Chumming for Fly Fishing.

[captkenroy 0]

Some guys would never consider chumming when fly fishing. Not me, man! When I was guiding, I always had chum aboard or knew darn well where to find what I needed. It often made the difference between fish and no fish and saved me from fruitless poling or sculling when the water was murky or the wind howling. Read on.

 

Fly Fishing Tip #64

Chumming for the Fly Fisherman

In my first book, The Book of Fishing Secrets, SW Edition, there were 6 separate tips on chumming. While some of them would work for fly fishing, Fly Fishermen deserve a tip or two specific to fly fishing. Of course these tips will work for other types of tackle.

 

When chum is mentioned, the first thought for most fishermen is ground Menhaden or Menhaden oil. I’ve used hundreds of pounds of Menhaden and I’ll likely use more but I am here to tell you that there are other chums that will appeal to a larger number of fish species. Likely, Menhaden chum will catch more Mackerel Kingfish and Tuna though.

 

Crushed crab, shrimp and a few mollusks like Scallops, Oysters and Clams are attractive to more shallow water fish and are generally readily available right where you fish. I usually obtain crabs and Oysters off the nearest Oyster bar or rock pile then crush them where I deploy the chum. It doesn’t get any fresher.

Chum made out of crustaceans and mollusks doesn’t leave much of an oily slick so you can’t tell where the chum line is going. I add a little cooking oil to the crushed critters. I doubt if the oil attracts fish but it lets me know where the scent is going.

 

I try to avoid chumming where the current is strongest. Instead, I chum behind a bar but on the edge of the current. There are at least two compelling reasons for doing this. Fish that come out of the current and into the flat water behind the bar are easier to see so sight casting is an option. If this spot has a clean sandy bottom, so much the better. It is often hard to see fish in the current. Fishing for fish that are out of the main current is far easier because you don’t have to fight the drag of the current on your fly line.

 

I’ve intentionally left out 2 of the most important aspects of chumming for fly fishing, saving them for last.

First, I don’t chum right at the boat. I want my chum about forty feet from the boat or where I plan to fish from. (Sometimes I get out of the boat to cast.) Forty feet is a comfortable casting distance and is usually far enough from the fish to where there is little danger of spooking them. Fish that move all the way up to the source of the scent will mill around, hunting the source of the scent, often giving you a chance for multiple casts. If the source of the scent was right at the boat, fish would come that far then spook.

 

Second, I can anchor my boat away from the chum where I have the best sun angle for seeing feeding or approaching fish without them detecting my presence.

 

This ain’t Rocket Science.

Fly Fishing Tip # 65

Chum Bat

Check out the little “Wiffel Ball Bat” shown below. Notice that the fat end has been cut off at a slight angle. Chum bats are commercially available now but we cut off the toy bats several years ago.

 

Put a handful of ground chum or broken shrimp or crabs and sling them with the “CHUM BAT.” With a little practice you can distribute a good volume of chum a surprising distance. This is a valuable inshore fly fishing technique.

 

The CHUM BAT originated in the Florida Keys and has spread all the way to at least Texas.

 

One little tip for construction your own CHUM BAT: Choose a dark color bat rather than a bright fluorescent one. There is far less chance of spooking nearby fish with a dark bat than with a bright and flashy one.

 

[JSzymczyk 0]

OH MY GOODNESS!!!! Blasphemy! Heresy!

 

You will be burned at the stake.

 

no REAL fly fisherman would even want to catch a fish which is in the area to actually FEED on something!

[sandflyx 0]

Used to chum off of joisey for small bluefins with butterfish so we could get then to take a fly

[Peterjay 0]

I'm not sure what your point is. Are you deliberately trying to stir up an argument, or are you looking to sell books? Or both? Anybody with normal intelligence can learn all they need to know about chumming in five minutes.

[agn54 0]

The chum bat works great, but you have to remember to stuff some newspaper or something into the bat so the chum doesn't fall all the way to the handle where it won't fly out when you sling it. For mackerel, often just a handful of glass minnows will do the trick.

[saltydancindave 0]

Make your own whiffle ball chum bat & plug the handle with a glued in rubber stopper for spin fishing . Over 12 years ago after catching fish on the fly in saltwater for a couple of years had guides say fly fishers can't catch fish in saltwaters without chumming........a lot of dried salt went over the shoulder as the comment went right over my head !

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

I do a bit of live chumming in late summer early fall each year. Very handy when fishing beginners.... The best part is the things you learn about where fish actually are along wild shorelines. On more than one occasion I've chummed a downed tree or current corner only to find that the fish showed up from a completely different quadrant than expected. Really big snook, for instance, are usually well off the shorelines we love to pound - on more than one occasion a bit of live chum has gotten shredded by a big snook as far off the bank as where we positioned the boat...

 

Live chumming when hunting fish is a great time saver as well. If you don't even pick up a rod unless you see the livies getting popped then you're time ahead on spots that aren't holding fish (no matter how good it looked when you stopped there.