Salmon flies

[BPS]

Lol. Like those dudes with fly reels spooled with mono and black sponge flies. Salmon river chuck n duck!

 

[sandfly]

BPS

Like those dudes with fly reels spooled with mono and black sponge flies. Salmon river chuck n duck!

back in the day that's how we drifted flies. only way to fish egg patterns in the 70's/80's.

 

[trowpa]

gfen wrote:

wsender wrote:
like it would have fallen out of David Bowies *** in the 70's

that the kinda thing you larn about in your fancy music schools?

I miss something? wsender - you were a music major?

Back to the salmon - i did have a dream last night that i caught my first Salmon. First happy dream i've had in a while. I suppose i can thank this thread!

 

[ryguyfi]

Thanks for the info guys. I HOPEFULLY will have time to sit at my bench and turn out a few dozen flies in the next few weeks. With a 1 year old and another on the way and a sick wife on top of a full work schedule, needless to say I haven't had much time to tie let alone fish. This trip on October and my vaca in a few weeks might be some of the only fishing I get done in the next few months.

 

[gutcutter]

sandfly wrote:
BPS

Like those dudes with fly reels spooled with mono and black sponge flies. Salmon river chuck n duck!

back in the day that's how we drifted flies. only way to fish egg patterns in the 70's/80's.

Not true
That may have been the way you did it, but not everyone did it that way.
My crew sight fished with floating lines, long leaders and early versions of sucker spawn. And we did really well in New York, PA, OH and MI.
Watch the fly. Watch the fish. Watch the fish eat the fly. SET THE HOOK

 

[pspaint]

ryguyfi, you're heading up in October? Make sure you have a flak jacket and helmet! lol. The crowds can be pretty bad in October. You'll definitely see the mono/flyreel/sponge guys, up there. lol.

 

[jayL]

DSR. Pay the money. Embrace the socioeconomic segregation. Eat the caviar.

Seriously. $45 for sanity. $45 for INsanity. I pay it every time.

I saw one crew of sponge chucking snaggers down there. We called the river keeper and their asses got hauled out.

 

[wsender]

trowpa wrote:

gfen wrote:

wsender wrote:
like it would have fallen out of David Bowies *** in the 70's

that the kinda thing you larn about in your fancy music schools?

I miss something? wsender - you were a music major?

Back to the salmon - i did have a dream last night that i caught my first Salmon. First happy dream i've had in a while. I suppose i can thank this thread!

In a sense. Used to be a recording engineer in Nashville.

 

[sandfly]

gutcutter

Not true That may have been the way you did it, but not everyone did it that way. My crew sight fished with floating lines, long leaders and early versions of sucker spawn. And we did really well in New York, PA, OH and MI. Watch the fly. Watch the fish. Watch the fish eat the fly. SET THE HOOK

Isn't that a form of lifting now a days ?? we tosed flies with split shot and swung flies, just used mono or fly line depending on conditions.never saw the fish just felt the hit..

 

[gutcutter]

sandfly wrote:
Isn't that a form of lifting now a days ?? we tosed flies with split shot and swung flies, just used mono or fly line depending on conditions.never saw the fish just felt the hit..

We used no weight. Back then, the Erie tribs in New York had "snagging streams" and non snagging streams.
We fished the non snagging streams and were not allowed to weight the line.
We soaked the flies really good and then tried to hit the downstream side of a redd. The fish below (rainbow/steelhead or brown/laker) would usually swim over and eat the fly. It is just like dry fly fishing except under water.
We could do that back then because the non snagging streams were pretty much empty.
When we saw some salmon, we swung flies on sink tip lines (made our own) with 2ft leaders. They more often than not slammed what ever was in front of their faces.

We took those tactics to Erie, PA and over to the OH tribs. Few people fished Erie and almost nobody fished OH. There was plenty of room to have a pool to yourself to sight fish.

 

[pspaint]

Few people fished Erie and almost nobody fished OH. There was plenty of room to have a pool to yourself to sight fish.


Man, I miss those days.

 

[Heritage-Angler]

pspaint wrote:
Man, I miss those days.

Feeling old, buddy?

I dunno, you seem to keep getting younger every year. How do you do that?

Another month or two, and we'll have to gather our brothers for a bit of Little J action. Also, we have an Erie Steelhead Jam here on PAFF. Should be early November sometime (?).

It'd be nice to fish with you, Dave, and Joe more than one week a year. :-D Tell 'em I said hello when you talk to them.

H.A.

 

[ryguyfi]

once I have a few seconds to breathe I'll plan the Steelhead JAM again. Mostly likely it'll be the first weekend or two in November. My favorite time of year for steel. Leaves are gone, not too cold yet, and the run is full force.

 

[ryguyfi]

Here's my boxes so far. Just need another 100 or so and I'll feel comfortable.

What do you think?

 

[McSneek]

Speaking as someone who has never managed to land a steelhead on the salmon river and only hooked and eventually lost one late running chinook while fishing for steel in November I will tell you that my occasional hookups came on pink eggs. My best fish landed up there was a brown that I estimate went 15 pounds, and he took a pink egg in the Clay Hole on the DSR. I actually caught a laker that ran up the river and he too came on a pink egg. If I ever go back, the first thing I put on will be a pink egg.

Maybe just a suggestion - Whitaker's sells a lot of egg type flies that use estaz. I copied quite a few after seeing what they had in their bins. Maybe add a few more of those?

You will lose flies up there. Might want to take your vice and some basic materials along. After a long day on the water, when you kick back with a cold one and BS with your buddies you can always tie more egg patterns.

First steelhead I hooked up there was big and had me in my backing so quick I had no idea what was going on. Whacked my knuckles on my reel handle at some point during the fight and had a couple fat fingers for two days. Awesome. Hope you experience some of the same. Have fun.

 

[ryguyfi]

yeah as of right now there's around 15 of each color of the estaz in the small box on the upper left. I plan to double that, and fill in all the empty spots of my yarn box. I have around 60-70 streamers and want at least 100 before I leave.

I'll bring my vise and plan on tying a few if I run out, but I'd rather be more than prepared before I go.

 

[McSneek]

Any stone fly patterns in those boxes? See a lot of them up there too. Natural colors and other colors like purple, chartreuse, etc.

 

[ryguyfi]

I tied up a few stone fly patterns this last week. After a few that took too long I took JayL's advice. Cactus Chinelle (thick estaz) and rubber legs in black and purple with a large bead. That's it.

I just can't leave a fly shop without spending at least $25. I just bought more estaz, zonker strips, cone heads and tippet today. I've done that on a weekly basis for about 6 weeks getting ready for this trip lol. I better be prepared!

 

[McSneek]

Yes - that pattern sounds like the basic type of stonefly pattern they use up there. Stop in Whitakers while you're there. They have an extensive inventory of tying supplies and you'll see what the locals are selling. Lots and lots of estaz, chenille, etc. I have been following your posts and I think you are more than prepared both numbers and patterns wise.

If you don't have some larger size split shot get some. Typical bb size that's fine for Erie is small for up there. You can go through a lot of shot too.

 

[jayL]

I recommend all seasons over whitakers, for both selection and price of tying materials.

Whitakers is a very good shop, though.