The Original Flyswap

[David Legg 0]

Last fall I was on a high mountain lake with some gnarly old pines at my back, and a bunch of rising fish in front of me. Also, the wind was swirling a bit, which made the backcast a bit dicey. I was in as deep as I could go, and was doing my best to put the fly in front of rising fish, but every several minutes, I would break off a fly on a particularly hungry tree behind me. After I had lost a half dozen flies, I finally decided that I should probably retrieve a few, especially since I was running out of my preferred pattern, so I waded slowly to the tree and stepped up onto the bank and began scrutinizing the mess above me. There were literally hundred of different bits of leader and tippet stuck in that tree, most of which were broken off on both ends. But after diligently searching for about ten minutes, I came away with a half dozen retrieved flies... none of which were among the half dozen I lost. I can't remember how many times I have had the same experience... go to retrieve a lost fly, and find someone else's instead. Rarely do I find my own. It's a strange kind of swap, but one that occasionally yields some interesting suprises. I've discovered some interesting tandem couplings over the years by picking through the branches of a tree that swallowed one of my flies. It's always interesting to learn what someone else thought was worth trying on the water you are on... even it was weeks or even years earlier.

[Gustav F. 0]

Now when you mention it, I'm surprised it has never happened to me. Sounds.. annoying

[David Legg 0]

Now when you mention it, I'm surprised it has never happened to me. Sounds.. annoying

 

Chance for discovery, actually. I have found a lot of interesting stuff this way. : )

[ChuckingFluff 0]

I've broken off a few :wallbash: Then I got a spey rod and then learned how to spey cast. Now I spey cast on the single handed rod when theres not room behind me; I don't get snagged up anymore. :headbang:

[FoulHooked 0]

I've broken off a few :wallbash: Then I got a spey rod and then learned how to spey cast. Now I spey cast on the single handed rod when theres not room behind me; I don't get snagged up anymore. :headbang:

 

lol...i still get snagged spey-casting...just that now it's when trying to tuck a cast under a limb on the far bank or downstream.

[Crackleback 0]

There's a spot on the Current here in Missouri I call the indicator hole because there has to be close to 100 stike indicators hanging in the tree there.

 

 

Mike

[midnightmoonlight 0]

Ive only fly fished 2 seasons now. This happened to me. I got my line stuck in a branch low enough to wade to and reach. When I reached for my fly there was 2 flies on a small piece of leader. I tied the leader onto mine and caught my first nice size rainbow in this river.

 

Someone was telling me to shake limbs of trees to see what kind of bugs are around now I also look for other peoples flies to see if I can match the snag

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

its even cooler when you find a few in a tree and then walk down about 150 yards and run into the guy that lost it and he gives you another 3 or 4 as a trade for what you been using

[David Legg 0]

Someone was telling me to shake limbs of trees to see what kind of bugs are around now I also look for other peoples flies to see if I can match the snag

 

ROFL... good one!

[C Teeter 0]

A man could fill a flybox following behind me, but I have found a few to put back myself. Crackleback what part of the current are you fishing, I fished upstream of Van Buren back in the summer, didn't get to fish much but I did catch several nice sunfish. They have an incredible tube hatch on that stretch of the river!!!

[utyer 0]

Amon my favorite places to leave flies are mid stream logs, branches, and other assorted snags. These plases are usually pretty difficult to recover any thing from, but occosionally I will find one that I can get to and lift up enough to retrieve my fly. Many times, I will find other bits of leader, and flies. One day on the PM, I snagged up, and could see the log, and waded over to it, and lifted the end of the log. I found a ball of tangled leader, and litteraly hundreds of flies. I cut much of the mess loose and waded over to shore with the resulting nest of leader and flies. Most of the flies had been there too long to be usable, but I did find more than 2 dozen usable flies. The rest ended up in the trash back in camp.

[Old Hat 0]

I would fish the Metolius River in Central Oregon quite a bit, it is a fly fishing only, catch and release river with a lot of bank brush. As we would hike down the river my son could just about fill a small fly box with flies from the branches of the brush. One of his favorite pastimes.

[Crackleback 0]

Crackleback what part of the current are you fishing, I fished upstream of Van Buren back in the summer, didn't get to fish much but I did catch several nice sunfish.

I fish the blue ribbon stretch up by Montauk, usually the Tan Vat access. The hole I was talking about is right downstream from the edge of the park.

 

 

Mike

[C Teeter 0]

Crackleback what part of the current are you fishing, I fished upstream of Van Buren back in the summer, didn't get to fish much but I did catch several nice sunfish.

I fish the blue ribbon stretch up by Montauk, usually the Tan Vat access. The hole I was talking about is right downstream from the edge of the park.

 

 

Mike

 

Man I've got to make a trip up there this summer I've been fly fishing for about fine years now and haven't got to catch a trout yet

[David Legg 0]

Crackleback what part of the current are you fishing, I fished upstream of Van Buren back in the summer, didn't get to fish much but I did catch several nice sunfish.

I fish the blue ribbon stretch up by Montauk, usually the Tan Vat access. The hole I was talking about is right downstream from the edge of the park.

 

 

Mike

 

Man I've got to make a trip up there this summer I've been fly fishing for about fine years now and haven't got to catch a trout yet

 

Or if you ever travel west, stop here in Colorado. The place is just filthy with trout. Not only that, but we have Rainbow, Brook, Brown, a couple of types of Cutthroat, Lake Trout, Grayling, Kokanee and Splake. (We also have some Arctic Char, but that's a secret. We don't tell anyone about them.) There are also a few almost pure goldens in isolated pockets. Fish and Game killed most of them since they aren't native, along with most of our grayling, but we have a couple of good grayling lakes left.