Speaking of Flyfishing

JohnP · February 11, 2018, 12:42:48 PM

Got my nine year old grandson interested in it, big mistake. So far fly fishing lessons, mucho gear plus fly tying class for him and of course myself. It's fun but tons of money so far. Next adventure, we booked a week of trout/bass fishing in a resort with a private lake in Pagosa Springs, CO this coming May. Can't remember spending this amount of money on any one of my kids!!!!

slagmaker · February 11, 2018, 01:10:07 PM

But your supposed to spoil grandkids. Its a federal law, I tell it is look it up.

nastygunz · February 11, 2018, 01:11:29 PM

I remember you had mentioned that a while back. If he's interested now he will be a lifelong flyfisherman, it is kind of an obsession when you really get into it. Be careful JohnP you might get hooked, pun intended😇👍🇺🇸

weedwalker · February 11, 2018, 05:39:30 PM

Quote from: nastygunz on February 11, 2018, 01:11:29 PM
I remember you had mentioned that a while back. If he's interested now he will be a lifelong flyfisherman, it is kind of an obsession when you really get into it. Be careful JohnP you might get hooked, pun intended😇👍🇺🇸

An obsession for sure. I started last summer and have been going almost every weekend that's above freezing. Caught a few rainbows today.

nastygunz · February 11, 2018, 07:42:59 PM

Beautiful fish! What did u get him on? When I was a poor kid growing up in Vermont my first two years of flyfishing the only fly I ever used or had was a muddler minnow and I still caught quite a few fish on it ha ha.

weedwalker · February 12, 2018, 02:07:45 AM

I caught that one, and several others on streamers I tied. Caught a few on nymphs too.
I caught most of them on this. It's a size 4, but then I'm not fishing for small trout. But they bite it too sometimes.

centerfire_223 · February 12, 2018, 04:57:02 AM

When the word fly and fishing get together the price automatically triples. You can hunt the best bass rod made and it won't be $200, but in fly rods $200 is almost at entry level. It's outrageous!! For you guys tying flies, I buy a lot of my material on ebay and at dollar tree. It's amazing what you can find there.

nastygunz · February 12, 2018, 06:39:57 AM

Fly tyers r ALWAYS on the lookout for tying material, dollar store, cat, kids, wife,dog

weedwalker · February 12, 2018, 04:30:25 PM

Quote from: nastygunz on February 12, 2018, 06:39:57 AM
Fly tyers r ALWAYS on the lookout for tying material, dollar store, cat, kids, wife,dog

I even brought home some coyote fur from the LBL to try to tie with. It had a stank to it, so I scrubbed it with Dawn dish soap and let it dry overnight. The next day, it still had that stank. It went into the trash.

nastygunz · February 12, 2018, 06:32:00 PM

Yukkkkk haha. My oldest brother has a farm with all kinds of animals on it and he even has a Scarlet Macaw and African Gray parrots for exotic feathers. This was my load out of flys from last Fall.

Okanagan · February 12, 2018, 08:40:59 PM

Quote from: weedwalker on February 12, 2018, 02:07:45 AM
I caught that one, and several others on streamers I tied. Caught a few on nymphs too.
I caught most of them on this. It's a size 4, but then I'm not fishing for small trout. But they bite it too sometimes.

Beautiful fly! It is tied sparsely and not too full. That would catch Coho salmon for SURE!

Re a size 4 fly: That is a good size for a lot of my fly fishing for trout in the interior of British Columbia. I use size 6 a lot as well and rarely go below a size 8. I fish a #2 or even bigger more than size 10.

Our trout have not read the books written by eastern fly fishermen, so when a big fly splashes down at the end of a defective cast, they act like it means a big meal rather than being put off by the poor presentation. Mostly we fish lakes and imparting some "drag" to the fly makes it look alive.

Re materials: When my kids were little I had fun tying flies from their hair, and caught fish. Naming the flies is even more fun: for daughter Sally it was flies called Sizzlin' Sally, Bombshell Blond, Daddy's Twinkle, etc. Friends would have me tie a fly from the hair of their kid to give to the grandparents.

nastygunz · February 12, 2018, 09:48:46 PM

Getting hair from family members is good exercise too when you are chasing them around the house with scissors and a Ziploc bag.

