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Steelhead:Nymphing or Swinging

23K views 216 replies 91 participants last post by  clarkman 
#1 ·
I have noticed more people are fishing egg patterns on the river out of drift boats with a lot of lead to keep it down. They like it and think this is fly fishing. I think it is gear fishing with a fly rod. I have nothing against gear fishing but I can't believe these people think this is fly fishing and are proud of it. They lob there lead weight or slinkie 25 ft. praying they don't hit there rod and then drift with the boat. The reality of this is that the person rowing the boat is actually the one doing the fishing if he is not on the money reading water they won't touch a fish. I prefer to swing most of the time. If they want to fish like this why not get the gear rod out and do it right. I would rather go down swinging than catch a fish on the fly rod like this because that is exactly what there doing catching a fish on a fly rod not fly fishing! I'm curious how many people have observed this on the river and what your thoughts are on Lob fishing!:confused:
 
#202 ·
"who the hell can cast a full ounce of weight on any fly rod?"

Piece of cake. Just need the right rod with the right line. I use a 7' 11" rod that's an 8 weight for this style of fishing for largemouth. The Sage Largemouth rod can get the job done too. I have largemouth flies with two 5/8 oz barbell eye on them. Turn the hook point up, put the barbells on the bottom and you can drag it snag free or tight line that puppy line. When a fish touches it the feeling transmits to you like having a mandolin playing picking your line. This is really effective before the bass get active. Slow your speed down till the fly helps load the rod. It's more of a "sling style" side arm 45 degree cast. Overhead casts are not recommended because if you blow it could get real ugly with the amount of momentum behind a 5/0 or 7/0 bass hook. A WA State tiger muskie guide had a guest pierce his eyebrow last year.. scary close call.

Wet muskie flies can weight even more!

Font Line Technology Screenshot Parallel
 
#206 ·
"who the hell can cast a full ounce of weight on any fly rod?"

Piece of cake. Just need the right rod with the right line. I use a 7' 11" rod that's an 8 weight for this style of fishing for largemouth. The Sage Largemouth rod can get the job done too. I have largemouth flies with two 5/8 oz barbell eye on them. Turn the hook point up, put the barbells on the bottom and you can drag it snag free or tight line that puppy line. When a fish touches it the feeling transmits to you like having a mandolin playing picking your line. This is really effective before the bass get active. Slow your speed down till the fly helps load the rod. It's more of a "sling style" side arm 45 degree cast. Overhead casts are not recommended because if you blow it could get real ugly with the amount of momentum behind a 5/0 or 7/0 bass hook. A WA State tiger muskie guide had a guest pierce his eyebrow last year.. scary close call.

Wet muskie flies can weight even more!

View attachment 90990
I fish musky flies up to eighteen inches. All pretty much unweighted. They are designed to shed water on the first pickup. They are bulky yes, but heavy no. If I was throwing weight that big I would just reach for a level wind. Effort to pleasure and stuff.
 
#205 ·
"slow down until your fly helps load the rod"

sorry, but that's not the fly helping to load the rod, that's the fly actually loading the rod. Your 8wt line is never going to actually turn over a one ounce ball weight. easy? yeah. dangerous? you bet. better done with a spinning rod? yep.

I thought this was the steelhead forum...and a flyfishing forum.
 
#207 ·
My 14' 9-10 can easily lob an ounce of led a good distance. Floating head and a short loop and it flies like it was thrown from a gloomis casting rod.

Do I enjoy it? No because it's a crazy drift that is harder than hell to mend to a useful degree

With my one hander-fenwick 857- I just yesterday figured out the timing to throw a deep nymph rig like 40 feet. It's glass though so it doesn't have the backbone of most 7 weights. I throw lead head streamers with my 3 weight all summer though so... It can all be done.
 
#208 · (Edited)
There was a demo caster at the first Bellevue Fly Fishing show that was launching what looked like a gym sock from the show floor casting area into the building wall (~100 feet) with a 5 weight. I don't recall his name, but it was pretty impressive. G. Borger followed up with some line trickery showing how you keep all but the business end of the line dancing above the water so as to allow the fly on the soft opposite current to ride nice and not let the running line get dragged by the fast current. All he needed was a horse, chaps and spur's :D.
 
