What's in your vise?

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Keith Bush Goldbug

Hook - Straight eye streamer hook

Thread - White

Tail - Red hackle feather

Body - Rear half - Black ostrich herl; Front half - Flat gold tinsel

Wing - Red over yellow bucktail

Head - Green ostrich herl or painted green

Pennsylvania Angler - October 1940
 
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clarkman said:
Fish hooked on a trailer hook at the tail aren't eaters, they're curious.....how many fish eat their prey tail first? none.
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I have a caveat to that though. I find while fishing single trailing hook flies that the fish are actually hooked in the outside corner of the mouth quite often. I think they are doing the t-bone and head bite, then get hooked on the hookset as the fly is basically flossed across their jaws. Pretty similar to how pegged beads work actually. Fish east the bead a couple inches above the hook, then the hookset drags the hook to an outer corner of mouth hookup.

But then yeah, later in the season coho will often be hooked in the snout with the trailer and I think they are just messing around with the fly more than eating.
 
mtskibum16 said:
I have a caveat to that though. I find while fishing single trailing hook flies that the fish are actually hooked in the outside corner of the mouth quite often. I think they are doing the t-bone and head bite, then get hooked on the hookset as the fly is basically flossed across their jaws. Pretty similar to how pegged beads work actually. Fish east the bead a couple inches above the hook, then the hookset drags the hook to an outer corner of mouth hookup.

But then yeah, later in the season coho will often be hooked in the snout with the trailer and I think they are just messing around with the fly more than eating.
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Good point, but those same fish would be hooked on a fly with the hook in the middle or even the front 3rd.

I guess in my head, I was thinking of a fly swinging across when you see that trout basically mouthing the tail end of it.
 
Starting some ties for a summer AK trip. My last couple of trips to this river, I was shown these very small white leaches in the water. I think most imitate with giant white Dali llamas (I’ll be tying some of those too) but I wondered if a smaller pattern might be effective as well?

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Looking forward to this trip. I’ll have a full week fishing some great rainbow water in Katmai and another weak DIYing it on the Kenai Peninsula. Lots of fun tying ahead. These are the first of many patterns I have on the list.
 
clarkman said:
Good point, but those same fish would be hooked on a fly with the hook in the middle or even the front 3rd.
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I know where your heads at, but come fish coho in September with standard tied flies and we can revisit this conversation :)

Coho seem to exist just to fly in the face of conventional wisdom. Doesnt make sense that any fish would eat something tail first, but if I had a dollar for every coho I've personally watched nip at a fly directly from behind I could easily afford a sweet new glass muskie stick. :)

Whether or not they are aggressively feeding during those times is a whole different conversation, but if a playful coho comes up and nips at my fly from behind, and isn't actually aggressively feeding, I'm still plenty happy enough to catch it with a Stinger hook pattern
 
Any years ago I was fishing a small stream in Alaska. The water was clear and lots of coho. I was using a small chartreuse and white clouser, #6 or#4. A rather large coho, 12 lbs plus, slowly swam up behind the fly, inhaled it and continued swimming towards me. After the battle, I had think about the take. I wondered how many fish I had missed over the years because of this behavior. If I had not seen the take, I would have never noticed the take.

I wonder if the size of the fly was the reason for the subtle take. Could it be the fish saw an easy snack. I was within a mile from the salt. Just something else to think about.
 
Perusing some old Washington State fishing guides, I came across a pic of the Midnight Leech.
Natural tying evolution turned out an articulated leech with a stacked and trimmed Deer hair body with schlappen woven thru the fibers.
Stoking for some lake time soon!
Ahrex XO774 #1
Chocklettes Big Game shank 20mm
Hareline bling rabbit strips
FnF Fire Orange Jelly Fritz
40# Mono for the weed guard




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Muddled Mother’s Day Caddis

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When in doubt, tie a Muddler.

hook - WFC Model 3 #14
thread - Veevus 8/0 black
shuck - yarn chartreuse
rib - xsmall wire chartreuse
abdomen - medium tinsel peacock
thorax - Ice Dub Peacock Black
wing - Congo Hair Baitfish Grey
collar/head - deer hair dyed dun

Regards,
Scott
 
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