ANY OF YOU GUYS/GALS EVER CAUGHT ONE ON A FLY ROD? I MADE UP A VERSION OF A WOOLY BUGGER WITH BIG GOOFY RUBBER LEGS AND ALL KINDS OF CRAZY ACTION ON IT, MADE IT IN PURPLE AND CHARTRUSE STRAIGHT PURPLE, AND STRAIGHT CHARTRUSE ANY OF YOU GUYS HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS ON WHAT OTHER KINDS OF FLYS I COULD TYE UP TO MAYBE KILL SOME EYES? LET ME KNOW.
LATERS,
Hey Badfish, try and make up a 4in. black maribu leech with a small bead weight. I’ve never caught one fly fishing, because I don’t fly fish, but I seen a guy catch one at deer creek during the spawn time and thats what he was useing. hope this helps, good luck, later chuck
hey badfish i would also try tying a black leech pattern to as a lot of those fishing shows on walleyes they use real leeches to catch walleyes. good luck trfishin
ANY OTHER COLORS I SHOULD TRY…I HAVE PURPLE, CHARTRUSE, OLIVE, BLACK, I THINK I EVEN HAVE SOME PINK…I BOUGHT A KIT WITH ALL I NEED IN IT [;)][;)]. THEN I WENT TO THE STORE AND GOT WHAT I REALLY NEED…OR WANTED TO BE ABLE TO TIE UP SOME KILLER STUFF…I GOT THIS WILD HAIR THAT AS LONG AS I AM TRYING TO SLAY SOME EYES, I MAY AS WELL INVENT SOME FLYS AND SAY I DID IT ON A 9 FOOT ROD WITH MY LURES… SO IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS ON COLORS OR DESCRIPTIONS ON PATTERNS I SHOULD USE…I DO HAVE BEADS I CAN TRY…I DID TWO VERSIONS OF THE AFFORE MENTIONED EYE BUGS, ONE WITHOUT BEADHEAD AND ONE WITH…TWO OF EACH IN EACH STYLE…FOR A TOTAL OF 8 FLYS..I THINK I WILL HAVE TO LOOK…BUT IM PRETTY SURE… FLYS SEEM TO BE THE PRESENT OF CHOICE FOR ME..SO I HAVE A FEW BOXES OF EM…AND I ONLY REALLY USE A FEW STYLES…BUT ITS FUN TO PLAY WITH EM AT THE GORGE…I KILL ROCK BASS THERE AROUND CAMP BY TWITCHING A FLY UNDER A CLEAR BUBBLE BOBBER. ANYWAY…WALLEYE SUGGESTIONS FOR BUGS AND COLOR PATTERNS..LET ME KNOW!!! MAYBE ILL TIE ONE OR TWO UP FOR YALL TOO…BUT THEN WE HAVE TO GO FISHING FOR YOU TO GET THEM. LOL.
Hey Badfish I’d talk to TubeDude if I were you. He’s got enough ideas for a lifetime.
If I were you I’d get some Krystal Flashabou or whatever it’s called to add a little bit of flash to the tails of your wooly bugger or bass bug type flies. You can tie some pretty cool flies for bucketmouths that way too I’d imagine.
I’ve never flyfished for anything but trout, but I’m thinking maybe this year I’d like to try out tying some up for panfish, bass, and maybe walleye too.
Another good color is olive green maribu. good luck with catching walleye on flies should be fun. later chuck
Hey BADFISH, don’t ever let anyone tell you it’s tough to catch wallies on flies. Sometimes it’s the best way to fish them. Other times it is only a novelty and you will do better with spinning gear.
Utah Lake and Willard are the two best spots for waving a fairy wand for walleye. If you use weighted streamers or buggers, you can often get by with a full floating line in shallow areas. In deeper water, and with unweighted offerings, you should use a sink tip. To do the “tubing troll”, a full sinking line, in deeper water, can be very effective also.
Your color selections are good. I would only suggest two additional colors: white and yellow. Add some silver sparkle goodies to the white, and finish it with a hot red head. Add gold sparkle to the yellow and finish it with a dark red head…although hot red is good too. A red head is also good for the black and purple.
I used to do best consistently with large black wooly buggers. They resemble the small mudcats that big predators dine on. You will also take both channels and largies on the black…as well as some overconfident whities.
The white and silver obviously represents the small white bass in the lake…another favorite snack food. Of course, they also eat small crappies or other silvery/white fish too. Yellow and gold can represent junior carp or sunfish…or yellow perch. A wisp of bright orange or even red can help the visibility and contrast.
If you fish the rocky areas around Utah Lake, be sure to tie your big offerings with mono weed guards. They can save a lot of flies and the potential for spooking fish in the shallow water while you try to extricate your flies.
