[pittendrigh]

I drifted the Yellowstone yesterday. Put in a 7:00am. Took out at noon.
Drifting early is one way to avoid all the other boats. And the fish are most active early too,
at least in these hot late July days. The nymph fishing was pretty good from 9:00am on.
And they started looking for dry flies around 10:00 or so. Before 9:00 it was deep streamers
only. The water is at least 6" higher than it was this time last year. Which is great.
But it does make it hard to get down to where the fish are, before they've moved into
the riffles for active feeding.

A heavy, sparsely-tied streamer made mostly from synthetic materials sinks the fastest.
If you add the weight opposite a down-eye hook, then the fly flips over and rides hook-up,
which helps to keep a deeply swimming fly from hanging up. And if you add the weight
as a carefully-shaped length of solid wire plumber's solder, so it protrudes forward slightly
from the eye, then the fly becomes almost completely weedless. The drag on tail end of
the fly keeps it oriented parallel to the long axis of the leader, with the hook still riding up.

So when the fly does encounter an underwater branch--perhaps along a deep, slowly-swirling
bank--the protruding weight contacts the branch first, which causes the fly to jump up and
over the branch without snagging. Fishing these guys is a blast. You can toss them right
into the snags. They sink like a stone, and yet they still come back to you, almost every
time. You will lose a few: perhaps when the leader spins multiple times around an above
water branch or when the fly gets pinched between two stream bottom boulders. But no
other fly I know of comes back so reliably. Regardless where you fish them.

 

[Bob Jones]

Thanks Interesting concept will think about trying it sometime good post.

 

[pittendrigh]

I used to think the Bankrobber (any fly that rides hook up, with hook eye
mounted back from the front of the fly a bit) was the greatest invention ever.
But then bonefish-like flies with bottom-mounted barbells came along,
and they ride hook up too, and usually jump over branches just fine.

The Bankrobber, with a slightly protruding piece of (anything) just forward
of the eye are even more reliably weedless though, for some reason. And you don't need
a dozen different barbell sizes and weights. If you make the Bankrobber with solid wire solder,
you just cut off at what ever length you need, for what ever weight you want.

 

[Gary Thompson]

Thanks pittendrigh, I love learning new ties.
I've been tying my nymphs, and scuds to ride hook up for years now, don't loose to many that way.