When I was fishing Lost Valley Res last weekend the bait fisherman were catching all the fish with worms or powerbait on the bottom. The water was warm & the fish were deep.
I threw everything at them along with my old tried & true deep methods with a high density super fast sinking line, nymphs, leeches & super slow or no retrives.
The bait people kicked my rear end![blush]
I found myself wishing I was set up to try the deep nymphing tecnique that Utahflygoddess has been talking about with the breakaway indicator & etc. In retrospect they may have been feeding on some type of chronomid.
Utahflygoddess if you read this my question is what are you using to sink the fly? Are you tying weighted flys? Split shot set at the eye of the hook or a certain distance away? Favorite flys for this application?
Are you moving it at all or just totaly dead drift?
Any tips would be apreciated! Looks like this old dog needs to learn a new trick
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I'm sure she will respond,but you can learn a little about it on her blog.
Windriver
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I'm not an expert like FG, but I will attempt to answer your question, then she can correct both of us!!
Determine the depth of the water with either a fish finder or use an line and sinker.
Use a floating flyline and attach enough mono (fluorocarbon) to it to get your fly to the bottom. Slide a slip bobber on to the mono and set it so your fly is about a foot or so off of the bottom. Attach your chronomid or other flies on the end, --you can add droppers. Add a sinker or two on a dropper, on the line, on the end - however you want to weight it. If you don't weight it then use weighted flies or wait a long time for the line to straighten out and reach your depth!
You can't really cast this rig, so just drop it in the water and back up in your tube a ways. You can just wind drift or sit still with this, or if you want you can slowly! retrieve it to cover more water. Try and keep the slack out of your line and watch the bobber for movement. The bobber is really to keep your fly at a set depth so if you move too far you might need to adjust your bobber setting according to the lake depth.
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Right on cpierce.
Sonar is kind of important and does make it easier.
Straight mono or fluorocarbon in 4lb or 6lb or whatever you feel comfortable with and size and power of the fish.
Lakes I know are going to be at least 30', I use 30' of fluoro. Shallower lakes I will make leaders according.
Put a loop in the leader and hook it straight to the line. You don't want too long of leader however as the slack mono/fluoro will form a belly and you will loose strikes.
Cindy is right that I set the indicator one to two feet off the bottom. I do use some weighted flies but not all the time.
I tie a tag of 12" to 18" on the main leader up a couple of feet so it hangs one foot above the bottom fly. I now have one a foot off the bottom and one two feet off the bottom. You can add more in Idaho. This helps find where they are hanging, plus occasionally you get a double (that is interestingly fun)
I use ONE "BB" split shot above the tag knot. This lets the flies still wiggle.
Drop the line straight down and kick back a little. When you see the indicator go down, pull the line then slowly lift the rod tip. When you know the fish is there, do a little BASS tug to release the indicator.
This is fun, and I hope this helped.
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Thank you ladies! That is just the info I needed. [
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UFG I will order some indicators from your blogsite. What size do you recommend?
My dryline has a floating tapered braided leader on it. See any downside to attaching the long flurocarbon leader to that rather than straight to the dryline??
My fly box looks a little light on chronomid patterns. Any "must haves" you recommend? I think I an fine on leaches & nymphs.
So is this your "default" stillwater method now?
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You can't use the braided leader. The indicator has to have a smooth surface to work.
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[quote flygoddess]You can't use the braided leader. The indicator has to have a smooth surface to work.
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I get that but I wouldn't have the indicator on the braided leader..... just on the mono. I guess if the lader floats as well as the dryline I guess it wouldn't matter.........
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You really don't want more than 3' of mono or fluoro from your fly line to the indicator. Does that make sense?
You have a 30' leader, you want to set the indicator anywhere from 27' to 29'..but no more that 27' because them you will get the belly between the fly line and the indicator.
I also like the bigger slip-dicators because you can see them on choppy water better, and choppy water is great for deep nymphing.
It can be done on glass smooth, but you will have to twitch once in awhile.
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[quote flygoddess]You really don't want more than 3' of mono or fluoro from your fly line to the indicator. Does that make sense?
You have a 30' leader, you want to set the indicator anywhere from 27' to 29'..but no more that 27' because them you will get the belly between the fly line and the indicator.
I also like the bigger slip-dicators because you can see them on choppy water better, and choppy water is great for deep nymphing.
It can be done on glass smooth, but you will have to twitch once in awhile.[/quote]
Yeah that makes sense 'cause the mono sinks.
My old eyes will appeciate bigger indicators I'm sure. I like the multi - fly rig you mentioned, that makes a lot of sense and a double now & again wouldn't hurt!
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