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Text of the page (random words):
ish too i m confident that if i had a shot at those big boys or girls again they would have been mine something to think about before your next trip tight lines p s there will certainly be occasions where fish will be in the mood to chase during cold water conditions so it s always important to experiment with flies and retrieves and adapt to what fish are looking for on a particular day posted by nick at 10 32 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest tuesday december 8 2015 steelhead teaching some lessons we swung flies for steelhead last weekend in western michigan it is no secret that the run is unusually light this year when we couple low numbers of fish high sunny skies and plenty of human traffic we ve got our work cut out for us swinging the fly the following are some strategies i ve learned over the years for putting fish in the net in some difficult conditions primer on conditions in normal fall conditions the water is relatively warm and steelhead are in the river to feed rather than spawn so the fish hold in active lies such as the heads and tailouts of runs they also tend to hold near to but off of structure and higher in the water column which is conducive to a swung fly presentation moreover since they are in feeding mode they are more prone to chase a steamer as we transition to winter the water temperatures drop the fish seek out deeper guts and troughs moreover in the rivers i fish the steelhead also begin holding very tight to structure i suspect it s because the material warms ever so slightly and disrupts the current giving the steelhead a comfortable place to sit without having to expend energy as a fisherman we need to be aware of these patterns in order to get the fly in front of fish but what if the conditions throw you a curve ball in fall bright sunny skies and people can quickly alter a fish s pattern when faced with these factors fall fish will shift into a winter pattern particularly as to in stream structure here are some strategies i ve found to be productive in the past lowlight fish lowlight conditions when the light is low fish feel safe in more open lies for instance every fish we hooked on the swing occurred when the sun was below the tree line when the sun was high we coaxed some pulls but no solid grabs the fish were there and we got bites on indy rigs but nothing on the swing during the middle of the day early bird gets the worm people and boats put player steelhead off the bite for instance this past weekend there were a number of people running and gunning for brown trout that means lots of splats oar strokes shadows and movement over the steelheads head there is no doubt they hide from the commotion in the wood during high traffic times being the first fly through the run dramatically improves your odds of a grab tight to cover if fish are holding tight to cover try thinking about how to get the fly to dangle in front of that structure this may require wading deeper and fishing deeper to allow the fly to be seen by fish holding in or under cover fish heavy tips and or heavy flies to get down to the fish in a hurry we may hook some logs along the way but if the fish never sees the fly we really aren t fishing the water well natural colors be aware of flash fish on bright days at least here in the midwest key on natural tones sculpin or baitfish patterns tend to perform the best moreover give them a chance to see the fly with generous amounts of flash however be aware that if the water is extremely clear then flash can be counter productive so in regards to flash play it by ear and try to feel out what the fish are looking for tight lines posted by nick at 7 04 pm 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest thursday december 3 2015 swim jig fly when bass guys start talking about fall and spring fishing the swim jig comes up in conversation it s a big versatile lure that catches fish with that said my mind wandered while i was cutting up some spinner bait skirts for my rubber legged steelhead streamers topic of another post perhaps and i began wondering if a swim jig fly was a possibility so what are the essential elements of a classic swim jig the main components are a long baitfish soft plastic tail with plenty of movement an upturned hook a large silicone skirt and a weighted head ok so once again the fly guy needs to get creative for the tail 4 large schlappan feathers provide plenty of length lots of wiggle and some profile i tied the feathers to a short shank hook which i could use with an articulation point allowing the fly to ride hook point up the foundation shank is a waddington shank if you re unfamiliar with a waddington shanks ws they look like this they are popular bases for salmon and steelhead flies the reason for the ws is that the side by side wire creates a wide base that will solidly hold the rubber skirt when you slide it on the skirt is just a regular old silicone spinnerbait skirt the weighted head is accomplished by medium dumbbell eyes there are a couple tricks and techniques which will be better shown in a video that i hope to post soon let me just say this fly looks killer in the water and is a proven fish getter too the negative is that it is heavy the fly is not too much for a 7 or 8 weight but in this size it would be a bear to cast on a 6 weight that being said the fly is 5 inches long so you are going after the big fish of the bunch posted by nick at 7 12 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest monday november 16 2015 first lake run brown of fall this is my first fish on the swing this season she s a cute little lake run brown pretty fresh from the lake although she had some color her fins were clean and it appeared she had not been on a bed yet so the brown spawning run isn t over yet the most clear indication that she had not transitioned into spawning mode was that she chased down and hammered a 3 5 inch bad hair day tube fly i had made a lot of casts that morning with nothing to show for it so once again persistence pays off in the swing game also she was sitting in a classic fall holding spot for river bound migrating fish the tail out of a relatively long run with moderate current however this particular run had never produced a fish for me ever even so i loved now even more so this particular run it has the right speed that slow to moderate walking pace it has the right depth about 4 feet there are a few boulders throughout the run that provide current breaks but don t hinder the swing presentation the run sits just up from and down from long shallow riffle water so it seems to be a logical holding spot for resting migrating fish in short in a river with limited ideal swinging water it seems perfect the fly swings beautifully in the run and you have enough room to make a full true skagit cast which can be a luxury in midwest streams so the run is not only sound on paper it is also a particularly fun run to fish accordingly in spite of the poor track record each and every time i go to this river i fish the run at first i fished it because in light of all of its attributes i was certain i would catch a fish out of it then after putting up a number of goose eggs i mean never even a pluck i just fished the run because i enjoyed fishing it then the other day a bright sunny day i might add i approached the run as i had so many times before