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Hardyrod1974

Handy fly fishing accessory

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This seems useful.

 

But how well would crickets hold up during casting?

 

It seems to me that bait would fly in the face of fly fishing. I mean, I use bait but not when I'm not fly fishing.

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Casting that cage would be a pain in the rear !!!

 

And why would fish go after crickets in a cage, anyway ???

 

Even if they DID go for it ... where's the hook ???

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Casting that cage would be a pain in the rear !!!

 

And why would fish go after crickets in a cage, anyway ???

 

Even if they DID go for it ... where's the hook ???

 

Too funny, I wish I'd of thought of it.

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I think it's still somewhat common for some people here in Michigan--usually older guys, and particularly in the Upper Peninsula--to use bait on a fly rod. It's done mostly on small creeks for brookies, and they don't really fly-cast the bait. They deliver the bait more like bass fishermen who "pitch" baits into tight quarters, or they sometimes "dap" the fly--let it dangle from the rod tip on a foot or two of leader until it just touches the surface.

 

In Ernest Hemingway's well-known short story Big Two-Hearted River, the protagonist, Nick Adams, hikes through a meadow to the river. On the way, he catches grasshoppers and uses them on his fly rod to catch trout. That's fiction, though--has to be taken with a grain of salt. :)

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I think it's still somewhat common for some people here in Michigan--usually older guys, and particularly in the Upper Peninsula--to use bait on a fly rod. It's done mostly on small creeks for brookies, and they don't really fly-cast the bait. They deliver the bait more like bass fishermen who "pitch" baits into tight quarters, or they sometimes "dap" the fly--let it dangle from the rod tip on a foot or two of leader until it just touches the surface.

 

In Ernest Hemingway's well-known short story Big Two-Hearted River, the protagonist, Nick Adams, hikes through a meadow to the river. On the way, he catches grasshoppers and uses them on his fly rod to catch trout. That's fiction, though--has to be taken with a grain of salt. smile.png

 

OK, I'm going to be "That guy". Just because it was done on a fly rod doesn't make it fly fishing. If you use bait on a fly rod, it's bait fishing with a fly rod. The IFGAs definition for fly fishing includes a back cast, (i'm pretty sure you can't back cast a cricket) and I will have to check again but i'm pretty sure it says no bait. My state regs say fly fishing is without bait or scent of any kind.

 

I'm not against bait fishing, I do that too, people should do whatever makes them happy but it you are using bait it ain't fly fishing. Do what you want but call it what it is. Just my humble opinion.

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To further confuse the discussion, I wonder how that would resolve in Master Angler and State Record cases. I think most states just refer to fly tackle or a fly rod as opposed to "...caught using approved fly fishing techniques and traditions."

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Many years ago some of us that did a lot of bonefishing found that broken up bits of shrimp would draw bones pretty well (as long as there was a bit of current to allow the scent to disperse properly). I believe Capt. Bill Curtis was the first one to come up with the idea - must have been late sixties or early seventies. Once the chum was in place a few minutes you'd get more than one bone come right up to where you['d placed the goodies - then we'd work flies at fish that came into the chum spot...

 

That worked really well except for all the other small fish that could be seen vacuuming up every bit of that shrimp... Some enterprising guy figured out that you could make a small chum pot out of six or eight inches of PVC pipe ( pipe diameter 1" up to 2" if you were really ambitious..). Each end capped - one end threaded. The device had numerous holes drilled into and and a short section of vinyl coated wire leader so that sharks couldn't make off with the tube... If you did it right the thing was actually able to be cast out with a stout plug rod - then picked back up when a fish was hooked so that it didn't get in the way... On more than one occasion I found myself years ago playing tug of war with a small shark that just had to eat that tube... I never appreciated it at all since the shark's contortions spooked any bonefish coming to the scent...

 

Looking at that old cricket tube made me think that one of those would be perfect to load in a handful of fresh broken up shrimp pieces and chum up a bone -or even a permit... I'll bet that the wire mesh would rust out very quickly though...

 

Just no end of things you can make to help your fishing... Me I long ago quit taking customers bonefishing and retreated back into the salt and brackish portions of the Everglades where you'll never see a bonefish (they don't like dark waters at all....). The outstanding bonefishing we had in the early seventies (when there were only three guides for the thirty miles between Key Biscayne and Key Largo) is just a memory now... Wish it weren't so...

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It would rust in salt no doubt but not immediately maybe, the one I have is galvanized hardware cloth. Good for keeping grasshoppers too.

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That would need an offshore meat stick fly rod in casting, which would be a lot more work compared to catching fireflies put in a very small glass vial with a pharmacy cap lashed to fishing line in trying getting in some bass fishing after dark.

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Mark Knapp, I'm not sure why my post led to you deciding to be "that guy". I didn't say anything about was "is" or "isn't" fly fishing. I wouldn't waste my time making any such assertion, because 1) who am I to say? and 2) frankly, I couldn't care less about such distinctions.

 

I simply stated that I have seen some people here in Michigan use a fly rod to deliver live insects.

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