[rockfish]

is the only way to keep the double hooks tied is a conventional salmon leader or is there a way that is just as strong?


heres a tube fly variation I thrown together. I used 3 inch bendable aquiarium tubing and got a piece with a slight bend and bent and wrapped a tube bait insert lead in the middle (like for bass fishing) of the the bend and tied a standard baitfish fly. got small beads for both ends a 1/0 gammie octopus for hook and and tied a rubber band to hold it together. what happens in the water is that it flutters so erratic and at the right speed its criminal. this is gonna be one of my big producers this season I can already tell.

yesterday morning caught and released 2 silvers (3/5 lbs) and a fat cutthroat(19 in) fishing at daybreak as candlefish being chased along the shore at a point of land where there is a ledge and the current was washing everything onto a flat on the other side of the point. it was happening. casted to probly 30 agressive fish with only 3 takers. seen a cutthroat easily in the 6 lb range jump completly out of the water. some buzzbumb chucker was at my location and landed a 7 lb silver 15 feet off the shore 30 ft up current from me took the boat out this morning because of all the silvers jumping in the rip out of casting distance but got skunked and blown out of the water.

has anybody been catching more bullheads than normal or is it just me? or maybe just better pattern coloration or something. :MAD

 

[Brian]

RockFish,
Glad to see someone is finally catching some silvers. It seems the fish are about two weeks late this year. The fish must be finally pushing in to the north end waters.
As far as tandem hooks go, the regular herring tandem works ok for some tube flies, but I find they are generally tied to far apart unless you tie them yourself.
I know you fish for bass. I've seen guys do this with spinnerbaits when bass are short hitting. You simply slide the eye of a trailing hook over hook point of the leading hook. The trail hook is generally smaller and points the opposite direction of the lead hook. I use a small stopper that catches on the pinched down barb to prevent the trail hook from coming off on some of my flies.
I also tie a lot of tandem hook flies without tubes. I loop 20 to 30LB ultra green maxima around a size 2 to 2/0 Gamatasu octopus hook.
I then push the maxima through the eye of the lead hook, generally a Mustad 4307 or 43007. Make sure the maxima is flat against the top of the lead hook. Secure the loop to the lead hook with thread. I then bring the Maxima underneath and secure it again. Then you can tie your fly. A couple things to note.
1. The trail hook should always point in the opposite of the lead hook.
2. I like to use fine mono thread for tying these flies.
3. The trail hook size will depend on the size of fly you are tying.
4. Leave enough room on the loop so you can change the trailing hook. If the lead hook gets dinged on the beach, just cut it off and fish with just the trail hook. If the trail hook gets dinged or rusty, just change it. It sure beats have to throw away a prefectly good fly because the hook(s) are damaged.
5. The mono thread make nice heads. Use some stick on eyes and cover with epoxy. The trail hook will never pull out.
In the past few years, I think 50% of the silvers I've hooked have been on the trail hook.
I like the sound of your tube fly.
Good Luck,
Brian

 

[rockfish]

hey brian thanks for the help on trying to figure out the tandem hooks. feel more confident with the set up you wrote down. on that tube fly went to point no point after work and landed a 2.5 lb er on the third cast. but had to leave shortly after that because had to drop the work truck off. caught 4 bullheads also. that tube fly has the right flutter and profile to be a real killer. if your bored heres the pattern that fooled the salmon.

2.5 or 3 inches of tube.
mono thread I used the silver holo wrap a 1/4 inch wide from a craft store and wrapped the whole tube. white will work also. wrap it over any long slender weight like for bass fishing, I use tube bait inserts at sportco for cheap cost. a moderate green bucktail going down length with pearl flashabou over green bucktail and large green stick on eyes cover in z-poxy, I use it because it only takes 5 minutes to set and I can roll the fly around in my hand. small red bead and 2/0 gammie black octopus. make sure the weight is at the bottom of the fly because that is where it will sit in the water.

try this fly you wont be disapointed. Ben

 

[saltchuck]

You are right! I fish deep and usually get quite a few bullheads but I've never seen this many. And not only more bullheads, but bigger ones. Like they are on bullhead steroids.........what's up with that?

 

[Brian]

Thanks Ben,
I'll give it a try.
Does it seem to you the silvers are late this year over your way?
I had two friends give me fishing reports recently and both were very encouraging. One fished Neah Bay and had a 30 fish day, the largest fish being 9-10 LBS. The other fished Tofino on the west side of Vancouver Island and had multiple 20 fish days and fish to 12 LBS. Almost all of the fish were caught bucktailing. The fish are out there, I just think alot of them haven't moved into the sound quite yet. I think they are late like the sockeyes were.
Brian

 

[rockfish]

yeah they do seem late this year or not as many considering sekiu is s-l-o-w, when last year as of the 1 of july it was swarmed. dont even want to waste the trip until it starts picking up. the king run this year is far from great in puget sound but killer on the coast, but you never know they might just be hangin in the ocean longer for the abundant feed then come september they'll be alot again like the last 2 years. Ben

 

[Surf_Candy]

Rockfish,
Thanks for spending the time on the tube fly pattern - I had avoided them since I did not catch the part about weighting the bottom of the tube- All the examples I've seen left that detail out. They looked like they'd just spin around on your retrieve.

Do you use a piece of wire hanger to hold the tube in your vise so you don't crimp the ends shut? Any suggestions appreciated!

See you at the Point one of these days.

Jim

 

[rockfish]

oh yeah a wire shaped like a arrow with the bottom wire in the vise so you can squeeze the top one down to take the tube on and off and you can slide it down to the vise almost and it holds it real steady now. I burn the end of the tube thats gonna be the head with a lighter and flower it so the line and everything doesn't come off. I run a little zap gap down the lenght of the ribbon on the tube to kind of toughen it up and keep it from unraveling because every scavenger in the area seems to like this fly.

I think its better with a 1 1/2 inches of tube and let the bucktail trail 1 1/2 pass the tube to compensate for the red bead and 2/0 gammie black octopus hook so the hook is right even with the dressing. just made one up haven't tried it yet have to see if the action is effected at all. yeah I never heard of peg weights in tube flies before but there a effective way to fish them. tight lines Ben

 

[Surf_Candy]

Rockfish.
I took one of my kids curly straws, put a length of .035" lead along the bottom. covered the tube in a full length of the silver mylar piping, a little crystal flash at the top and large herring sized eyes. Covered it all in epoxy - if fishes like a dream - great action when you heat the tube end to form sort of a lip as you suggested...not sure if it makes noise underwater. I'd think you could form the mouht some to give it different action. The hook I used was a little too heavy, but will fix that. Thanks for the ideas - I think it will be very productive this coming weekend. While I was testing it had a 6" chinook try to make love to it!

Jim

 

[rockfish]

me and a buddie took his boat out of sequim to catch some early silvers and anything that would bite our lines and was fishing these series of small rocks and islands east of sequim off shore a little and the rockfish would come off the bottom to take the tube fly, it was unreal. silvers were incidental catches between the other fish but the tube fly outfished his clousers and stuff. then he asked me to give him one and he snagged and lost it. but watching those rockfish come up 10 ft off the bottom to take it was cool. nice fish up to 8 lbs all day.