Home Forums Fishing Flyfishing Blasphemous fly fishing techniques...

Tacticalsquirrel touched one of the delightful aspects of fly fishing: the elitist and "proper" reputation that goes with the sport, deservedly so. I once fished with an eastern purist who tied his own fastidiously, carried expensive stuff to fit every condition on earth, and had fine form. He critiqued my casts, (he was right) lamented the big flies I was using, and tied microscopic flies to long, microscopic leaders. As shadows lengthened on the Canadian lake we were fishing, I told him that there was a magic period of 20 minutes soon after sundown when really big rainbows would feed, and they wanted big meals. He went smaller. I tied on a long shanked California Coachman in a size that was big even for steelhead, and soon that fly was towing our boat from the mouth of a trout in the eight pound class.
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<br>The next morning we hiked to a moose swamp lake to try for brookies. I'd moved down the lake from my friend when I saw a big brookie inhale a bug in a tangle of logs and brush near shore. The fish rose in a three foot triangle of open water between logs, deep water under them. I broke back my tippet to a good ten lb. strength, tied on a huge Tom Thumb, and flicked the fly onto the surface in the open spot. I knew I would never get that fly back unless a non-snagging fish was covering the hook as it returned through the tangle to me. The ripples faded and I let the fly sit. Then I twitched it as small a twitch as I could to create ripple around it like a struggling bug. The big 18 inch, wide body brookie rose up and inhaled the fly. With polarized glasses I could see his mouth close, and at that instant, as he began his turn down, still at the top of his arc to the surface, I yanked him over the log and into clear water on my side of the log jam. My plan was to haul the fish into playable water before he reacted or dived back into the tangle. It's an old steelhead trick for logjams. Anyway, as I yanked I saw my eastern friend standing behind me with open mouth.
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<br>And then there was the morning I fished western water with a genuine Ivy League professor. He had the finest fly rod I've ever held, a two weight for smallish brookies. He fished as the sun rose, and I watched. I hadn't brought a rod to the course he was teaching. "Would you like to try a cast?" he asked?
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<br>I worked out a bit of line and roll cast due to a few bushes behind me. "That was a roll cast!" the professor exclaimed. I explained apologetically that I had fished so much in brush that I roll cast better than backcast. Then I twitched the fly as it lay on the lake surface. "Don't do that!" he exclaimed again. "That causes drag." About then a fat nine inch brookie nailed the fly. With fish on the bank, I handed him the rod. "Oh, take another cast or two," he said. He then critiqued my back cast while in the next two minutes, I hooked three more and landed the third brookie. Every time he would look away I'd twitch the fly and a brookie would hit it.
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<br> When I handed him the rod after the second fish he took it, and fished for the next 36 minutes without a bite, until we headed to class. For 36 minutes I prayed fervently that he would catch a fish. He was a good sport and a fine companion. We had the trout for a quick breakfast and lamented together that the only bite had occured while I held the rod. Fortunately, it was the last day of the week long class.
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Leave it to me to somehow rock the boat...:P

I was jest hopin' this might prime the pump for some yarns about fly rods, purists and irregular or downright disturbing fishing techniques. We got some from Eremicus on the casting bubble thread.

i am going to suggest that this may fall under the category of irregular flyfishing.
<br> my son and i were fishing the au sable in michigan some years ago in the month of june. we were on the water at daylight and being diehards stuck to it all day without so much as seeing sign of a fish. at just dark we were wore plumb out with nothing to show for our efforts. in the last light i saw a fish rise. i looked up in the sky and could just make out a cloud of large mayflies. they had to be brown drakes or hex. and then the water started to boil with rises as the spinners hit the water. with little light left and no flashlight i tied a brown spent wing to each of our lines. and in the pitch dark we started fishing dry flies upstream. there was no finesse involved as i could not see a thing. cast out there, strip line and if i heard a splash i jerked. and we caught fish! we fished until 1:00 a.m. being careful to stay out in the middle of the stream so as not to get tangled in the brush. finally with both rods tangled and no light we gave it up. slept through the next day and went out again just before dark with the same results. only now i carry a small flashlight!

SQUACKS, you described an evening of a lifetime kind of experience, all the better with your son. Hope you have many more. One of the perfect images recorded in my mind is of my 15 year old son wading an alpine lake silouetted against the glare of a summer afternoon sun, hooking and playing rainbows constantly, with overlapping rings of rising trout churning the water around him. May you and I both live long enough to do the same with grandchildren.