I have used everything from Striper streamers to midges that you can barely see. I have got some really big trout on some really tiny tiny flies. That's the beauty of flyfishing you can carry a whole tackle box full of lures in your shirt pocket.

Hawks Feather · February 12, 2018, 10:14:42 PM

Quote from: nastygunz on February 12, 2018, 09:48:46 PM
I have used everything from Striper streamers to midges that you can barely see.

Are you still talking about fly fishing or did you do a U-Turn?

Jerry

nastygunz · February 12, 2018, 10:16:21 PM

Heres a cool little simple fly/lure to make with kids, you might want to do the heating part:

weedwalker · February 13, 2018, 03:16:11 AM

Quote from: Okanagan on February 12, 2018, 08:40:59 PM

Re a size 4 fly: That is a good size for a lot of my fly fishing for trout in the interior of British Columbia. I use size 6 a lot as well and rarely go below a size 8. I fish a #2 or even bigger more than size 10.

Our trout have not read the books written by eastern fly fishermen, so when a big fly splashes down at the end of a defective cast, they act like it means a big meal rather than being put off by the poor presentation.

Thanks Okanagan. I usually throw bigger flies than most people around here. Everybody is using nymphs and midges size 16s and smaller in the winter. They catch a bunch of small fish, and sometimes bigger ones. But I catch consistently bigger fish throwing streamers size 2 to 6.

Nastygunz, nice tip with the paracord. I'll have to try it.

Todd Rahm · February 13, 2018, 03:58:42 AM

That awesome John. Nice Bow Weed!!!

centerfire_223 · February 13, 2018, 05:51:25 AM

My fishing partner out here throws the crap out of streamers and catches really nice fish on them, though not nearly as many as a nymph. But for the life of me, I just can't make myself throw them for some reason. I will tie one on and give it a few casts and if it doesn't work I am back to the nymph. I guess it has a lot to do with confidence in a fly.

JohnP · February 13, 2018, 07:24:17 AM

Thanks Todd, dang grandkids are driving me to the poorhouse, but I'm enjoying every mile of it. Ronnie was correct about entry level fly rods/reels. I have a shed full of spinning rods and could grab a hand full and none cost as much as one fly rod.

Okanagan · February 13, 2018, 10:35:39 AM

Quote from: centerfire_223 on February 13, 2018, 05:51:25 AM
My fishing partner out here throws the crap out of streamers and catches really nice fish on them, though not nearly as many as a nymph. But for the life of me, I just can't make myself throw them for some reason. I will tie one on and give it a few casts and if it doesn't work I am back to the nymph. I guess it has a lot to do with confidence in a fly.

Excellent bit of truth. It does not seem like confidence could effect the fish but a fly or lure fished with confidence catches more fish, no question for me and for others who fish much. I know that small nymphs like chronomids fished slow and deep consistently catch more big trout in our inland lakes, but I don't enjoy fishing them and don't fish them with confidence. I just don't like to cast sinking lines or sinking tips etc. Dragonfly nymphs fished on a floating line fairly near the surface are one of my favorites however.

Re confidence in lures, I have a friend who is a very good trout fisherman who loves small flatfish on spin gear as his favorite and most effective way to catch trout, and he catches a lot that way. For the life of me I cannot catch trout on a flatfish, and have zero confidence in them.

John, you have probably felt this by now, but when you make a cast with a matched fly rod and line, it is one of life's pleasures. Whether a fish hits it or not it feels good, feels right. Timing, touch, tug, release, all at a delicate minimalist level and subtle are a pleasure when they come together. To me it compares with the instinctive lift and hit on an ideal shotgun shot, or a perfect split shift on a high revved loaded truck. Skill and timing matched to the equipment.

nastygunz · February 13, 2018, 06:28:50 PM

"He told us about Christ's disciples being fisherman, and we were left to assume...that all great fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fisherman and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman."
-Norman Maclean - A River Runs Through It

To him, all good thingsâ€"trout as well as eternal salvationâ€"come by grace and grace comes by art and art does not come easy."
Norman Maclean - A River Runs Through It

And last, but certainly not least:

"I look into... my fly box, and think about all the elements I should consider in choosing the perfect fly: water temperature, what stage of development the bugs are in, what the fish are eating right now. Then I remember what a guide told me: 'Ninety percent of what a trout eats is brown and fuzzy and about five-eighths of an inch long."
-Allison Moir