Post by Nick Pionessa on Sept 28, 2010 21:37:47 GMT -5
9/26-27/10
Well it seems that so far this year for me it’s been extremes. First it was high water and for this it was about as clear as it ever gets on the big LE trib. A perfect example of how your work schedule can affect your fishing and why it is so important to be able to handle as many situations as possible.
Anticipating clear water I selected the Scott 11’6wt switch rod for the day. I put an Airflo compact scandi line on it at 360 grains over 30’ attached to #35 Airflo no stretch miracle braid running line to 30# backing spooled on a Bauer Rogue #4. This is a very light setup and the reel balances it perfectly but is a touch shy of capacity. That is why I chose the miracle braid running line It’s thinner that regular fly line type running lines. The line shoots like crazy but can be a little tough to hold onto and doesn’t mend real well at distance. I can live with both of those issues so for me it’s a good trade off.
This is the lightest setup I would recommend for steelhead, even lake Erie fish. Any lighter and the fish would be very tough to control. It’s nice on the angler to fish all day and can handle the casting distance needed easily. Going light would also add to the stealthyness of the presentation, in theory anyway.
With the low clear water I didn’t want to use a sinking poly leader due to it’s dark color. I feel that when the water is very clear that the sinktips can spook fish so I chose an 8’ clear intermediate poly leader with 2’ of 15# Maxima UG then 3’ of the same in 12#. Now you may think, “why not go lighter in tippet” well we will get to that a little later but mainly it’s because the fish don’t seem to notice if you are fishing bigger flies. If I was going to fish really small stuff I would have went with 10#. With little sink rate coming from the leader I need to use some sort of weight to get the fly down. I chose a fly tied on a copper tube and at times I needed to add weight from there.
The water color and a snake roll cast
One method I use to add weight to the fly/leader is to carry a selection of coneheads in my pack. I can slide one on the leader before tying on the fly and convert any tube to a conehead in seconds. I carry medium and large in brass and a few medium in tungsten in gold silver and black. At some points in the day I also added a small split shot to the tippet knot to get further down. Heresy on a two handed rod? Well, whatever I need to get down.
We started on a relatively slow but deep pool, in fact the same pool I fished in the high water scenario. Now the water was about 10” lower and considerably slower. In fact the good part of the pool was half what it was before. With early fish I feel they respond well to baitfish patterns so I tied on a Better Minnow pattern in grey over white. The translucency and motion are key elements in the fly and it has proven itself in clear water many times.
Only by the fact that I tied on new tippet the night before (OCD pays off again) and my partner didn’t I was first to go through the run. With the clear water I knew you would not have to get the fly real close to the fish to get them to see it. I also wanted to make sure the fly didn’t sweep downstream, at the fish. The prey never swims toward the predator. To achieve this I made my cast at about a 60 deg angle to my position. This means I was casting about 30 deg downstream of my position and very tight to the far bank. Also important is making a good, straight cast so the fly is the last thing to land and the leader doesn’t land in a pile. I would allow the fly to sink for maybe another ten degrees and then tighten and begin the swing.
This type of cast and presentation causes the fly to begin swinging quickly and there fore come from the fish’s periphery, into its view and then appear to flee toward the near bank. It is my belief that this insight’s a predatory response from the fish thinking the baitfish just saw them and is now getting away. Of course I don’t have any idea what they are really thinking but that’s the idea in my head.
I started down the pool and after only about a dozen casts got the big yank and a hot fish was on. This was the first bright fish I hooked with this rod in warmer, bigger water and I thought I was screwed to begin with. Once the initial runs and a few good launches I knew the rod was fine. In fact I was surprised to find it handled the fish well. The fish was hot and bright but not very big at about 6-7lbs so we had him on his side in a few minutes.
Little did I know that was to be it for solid hookups for me for the day but so it goes in steelhead fishing. We kept after them for the next several hours but for some reason they just were not into that day. We fished some water I won’t bother with again as it simply wasn’t very good holding water but when it comes to the first trips of the year to an area this is normal, you have to get out and find the good water.
