Got silver?

[John L]

Wayne, it is pretty clear you are a more advanced fisherman than I. But I am going to practice, all those techniques you mentioned, because they sound like so much fun I won't mind even if they don't catch me more fish.

[DUBBN]

I was wondering if you were going to respond to that.

Because of your experiment I tyed up a few more flashy patterns. Then I remembered, I can add a bead at the river.

[John L]

"Add a bead at the river". Interesting/good idea. Let us know how it works.

[DUBBN]

John, I remember what I wanted to ask you. Do you ever use an egg pattern or SJ worm as an attractor? In years past it was a very effective way for me to fish the Gunnison, Colorado, and Roaring Fork. Egg , Soft Hackle, nymph rig. In that order. It was a very effective way to dredge a river in years past. I can't say it has worked as well this year. I have no idea if it is due to the drought, but I surmise it is.

[John L]

I haven't tried egg patterns since leaving Northern California where, on the Sacramento and Feather, which are salmon rivers, it was my favorite fly for trout during the salmon run. I suppose now during Brown Trout redding some size and color egg is good? For Rainbows? Browns? Both? What size do you use? Color?

I have used various SJ Worm patterns occasionally, sometimes just a red hook, with fair to good luck, but never so good that I liked them enough to keep them in my fly box. What size hook do you like yours on? How long the worm part? One thing I have decided is that I hate deep flies on anything over size 12 hooks because of ease of snagging the bottom.

Could you maybe sketch your rig, with fly ID and leader dimensions, and post a picture? I promise to give it a try. Especially during winter on this (freestone) river I have done very poorly on anything so far, so I am eager to try something new.

[DUBBN]

John please excuse the picture quality.

I start out with a 7.5 foot 3X Mono leader. I add another foot of 3x tippet (Mono) to that, I never attatch a fly to my leader. Always to my tippet. That way I am not burning through leaders all the time.

If I feel the fish are not skittish, or if the water is off color at all I attach my attractor pattern to the 3X. If the water is gin clear I will go down to 4X Flouro. Most of the time my attractors are size 10 to 16. In this case they are size 14 Multi Colored Eggs (Clown).

Next I tie 8 to 12 inches of 4X Fluoro to the bend of the attractor. I then tie on a Soft Hackle.

To the bend of the Soft Hackle I tie on 8 to 12 inches of 4X or 5x or 6x fluoro depending on the size of the nymph. Normally it's 5X even on size 20's-22's . I tie my nymph on to that.

I stood in my garage and tyed up one of my rigs without measuring. I was trying to imitate how I would do it on the river. This is what I ended up with. It's very close to what i would have ended up with in fishing conditions.

My standard nymphing rig..


Split shot, attractor, Soft Hackle, and nymph.

Again, I apoloqize for the pics.



The split shot is at 24 inches. The pen shows where the nymph is,,,I could have used a nymph bigger than 24







John, this is just a basic setup. It can change during the day, especially if i am using a strike indicator

[John L]

Wow. Nice work. I'll try as near like it as I can as soon as this cold front pases and, even if it catches no better now than what I would normally use now, I will try it later when my normal setups don't work, which will happen. Give me a week or two for an initial report. Meanwhile I haven't forgot about trying a silver bead on the tippet with a Muscrat And Brown, and holding my tongue so, and imagining ...

[Mataura mayfly]

Dubbn, the photos are fine, I could follow them and if I can anybody can!
What you have explained there is a classic NZ style of dropper fishing....... if the nymph was #14-16, the sort hackle was a dry, there was no egg pattern nor split-shot..... other than that it is near exact.

[hankaye]

DUBBN, Howdy;

Hey !!! I remember that set-up ... 'cept for the speck of bug snot on the very
end... . Of course we only fished with a double rig that fine day..

It's also how I set up my 2 pre tied rigs for the San Juan, only I had 3X to the egg
and 6X to the bitty 22's on the ends of each.

hank

[DUBBN]

You'd better remember that set up Hank! If you didnt, you'd probably forget your fly reel when you go fish'n!