned above. All colors work
but my best experiences were with black, purpler,rust,and dark brown.


I tie great big ones for pike fishing. They get the odd bass and
walleye too. My best colors in warmwater are purple and yellow.
I imagine the purple buggers pass for leeches, and the the yellow
ones,... well, I dunno, fish just seem to like yellow. Maybe they
are Vikings fans.

Kevin

Mark Tinsky wrote:

After a few miscues I discovered that if I kept the rod tip up a
little bit, allowing some slack in the line, and let the fish take
the fly a bit before striking made for a better hookup
percentage.

This is also a good trick for increasing the hook-up percentage when
swinging a brace of soft hackles or other wet flies.

West coast steelheaders will keep a loop of 18-24" of line lightly held
between thumb and forefinger of the hand gripping the rod when swinging
standard PNW patterns for summer fish. The take of a steelhead will pull
the loop from their fingers, allowing the fish enough slack to turn back
to its holding position and hook itself when it comes taut against the
drag of the reel. This method is less successful for trout, I think.
Except for very big fish, the strike tends to be less sudden, less
explosive, and the angler, rather than releasing the loop, tends to grip
it instead and strike too quickly. Introducing slack into the system by
holding the rod up at a 45 or even 60 degree angle tends to work better.

I've found with swinging both wooly buggers and soft hackles for trout,
that casting across or even slightly upstream, then throwing a big
up-stream mend into the line--to slow down the swing--together with
holding the rod up as you describe, significantly decreases the number of
short or missed strikes. I have an impression, from comparing the times I
simply realize I've got a fish hooked to the times I actually strike, that
rainbows are more likely to hook themselves than are browns. (But this may
just be one of those fishing "facts" governed mostly by the
imagination.....)

Nice TR.

JR

Mark Tinsky wrote:

After a few miscues I discovered that if I kept the rod tip up a
little bit, allowing some slack in the line, and let the fish take
the fly a bit before striking made for a better hookup
percentage.

This is also a good trick for increasing the hook-up percentage when
swinging a brace of soft hackles or other wet flies.

West coast steelheaders will keep a loop of 18-24" of line lightly held
between thumb and forefinger of the hand gripping the rod when swinging
standard PNW patterns for summer fish. The take of a steelhead will pull
the loop from their fingers, allowing the fish enough slack to turn back
to its holding position and hook itself when it comes taut against the
drag of the reel. This method is less successful for trout, I think.
Except for very big fish, the strike tends to be less sudden, less
explosive, and the angler, rather than releasing the loop, tends to grip
it instead and strike too quickly. Introducing slack into the system by
holding the rod up at a 45 or even 60 degree angle tends to work better.

I've found with swinging both wooly buggers and soft hackles for trout,
that casting across or even slightly upstream, then throwing a big
up-stream mend into the line--to slow down the swing--together with
holding the rod up as you describe, significantly decreases the number of
short or missed strikes. I have an impression, from comparing the times I
simply realize I've got a fish hooked to the times I actually strike, that
rainbows are more likely to hook themselves than are browns. (But this may
just be one of those fishing "facts" governed mostly by the
imagination.....)

Nice TR.

JR

Mark Tinsky wrote:

After a few miscues I discovered that if I kept the rod tip up a
little bit, allowing some slack in the line, and let the fish take
the fly a bit before striking made for a better hookup
percentage.

This is also a good trick for increasing the hook-up percentage when
swinging a brace of soft hackles or other wet flies.

West coast steelheaders will keep a loop of 18-24" of line lightly held
between thumb and forefinger of the hand gripping the rod when swinging
standard PNW patterns for summer fish. The take of a steelhead will pull
the loop from their fingers, allowing the fish enough slack to turn back
to its holding position and hook itself when it comes taut against the
drag of the reel. This method is less successful for trout, I think.
Except for very big fish, the strike tends to be less sudden, less
explosive, and the angler, rather than releasing the loop, tends to grip
it instead and strike too quickly. Introducing slack into the system by
holding the rod up at a 45 or even 60 degree angle tends to work better.