One pool was clearly holding a few fish and another friend we ran into managed to hook one and sadly lose it right at the beach. That was on a small sculpin pattern possibly proving the baitfish connection.
At the top of that pool was a fast chute with a couple pairs of salmon (remnant wild fish from the stocking years) and a few steelhead in with them. I swung through there using the pendulum method and managed to solid grabs but with the speed of the fly and the tightness of the line they were a quick on and off. I tried to let the slack go as they took but even that got taken so fast it didn’t help much except to have the second one stay on a second longer. Quite the grab though! This was a faster spot than I think I have ever hooked a fish in before and to have them still be able to chase it down is a real testament to their hydrodynamics.
Later in the eve when the sun got below the trees I switched to a purple and pink temple dog for a bigger profile and a brighter appearance. I have found this to work on several occasions in clear water and I managed one more good grab on the hang down in the middle of the pool but a quick thrash and it was off. I hadn’t planned on fishing the next day but well, you know…
The next day I found myself about 10 miles upstream looking to intercept the bulk of the moving fish. I have a theory that the fish come in on the high water and begin to move up quickly as the water lowers and clears. The low water wasn’t bringing in very many fish either so the lower reaches were getting thin.
I found the water as clear as I’ve ever seen it in that area so I went with the same leader setup as before. I did switch rods though just for the hell of it. I used the Scott Fiberhammer 10’6” 7wt fiberglass switch rod. This rod is tip heavier than graphite models so I went with a larger J.Ryall LA10 (sadly no longer made) and from past experience the Airflo compact scandi 450. It’s a fun rod to cast and bends right down to the cork on each cast. I generally thought of it as a light rod but I don’t anymore, it has a lot of power even though it’s soft.
Bendy rod and clear water
I also stuck with the Better Minnow pattern from the day before and started in a fast run between some logjams. With some awkward debris positioning I cast the rod two handed overhead to reach the far seam behind a mid river rock. After a few attempts to get the mend right and swing the fly as slowly as possible I was starting to get a better drift when a fish slammed it and immediately jumped repeatedly in the middle of the pool. It stayed put despite having a downed tree not 30 feet downstream of the pool. After tense seconds unwrapping my leader from some branches I managed to tail an average male that was tougher than his size and looked like he had a pretty tough journey.
A bit later there was some bank work being done and they clouded up the creek for a while so I switched to the same purple and pink temple dog from the day before. The cloudy water stifled my enthusiasm so I walked down a ways and shortly the water began to clear and I found myself in another long pool with a very heavy current at the top that had to be a solid five feet deep. I clamped on a shot and started working down the pool casting to the far seam and mending upstream to keep the line from bellying and swinging too fast.
I got a huge jolt up the rod and the fish was tearing off line down the pool in seconds and lunched once totally clearing the water. This was a large fish and very fast but the glass rod allowed some good cushioning and had some real power to turn the fish when needed. After several more runs and jumps she was on her way in. once I got a good luck I though for sure it was come off but I found a grip on her tail and marveled at the size and girth. when i tailed her the fly just dropped from her mouth. Fortunately there was an acquaintance from the shop there fishing who graciously helped me by holding her for some photos. I was in a deep muddy back eddy and didn’t want to get the fish in the mud so if not for Dave I would have had a hard time capturing images of what would surely be the fish of the season for me, thank you Dave!
Fiberhammered 32” hen
release
The second biggest fish I’ve ever landed from LE and more than anyone could ask for. I took a break for a while and tried to show my gratitude to Dave by giving him one of the same flies and helping him work on his spey casting and presentation. I then went downstream with the hope that it helped him get into a fish. As coach says I was playing with house money by now so despite getting into a couple of more fish my pace was pretty lackadaisical after that.
I promise to get some info on the fly up asap but it's been a busy week
Hopefully these essays covering the two extremes of water will help folks form the basis for more productive fly swinging of their own. As with the previous ones I would love to hear from the members and use this long winded article to help sort out the ins and outs of these techniques. I hope to encourage people to at least give it a try. Please feel free to add your thoughts and or ask questions.
