Bagman, If you are fishing for coho and catching that many sculpin, I'd consider stripping faster. I know I've mentioned that before. About the only time I hook up sculpin is when my fly drops to the bottom if my line tangles. While catching sculpin might be good practice for the strip strike, why not practice on some coho? At this time of the year with coho still actively feeding, you aren't going to outstrip them regardless of how fast you strip. If they want it they'll eat it. Stripping fast may help you keep them pinned better as well. I've found many of the fish I hook up with a fast strip really end up hooking themselves with little help from me. SF
Holy Cow! You need an appointment with Dr. John F. Murray. Either that or you need to put hooks in your fly.
I always start off my day of fishing using a good fast strip. As the morning go on with no takes I seem to slow down. Funny thing I seem to get all my hits when I'm in my slow strip.
Nice work! The first can be the hardest to get. I like how far back the stinger hook is on your fly. What was the hook of choice? SF
I've tried the intruder wire--I don't think it's a good idea for beach fishing. Fine for actual intruders where you are more than likely casting double handed and not occasionally dinging the fly on driftwood or rocks. I noticed that it can get tangled up and kinked at times with all the casting you have to do on the beach. Then it sits out at a funny angle or, worse yet, just breaks when you get a solid hit (which happened to me earlier in the season). I use 20 lb maxima, and it works great.
Nice fly and fish! I use 20lb maxima like Jason. Can't go any larger because it takes up too much space in the eye of the fly (I pass it through the eye, then wrap tag and hook loop with thread along the shank (hook with cut-off point). I was using a similar fly this morning (except it was pink over white), targeting coho, but pinks kept hitting the fly. The first 4-5 hits didn't stick because I think they were going for the head of the fly. The last three were hooked in the middle to back of the upper and lower jaws. I rarely miss a pink hit on flies tied directly on the hook (ie. crazy charlie-ish patterns) and also rarely miss a coho hit on stinger flies, so this leads me to think that pinks go for the head whereas coho just inhale the whole fly. Anyone else experience this?
I think your thought process is sound on pinks vs coho since pinks feed primarily on crustaceans and large zooplankton and cohos are primarily fish eaters. Remember pinks and coho come from two different family trees of Pacific Salmon. Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2
I've noticed this with the intruder wire as well. I broke one the other day after only fishing it for an hour or so. Must have just hit the beach wrong. I've had a couple failues with Maxima too although it's after quite a bit of use, but I still never know when it's ok or I should replace the fly. I'm going to try the 100 lb Power Pro like Stonefish uses and see how that fares.
I was 1 for 11 on coho this morning. And naturally I landed only the smallest one. Not sure that I could have done much different, just the luck of the draw I think. Mostly they seemed to be hitting at odd spots, and right near me, and I just wasn't able to get solid hook sets. Also had several hits that didn't stick. I am gonna tie up some with the stinger further back, and make them pay later on. Good times!!
