Sculpins

[Leteras]

I have been playing around with some mini sculpin helmets.

 

[tctrout]

Great look on those! I really like how the first one came out, and bet it looks real nice in the water...

TC

 

[Leteras]

Thanks Tim. They look good in the water. I had a chance to fish them a little and they were easy to fish in cover without any snags. The helmets really do a nice job of keeping your hook up. These are about 2 inches in length so they should imitate small stream sculpins pretty well.

 

[mike_richardson]

They look good. I tied a few a couple years ago. They were a load to try and cast.

 

[Leteras]

Thanks. These were the mini helmets. They were not too bad to cast. These were tied on a size #6 hook.

 

[JG63]

Underline by two line sizes to aid casting stroke. I.E. Throw a 3 weight line on your 5 weight rod. You can also do the Tenkara/cane pole swing on a nine foot rod. These aren't for 50 foot graceful candy cane perfect loops. When underlining, you can cast like a flippin stick motion on a shorter rod (7.5 foot or less). Not unlike chuckin a roostertail sidearm under a bridge or overhanging branch. The bigger ones are even tougher to "cast". BTW, nice ties!

 

[Leteras]

Thanks.

 

[AkDan76]

Dumb ? Wouldnt underline tske more line to load not less?

I ran a barrio small stream line 4wt on a 3 wt rod. Had no issues chucking meat or dries!

 

[JG63]

Not with an 1/8 ounce jig (sculpin pattern) on the point. Underlining saves wear and tear in the rod. Remember fly lines are rated in grain weights for the first 30 feet only. Consider the mechanics of my suggested casting style. The weight of the "fly" (jig/lure) is loading the rod. False casting is a waste of time here. Fly line is just creating extra weight/drag. Like I said, this is not river runs thru it 80 foot perfect loop crap. This is a real world short line accuracy drill used in stealth-sight fishing. It's about placing the fly as softly as possible into a Dixie cup sized 10 ring (target shooting). Shorter stiffer leader is helpful too. Trying to false cast 40 feet of matched line/rod with a soft butt leader and 1/8 oz (or bigger) "fly" results in line management headaches for most real world casters

 

[AkDan76]

I'm sure anyone can get just about anything to work. In my head its not making sense. I fish heavy streamers 1/3rd or so of the time, not as much as nymphs over all but close. I'm usually not trying to cast 40' let alone 80. But I also don't have the uber wary trout to deal with unless I'm visiting and even than they don't seem to be too wound up with my poor chucking skills lol. Our trout are dumb in comparison, and large over all! Makes even poor fisherman like my self feel smart LOL!

A method a buddy uses for great lakes steelies is to use airflow backing as a main line. It sounds like this would be the perfect candidate for it. Other than its high viz green and I really wouldn't call it fly fishing (might even be illegal in fly only waters being there is no fly line), that's a topic I don't care to get into a debate about. Regardless he's a fish slaying machine! He can pitch this which is quite impressive and extremely effective on the superior tribs.

I can see if the fly line is light enough and the fly heavy enough pitching might work, but not with my rods, even my 10' 6 would be too loosey goosey on the top end (she's an old gl4). I don't have any shorties these days though that's about to change.

The one part of it that would stink to high heaven is when a guy wants to switch back to non meat fishing, be it dries or sub surface...would including carrying a spare spool with a 'normal' fly line to facilitate casting them. A 16 bh pt surely wont load even my 1 wt!

I'm curious what kind of wear and tear you see in a rod? I've got rods pushing 30 years old now and still kicking strong...more than I can say for even my better end bait caster meat poles!

 

[JG63]

To be fair, the only wear And tear I've seen is repeated strikes to the blank from bigger bead heads and "meat" flies. Once the finish is compromised or a single strand of graphite is shorn or broken, the chain reaction can start. Sometimes slow sometimes too fast. As for overloading the rod, I've never seen an outright failure (other than a guy trying to pull a rig out of a tree once) but am sure it can lead to premature failure. I'm with you on longevity. My main sticks are still Don Green designed Fenwick fenglass and Sage RPL series dating from the mid 70's to the mid 80's production. As far as the short rod flipping technique, I sort of borrowed it from Ed Shenk after observing him working the Bonnybrook bridge on the Letort. Don't think he underlined by 2 sizes though as his white minnow is neutrally buoyant and is not as heavy as a sculpin helmet rig.

 

[pete41]

Not meaning to be a wise guy or truck driver [that dates me] but if sculpin imitations are your primary fly as they were for me over a quarter century in Montana I suspect you will eventually decide that less is best as I did.
My conclusion- nothing but nothing imitates sculpins [western rivers anyway] better than the old "light spruce fly streamer"in appropriate sizes for the water.
However they do have the problem of wing wrap which is especially annoying at night--so finally settled on woolly buggers.
That was after years of trying all the latest,best ever patterns. That ending after rushing up to west Yellowstone to stock up on what were being billed as the ULTIMATE sculpin pattern ,tied by the master himself ,Dave Whitlock. Bought a $100 worth .[about $250 todays money]. Within a month and a half they went in the garbage can..
Tied with too buoyant material so even after trimming and adding weight hard to get down where they belonged and didn't catch anymore fish..LOL
About that point I realized experience was the best key.

 

[moon1284]

JG63 wrote:
Not with an 1/8 ounce jig (sculpin pattern) on the point. Underlining saves wear and tear in the rod. Remember fly lines are rated in grain weights for the first 30 feet only. Consider the mechanics of my suggested casting style. The weight of the "fly" (jig/lure) is loading the rod. False casting is a waste of time here. Fly line is just creating extra weight/drag. Like I said, this is not river runs thru it 80 foot perfect loop crap. This is a real world short line accuracy drill used in stealth-sight fishing. It's about placing the fly as softly as possible into a Dixie cup sized 10 ring (target shooting). Shorter stiffer leader is helpful too. Trying to false cast 40 feet of matched line/rod with a soft butt leader and 1/8 oz (or bigger) "fly" results in line management headaches for most real world casters

Have you tried using a flyline with a thick compact head, or shooting head, like ambush? Using the weight of the fly to load the rod means you are not fly fishing. You'd be better off using a spinning rod.

I'm glad underlining works for you, but I (and I'm sure others) can do the same thing with Ambush or similar line.