I’ve caught some nice trout, bass and even salt water fish using various zonkers ties with appropriate colors of rabbit fur strips.
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- Thread starter Middle-aged_Ball_Coach
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I’ve caught some nice trout, bass and even salt water fish using various zonkers ties with appropriate colors of rabbit fur strips.
I prefer inappropriate colors of rabbit fur, but that's just how I roll.
I've yet to catch a fish in saltwater on a fly rod. Between Pensacola Bay and (hopefully) a trip to NC, I'm hoping that that changes this summer. Do you ever fish the salt in NC?
I don't know if anyone is watching the videos that I'm linking, but--apart from the ones that are humorous--I'm picking out ones that I've watched more than once, and which have caused me to either rethink how I approach things or else taught me something completely new. I have several lined up from The New Fly Fisher, which has apparently bought the distribution rights to a bunch of videos on different topics that used to be available only for purchase. Some of them are older (90s), some are very recent, but I'm going to post links in clusters by topics. I'll try to pick the most basic starting point for whatever the topic is and go from there. The Streamers for Big Trout video that I linked last night is one of these videos, but I'll do a whole cluster of videos on streamers sometime later.
First, here's a 3-part series on how trout see their world, including how they see food, things above the surface of the water (including fishermen), etc. Even if you don't fish for trout, and even if you don't fly fish, there's a lot in this video. I can't believe that it's now available for free because the whole series of 3 DVDs was only available for years for something like $90. Here's the first in the series....
First, here's a 3-part series on how trout see their world, including how they see food, things above the surface of the water (including fishermen), etc. Even if you don't fish for trout, and even if you don't fly fish, there's a lot in this video. I can't believe that it's now available for free because the whole series of 3 DVDs was only available for years for something like $90. Here's the first in the series....
Here's the second video in the series....
Here's the last of the 3-part series, which is specifically on trout's vision....
I'm heading over to Far Bank today for a tour of the Sage and Redington factory. And hopefully walking away with a new 6 wt 9ft rod.
Which rod(s) are you considering?
D
Deleted member 3889
Guest
I've never had much luck with them in the Hills for trout, but I've got a spot to show you where they work for trout and pike.
For me they've been seasonal and success has always depended on water conditions.
Summer, clear water, insect hatches and they don't leave the box. Winter, limited hatches or at the start and end of the run off or other weather events that leave the stream your fishing cloudy to muddy and I've had success. Also learned to vary retrieves. Fast, slow, up stream, down stream, etc. I don't think I've ever caught a trout on a streamer with a standard dead drift.
A dead drift works great for a weighted Woolly Bugger. If I don't know what else to use at a new stream, I often tie a tungsten beadhead black Woolly Bugger in size 10 as a point fly, and then put some droppers above it with whatever else seems good. I like soft hackles. Sometimes I'll put a huge foam hopper above all of that as an indicator. The Bugger gets hammered a lot.
I've heard that dead drifting a bucktail streamer (Gray Ghost, Black Ghost, Black-nosed Dace, etc.) in small brookie streams will get strikes, but I've never done it. Brookies in small streams usually aren't the sharpest tools in the shed, regardless of what you use, which is why I love them.
Dead drift in slower water? I fished mostly swifter, free stone streams and rivers and didn't have that experience.
Of course the 'dropper' technique for me was late in the game. I think I'd been fly fishing for twenty years before I used that setup and it was a bitch creek nymph and an elk hair caddis on the Arkansas in Colorado. Worked well.
I used to do well with a spruce or matuka streamer on brookies, but in most cases the retrieve was upstream after a drift through a whole or a ripple. Used to love hitting them pre spawn when the colors and hook jawed males would start showing up.
D
Deleted member 3889
Guest
The woolly bugger is the only streamer I've had success with for trout. I've caught a sht load of crappie and smaller largemouth bass with it as well.
I'm not sure which part you're talking about, but I don't have a lot of experience fishing slower streams as almost everywhere I've fished a stream for trout, the water has been moving at a pretty decent clip. The dead drifting classic bucktails streamers would be in fast freestone streams, too, but like I said, brookies in those waters tend to eat anything as long as you don't spook them first.
I have had some very good success on a micro-bugger pattern that looks like the picture I pasted in the OP in slow water and lakes. If the water is just barely moving, I'll suspend a size 14 black mohair leech pattern (that has some sparkle in it) below an indicator or big hopper. As long as there is enough wind or current to move it, it's deadly on trout. I do the exact same thing under a small bass popper at the local city pond, and it works great for largemouth, crappie, and bluegill that way.
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Dead drift with the weighted Woolly Bugger. I don't think I've caught many fish that way, but if I'll add 'English' to a retrieve across or up a pool, I'll catch fish. I can see the leech/hopper combo working well down here in my lake, as long as I'm on the water before the damned jet ski's wake up.
