Todays report

[cpriest]

it was a tough today for me at beaver, and i realized i dont know near enough about fly fishing! there was a strong steady wind blowing upstream, causing the top of the water to flow up stream. this made it beyond impossible to dead drift, which is really the only thing i have ever done for trout. i tried stripping an olive bugger most of the afternoon, with no luck. the wind calmed down about 430 and i drifted a tan scud and hooked 2 but they both fell off. anyone have any recomedations on how to fish with this type of condition, or help with the magical task of stripping in a streamer? thanks

[Danoinark]

I think one of the things you could have tried (assuming you didn't) would be to add more weight (shot) to get the fly down further. This may have reversed the drift a bit. You are correct in that just the first few inches of water was unnatural.

Dano

[ecce38]

Chase, it was a windy day for me too just the day before. Trying to get a good drift on such days is really not possible. Just try and get the best one you can. Lots of mending. Also, don't make many false casts on days like that. Whenever I go to recast on windy days, I just make one backcast to load the rod and launch the line forward. If it's not good, I just repeat the process until you get the cast you like. Kind of hard to explain, but something like that. What did the boss man think?

[cpriest]

as far as the casting went, rarely did i even do a false cast. i actualy had some success with roll casting as well. thanks for the idea of adding weight for a drift, i did not try that. my boss loved it, even though the fishing was non existent. i showed him different places to walk in at and i think he took his son today. we might possibly go back in the morning, just waiting to here from him

[Guest flyfishBDS]

Wind wind Wind

the new fly fishers nightmare

and not much fun for us old blokes either

There's a few options stay home (boring as hell); go fishing and get frustrated as your casts go no-where get tangles etc etc etc (no fun either)

As my g/f's teenage daughter tells me "deal with it".

That means learning to cast properly, so you can get the line speed you need and secondly learning to mend properly. (Lest anyone thinks Im having a go at clay, Ive never seen you cast have I so this is in general, basically remembering how I was as a relative newcomer)

Ive said before on here you don't need to cast very well to catch trout and almost anyone can pick up a flyrod learn enough to throw big wide loops and catch fish. Then there is windy days when casting skills like line speed, loop control and the need for the double haul become critical.

Mending line is another skill that can mean the difference between good fishing and getting skunked. And its one of the worst understood. Ive seen a lot of otherwise very good fishers this year who can throw lots of mends upstream _ but there is often very little understanding of what you are trying to achieve in a mend _ so the mend comes too late/early, often too strong or in the wrong places.

Mending is all about letting the fly (or visually the indicator) drift along without any effects/pull from the line.

A tight line will pull (whether its in a curve or straight) on the indicator and fly, bringing the indicator towards you and lift/speed up the fly_ BAD

Keeping tension off the line, through S-curves, repositioning the line up current, wiggles, stack mends etc etc can be pretty complex, and too hard to explain simply here.

But mending line into the wind (when its blowing upstream) is pretty logical but ask someone to do it and often you will see an automatic mend upstream _ mend into whatever is pulling your line, wind or current.

You asked about stripping _ well they don't allow it in this country but there is a bar in Fayett.............

Oh not that sort of stripping _ good thing don't reckon you'd do all that well on the pole

Again simple piece of advice. Use your imagination!

Your trying to get that piece of fur and feather on the end of the line to look lifelife. So think about how trout food moves

If its a crawdad pattern slow crawl interspersed with darting movements.

A lot of small fish wiggle a lot for not a lot of gain in current. so short darty movements.

You may be faking an injured fish, so some longer strips with a longer fall.

some days you want to start high in the water column, other times let if fall deep.

This is fly fishing so there is no magic answers.

Cheers

Steve

[cpriest]

thanks for the info steve, this has really been the first time this year that i have faced tough fishing (weather related). i fished with patrick today and he also helped me out with casting into the wind, but it seems like i have a lot to learn about mending. are there any good books/articles that you know of for mending techniques? or is it one of those things that no matter what you read you have to just go out and try it?

chase

[Danoinark]

Chase

Here is a fairly good explanation

Dano

http://www.sexyloops.com/flycasting/tmendingline.shtml

[ecce38]

thanks for the info steve, this has really been the first time this year that i have faced tough fishing (weather related). i fished with patrick today and he also helped me out with casting into the wind....

chase

...and the boy done good too. He also caught more fish than me, but I did put him on the spot. (Where's my $175? by the way?) Conditions after Noon today got much worse Chase. In a word, brutal. Only caught 2 more up by the dam. I'm still trying to thaw out!

Get this, I saw a green plastic bobber in the water and went to pick it up thinking it was trash, and the thing went under and resurfaced 15 feet away. I cast at it and my fly caught the leader attached to it and I was able to land one fish that way! Tried to remove the hook (a barbed one unfortunately), but it was too deep, so I cut as much line as I could. It was probably more amusing at the time....