#209 ·
"That Sage Largemouth rod is probably going to be the next steelhead nymphing rod of choice."

You can borrow mine if you want to give it a go before buying one. I think you'll find it's short and stiff for that purpose?


Check Mike Michalak's website(TFS) as he has a steelhead specific nymph rod that has different flex pattern for junk tossers. Little softer in the middle with a slighter stiffer tip that keep the loops open so your junk doesn't get tangled he said as I recall.

I could see a spey rod for swinging up smallies on the Columbia though!
 
#210 ·
"That Sage Largemouth rod is probably going to be the next steelhead nymphing rod of choice."

You can borrow mine if you want to give it a go before buying one. I think you'll find it's short and stiff for that purpose?

Check Mike Michalak's website(TFS) as he has a steelhead specific nymph rod that has different flex pattern for junk tossers. Little softer in the middle with a slighter stiffer tip that keep the loops open so your junk doesn't get tangled he said as I recall.

I could see a spey rod for swinging up smallies on the Columbia though!
Why not put on a heavier line and slow down you casting stroke, that will open up the loop, unless you are using so much lead that the line cannot carry it then I think that would be preferable than buying a whole new rod.
 
#214 ·
"Why not put on a heavier line and slow down you casting stroke, that will open up the loop, unless you are using so much lead that the line cannot carry it then I think that would be preferable than buying a whole new rod"

EXACTLY what I do. I line-up a couple sizes with an Outbound Short on a fast 8 weight single hander and it works like a charm, turns the junk over no problem. That setup can allow you to make some long casts if needed too. I never need any significant extra lead for steelhead. I'd rather swing flies for steelhead and trout than run nymphs anyway but when I junk it that is what I use.

It would be interesting to try that nymph rods for kicks…. just to see how it works. It comes in just one weight, 6. I'm not remotely close to serious nympher so a purchase isn't even a outside possibility.

Very rarely do I use those heavy flies beyond late March through April largemouth fishing when I want the fly on the bottom as quick as possible. The other thing is I don't like running weed guards early season(lite bites) useless there is wood and the extra weigh keeps the point up when you are dragging the file through bottom crud. This certainly isn't in fly only water, is there any largemouth fly only water?

I am far from alone using heavy flies and it's not hard to cast at all. I do often take a couple spinning & gear rods. Generally for deeper fishing or high speed retrieves later in the season though or when the fishing is so tough waving any fly rod around feels like arm exercise.

For the record the last time the heavy fly gear was deployed when fishing with Bass Tournament Pros(this was in Texas) the gear guys got their asses handed to the them!

I was only responding to the posted question..
"who the hell can cast a full once of weight on any fly rod?"
in an effort let the curious person know it can be done if you have the right rod & line and adjust the casting style. I thought this board was at least in part about sharing information.

If everyone conformed to the norms we'd still be riding donkeys to the fishing hole!
 
#215 · (Edited)
to the person responding to my original statement: like I said, that really wasn't my point. :rolleyes:

there should be a rhetorical question icon...


"You can't use a spinning rod on fly only water, that's why people go to these extremes to get around the rules"


but yet you can use a heavily weighted fly (depending on state regulations how one weights such a fly--whether it be added weight to the hook or a heavy iron) just using a heavier line to propel said fly, then if that's not enough, using a section of T-20 to get the fly down to the desired weight...yep, going to extremes to skirt the purpose of the rules. Point being, nearly everyone uses every advantage available to them so that they have to use less actual fishing skill as long as it's "within the rulebook"
 
G
#216 ·
to the person responding to my original statement: like I said, that really wasn't my point. :rolleyes:

there should be a rhetorical question icon...


"You can't use a spinning rod on fly only water, that's why people go to these extremes to get around the rules"


but yet you can use a heavily weighted fly (depending on state regulations how one weights such a fly--whether it be added weight to the hook or a heavy iron) just using a heavier line to propel said fly, then if that's not enough, using a section of T-20 to get the fly down to the desired weight...yep, going to extremes to skirt the purpose of the rules. Point being, nearly everyone uses every advantage available to them so that they have to use less actual fishing skill as long as it's "within the rulebook"
Why not just use a gillnet & be done with it,catching the fish using some skill level is the point of flyfishing for me. otherwise I would just fish with a worm.
 
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