I've found with swinging both wooly buggers and soft hackles for trout,
that casting across or even slightly upstream, then throwing a big
up-stream mend into the line--to slow down the swing--together with
holding the rod up as you describe, significantly decreases the number of
short or missed strikes. I have an impression, from comparing the times I
simply realize I've got a fish hooked to the times I actually strike, that
rainbows are more likely to hook themselves than are browns. (But this may
just be one of those fishing "facts" governed mostly by the
imagination.....)

Nice TR.

JR

"rw" wrote in message
m...
Kevin Vang wrote:
Hey, it's a minnow, it's a crayfish, it's a dragonfly/stonefly/
damselfly nymph, it slices, it dices, it waxes your car...

And it's really, really easy to tie. I like them in dark colors, mainly
black and purple, with a "lateral line" of two strands of krystal flash.



Me, too, but I have also tried making the body two different colors under
the Palmering, to imitate the lighter underbelly of a fish. Sometimes, I
toss in a hint of red beard for gills.

Getting a lighter colored underside, two krystalflash lateral lines, and a
red gill/beard is much more of a logistical challenge than it seems. g

--riverman

"rw" wrote in message
m...
Kevin Vang wrote:
Hey, it's a minnow, it's a crayfish, it's a dragonfly/stonefly/
damselfly nymph, it slices, it dices, it waxes your car...

And it's really, really easy to tie. I like them in dark colors, mainly
black and purple, with a "lateral line" of two strands of krystal flash.



Me, too, but I have also tried making the body two different colors under
the Palmering, to imitate the lighter underbelly of a fish. Sometimes, I
toss in a hint of red beard for gills.

Getting a lighter colored underside, two krystalflash lateral lines, and a
red gill/beard is much more of a logistical challenge than it seems. g

--riverman

"riverman" wrote in
:

Getting a lighter colored underside, two krystalflash lateral lines,
and a red gill/beard is much more of a logistical challenge than it
seems. g


Light coloured chenille and a dark waterproof marking pen is probably the
simplest way.


Steve

Kevin Vang wrote:

I tie great big ones for pike fishing. They get the odd bass and
walleye too.

Besides bass, I've caught channel cats on WB in my home river.

My best colors in warmwater are purple and yellow.
I imagine the purple buggers pass for leeches, and the the yellow
ones,... well, I dunno, fish just seem to like yellow. Maybe they
are Vikings fans.

Brown seems to work best down here (with black and olive next). I'm
guessing that the brown ones are imitative of crawfish. The olive ones
probably pass for dragonfly or damselfly nymphs.


Chuck Vance

"Conan the Librarian" wrote in message
...
Kevin Vang wrote:

I tie great big ones for pike fishing. They get the odd bass and
walleye too.

Besides bass, I've caught channel cats on WB in my home river.

My best colors in warmwater are purple and yellow.
I imagine the purple buggers pass for leeches, and the the yellow
ones,... well, I dunno, fish just seem to like yellow. Maybe they
are Vikings fans.

Brown seems to work best down here (with black and olive next). I'm
guessing that the brown ones are imitative of crawfish. The olive ones
probably pass for dragonfly or damselfly nymphs.


Can fish see color? Do they have cones in their eyes? And what color does
olive appear at 3-4 meters depth?

--riverman
(yeah, I know I could just look it up. But this is so much easier.....)

"Conan the Librarian" wrote in message
...
Kevin Vang wrote:

I tie great big ones for pike fishing. They get the odd bass and
walleye too.

Besides bass, I've caught channel cats on WB in my home river.

My best colors in warmwater are purple and yellow.
I imagine the purple buggers pass for leeches, and the the yellow
ones,... well, I dunno, fish just seem to like yellow. Maybe they
are Vikings fans.

Brown seems to work best down here (with black and olive next). I'm
guessing that the brown ones are imitative of crawfish. The olive ones
probably pass for dragonfly or damselfly nymphs.


Can fish see color? Do they have cones in their eyes? And what color does
olive appear at 3-4 meters depth?

--riverman
(yeah, I know I could just look it up. But this is so much easier.....)