Well it seems that so far this year for me it’s been extremes. First it was high water and for this it was about as clear as it ever gets on the big LE trib. A perfect example of how your work schedule can affect your fishing and why it is so important to be able to handle as many situations as possible.
Anticipating clear water I selected the Scott 11’6wt switch rod for the day. I put an Airflo compact scandi line on it at 360 grains over 30’ attached to #35 Airflo no stretch miracle braid running line to 30# backing spooled on a Bauer Rogue #4. This is a very light setup and the reel balances it perfectly but is a touch shy of capacity. That is why I chose the miracle braid running line It’s thinner that regular fly line type running lines. The line shoots like crazy but can be a little tough to hold onto and doesn’t mend real well at distance. I can live with both of those issues so for me it’s a good trade off.
This is the lightest setup I would recommend for steelhead, even lake Erie fish. Any lighter and the fish would be very tough to control. It’s nice on the angler to fish all day and can handle the casting distance needed easily. Going light would also add to the stealthyness of the presentation, in theory anyway.
With the low clear water I didn’t want to use a sinking poly leader due to it’s dark color. I feel that when the water is very clear that the sinktips can spook fish so I chose an 8’ clear intermediate poly leader with 2’ of 15# Maxima UG then 3’ of the same in 12#. Now you may think, “why not go lighter in tippet” well we will get to that a little later but mainly it’s because the fish don’t seem to notice if you are fishing bigger flies. If I was going to fish really small stuff I would have went with 10#. With little sink rate coming from the leader I need to use some sort of weight to get the fly down. I chose a fly tied on a copper tube and at times I needed to add weight from there.
The water color and a snake roll cast
One method I use to add weight to the fly/leader is to carry a selection of coneheads in my pack. I can slide one on the leader before tying on the fly and convert any tube to a conehead in seconds. I carry medium and large in brass and a few medium in tungsten in gold silver and black. At some points in the day I also added a small split shot to the tippet knot to get further down. Heresy on a two handed rod? Well, whatever I need to get down.
We started on a relatively slow but deep pool, in fact the same pool I fished in the high water scenario. Now the water was about 10” lower and considerably slower. In fact the good part of the pool was half what it was before. With early fish I feel they respond well to baitfish patterns so I tied on a Better Minnow pattern in grey over white. The translucency and motion are key elements in the fly and it has proven itself in clear water many times.
Only by the fact that I tied on new tippet the night before (OCD pays off again) and my partner didn’t I was first to go through the run. With the clear water I knew you would not have to get the fly real close to the fish to get them to see it. I also wanted to make sure the fly didn’t sweep downstream, at the fish. The prey never swims toward the predator. To achieve this I made my cast at about a 60 deg angle to my position. This means I was casting about 30 deg downstream of my position and very tight to the far bank. Also important is making a good, straight cast so the fly is the last thing to land and the leader doesn’t land in a pile. I would allow the fly to sink for maybe another ten degrees and then tighten and begin the swing.
This type of cast and presentation causes the fly to begin swinging quickly and there fore come from the fish’s periphery, into its view and then appear to flee toward the near bank. It is my belief that this insight’s a predatory response from the fish thinking the baitfish just saw them and is now getting away. Of course I don’t have any idea what they are really thinking but that’s the idea in my head.
I started down the pool and after only about a dozen casts got the big yank and a hot fish was on. This was the first bright fish I hooked with this rod in warmer, bigger water and I thought I was screwed to begin with. Once the initial runs and a few good launches I knew the rod was fine. In fact I was surprised to find it handled the fish well. The fish was hot and bright but not very big at about 6-7lbs so we had him on his side in a few minutes.
Little did I know that was to be it for solid hookups for me for the day but so it goes in steelhead fishing. We kept after them for the next several hours but for some reason they just were not into that day. We fished some water I won’t bother with again as it simply wasn’t very good holding water but when it comes to the first trips of the year to an area this is normal, you have to get out and find the good water.
