BSC Report 5/31

[ness]

1 hour ago, mic said:

I love Blue Springs Creek.  It is a hard place to learn to fly fish with all the tight shots and spooky fish.  

Well, look who's here! Welcome back!

[tjm]

9 hours ago, ThisFish said:

For a small creek like this, do you have a good leader size?

leader 7'

[dpitt]

1 hour ago, ThisFish said:

I had 6x tippet but my bugs were definitely on the bigger size. Mostly 12-16 so ill look at finding some smaller options. 

For a small creek like this, do you have a good leader size? I used 9ft to a ring, indicator just off of it and another 2-3ft to the fly. 

Yea,  I think you leader length is perfect, I will typically give them a choice a little bigger bug on top, point fly, and drop a smaller  bug off it .  Also, weight is really important, they may not move much for. food, so it's important to make sure it get's down in front of there snoots,    I use a tugneston bead head bug for the point fly, then it's a matter of judging the length from the float to the leader depending upon flow, the general rule of thumb is 1.5 x the depth of the water, but you kind of have to observe and experiment with the depth. You can also use a split shot above the first fly.    I'm moving shallow water, it's ok for the split shot or point fly to tick and bounce along the bottom as it drifts

[tjm]

Just how big is that creek? It doesn't look 12' wide.

[ThisFish]

2 hours ago, dpitt said:

Yea,  I think you leader length is perfect, I will typically give them a choice a little bigger bug on top, point fly, and drop a smaller  bug off it .  Also, weight is really important, they may not move much for. food, so it's important to make sure it get's down in front of there snoots,    I use a tugneston bead head bug for the point fly, then it's a matter of judging the length from the float to the leader depending upon flow, the general rule of thumb is 1.5 x the depth of the water, but you kind of have to observe and experiment with the depth. You can also use a split shot above the first fly.    I'm moving shallow water, it's ok for the split shot or point fly to tick and bounce along the bottom as it drifts

Hey thanks so much for all the help. I really appreciate it. I owe you a river beer if I ever run into you. 

I had some smaller tungsten, I was worried about the bottom drag but nice to know its a good option. 

In this type of creek do you jump down to the next pool or riffle in-between spots or try to get everything on the way down. I think some spots I selected were too shallow.

[dpitt]

I would hit all the fishy spots... riffles, pools, riffles into pools, seams, etc... by starting down stream or below them don't just wade into the water... stay on shore and systematically throw up stream and drift down and past, do this a few times, then move out a bit and repeat... then move up stream some more and repeat again, this way you are covering all the water. Also, you'd be surprised how camoflaouged the fishies can be..that's why it;'s better not to just charge in the water to a nice looking pool you see.    They are typically facing up stream fishing so coming in behind there vision helps a little sneaking up on them.   Sounds like you can sight fish them, so observe what they do when your bug drifts by,  if they spook when your indicator hits the water, then you think about removing it and kind letting the bugs drift without an indicator, if your fly line moves at all, hit it.   I have not fished BSC, but  have fished similar waters.  Thanks for the beer offer

[Johnsfolly]

@ThisFish if you live close enough to fish BSC often, I would suggest spending a trip just exploring the creek and don't fish. Find which pools runs have fish and which don't. If you can watch them without spooking them figure out where they might be on a return trip. Then you should have a game plan as to which pools you can walk by and which ones you need to sneak into to catch a fish. 

How are you casting to these fish?

[ThisFish]

3 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

@ThisFish if you live close enough to fish BSC often, I would suggest spending a trip just exploring the creek and don't fish. Find which pools runs have fish and which don't. If you can watch them without spooking them figure out where they might be on a return trip. Then you should have a game plan as to which pools you can walk by and which ones you need to sneak into to catch a fish. 

How are you casting to these fish?

Thats a really good point. I'm also thinking I may try to find a fly fisher and go with them just to observe (not fish myself) how they approach, drift their flies, etc. 

Honestly most of my casts were based on trying to avoid trees and other obstacles near by.  For edge runs like the photo I posted, I'd cast about 45-70 upstream and let the indicator/fly drift through the run and into the bottom. 

On the pools/riffles, I tried to approach from the bottom and cast up to again let the fly drift through. When I could get away with roll casting that was my preference but I can only do it well (beginner well) when going straight up and down. On the runs where i was approaching from the side I'd have to do a few false casts to get the fly direction changed, get some more line out, and end up back in good position. 

[tjm]

7 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

I would suggest spending a trip just exploring the creek and don't fish.

Back when I was exploring new water and hitting about 35-50  small streams monthly, my tactics on the first few visits to each were to leave the rod & reel in the truck and wade quickly through a long stretch ~mile, purposely startling the fish and noting how many and in what locations they were, carry  a paint strainer and sample for bugs, turn over rocks and count caddis, mayfly and other larvae, etc. then return to truck eat lunch/rest  the stream and go back with tackle, working from down stream up. Never casting more than 1 1/2 times the stream width (approximately 45* across and up or down) and using a short leader that brought the line into the cast for accuracy (often helps to have some line in play for mending purposes too).  This let me fish only water known to hold fish and to stand where I could easily put a short cast in the right place.  [If that stream pictured is as small as it looks, with 12' of leader I would never use more than 2' of line. ]

At this time I was also often fishing old  mill ponds on these same small streams, where I used 50'  casts, 16' leaders and #24 flies; none of this was applicable to the N.E. brooks. It took me many months to learn that. Eventually I stood belt deep in freestone streams with trout hanging inches away in the ''wake'' of my legs and caught trout a rod's length away from where I stood. For many years I have said the fishing should be done before one strings up the rod.

Change direction, I'll pose a question related to the "strike indicators", not one that wants an answer but to stimulate thought, "Doesn't the "leader" end at the float?" I've watched a fellow fish very successfully by tying his 3'-4' tippet directly to a loop end on his fly line, when I questioned him, that is what he said. His float was the line and his idea was that the tapered nylon between line and bobber was just wasted, (bobber kills the taper and the plop on the water makes line distancing irrelevant) by eliminating it he was also able to eliminate the bobber. He went on to say long tapered leaders were invented by dry fly enthusiasts. idk, but he caught lots of fish.

[tjm]

5 hours ago, ThisFish said:

 For edge runs like the photo I posted, I'd cast about 45-70 upstream and let the indicator/fly drift through the run and into the bottom. 

A different approach. start near the head of that run  on the low bank and  cast across and up a little, 5'-7' and let that drift along the  current a few feet, then take two steps down stream and repeat, do it again etc.; let the cast swing across to your side so that the new cast is a pickup and a dropped back cast or a change of direction, so no false casting is needed. I suspect that if you are hero casting the fish are put down by the shadows of the false casts. It may just be me but I never catch fish after false casting over them or on really long drifts.