Fly Fishing BS thread

^^^^Right on man! Catching fish in the mile is pretty hard, you must have been doing something right to land a couple. Were you running nymph rigs?

 

Yeah, I didn't see many fish being pulled out other than what I caught. I walked my way up river instead of how everyone else would drive up, stop, and walk down the opposite bank. I was also spot fishing as much as possible and taking note of trout positions and what part of the water column they were going to for food. I had to cast just shy of the seam to get my line to float into where the trout were most the time.

I had about 10ft of leader and I used a #16 copper john with #18 zebra midge dropped off the hook. I had a thingymabob for a bit but it was making casting up river in the wind a PITA. Soon as I took that off I started landing fish.

There was a strong BWO hatch as well and the trout occasionally could be seen rising but not enough to fish a dry effectively.

 

Glad to hear u did well babytaco trying to get in the stream myself at the same time im working on trading my truck and getting a house so very busy haha hope to have the free time soon! And for the record dry fly fishing is a lot more rewarding then nympy fishing to me i take just catching a few fish on a dry fly over a handfull on a nymph rig any day

 

Agreed, nothing like seeing that fish rise and take your fly!
Can't wait, April 1st isn't coming fast enough..

 

I prefer dry as well but it's dumb to fish dries when they aren't rising or it's still winter.

 

^^^X2. To each their own but that would really limit fly fishing in colder climates. Its the difference between not fishing, or catching some of the biggest fish of the season. I consistantly pull much larger trout out of a stretch of river from Jan-April than the summertime. I will still nymph in the dead of summer until I see a large fish rising, or a pod of trout hitting the surface. Becoming a good nymph fisherman using triple or double rigs,splitshot, long leaders, and indicators is actually a lot harder than fishing drys when done properly.

Larger trout or 20"+ fish don't feed nearly on the surface like they did when they were smaller. Most of their day is spent on the bottom of the river were the current is calm, sipping nymphs that go by. Your fly has to go pretty close by for them to take it, and it has to be floating perfectly by them as well to fool them. I've been fly fishing over twenty years and perfecting nymphing was the last technique I learned, after I learned it the fish got way bigger too!

My personal favorite dry fly is a Morrish Mouse pattern, size 4 Throwing that on the water has landed me some HUGE browns...

 

Speaking of nymphing, I wish I was better at it Ive got the dry fly thing down, but thats about it. Really hoping to learn more this year.

 

I didn't care for midges until I learned about the trouts diet. Then I cared haha.

 

Nymph fishing is usually the last method most fly fisherman learn. Using an indicator with a double rig it can be a lot like fishing a dry, but much harder to cast and control. Your cast isnt quite as important as dry fly fishing, but once the rig hits the water, constantly mending line, letting out line, and getting your indicator to do the perfect float through a seam takes a ton of practice. A large trout will not go after your fly if it isn't floating within a foot or so of its lie. Reading water is really important with nymphing. You cant simply see fish rising and know where they are. The energy vs reward is to small when fishing #14-22 nymphs. I usually fish a #18 size and have pulled out some huge trout on those tiny flies.

Most folks who turn their nose on nymph fishing either dont know how to do it right, or physically cannot due to the extra weight to cast, constantly mending line, and fighting all the big trout you catch...

That said, after casting heavy rigs all spring, nothing beats a warm day with insects hatching and seeing that 20"+ trout sipping the surface. Personally I will keep nymphing or streamer fishing even through a hatch if all I see hitting the surface are sub18" fish. I would rather fish all day and catch a few 20"+ fish than gobs of dinkers, quality vs quantity.

 

this girl has the life!
https://instagram.com/tampaflygirl/

 

Steelhead fishing in the AM, Big Manistee river. Hopefully I got some pics to share. Wish me luck.

KO

 

Wasn't a good day for steel head fishing. Pretty good day for catching immature browns, tho. Alas, non were of legal limit. Still a hell of a good time. Got a few pics of my friend Mike landing a few as well as a few shots of the area.

 

Difficulty posting pics-standby.

 

Big Mansitee river as it exits the Tippy dam discharge chutes. Amazingly, the water is very fast, but you can catch these browns all day.

 

Still getting issues with the pic posting.

 

Kind of a shame. Just about every one of the dozen or so of these swallowed the fly. $30 in flies between the 2 of us donated.

 

Another shot of the rapids, this one from shore. You have to yell to be heard, the water is so noisy.

 

This shot was planned so Mike's face would not show up in a picture all over the internet.

This is about 10 miles downstream from the Tippy dam on the Big . 33* and raining, sleeting and snowing. Fingers looked like raisins.

 

Rainbows are on the move big time around here. My partner and I caught 85 fish yesterday and 25 this morning, to say it was good is an understatement. Nothing under 16" the average trout was 19-20" and 3-4LBS. Heres a 21" Cutbow that I felt like taking a pic of because of his unusually large mouth.
20" fish were so easy to come by that we didn't waste fishing time taking photos.][/URL]