Anyone els bug rodding in the winter ?

[chum77]

Been hitting a local river a lot with a single hander and a spey and so far only one 7-8 lbs steelie witch is not too bad but is anyone els out hear doing good on the ol bug rods ?

[chumdog]

Not on the rivers, but I have been chasing resident coho in the salt.  Fun stuff.  The other day I had a nice pod parked right in front of me.  4 fish in 6 casts, then Mr. big ol' seal slashed thru the pod and scattered them.  I was not a happy camper.

[queets guy]

Its quite sad I havnt made a resident coho outing since Aug (tech that was morely targeting ocean fish), guess Ive maybe been busy with other things.  Also havnt had my bug rods out for steelhead yet as Ive been having too much fun with my pin.  Maybe this weekend I'll take it to the coast.

Chum, are you seeing decent amounts of residents so far this year?

[LL]

Sounds like chum found some but I haven't seen a one in the usual spots this year.

[Juan de Fuca]

My smoked steel reserve is back up to appropriate levels, so it will be single handing and spey'n it for the rest of the season for me. Last winter I caught 90% less fish by sticking to a strict fly only regiment. With a bit more fly experience under my belt going into this winter I am hoping for a bit more success. In my book a quality fly caught steelhead is worth the self torture in the long run.

[bugnuts]

I beat my head against that wall for 25 years, JDF...even thought it was a good idea to write about it.  Fact is, if we choose to live on the westslope of the Cascades and want to catch decent numbers of winter runs close to home, flyfishing for 'em ain't gonna do it.  I respect your choice, however, having done the same thing myself for a very long time. 

I like to make this comparison:  1) floating flyline=yellow braid; 2) colorful fly=my handtied jigs; 3) strike indicator=float; 4) 9 ft. 7 wt. graphite III=10 ft. graphite whatever float rod; 5) long fluoro leaders=long Ultragreen leaders; 6) a dead drift=a dead drift; and most importantly 7) catch-n-release=catch-n-release!

Hope to see you on the local crick soon dude...will commiserate. 

[Juan de Fuca]

I beat my head against that wall for 25 years, JDF...even thought it was a good idea to write about it.  Fact is, if we choose to live on the westslope of the Cascades and want to catch decent numbers of winter runs close to home, flyfishing for 'em ain't gonna do it.  I respect your choice, however, having done the same thing myself for a very long time. 

I like to make this comparison:  1) floating flyline=yellow braid; 2) colorful fly=my handtied jigs; 3) strike indicator=float; 4) 9 ft. 7 wt. graphite III=10 ft. graphite whatever float rod; 5) long fluoro leaders=long Ultragreen leaders; 6) a dead drift=a dead drift; and most importantly 7) catch-n-release=catch-n-release!

Hope to see you on the local crick soon dude...will commiserate. 

Ah, not an uncommon thought process, about "numbers". I guess I feel that I have already gear caught more than may fair share as well as several "fish of a lifetime" so I am okay with catching way less now a days. Too put it in perspective, I am guessing that once everything was averaged out for 2009, I was hooking 2 fish per outing on a fly rod, and probably landing 75% of those hooked. So I am okay averaging over a fish per day of fishing. The hardest part is knowingly passing up water that I knew had fish that would of reacted to gear. Learning to pass up non-fly water fish, was a major step for me in 2009, once achieved I was able to focus of more fly water.

In addition I have had some amazing experiences with some very accomplished spey anglers that have taken me under their wing. A properly presented spey fly is almost as effective as a well presented spoon. I say almost, strictly because in the heaviest of water where a spoon may work, spey gear won't work. But in skilled hands I have seen some amazing things done with a spey rod and fly. Spey rods for winter fish allow much more water covered compared to a single handed rod. As long as a person is skilled in their casts/swings/drifts a spey rod is very useful. Furthering my skills with spey casting will take a good 5 more years. To compare to gear fishing, I don't think 5 more years would allow for much personal angling growth. 

Oh, one more thing: I've never allowed my self to fish with strike indicators. Why? I have no good reason other than I am just trying to draw a line between float fishing and fly fishing. I know it is silly, but those are my fly fishing morals.

[Andrew]

The thing you have to understand about JDF is that he enjoys surfing in the snow and innertubing class V whitewater. Winter fly angling is a natural draw for him. Unfortunately, he casts more effectively while teetering on submerged alder limbs than I can seem to manage under any circumstance, and I'm pretty sure he caught more fish with a fly last winter than I did with spoons...

I don't know about the whole spey thing, and hope I never learn, although I probably will.

The 10' 8 wt. will be reengaged when the water hits 46 deg.

That is all.

