FLYMPH FORUM

Size 8

DUBBN, Howdy;

Kind of a large tye for you, very well done.
What's the degree of difficulty for the transition
from 24's to 8's?

hank

A shot and a beer.

ROTFLOL!!!

Wayne - Your "difficulty" scale cracked me up! Priceless.

I love the fly, btw. I could have used a couple of these earlier today. The stream is flowing high and dirty. Best chance at a fish was to go deep. I tried, but did not connect with any fish. Still was nice to stand in the water for a while.

hankaye wrote:DUBBN
Kind of a large tye for you, very well done.

One of my High Water boxes. Makes an 8 look like a 24.

I put the fly in this post (Monatana Prince) directly below the quarter for a size referance. The tail is pointing at Georges ear.



A member of this forum once referred to my larger patterns as looking like a rats nest. I believe he is very close to the truth.

Have you had much luck with the San Juan worms? I've fished them several times, but never had an luck with them. I was recently noticing a lot of little worms on the driveway, as a result of the spring rains. I was thinking yesterday, that I should try a worm pattern (garden hackle) because the runoff may be washing some into the streams.

How to do you fish these? Do you simply slide a metal bead on your leader, or do you let them drift free?

Nice box of flies, btw. I see many of your recent additions are already lined up, ready to go fishing. Bravo!

Ray, just like the rest of my nymphs I sink the SJ worm to the bottom of the water column with split shot. I usually use the SJ, or an egg as an attractor, and as such, it is usually the point (closest to the fly line) fly. At times a gaudy pattern like the SJ will scare fish. At others it's just the ticket for getting trout in close. I will say this. When a fish does hit a SJ worm when fished in this matter, it is not uncommon for that fish to be the largest of the trip.

The other side of this fly box is streamers. I strip a streamer about once a year. The rest of the time I am using them on a nymph rig as well. Weird, huh?

Wayne - Weird, maybe. Effective? Do tell! This is new to me and very intriguing. Is the streamer at the end, tumbling free like a wounded baitfish?

letumgo wrote:Wayne - Weird, maybe. Effective? Do tell! This is new to me and very intriguing. Is the streamer at the end, tumbling free like a wounded baitfish?

Ray, years ago I watched a man on the San Juan River in New Mexico have great success nymphing. I was not awe struck as I was holding my own catching quite a few fish myself. What struck me odd was how fast this man could land his fish. It was late evening and we had this particular stretch of the river to ourselves. This man was situated maybe 30 yards below me. He may have been closer. It's been a few years. Anyhow, he finished up and was walking by me on his way to the parking lot. As he passed we made eye contact. I don't recall who spoke first but one of us made mention of the spectacular fishing we had just enjoyed. He asked me what I was using. I probably replied that I was using a size 24 blah blah midge. I did not ask him what patterns he was using. Instead, I asked how he got his fish landed so fast. Keep in mind the San Juan is a tail water, and notorious for requiring tiny flies (22-28) by most anglers. He stopped and showed me his rig. He had a 7 foot leader, that was probably 2x to the first fly. That first fly was a size 10 or 8 dirty cream colored Bunny Leech, maybe 2.5 inches long. The man told me the fish were hammering it. Especially at the end of the drift and given a couple jerks before being retrieved. Off the Bunny leech he had the standard tiny nymph attached with 5X or 6x. The man was a local and he told me that when he struggled getting the fish to take the tiny stuff, he would give them a chance to take something big. I learned a valuable lesson that evening. Wish I could thank him for that lesson.

Ray, I do not know what the fish think the big streamers are when they are being nymphed. I do know that in most of the waters I fish there are giant Stone Nymphs, Helgramites, Sculpins, Leeches, tadpoles, and bait fish year round. Nymphing with the big streamers does not always work, but using this technique in conjunction with smaller nymphs has saved my day more than once. I wish I had a nickle for every fish I have taken with a size 10 Black Woolly Bugger using this technique. Bet I could buy enough beer to keep you and I on a two week binge . Maybe we need to think out side the box, or become a bit more flexable in our approach to catching fish.

I need to fish next Saturday. You are going to ban me from the board with all my ramblings.

Wayne

I read your "ramblings" this morning and it was enough encouragement to send me out the door and to my local stream to go fishing. Thank you.

What a cool thread. I really enjoy reading about the streamer/nymph rig. Definitely worth a try.

Start saving those nickels. I'm thirsty.