One pool was clearly holding a few fish and another friend we ran into managed to hook one and sadly lose it right at the beach. That was on a small sculpin pattern possibly proving the baitfish connection.
At the top of that pool was a fast chute with a couple pairs of salmon (remnant wild fish from the stocking years) and a few steelhead in with them. I swung through there using the pendulum method and managed to solid grabs but with the speed of the fly and the tightness of the line they were a quick on and off. I tried to let the slack go as they took but even that got taken so fast it didn’t help much except to have the second one stay on a second longer. Quite the grab though! This was a faster spot than I think I have ever hooked a fish in before and to have them still be able to chase it down is a real testament to their hydrodynamics.
Later in the eve when the sun got below the trees I switched to a purple and pink temple dog for a bigger profile and a brighter appearance. I have found this to work on several occasions in clear water and I managed one more good grab on the hang down in the middle of the pool but a quick thrash and it was off. I hadn’t planned on fishing the next day but well, you know…
The next day I found myself about 10 miles upstream looking to intercept the bulk of the moving fish. I have a theory that the fish come in on the high water and begin to move up quickly as the water lowers and clears. The low water wasn’t bringing in very many fish either so the lower reaches were getting thin.
I found the water as clear as I’ve ever seen it in that area so I went with the same leader setup as before. I did switch rods though just for the hell of it. I used the Scott Fiberhammer 10’6” 7wt fiberglass switch rod. This rod is tip heavier than graphite models so I went with a larger J.Ryall LA10 (sadly no longer made) and from past experience the Airflo compact scandi 450. It’s a fun rod to cast and bends right down to the cork on each cast. I generally thought of it as a light rod but I don’t anymore, it has a lot of power even though it’s soft.
Bendy rod and clear water
I also stuck with the Better Minnow pattern from the day before and started in a fast run between some logjams. With some awkward debris positioning I cast the rod two handed overhead to reach the far seam behind a mid river rock. After a few attempts to get the mend right and swing the fly as slowly as possible I was starting to get a better drift when a fish slammed it and immediately jumped repeatedly in the middle of the pool. It stayed put despite having a downed tree not 30 feet downstream of the pool. After tense seconds unwrapping my leader from some branches I managed to tail an average male that was tougher than his size and looked like he had a pretty tough journey.
A bit later there was some bank work being done and they clouded up the creek for a while so I switched to the same purple and pink temple dog from the day before. The cloudy water stifled my enthusiasm so I walked down a ways and shortly the water began to clear and I found myself in another long pool with a very heavy current at the top that had to be a solid five feet deep. I clamped on a shot and started working down the pool casting to the far seam and mending upstream to keep the line from bellying and swinging too fast.
I got a huge jolt up the rod and the fish was tearing off line down the pool in seconds and lunched once totally clearing the water. This was a large fish and very fast but the glass rod allowed some good cushioning and had some real power to turn the fish when needed. After several more runs and jumps she was on her way in. once I got a good luck I though for sure it was come off but I found a grip on her tail and marveled at the size and girth. when i tailed her the fly just dropped from her mouth. Fortunately there was an acquaintance from the shop there fishing who graciously helped me by holding her for some photos. I was in a deep muddy back eddy and didn’t want to get the fish in the mud so if not for Dave I would have had a hard time capturing images of what would surely be the fish of the season for me, thank you Dave!
Fiberhammered 32” hen
release
The second biggest fish I’ve ever landed from LE and more than anyone could ask for. I took a break for a while and tried to show my gratitude to Dave by giving him one of the same flies and helping him work on his spey casting and presentation. I then went downstream with the hope that it helped him get into a fish. As coach says I was playing with house money by now so despite getting into a couple of more fish my pace was pretty lackadaisical after that.
I promise to get some info on the fly up asap but it's been a busy week
Hopefully these essays covering the two extremes of water will help folks form the basis for more productive fly swinging of their own. As with the previous ones I would love to hear from the members and use this long winded article to help sort out the ins and outs of these techniques. I hope to encourage people to at least give it a try. Please feel free to add your thoughts and or ask questions.