02-16-2010, 01:34 AM
I have been doing more and more of this type of random fly fishing. I use to go look for the hatch and try to match it, but lately I seem to revert back to something that has worked before on the water I am fishing. I almost always will pull out a copper john and throw it out. I have caught more fish on those little guys than all my other flies combined. I think it has a lot to do will the presentation since there is not much to it, just let them drift. I do once in a while have to adjust the depth I am fishing, but that is usually because of fishing a deeper river. If I do not have any hits in the first hour, I will start looking around for the hatch to see what is happening. No hatch? No problem, I will throw on a leech or something and do some stripping.
I know when I first started fly fishing, I started with dries. I caught very few fish and lost interest for a few years. I then tried years later and started with dries again. I caught a few here and there, mostly planters since they are just dumb. I them decided to try nymphing. Wow, what a difference. Presentation was not at all hard, and all you had to do was try to keep the fly just off the bottom. That was about the hardest thing until FG showed me her little adjustable float. Problem solved. I do fish streamers now and again, but only when I go with other people and that is what they are using. If the fishing is good, I will stick with the streamers, but if nothing is hitting, back to the nymphs. Every once in a while if there is a hatch of a big bug like a stone fly, I will fish a dry and drop a nymph below it.
FG, I still use a few of the tips you showed me from last summer. In fact, I tied up a few odd nymphs Sunday while the wind was blowing. Just wish there was more open water to try them out.
I started this thread just to get input from others to see what I was doing right or wrong and how to choose the right fly. Overall it seems that there is no wrong or right, just what works, or doesn't work. With the season coming up soon, and hopefully with the input here in this thread, maybe we can all learn a little from each other.
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I know when I first started fly fishing, I started with dries. I caught very few fish and lost interest for a few years. I then tried years later and started with dries again. I caught a few here and there, mostly planters since they are just dumb. I them decided to try nymphing. Wow, what a difference. Presentation was not at all hard, and all you had to do was try to keep the fly just off the bottom. That was about the hardest thing until FG showed me her little adjustable float. Problem solved. I do fish streamers now and again, but only when I go with other people and that is what they are using. If the fishing is good, I will stick with the streamers, but if nothing is hitting, back to the nymphs. Every once in a while if there is a hatch of a big bug like a stone fly, I will fish a dry and drop a nymph below it.
FG, I still use a few of the tips you showed me from last summer. In fact, I tied up a few odd nymphs Sunday while the wind was blowing. Just wish there was more open water to try them out.
I started this thread just to get input from others to see what I was doing right or wrong and how to choose the right fly. Overall it seems that there is no wrong or right, just what works, or doesn't work. With the season coming up soon, and hopefully with the input here in this thread, maybe we can all learn a little from each other.
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