I don't know enough of fly fishing technique for big fish to know if this is irregular or not. Last summer we had an astounding run of sockeye, and when I'd caught my limit with salmon gear, and even more after they closed the season to keep sockeye, I went to my flyrod for fun. I caught salmon with no fly line at all, and not much of a fly. At the hook, I used a corkie (little bright coloured floating ball or bead you thread on the line, from pea to marble sizes ) as well as tied some yarn into the hook knot to make a steelhead type fly. The main item in my unflyline was just enough lead core trolling line to load the rod for a cast. I put a mono leader on the terminal end and tied the lead core to maybe 60-70 yards of heavy mono, 20 or 25 lb. and I'd go heavier next time for ease of handling. I'd pull out a bunch of mono on the water at my feet, and then shoot the lead core so that it pulled a long cast of mono out. The mono was tied to 100 yards of Dacron backing but I only got into the backing once or twice, one with my biggest sockey of the season, a good 13 lbs. Those fish are not biting, and the technique is to "floss" or "strafe" them. With so many fish in the river, the idea is to get the leader drifting near bottom and into the salmon's mouth. The leader slides through to the hook, legal and fully accepted by fisheries as long as the hook is in or around the mouth.

You want blasphemy, I have chummed with a fly rod! Every day go to the local pond and toss in some corn for the local carp. Then one day go and toss some corn and one piece with a small hook. Hold onto your hat as the poor mans bonefish will rip up your fly gear. Use a 5 weight if you like, or use a 8 or 9. It's only carp. Ohh yeah and if your elitist fly buddies see you, you can lie about the carp taking a stonefly nymph.
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<br>By the way, Lefty Kreh talked about this once when I met him in a local fly shop and he may just be the closest we have to fly fishing royalty. Great guy, if you get a chance to attend one of his slide shows or casting demos you owe it to yourself. The man can throw a full line with only the tip of his rod.

Didn't Lefty Kreh talk about using "bread flies" for carp ?
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<br>Bullfrogs eagerly attack poppers cast out for largemouth bass and panfish. When I was about 13 or so, I found out that fence lizards will nail a dry fly dangled at them almost immediately. More eager than a 6 inch brookie. The lizard was catch and release by the way.
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<br>And while I never tried using a fly and bubble, I've cast many a spinning lure while using a spinning reel on a fly rod. Works great...
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<br>Anyway, I just started fly fishing again this last week, after about a 15 year hiatus. So just what the heck do Smallmouth bass go for? I've tried muddlers and wooly buggers, and they haven't worked so far, and the fish are probably to deep to go for any type of surface fly.
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<br>And Okanagan, yes, this means that in the very near future, like maybe tomorrow night, I'll be fly fishing from a kayak. I'm going to put a lanyard on my rod though
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<br>Regards,
<br>Scott

Scott, what kind of kayak do you have? You brought back memories I'd forgotten with your bullfrog and lizard "fishing." When I was a kid my dad and I used to catch big bullfrogs with our flyrods. If you dangled a fly in front of them they would flick it into their mouths.
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<br>I think it was you who cautioned me to tie in my rod with lanyard last summer, and I did that. I got a handfull of those little carabiners from the counter at hardware stores, and clip everthing in with a lanyard now: paddle, rod, net or gaff, stringer, and even clip on my bow line with one of the snaps. For the rod, I used much thinner line, more of a heavy nylon string, and clipped it to the reel with a big saltwater snap swivel where it will stay out of my way when fishing. My Velocity kayak has bungee cord deck lines on the flat deck right in front of my cockpit so I clip everything (except the bow line) to the nearest cord so they are all within easy reach. Also, I have an extra length of light rope that I use to tie up to a piling or snag. I tie it to the deck rigging with a quick release slip knot (for safety) and the other end has a full size climbing carabiner that I clip to the snag or pass around it and clip to its own rope. That is to hold me in place for fishing one place in current, etc. I think an alligator clip from jumper cables might work even better to clip onto brush or limbs. Tying to any fixed point in a current can be risky, so I want the instant release.
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<br>All of my kayak fishing so far has been salmon and most of that has been from gravel bars rather than actually from the boat. No bass around here. I plan to try for trout in a big lake in another couple of weeks. Let us know how it goes with the bass. Good luck. Len
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Daredevel used to make little spoons that were about 3/4 in. long and very light weight. They were really murder on Brookies back in Wisc., also rubber black ants about a size 16 were fun. When I was a kid (well a younger kid) I spent all my summer vacations wading the Milwaukee River around Brown Deer and Theinsville Wiisc. catching bass, northerns, river shiners and my favorite carp on a flyrod I caught a few on flies but most were on dough balls drifted throught the deeper holes. most of the big ones would just spool me and then break off the leader. The smaller ones would run and jump just like a smallmouth on steriods.
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<br>erich