swampsinger

I have over 150 splake stocked lakes within a 3 hr drive of my home, and I have no idea what they look like. Last summer I gave stillwater fly fishing a try. I had good success catching rainbows but was a complete failure with the splake. The lakes are small to medium sized, and I would classify them as deep and oligotrophic. I believe they are stocked as put and take fish for ice fisherman. If any one has experience taking these fish with fly fishing techniques, that they could share it would be appreciated.

No one pays more attention to the bait than fly fisherman.

It could be an iso nymph they are also in that system. I have seen the isonychia spinners as well as march brown spinners [ephemera simulans]. A nearby river also has plenty of stone flies that are very close to your fly. these are the casings under a bridge. I usually use a large size pat rubber legs to imitate them.

I think the whole episode is worth watching , but you can see the nymphs around 4 min. and 13 min.

It has been a couple of years since I posted about this. I have tried a couple of prototype nymphs but still not satisfied. The rivers that I fish and that I see these mayflies on are dominated by smallmouth bass and fallfish, no trout. I don't think the smallmouth ever get selective about feeding so its easy to fall into a pattern of fishing with steamers, they work quite well. I experiment when I get bored. The "atros" never seem to be a large hatch. I tie a large size dark brown klinkhammer that provides some fun when the spinners are active. As far as I can determine they are a burrowing /swimming black nymph. This summer I'll try and persevere with stream sampling other than picking up the odd rock. I think I saw this nymph on an episode of The new fly fisher. They were on "my" river and discussing crayfish and I'm sure they had one of these nymphs in the sample jar. I'll see if I can find a link.

Online sales killed my "local" fly shop.

Sorry if I misled you. I don't have an orvis reel, but I am considering upgrading to a reel that has that feature. I suppose I can give them a call tomorrow and find out.

My 8 wt reel can't "free spool" line in like the 5 wt. I like this feature to manage line and quickly put fish on the reel. I guess the 8 wt is just a cheap poor design.

Does the Hydros sl have "reeling in line resistance"? I currently have a 5 wt reel that picks line up easily, by just spinning the arbor.

I thought I would update y'all. I added a small amount of bees wax to the ferrules, and it worked great, 4 outings and I've forgotten I had a problem. thanks

Thanks, I have wax close to hand. I'll clean the ferrules and try it.

My trusty 5 wt that I've used for my entire fly fishing career {all 3 yrs}, is giving me trouble lately and seems to getting worse. The ferrules come apart regularly. Is there a quick fix for this? I suppose I could just super glue and make it into a two or one piece.

I practice regularly. I have lots of room so I can keep a rod assembled in the work shop, then I can just step outside and give it a go. When I first started I would practice 15 to 30 mins a day, now maybe once a week or tune up before a trip along with fishing locally a couple of times a week. Regular practice especially when your learning helps develop the muscle memory that's make casting second nature. I find when I practice, I concentrate on the mechanics of casting, when I'm fishing I'm trying to catch fish and worry less about the casting technique.

I think Florida is a fantastic place to try saltwater fly fishing. Beaches and wadable grass flats are readily available and don't require to much equipment to get going. Good Luck, hope the second day is better than the first.

Sorry, looked a little further and I found someone who stocks Daiichi 2421 in # 10 & 12.

I'm looking to tie some smaller size hair wing salmon flies, {for fishing}, blue charm, thunder and lightning, etc. The obvious places stock sizes down to 8. I would like to tie some size 10 and 12. Does any know where to source these, or have alternatives. Thx.

If picking up road kill counts as scrounging, I scored on the way home. Should last me a while.

A tip of the hat to members of this Forum. I made good use of tips, information, and fly patterns found here. They added positively to my trip to Florida. I managed to catch Ladyfish, Spotted sea trout, Snook, Mangrove snapper, Spanish mackerel, Flounder, Redfish, Gafftopsail catfish, Pompano, Silver perch, Bluefish, Lizard fish, Whiting, Pinfish, Jack crevalle. I had twenty fish days in Rookery bay,and off Crystal River, Bird creek and Cedar key. The area I enjoyed the most was St George Island, I spent 4 days wading the flats on the bay side. Top flies were the Clouser, Seaducer, and Glass Minnow type of streamer all copied off this site. That's me wearing boots and waders to the beach.

I added some pink. I'm going to try some of these next week.

I can rationalize it, if I make good use of the flies I ty. Here's the killer for me. The last trip I tied up a dozen patterns and only fished with one. At the bench, I was positive, I would need all of them.

Just listened to the latest Orvis podcast and pink is the go to color for Texsan river largemouth bass. With the inspiration on here I've placed my "pink" order. Everything you can think of, you can also get in pink. I'm going to ty some clousers , electric chickens etc. and take another run at Florida at the end of March.

I have browsed thru a few salt water patterns. It seems that pink is a legit color for Florida saltwater patterns. I noticed a u tube video touting bubble gum pink, paddle tail soft plastic as a top color and lure for sea trout. Do many favor pink materials in tying for the Florida gulf?

Just to let you fellas know, I survived my trip. Mike you didn't warn about morning temps in the high 30's. I have mixed reviews on google earth scouting. Going to a new area for a short trip you are far better off relying on local knowledge and tips. I faired better going to recommended spots than spots I generated from google earth. However I strongly believe that if want to find new spots in your local waters its a good tool. Nothing that most of you didn't already know. I had to work for them, I caught Spotted Sea Trout, Jack Crevalle, Ladyfish and tried for Snook and caught Mangrove Snapper. I've got another trip planned for late March early April.

I think I'll tackle a streamer next. I'll search for this and see if I can copy it.

Nice article. I thought the royal wulff incorporated moose hair as tail material and calf tail as wing material. It seems to me that Wulff and Quackenbush were after floatation and durability so they used "bucktail".