What Is A Good Fly/nymph/emerger/etc...for Mid October

[laker67]

Well Joe, you certainly have more options with spin gear. You can throw jerks, cranks, little cleos, and even power bait. We would be hard pressed to do that with fly gear. All of these lures, fished on spin gear, have caught most of missouri's state record brown trout. Only one has been taken on fly gear. You certainly have the advantage when it comes to extremely large fish, and the record book shows that to be true. Fly vs spin is a choice and nothing else. I am not sure why some try so hard to make that an issue.

[BruteFish83]

Well Joe, you certainly have more options with spin gear. You can throw jerks, cranks, little cleos, and even power bait. We would be hard pressed to do that with fly gear. All of these lures, fished on spin gear, have caught most of missouri's state record brown trout. Only one has been taken on fly gear. You certainly have the advantage when it comes to extremely large fish, and the record book shows that to be true. Fly vs spin is a choice and nothing else. I am not sure why some try so hard to make that an issue.

I might not be clear on your meaning of options, but I have to disagree. A fly rod will enable you to put dries on top, drift nymphs on bottom and throw streamers or bait fish patterns.

[laker67]

I might not be clear on your meaning of options, but I have to disagree. A fly rod will enable you to put dries on top, drift nymphs on bottom and throw streamers or bait fish patterns.

Never said it wouldn't. Said you couldn't throw cranks, jerks, little cleos on fly rod. Least none that i ever owned.

[fishinwrench]

Y'all and your bobbers.… (pffft) LOL Hell, why not just cast your 3/4" thingamabobber with a UL spinning rig ?

I was taught way back in the early 80's how to execute what is (or was) known as a "tension drift", and once I got the hang of it I shitcanned "indicators" for good (except for suspending midges in frog-water). I am really surprised that more guys don't use that method for their nymphing type presentations. It flat out works. You set up your drift and you are basically setting a fish trap. To me it's way more effective and versatile than indicator nymphing....but to each their own I guess.

And Justin, 6 flys/hr.? My God man, ya freaking litterbug!

You could just go ahead and toss your beer cans in the stream and not trash the waterway as bad.

[laker67]

Y'all and your bobbers.… (pffft) LOL Hell, why not just cast your 3/4" thingamabobber with a UL spinning rig ?

I was taught way back in the early 80's how to execute what is (or was) known as a "tension drift", and once I got the hang of it I shitcanned "indicators" for good (except for suspending midges in frog-water). I am really surprised that more guys don't use that method for their nymphing type presentations. It flat out works. You set up your drift and you are basically setting a fish trap. To me it's way more effective and versatile than indicator nymphing....but to each their own I guess.

And Justin, 6 flys/hr.? My God man, ya freaking litterbug!

You could just go ahead and toss your beer cans in the stream and not trash the waterway as bad.

I guess we still live in the good old days FW. I too use the tension drift and refer to it as "cruise control". It is one of my highly effective methods for night time.

[Al Agnew]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the tension drift is mostly for close-in nymphing, where it's easy to keep direct contact with your nymphs. There are some situations where it just won't work. If you're nymphing drops and slots in riffles, where the depth the fish are hanging at is no more than a couple feet deep, they are often too spooky to approach that close. And if you fish big rivers like those out West, you're often nymphing a run that you just can't wade out very far, and need to make casts of 30 feet or more. I don't always use an indicator, but there are times when it's necessary.

And in slow water nymphing, I usually use a big, high floating dry fly as my "indicator". Might as well give them more choices.

[fishinwrench]

No limitations on distance. Everyone seems to think that it's strictly a short-line thing. The only time it won't work very

well is if you are fishing straight up or straight down stream....and actually you can still do it, it's just requires more skill (which I don't have BTW, so don't get me wrong, I try to avoid straight up or straight down if I can).

Once the drift is set up right anything that stops the fly (even for a mili-second) causes things to immediately tighten up. I can definately detect THAT happening at a distance way easier than I can see a bobber twitch at lets say 35-40+ feet away. The hook is usually already in flesh so all you have to do is finish the job. Your focus remains on the angle of the line between the rod tip and the water surface....instead of the little orange ball.

[stlfisher]

Were can one learn this tension drift?

[laker67]

It is a rather simple approach. You need to get your bait just slightly heavier than the current. I use split shot and adjust it up and down to fine tune. A long leader and tippet combo helps also. I normally use 12 to 15 feet. Your fly line will have a slight arc downstream like when you fish a streamer fly. Your fly will tick along the bottom and you feel everything. At night I prefer the straight down method that fw spoke of. You walk the fly slower than the current is moving. This method I call cruise control because you can speed up or slow way down and still maintain contact with the fly and the big fish that is about to inhale it. Of course a thingamawhacher is probably easier, but its all in what you prefer.

[Justin Spencer]

And Justin, 6 flys/hr.? My God man, ya freaking litterbug!

You could just go ahead and toss your beer cans in the stream and not trash the waterway as bad.

Don't hate the playa, hate the game. That's how it's played on the NFoW.