Flies That Catch Big Trout, The Truth Might Surprise You
I HAVE DEFINITE IDEAS ABOUT HOW TO CATCH BIG TROUT. APPARENTLY THEY ARE ALL WRONG.
Like every other guy or gal with a fly rod, I have some pretty strong opinions about the kind of flies that catch big fish. These opinions are based on years of experience and experimentation. I have theories about the behavior of big predatory trout and they influence my tying and my fishing. These ideas are proven out by countless hours on the water. At least that’s what I thought.
Regular G&G readers will know that I am a confirmed streamer junkie. I make no apologies for it. I love fishing streamers and I believe wholeheartedly that big flies catch big fish. Here’s the problem: without knowing it, for the last eight or ten years I’ve been proving myself wrong.
I am not a fish counter. I’m not a trophy hunter. I like catching big fish but I do not possess a single mount or even a catch-and-release painting. Not surprisingly, I don’t even have a lot of photos of myself with fish. Most of the fish I catch, if they are photographed, are in someone else’s hands. The truth is that I am just fundamentally more interested in the next fish than I am the last fish.
What I do, on very rare occasions, is keep a fly. Once in a while I’ll catch a fish that’s special. It’s always a big fish but there’s usually something extra that makes it special. The color or fins, or maybe where I caught it or who I was with. It happened the other day in Alaska. I was fishing with my good buddy Bruce Chard and guide Jeff Forsee on the Kanektok river at Alaska West. On literally the last cast of the day I hooked and landed a rainbow in the ten- to twelve-pound range. A beautiful and perfect Alaska rainbow.
It was a great fish by any standard but
Read More »Rubber, Above & Below
By Bob Reece
Round rubber and spandex are two members in the vast tide of synthetic materials that have washed over the fly tying world in recent years.
They have both been used to create numerous surface and subsurface patterns. However, I would argue that one is better suited for the world above while the other thrives below.
Round rubber comes in a wide array of colors and sizes. While this material has been used on numerous subsurface patterns, I would argue that it’s most effectively put to use on the water’s surface. In comparison to the structural makeup of spandex, round rubber is a rigid material. Due to this comparatively stiff makeup, its motion is produced at a longer wave length. This trait is beneficial in the creation of appendages for terrestrial patterns both large and small. The legs and antennae of terrestrial insects are typically much longer than those of aquatic insects. As a result, those appendages often extend significant distances away from the body and the rigidity of round rubber is ideal for imitating this trait. Its structure allows for the creation of longer hopper, beetle, spider and other terrestrial appendages that will maintain their dimension while still providing movement. Conveniently, the rounded shape of medium round rubber also results in a more consistent and controllable knot. These knots can be used to imitate prominent leg joints. This consistency eases the process of creating the approximate right angle in these legs, resulting in a bent leg look that more effectively imitates the natural.
Moving below the surface of the water, I
Read More »Fly Fishing, Always Have a Plan B
Just about every fisherman out there is probably familiar with the saying, “never leave fish to find fish”. I live religiously by this common sense fishing advice. It’s saved my butt many days on the water guiding, and keeps me from straying away from productive water when I find myself being drawn away to fish other spots upstream that look great. Always remember that fly fishing is full of hot periods and cold periods of catching. So when fishing it’s hot, you want to capitalize on it as much as you can before it goes cold. Sometimes it can be hot fishing for several hours, while other times you may only have one hour of hot fishing, such as when a hatch is in progress. Quite often anglers can have more success sticking around fishing one area throughly, when it’s producing, than fishing a bunch of spots partially. Every stream is different of course, but it’s generally safe to say that some sections of water always will be fishing better than others througout the course of a day. A fly fishers job is to determine where those hot sections of the water are and fish them.
Read More »5 Flies For Labrador
By Jason Tucker
Having recently returned from Labrador, I got to try a lot of different tactics, techniques and flies. It’s the benefit of being able to fish all day, every day, for a week. We fished everything from dry flies to streamers to nymphs.
Labrador had it all—copious hatches of both mayflies and caddis, with fish rising steadily or cruising and taking flies. They hit streamers aggressively, and they took mice on top as well.
You would think fish that see so few anglers would take anything you threw at them, but that assumption is dead wrong. They were picky about what caddis fly you presented. Mayfly patterns had to be the right size. Even the pike wouldn’t hit an olive streamer.
We both brought every fly box we owned and a huge pile of flies. Here is what caught fish.
Cone Head Madonna in Yellow
Like most places in North America, sculpins are found in Labrador in abundance. I know there’s a plethora of great and traditional patterns out there. This is a great pattern and easy to tie. I tied a variety of colors for the trip, but yellow with a white body out-fished every fly on the trip. It caught pike, the Atlantic salmon pounded them with abandon, and I got my biggest brook trout, a four-pound male, on this fly.
Goddard Caddis
I tied up a bunch of these in size 14 before the trip. Caddis are a big deal up there, hatching daily, and at times achieving
Read More »Something For The Window Shoppers
By Justin Pickett
A little something to entice those “window shoppers” that appear and disappear behind your streamer.
Anyone who has thrown streamers for trout has likely experienced the exciting visual of seeing a trout appear behind your meaty fly… following, following, following… only to peel off just outside the oars and leave you empty handed. Yes, it’s better than not seeing anything at all, but it sure would have been awesome to have gotten that fish to eat instead, right?
