Dirty azz nymphing or ....

am I swinging softhackles. Half the time it's presented upstream dead drifted with tight line, the other half quartered down and across and swung.
So my grandson was sick today so no play date. I tied up a few of my favorite bead head soft hackle hares' ear's and posted them up this morning.
20221026_102933.jpg
Since I was headed somewhere I'm not as familar with I took my favorite old soft Sage 9' with a 6wt floater, as it's just so versatile. I set up with the one with the pull through partridge tail and orange hot spot on the left.
20221026_setup.jpg
First cast I found a colorful little trout
20221026_colorful.jpg
Caught a bunch of trout, and then, what's this, a short fin graying?
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So I was just tickled. Actually found a couple spots with a few. As I kept going I just couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a dark form and bright spots roll in the seam.
20221026_bull.jpg
My first salmonid slam and on one fly.
 
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most excellent report, Tom....who cares if you're dirty azz nymphing or gear tight-line fishing....it's all good!
 
Yard Sale said:
Its only dirty azz nymphing when you use a bobber!
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Only for lakes, I don't care for them on the river! I didn't even run a dry indicator today.
Long_Rod_Silvers said:
Tom, with that triple rig you run sometimes, there's a possibility you get this same trifecta all on the same cast. #lifegoals
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That would be fun.:)
 
Tom Butler said:
am I swinging softhackles. Half the time it's presented upstream dead drifted with tight line, the other half quartered down and across and swung.
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That just means that you are not fly fishing for the first half of the presentation, but as the fly comes under tension then it becomes fly fishing.
 
Mikestark said:
Best pic is that sweet ass OG Sage!!!
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It is a sweet rod, I love it. Besides being a good fishing tool, it has mojo, been all over the PNW. Dad gave it to me for high school graduation in '81. It's also the one I broke in '91 on opening day too drunk to fish.
 
Sweet!!!! I have not really put much effort into soft hackle fishing.
Looks like I'm gonna have to give it more effort.
Nice catching
 
Long_Rod_Silvers said:
Tom, with that triple rig you run sometimes, there's a possibility you get this same trifecta all on the same cast. #lifegoals
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#justfuckinglucky or #short term milestone?
Need to get deep for these guys in a big pool with structure, as someone said before. They may look the same but it seems the fish don't think so. Also, when I began this quest last winter people mentioned prince nymphs and flies with white. So I tied a bead head prince nymph in sz.10, and after seeing how big that sz. 8 was I did some hare's ear's in 12 w/ 3.3mm bead. Could have used bigger beads.
20221028_prince.jpg
Just rigged a two fly setup. I think my dry fly's up top might keep it from getting deep enough.
20221028_gear.jpg
Now I felt foolish saying no indicators, I used to fish them a lot and taught my son to fish them, so I took two today.
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But really I'd just as soon fish without and I seem to have some success. As Meatloaf so melodically sang, "Two out of three 'aint bad".
20221028_whitefishtroutdouble.jpg
 
Tom Butler said:
#justfuckinglucky or #short term milestone?
Need to get deep for these guys in a big pool with structure, as someone said before. They may look the same but it seems the fish don't think so. Also, when I began this quest last winter people mentioned prince nymphs and flies with white. So I tied a bead head prince nymph in sz.10, and after seeing how big that sz. 8 was I did some hare's ear's in 12 w/ 3.3mm bead. Could have used bigger beads.
View attachment 38685
Just rigged a two fly setup. I think my dry fly's up top might keep it from getting deep enough.
View attachment 38686
Now I felt foolish saying no indicators, I used to fish them a lot and taught my son to fish them, so I took two today.
View attachment 38687
But really I'd just as soon fish without and I seem to have some success. As Meatloaf so melodically sang, "Two out of three 'aint bad".
View attachment 38688
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Haha! That's awesome!
 
Tom Butler said:
#justfuckinglucky or #short term milestone?
Need to get deep for these guys in a big pool with structure, as someone said before. They may look the same but it seems the fish don't think so. Also, when I began this quest last winter people mentioned prince nymphs and flies with white. So I tied a bead head prince nymph in sz.10, and after seeing how big that sz. 8 was I did some hare's ear's in 12 w/ 3.3mm bead. Could have used bigger beads.
View attachment 38685
Just rigged a two fly setup. I think my dry fly's up top might keep it from getting deep enough.
View attachment 38686
Now I felt foolish saying no indicators, I used to fish them a lot and taught my son to fish them, so I took two today.
View attachment 38687
But really I'd just as soon fish without and I seem to have some success. As Meatloaf so melodically sang, "Two out of three 'aint bad".
View attachment 38688
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Hi Tom,

Always appreciate your reports and your photography quality. You also get out there waaaay more than i do these days, which makes me jealous.

Question for you - can you explain/show your rigging approach for that two nymph setup? I grudgingly use nymph rigs when streamers or dries (or dry/dropper, or single soft hackle, or single nymph…..) aren’t producing, but either my presentation, my rigging, my lack of commitment to the approach, or some combo of all of the above usually results in not-great results.

Again, thanks for your posts - you help make PNW forum engaging.
 
Tom, you should try swinging a soft hackle eggstasy egg.... 🤯
 
clarkman said:
Tom, you should try swinging a soft hackle eggstasy egg.... 🤯
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I'd forgotten how effective those eggs were. I'll whip one up during the game when I'm done with chores.
 
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