great day fishing spiders

[taylor16]

Fished some partridge and green spiders today in some select riffles and pools and really experienced some aggressive takes. I had to cast to the far side of a riffle adjacent to an elevated bank where I saw some trout rising. It was an overcast day and I was having some trouble seeing the junction of my fly line and leader but a few of the takes I had made any visual input unnecessary. I nearly dropped my rod on the largest today, a nice 16-17" Iowa brown. It was also the first time I had a trout literally rip line off my reel. Anyways, just wanted to share - I'm becoming more and more fascinated with these simple soft hackles!

[hankaye]

taylor16, Howdy;

I nearly dropped my rod on the largest today, a nice 16-17" Iowa brown. It was also the first time I had a trout literally rip line off my reel. Anyways, just wanted to share - I'm becoming more and more fascinated with these simple soft hackles!

Neat ... huh ? ,

hank

[Ron Eagle Elk]

Okay, Friends and Neighbors, he's hooked now.

Taylor16, Aren't those sweet wee wets something? The takes are usually very aggressive, possibly because the trout think the bug is gonna get away. Maybe that explains why I have 72 dry flies and 350 spiders and flymphs.

[Old Hat]

Great to hear Taylor. The great thing about these type of patterns is you can really fish them in a multitude of ways and conditions. Many other types of flies are somewhat limited.

The hard takes on soft hackles come with the territory. Enjoy.

Thanks for sharing.

[DUBBN]

It was those aggressive strikes that really got me hooked on Spiders. How deep in the water column were your patterns when the strikes occurred?

[taylor16]

The stream was interesting -- about half a mile of nice scattered riffles with deep 4+ foot pools. I didn't have any luck with spiders or flymphs (even the tungsten weighted ones, bead behind the hackle) in the deeper pools but did very well when I changed to simple weighted nymphs. The pools varied in speed of flow. In general, do you all find that soft hackles work "best" in shallower water and what do you do to fish deeper pools besides tailing a nymph as a dropper where they might see it better...

[Ron Eagle Elk]

Taylor,

I guess I'm just lucky. Most of the trout I fish to are either Coastal Cutthroat or West Slope Cutthroat, both are famous for looking up. They will come out of a deep, deep, dark hole to smash a dry fly, or, even better, a spider or flymph tied on a light wire hook.

If I really need to get a fly down deep, I switch spools and use either a sink tip line or a full sinking line. Using those lines I shorten the leader a bit.

[Mataura mayfly]

Good to see your out there having some fun with the spider patterns and discovering where they suit and what methods suited you best at the time, but buddy- you have to take the camera along with you, we would all love to see the photographic evidence of your success.

[Boris]

what do they say Jeff...... "no photo no fish"

Taylor, fish in shallow riffles are feeding and they usually mean business. They leave the security of deeper water to take advantage of feeding where the aquatic life is most abundant.

[redietz]

what do they say Jeff...... "no photo no fish"

If you enjoy taking pictures, it's great to post them, but ... I'm seeing that "no photo no fish" quote show up in forum after forum, and it's starting to bother me a bit. I personally hate taking fish photos for a number of reasons:

1) I fit some definitions of being legally blind, so I'll never be any good at it.
2) I came to fish; taking photos detracts from the moment.
3) I feel badly about holding a fish out of the water long enough to get its picture.*
4) I've somehow managed to fish for over half a century without taking photos of my catch, don't feel like changing to satisfy onlookers.

* Not everybody has the same problem -- reason 1 means that I will be holding a fish out of water longer than other people.

Again, if you enjoy it, great. But please don't make someone feel an inferior angler because they don't post photos.