Andrew

[chum77]

lol i got fed up with the pin real quick, but so far the pin rod is the closest thing to gear fishing i have done in a super long time lol. Pretty much hung up the gear all together and so far im going strong, got back to fly tying so i made a lot of new intruder flies and string leeches. Mainly been using my 13' ft 7/8 wt spey for most of the local rivers but for the smaller steel creeks i use my 9' ft 8 wt single hander, Im just gonna stick with the flies cuz i feel a lot more accomplished when i catch steel on them. Its good to hear there are other bug tossers out there trying as well, i feel like the lone ranger out hear some times lol. Im just trying to get as good as some fly fishers that i know that go out every winter/summer and completely own steelhead left and right, thats my goal that i hope to reach in the future, gonna try and be one of those fly guys that breaks the stereotypical fly guy that gets a steelhead hear and there.

[Finfollower]

I'm really trying to learn the art of fly fishing, and the realization I have come to so far is that I don't know crap! I have been getting a pretty good amount of time practicing my cast on the water which obviously equates to no fish for me. I'm very interested in trying the salt for fish, just seems like I have been hesitant because I don't have any idea where to start.

JDF-you have a pretty strong argument for the allure of fly fishing and I can only say in theory you are totally right. It's theory only because I have not caught a fish on my 8# yet. My record as of now is a 200 lbs. male foul hooked in the back of the head. It was me and made it crystal clear that pinched barbs are a good thing!

Andrew that is some funny shiat.

Bottom line is if someone is in my area, and willing to take a total novice under their wing I would really appreciate the chance to learn. If that is not a possibility then please feel free to post some tips once in a while when you get the chance. I could use all the help I can get.

[Grizz]

Perhaps because of my perverse nature, a penchant for punishment and doing things the hard way, I introduced myself to steelhead fishing by fly-fishing for them around 9yrs ago. It took me 5 seasons without a single fish landed to decide to hang-up the bug rod until I had sufficiently mastered catching the fish with gear. I'm not real big on using bait but I will when water conditions call for it as the best measure. I draw some of the same conclusions that some of you do about the similarities between float and strike indicator (bobber) fishing. To me the only real differences are in your ability to control your presentation and how you get it to where the fish are. You have to start catching fish to learn where they hold. Until you do that you're stabbing in the dark hoping to get lucky. That's what I was doing for those first 5yrs. Over the past 4 I've begun to catch more fish using the gear and take note of where there holding. That translates to finding the fish in holding water that you can properly present your offer with the bug rod. No easy task as many of you know. Regardless, I'm at the point again now where dusting off the 8wt is becoming interesting to me again. In any case,.....I think I'll wait for the summer runs 

[chum77]

ya i have been doing the gear thing for a long time even be for i picked up a bug rod at 13 lol then i switched back to gear for a long time and now i have switched back over to bug rod once again but catching lots of steel on the gear really does help a lot when it comes to searching them out with the bug rod.

[Juan de Fuca]

I have observed two types of steelhead fly anglers. Those that learned about steelhead behavior fishing gear and those that still don't know much about steelhead behavior cause they started out with a fly rod and never really accomplished anything beyond casting practice.

Fly = Cart

Gear = Horse.

(Keep the cart behind the horse.)

I'd say that anyone who is competent fishing hardware or float and jigs (w/o the crutch of bait) is ready for fly torture.

[bugnuts]

You established your point dude...you can sound like a dick!  Nice work. 

One thing I learned before you ever even thought about a "flyrod" is that most of us never cared about "Numbers" in the first place.  Get off this site, or actually engage...your choice.

And no, I'm not the guy to "ban" you...dick. 

[dardevle]

JDF,
You have just offended many of the great steelhead fly guys that grew up with and know nothing other than fly fishing because their dad and dad's dad only did it that way.  I can think of many names from the NF Stilly and the Skagit that qualify.

Fly fishing for steel isn't very hard IMO.  Yes you pass up water and certain conditions make it less productive which really is the biggest challenge which really isn't one of skill.  If we had the runs of steel that we once had it would be very easy from someone to put the cart before the horse.  There are some streams I know that(if I lived closer or the wife gave me the time)many of us could claim decent numbers on a bugrod and effectively learn fly fishing first.

BTW, I did learn with gear before ever picking up a fly rod.  My first thought after taking up fly fishing was; "I would have taken this up a long time ago except I thought it was going to be more difficult".  The guys that really don't get it(fly or gear) are those that haven't been around other good rods or haven't fished enough productive streams to effectively learn by trial and error.  With my limited good options in Whatcom County I sometimes miss being able to "experiment" with technique or new lures because there just are not enough fish to validate whether or not it works.  One reason I love some of my remote zippers is because they afforded me the opportunity to try new things, hence learn new things.  I guess I don't blame most people with the true state of their streams for not being able to learn steelheading faster and furthermore, I know many of the guys that are scratching their heads about this sport would put everything together and see instant success and growth if they were consistantly fishing over unmolested fish.