with excitement but very little confidence i worked the run in close then out further and progressively down the run as i had so many times before with each step i thought to myself there should have been a fish there and there and there as i had so many times before but then this time at the tail out i made a cast then a small mend and when the fly started to swing there she was as the line tightened in the current i felt the exhilarating unmistakable pull of an active fish people often say it s all about the grab that s true the grab is addictive and what ultimately converts people to the swing game but what i love even more is the chess match between the fish and the angler that often occurs prior to the grab sometimes the fish just hits the fly i ve had many a steelhead do that in fact we had an epic day in michigan where a number of steelhead just hammered the fly one moment the fly was swinging through the run the the next a steelhead was ripping line this sort of take often happens at the end of the swing or the first strip or two as you set up your next cast many other times the however the fish plays with its food a bit this commonly plays out with a pluck a jab a pull generally any sort of quick tug on the end of the line my favorite scenario occurs when a pluck occurs at the beginning of a swing at that point you can visualize a steelhead tracking the fly setting up the kill but you have no idea when its going to happen the anticipation is awesome however the grab is not guaranteed and i have come across a couple tricks that have helped me seal the deal when a fish plucked but wouldn t commit 1 extend your rod a bit during the hang down if you got a pluck during the swing the odds are the fish is still sitting behind the fly as it dangles at the end to the swing by extending your rod and dropping the fly back i ve found you can trigger a strike i don t pretend to know why but it works 2 pop the rod tip just short quick pops this will make the fly accelerate forward and up in the water column presumably this makes the fly seems like a last ditch effort to escape triggering the kill instinct 3 some people change color i prefer to change size my position is they ve committed to the color but the fly may be too long or large such that if the fish was able to hit the fly but miss the hook the point seems to be easier to get a hold of on a smaller pattern 4 take a small step down i ve found if a fish hits a fly particularly hard and does not hook up it often times drops back in the run if i was taking a 3 steps down through the run i switch to 1 step so i make sure not to fish over an active fish that has dropped back 5 fish the entire run and start over if i ve located an active fish i fish that run at least one more time this is when i change the color or style of pattern the grab is exciting but enticing the grab is the fun part once you know that there is a fish willing to chase a streamer it can be a challenge to convince it to eat but incredibly rewarding if you succeed in the case of this little brown the chess match was short lived she plucked early but sealed the deal a moment later about midway through the swing love it tight lines nick posted by nick at 2 47 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest monday november 9 2015 craft beer neighbor fly fishing dvds s big streamers recipe rear hook 2461 size 1 rear body reverse tied extra select craft fur 3 4 clumps tied from the hook bend to the hook eye articulation beadalon and 3 small red craft beads front hook 2461 size 1 front body reverse tied extra select craft fun 3 clumps but tied closer together than the rear body to add the appearance of bulk gills red hackle flash head deer body hair over wool and a 3d eye story so my wife had a girls night in the city this past weekend that meant the fly tying material could sneak out of the basement fly tying is always better in the company of friends and beer so i summoned my neighbor and fellow fly fishing junkie nothing was on the agenda other than letting the creative juices flow we both started playing around with hollow tied craft fur the pictured fly started as a single then the beadalon came out but what to do with the head my neighbor was using craft fur and flash for the head of his flies he added some blue ice dub in front of a dark olive craft fur head which looked awesome when i got to the head stage of the process i wasn t sure what to do initially we talked about all wool which would push a lot of water as with craft fur but would add undesired weight then we discussed deer hair which would add some movement to the fly but by the same token buoyancy after some additional thinking juice i came to a deer hair over wool combo fly designs incorporating this tying strategy have popped up on the web from time to time in fact i believe orvis carries a pattern with this style of head this design will push water and add some additional movement to the fly but in less tying time and with less buoyancy moreover the hollow tied body gives a cool realistic in the round baitfish profile fortunately craft fur wool and deer body hair are all materials that are cheap easy to get a hold of and come in a variety of colors so your creativity can go wild with this one as an added bonus this is an articulated pattern that you can create without the end product using 30 of material as an aside you can certainly tie this as a single rather than a double to have a 3 inch fly when 6 inches seems a bit excessive p s this is the prototype for those into critiquing flies i admit there are plenty of imperfections this one was more about seeing where the design went for fun rather than business imperfections aside i m confident this dog will hunt posted by nick at 3 03 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest friday july 10 2015 9 months until tarpon season 2016 ok it s a long way away but may as well start filling boxes this fly is near and dear to me certainly nothing special just a classic splayed wing keys style fly in the notorious black and purple combination just a couple inches long but an absolute killer i like to put eyes on everything but this style of fly for no reason other than i like how they look without eyes also i don t like filling the shank with thread as some tiers do again for no substantive reason there are a couple things to keep in mind when tying these flies which i believe enhance their fishability first try to tie the tail feathers straight back or propped up slightly for a shrimpy effect as inline and even as possible when wet these feathers wiggle all over the place so perfection is not necessary however feathers that are extremely off line may cause the fly to spin and that is no bueno also the front hackle is made in two parts the first hackle which is fluffy is the base or a fter shaft of a saddle hackle the fluffy after shaft feathers are like short marabou fibers and when palmered they give the small fly some extra movement and bulk the front hackle is the tip of the hackle when palmered the tip creates a stiff front that pushes water they combine to add movement and bulk helping the tail feathers swim when stripped this pattern got me my very first poon and i have loved it ever since hook choice is a matter of personal preference however when tarpon fishing the weight of the hook can be a factor so i like to tie flies on owner aki hooks heavy sc15 2h almost as heavy and sc15 light ...