Why that trout aborted their chase can be due to several reasons. Maybe the color just wasn’t the right shade of olive to entice a strike. Maybe it caught sight of the boat. Maybe the movement of the fly wasn’t just right. Maybe it was too big. Or maybe it just wanted to torture you, getting your hopes up only to squash your morale at the last second. However, one thing I have learned from these non-committal trout, is that one of the easiest things you can do to entice that strike is to offer them a second, smaller fly behind your streamer.
Smaller, unweighted flies provide trout that might be hesitant at striking a larger fly with another option. Tie these flies onto the bend of the hook with approximately twelve inches of tippet and chuck away. This can be accomplished with articulated streamers as well. Just tie the second fly onto the trailing hook. This may affect the movement of your streamer however, I haven’t noticed much difference so long as unweighted flies are used. This has worked for me tons of times and in numerous locations.
BUT, WHAT IF YOU DON’T HAVE AN ASSORTMENT OF STREAMERS ON HAND?
Read More »Shooting Trout With An Elephant Gun
IF YOU’VE ADAPTED A SPEY OR SWITCH ROD TO SWING STREAMERS FOR TROUT YOU OBVIOUSLY DON’T CARE ABOUT THE NUMBERS.
You probably enjoy both the casting aspect and fishing for a grab. If you wanted to whack ’em and stack you’d have your indicator rod, or better yet, powerbait. I’m seeing more and more people swinging their spey and switch rods on trout rivers, especially in the fall. Those who’ve turned to the long rods for their anadromous fishing know how much easier it is to move a large streamer with a skagit line rather than a single handed rod.
Unfortunately the size of the trout we find seldom matches that of the steelhead we also target. Let’s face it, there’s not much of a fight with a sub 20” trout on a 5 or 6 weight spey or switch rod.
There are a variety of great truly trout-sized double handed rods on the market from the likes of Echo, Gary Anderson, Winston, and the forthcoming Sage rods. The ultimate conundrum being, when scaling down to trout sized (what I define as sub 300 grains) the lines have yet to catch up.
The skagit style heads and streamer specific lines available around and under 300 grains all have heads that are too long. This results in not having enough mass per foot to turn over a sink tip and desirable sized streamer.
Enter Mike McCune.
Mike is one of the original
Read More »4 Tips for Getting a Better Picture of Your Trophy
WAY BACK BEFORE WE HAD DIGITAL CAMERAS, I CAN REMEMBER HOW EXCITED I WOULD BE RACING TO THE CLOSEST ONE-HOUR PHOTO STORE TO GET MY FILM DEVELOPED.
The anticipation of waiting to review my big fish photos was almost as fun for me as catching the trophy. I wish I could say all those developed photos came out perfect but that’s far from the truth. Some came out great but the majority were blurry, had my head cut off, or I was holding the fish like a rookie. Nowadays we have the luxury of instant feedback with digital cameras, so we don’t have any excuse to not get good photo when the fish cooperates. Below are four tips for capturing better photographs of your trophies with examples of the right and wrong way to hold your fish. Keep in mind there is a learning curve for handling big fish. The more you do it the better you get.
1. Hold the fish with the tips of your fingers not your palms
Read More »RS2 – One of My Favorite Picky Trout Fly Patterns
There’s days when trout fishing is so slow, it seems like conditions couldn’t possibly get any worse.
You may find yourself questioning if any trout in the stream are willing to feed at all. At other times, you’ll have no problem locating pods of steady risers, but everything you throw at them is rejected. My buddy Brad in this situation usually volunteers to row the boat, opting for cold beer within arms distance and gazing at picturesque landscapes. The dude always has a Plan B ready to be put into action, ensuring he always has a good time on the water whether he catches fish or just a buzz, and I respect that.
The RS2 fly pattern time and time again never fails to produce for me during tough fishing situations. And it really has the ability to catch fish just about any way you fish it. Fish it solo on fine tippet to wary sippers and you’ll fool a couple guaranteed. Drop it off the back of a larger and more visible dry fly if you’re having problems seeing it, and it will ride in the film, usually fooling fish on even the most technical trout water. I even have great luck fishing an RS2 as my dropper fly in a
Read More »Garner’s White Trash Bass Fly
WANT TO CATCH BIG BASS?
How about really big bass? Striper fishing rivers in the south during the summer can be off the hook but it can also be challenging. Those big bruisers can get pretty damned selective and you a pattern that will get them moving.
Nobody knows this game better than Garner Reed. Today Garner is going to share a pattern he developed for catching big striped bass and spotted bass on the Etowah River. He calls it Garners White Trash and it gets the job done.
Watch the video and learn to tie this great bass fly.
Read More »The Hydropsyche With Peacock Quills
By Herman deGala
Here’s some advanced technique for tying flies with peacock quills.
Fly tying has always been the art of linking a series of techniques to achieve an overall design. Innovative techniques are often a result of problem solving.
I have always enjoyed the look of wrapped peacock quills and the beautiful segmented bodies they create with simple turns. I also enjoy the iridescence of peacock barbules and their fish catching attributes. I have come up with a simple way to combine both of these attributes.
I DEMONSTRATE IT HERE WITH A SIMPLE HYDROPSYCHE. I AM SURE YOU CAN THINK OF MANY MORE APPLICATIONS WITH YOUR OWN TYING.
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