Toothy Critter Success Thread

[PACOFRANSICO]

The take is second to none in freshwater. Simpily put they take the fly with the worst intentions! The fight with a smaller 1 say 30 inches is easy. But a "Big Hoss" is when ya get the head shakin jumpin thrashing and the fun starts when you get into a rods lenght. The 5 minutes of insanity after ya hook 1 is all worth it.

 

[caveman]

This thread is really the only reason I come to the Warm water forum. Keep it coming!!

 

[Deuterium]

Thanks for your suggestions. I will try and get out this weekend and put them to use.

 

[jay348]

Here's a recent how-to from bohen...

Fur and Feather Matinee - Brad Bohen from southern culture on the fly on Vimeo.

I've tied a few of these already, but it's cool to see how different the fly can turn out just by varying the material placement, etc. Pretty cool how much a "minor" change can add to the profile/action of one of these things.

Rainy day tying session underway...

 

[PACOFRANSICO]

The buford and the hangtime (ie optic minnow) are the steping stones to the big trips' and doubles. After you get a eye how the materials are tyed in order to get the "triggers". Its easy to develop your own variations.

I pretty much left the singles behind. I never caught a toothy on the single hook fly. After you get used to casting and more effiecient @ huckin'. Its a natural progression. All mine have come on big doubles and I have started to fish triples this season. With 1 fish hooked on triple.

 

[Fishidiot]

Jay,
Good link. I've been tying some muskie flies lately - good ideas and motivation. My current flies are doubles - never tried any triples. Most of my muskie flies are in the 5-8" range - sometimes longer but I wonder if three hooks is diminishing returns for "smaller" flies like this(?). Interesting to note that Bohen's fly is a single.

 

[jay348]

As always, I'm sure there's a time and a place for each type or size of fly.

Although I have no basis for comparison, my first and only musky took a single...maybe 7" or 8" long. Smaller fly for early spring? Very possible. Right place right time? Absolutely.

Mix it up and keep it interesting...ya never know.

On another note...after a lazy day and some tyting, I love the blue bucktail I picked up yesterday.

 

[PACOFRANSICO]

In my opinion Brad is the best musky fly guy around. I just don't dig singles. That being said I just get along with my thing and fish.

Nice ties JAY.

 

[Fredrick]

I guess everyone is getting the Skunk lately ?

 

[Crotalus]

Saw a tiger the first time i was out, it followed my fly while i was repositioning the kayak. I spent some time casting around it but no other interest. Went back to the same spot the following week but water was chocolate milk.

 

[TD55]

With that little bit of a cold spell a few weeks ago that stalled the water temps and even lowered on some streams and then on top of that the high water it made for some difficult days on the water. I had several follows on some of my favorite spots but no takers. With the warmer temps last week it started getting the water temp going in the right direction again and got the toothies active again. I fished a lake sunday with both pike and musky. I missed a fish and ended up catching a really nice Pike proabably my best so far about 38 inches. This was my first time fishing a lake for toothies and I must say now I REALLY want a boat. The boat option is nice so when stream levels are too high you can always hit a lake. I forgot my iphone in the car when we were putting gear on the boat so sorry no pics. Fish should be getting really active soon.

 

[iceyguides]

Caught this northern on meacham lake in the adirondacks on a charteuse pike bunny. Caught some other smaller pike too. I didn't measure the fish, so i dunno exactly how big he was. not huge, but decent.

 

[jay348]

Blew the only shot I had today.

The little dude mouthed my fly, but I jumped the gun on the hookset. Whole thing was in its mouth, but the hook never caught. And to twist the knife even deeper, the fish hung out there for another half hour...laughing (or whatever fish do)...

 

[brookiesofpa]

It looks like I have two musky/pike die hards. If i could get you into prime pike/musky waters would you be willing to share some secrets? I have a canoe and can row for half a day while you flail some water w big flies for pike/musky. In return some knowledge on how to catch these critters. BTW I live in NW pa which is prime toothy critter country.
Pafornisco and DT pm me.
Thanks,
Greg

 

[TD55]

I have been out a few times in the last 2 weeks. Last week I landed a 29 inch pike on the Allegheny. Yesterday I missed a mid 30's musky and had another follow from upper 30's to 40 inch fish. I wish I could fish more but somebody had to go and invent that whole work thing.

 

[Fishidiot]

jay348 wrote:
Blew the only shot I had today.The little dude mouthed my fly, but I jumped the gun on the hookset. Whole thing was in its mouth, but the hook never caught. And to twist the knife even deeper, the fish hung out there for another half hour...laughing (or whatever fish do)...

Darn muskies - they can be frustrating indeed.

When you encounter a situation like this where you can see a muskie but he won't eat your fly......your best bet is to switch to live bait......live line him a wild brook trout. Don't use a stockie, they don't like the taste - you need a brightly colored wild brookie rigged with a trebel hook and wire leader to get them to strike. If you're looking to get some wild brookies in south east PA for musky bait....send a PM to Chaz, hopefully he can help you find some bait.
:-D

 

[Ramcatt]

rose 2 fish last monday on a popper
lost one at the boat
the other slashed and nipped, but no real eat

 

[Fredrick]

You guys still suck BTW

 

[TD55]

Got out yesterday afternoon. Got myself a big one. Taped at 44".
Swirled my fly a few times and then nothing made a color change and wasn't seeing anything and for whatever reason I decided to do a figure 8 at the bank and the fish inhaled the fly. It's a little hard to get a good hookset with only 3 feet of your leader sticking out of the tip top. I'm guessing right about 25 lbs.

 

[djmyers]

That's an awesome fish!!! What was it like having it inhale your fly so close to you? Did you have any idea he was so close?