Missed three yesterday ... how come????

[fredaevans]

Missed three Steelhead yesterday PM on the Rogue. One is 'normal,' two very unusual, but three????

Two fly rig (feather brick plus a #10 bead head prince nymph trailer) which is my norm; the small trailer typically is the one the fish hit. Checked points on both after the first (and second) miss and 'good to go.' After the third missed fish I'm really scratching my head.

As I put the leader/fly's back in the water I happened to notice the trailer fly was laying flat under water rather than point up/point down. 'Aha! says I, that's why you missed the fish.' Checked the knot and it was centered off the ring so now I'm really scratching my head. Adjust knot, no change.

Now the question: what the hell would cause a fly (again, this was a #10 bead head prince nymph) to lay flat in current flow? (Also the reason I missed all three fish:mad: )

[Rob Zelk]

It may just be one of those days; sometimes you just can't hook'em. And a lot of the time, theres just no way of knowing what exactly goes on under the surface. Those fish may have taken the big fly but weren't commited. The design of the prince may have caused the fly to lay flat. You also may want to experiment with the way you connect your trailer, but it sounds like you haven't had this problem before when using a tandem rig, so its hard to say. Maybe try using a knot with a loop to connect the trailer so it is free to drift as it pleases, plus giving the fly more action.

[fredaevans]

Rob, your thoughts match up with the consensus I'm getting out of the UK and another board where I've posed the question. Apparently this is not all that unusual with a fly like the Prince Nymph. That said, laying 'flat' doesn't give you much opportunity to get the point into the jaw.:beathead:

Go figure?:confused:

[Smalma]

Fred -
It may have just been one of those days. Once in awhile the law of averages catch up to us.

I remember in winter of 1976/77 when I first experimented with barbless hooks - fished the entire winter season with barbless hooks. For that season I landed 82% of the fish hooked (I pleasantly surprised by that success) yet I had a day where I lost all 11 fish hooked - same angler, same rod and reel and same hooks (all gear caught) that were used all season. That single day accounted for fully 1/3 of the fish lost for the entire season. The next trip started a string of 18 consective fish to hand. You can bet I was checking hook points, changing hooks, etc but for that day it didn't seem to make a difference what I did. If that day of losing fish had occurred at the start of my barbless experiment I may well have blamed them and quit fishing barbless instead based on the full season's success I have fished nothing but barbless since with continued excellent hook up to hand ratios.

I don't understand why such things occur but accept that they do and figure that uncertainty is part of the appeal of the sport we call fishing.

Tight lines
Curt

[Steelie Mike]

Fred, I remember you having a similar day on the Cow last Sept:rofl: :rofl: . Then again I lost two that day as well:beathead: . I am sure it was just one of those days. One afternoon last summer I hooked and fought six fish in the same run. Five out of the six tossed my flies. I just had to take it with a grain of salt and feel lucky I was able to hook that many fish in the same afternoon.

Glad to hear you have fishable water down there.

[Zen Piscator]

Fred, I remember you having a similar day on the Cow last Sept:rofl: :rofl: . Then again I lost two that day as well:beathead: . I am sure it was just one of those days. One afternoon last summer I hooked and fought six fish in the same run. Five out of the six tossed my flies. I just had to take it with a grain of salt and feel lucky I was able to hook that many fish in the same afternoon.

Glad to hear you have fishable water down there.

Ya, I lost 2 fish in the boat behind you that day. Didn't we figure out that over that 2 days we lost a combined grand total of 10 steelhead without one landed? Nuts man, well im currently 10/11 in the past week so its all good.

Btw I lost 6 fish before I landed one 3 years ago, that was a terrible streak.

Peace,
Andy

[fredaevans]

Gets a bit worse ... if that's possible. Took a trip up to Denmon Bar on Monday to try different knots, leader strengths, etc., and to no avail. Tied on 5 different beadhead PN's from a batch of 12 I'd purchased ... and all of them ran 'flat' in the current. :rofl:

'Bad batch' of flies?:confused: :beathead:

The weather had to be experienced to be believed. A driving sleet, 33-35 degrees and a 15'ish mph wind behind it. Even the dogs (one's a Husky no less) said 'Dad/Uncle Fred GET US OUT OF THIS SHXT!' Damnation it was cold and miserable that day!