What's in your vise?
- Thread starter Billy
- Start date
How small is small? 3 inches instead of 4.5?
The two smaller ones are 2 1/4 and 3. The smaller patterns that were successful Sunday seemed to be about 3. That said, lots of stuff was working. FFB’s fly, tall guys black and purple fly, I think Nick was casting a squid fly, etc. Oddly, enough, the old standby spawn head baitfish pattern did not hook a fish even though @Kfish and I gave them good longs soaks before making the switch to smaller stuff.
Last edited:
Some of the walleye further north on the Canadian shield secrete a bright blue goo in their slime coat. It's actually a fascinating (to a protein engineer like me, anyway
) protein called sandercyanin; under UV light it should fluoresce red! I'm gonna bring my UV light along and see if I can get some cool night pics of red-glowing walleye 
Brown Turkey
Elliot
ok that's it I'm tying up some smaller stuff to go along with my Spawn head standards.
I think it’s worth have some smaller stuff just in case. It seemed to make a difference for a couple of us last trip. My biggest issue with those patterns is they tend to foul if not tied appropriately and as you know, when the bait stop frenzy happens, stopping casting to mess with the fly is frustrating. I know others have run into that issue as well. Due to that, I tie some like this as well on shanks which eliminates the fouling issue. It introduces another though, they don’t keel worth shit! They still work even when spinning just like spawn head flies do. I think that makes sense since we’ve seen tuna smash crippled baitfish at stops. Something to consider though. For these, I tied in a section of .04 diameter wire to the underside of the shank. Never done that before on this style fly so we’ll see if they keel/swim better.
Edit: another thing about these smaller patterns is that they can be repurposed as coho flies when your tuna trips are done for the year.
Last edited:
No luck on Tues. with this pattern. I used this bug bluegill fishing. It was on the point with a redhead micro leech above it using the naked line technique. The leech was golden but no action for the dragon nymph..back to the drawing board..
Last edited:
I hear you on the spinning and fouling. I've been experimenting with the wire keel as well but haven't had a chance to really test them out. I also think that the octopus style hook, with the offset point, contributes to spinning. I would love to find a decent up-eye hook for trailers that was straight. The Owner No Escape hook is ok but the up-eye isn't up enough to get a nice straight "lie".
For fouling, I've been using the "strip of UV resin along the first tail section" method to help.
Edit: tying these on tubes would probably eliminate fouling AND spinning. Derp.
Guessing stripers will crush these too.
Last edited:
One thing that can work to get the fly to swim upright, if you want that, is to make the white belly/lower "wing" a bit sparser, and the upper "wing"/colored body of the fly a bit fuller/taller. Then there's more water resistance on the top and it seems to stay upright.
I think spinning is fine for pelagic fish...I've trolled for them for 4 decades with traditional gear & resin/jet heads, and I 'm pretty sure they don't keel...however, line twist is another issue...do you guys ever put a swivel between the fly and fly line?...or is it not an issue for cast & retrieve?...I know it would be if trolled.
I would have trolled those flies on my spinning gear at the fads off Hawaii back in the day...they would have worked great...
I’ve never used a swivel for tuna fly fishing, but I have for fishing the Penis Evening, which is what you call it when you fish a Dick Nite on a fly rod.
If I notice a fly spinning or swimming weird, I usually cut it off and find one that doesn’t do that. Unless it’s getting bit. But even then….drives me crazy.
Pink Nighty
Legend
The Penis Evening is also the name of my one man show, which interestingly involves hammering humpys on dick nites as the sun slips below the horizon.
It seems most everyone is tying flies for pinks (except Dimebrite and Stonedfish) or coho (including Dimebrite and Stonedfish) or tuna. Yesterday I found an interesting feather sitting on the lawn; California quail (I think). I picked it up and thought I should use it for a soft-hackle. I tied up a rather large soft hackle with the feather:
Now! If the weather would just cool off, there's a nifty (trout) lake where this fly will most like get shredded.
Now! If the weather would just cool off, there's a nifty (trout) lake where this fly will most like get shredded.
Couple more little ones for tuna on Saturday. Capr for scale.
I've never used a swivel for tuna or anything other than bucktailing with an actual spinner blade on the leader. The last time I bucktailed my fishing buddy didn't have a swivel and I did. He ended up with a serious rat's nest due to line twist.
I've never used a swivel for tuna or anything other than bucktailing with an actual spinner blade on the leader. The last time I bucktailed my fishing buddy didn't have a swivel and I did. He ended up with a serious rat's nest due to line twist.
I've actually gone to using a swivel for everything except dry fly fishing.
Since taper isn't much of an issue for streamers and big poppers (which often spin during the cast, not the retrieve!) I use a small barrel swivel as a tippet ring; stout butt section - swivel - 2-3 ft tippet.
A purist, I'm not
Jennie Lind