On Willard, you can either move along the dikes, casting parallel to the rocks…or you can lay out a short cast, allow the fly to sink a ways and then kick along in your float tube…giving the fly a little “shivver” once in awhile.
When the small males are active, during spawning season, you can get some “pop on the drop” hits. If you lay the fly in the middle of some activity, it will often get munched as it sinks through the feisty little fellers. Watch your line for a twitch, just like if you were nymphing for trout.
Otherwise, you need to try a variety of retrieves. I usually like to fish the fly like I fish a popper for bass. Let it sink to the bottom and then don’t move it for a few seconds. Then you either strip it slowly, to keep it down, or give it a “shivver lift”…starting with your rod low and then slowly raising the tip while giving it a little wiggle. Make it look like a distressed minnow or crawdad rising up off the bottom. That is a very effective technique for a lot of species, and often generates a reaction bite in neutral or inactive fish. Of course walleye are never in those modes. HA.
Another thing to try is a tandem fly rig. Use a large offering on the end, with a smaller and different color about 18" to 24" inches up the leader…on a 6" dropper. Sometimes you score on one and not the other…with different species. Other times, one fly will catch all the fish, but you need the second fly to create the multiple target illusion.
One mistake a lot of guys make is working too much line. If you are quiet…wading or tubing…you do not need to make long casts. A thirty foot controlled cast is much better than a sixty foot splashdown. These fish are not finicky browns in crystal clear water, but they are very sensitive to noise and vibrations. If you are going to use a flyrod, be sure you use it right.
And, working closer will give you greater feel for the sometimes gentle takes on a fly. Often, the “strike” will be nothing more than a brief “rubber band” feel. Walleye can really slam a noisy crankbait, out of anger or whatever, but they usually just flare their gills and suck in a fly…or simply open and close their mouths to sample it. If you are not “tuned in”, you will miss some of those all too rare opportunities.
I only caught one walleye from Deer Creek on a fly. I got it on a 3" long perch pattern streamer, right on the rocks, right at daybreak late in the summer. I had been fishing for some of the large browns and bass that were chasing the young-of-the-year perchlets. The walleye rolled on the fly almost as soon as it touched down. Man, was I (pleasantly) surprised. But, wouldn’t you know it, I couldn’t score another one no matter how hard I tried and no matter how many different flies and lures I tried.
Oh yeah, I have taken some other walleyes by trolling flies with spinning gear and a piece of lead core. That’s a good technique in Deer Creek for big trout, bass…and walleyes. But, that’s another post.
PM me if you wanna trade some patterns. I am including a couple of attachments. One is of some of the flies I put together for fishing that area. Not all of my suggestions are included. But, note the blue back and red back whites. That is a good pattern. I am also including a diagram for two ways to tie in mono weed guards.
TD, AGAIN I SAY YOU MY FREIND ARE THA MAN!!! I READ YOUR “BOOK” AFTER YOU SENT IT TO ME, AND I WILL HAVE YOU KNOW THE JIGS SLAYED SOME BASS. TROUT, CRAPPIES, PERCH AND GILLS BUT NO EYES YET…CANT RUSH PERFECTION THOUGH AND I AM DETERMINED TO BREAK THE RECORD WITH MY FIRST EYE..LOL… I WILL BE GIVING DEER CREEK HELL THIS YEAR, AND I HOPE IT RETURNS THE FAVOR…ITS KINDA BECOME MY VERSION OF “OLD MAN AND THE SEA” CEPT IM NOT AN OLD MAN YET…HELL I JUST GOT TO BE A MAN…GLAD I MADE IT. ANYWAY…ALL THANKS FOR THE HELP…WHEN I GET SOME OF THEM TIED UP ILL BRING THEM TO WORK AND TAKE A PICTURE OF EM AND POST EM UP…MAYBE IN A WEEK OR SO…ILL HAVE TO TIE SOME UP PRETTY ENOUGH FOR YOU TO LOOK AT AND BE ABLE TO TELL WHAT THE METHOD TO THE MADNESS IS. TILL THEN AS ALWAYS…
LATERS,
Hey Bad, shoot me a PM. I will be happy to provide some more pics and diagrams, if you are getting serious about feathering them walleyes. I might even be persuaded to tie up a few new ones for you to work with.
Back in the late 70s and early 80s I used mostly the old traditional materials. Since then I have been integrating a lot of newer and flashier stuff…some from fly tying outlets and some from the craft shops. That new material makes some eye-popping jigs and I am sure it will improve a lot of the old standard patterns. It is also more durable and if you keep from snagging and losing them, they last longer.
One of the new materials I am using more now is rainbow finish metallics…in threads, craft cord and braids. It makes a dynamite reflection under water. There are a lot of trips down here when the local fishies won’t hit anything else. I have been aching to try it on some of my old fishy friends in Utah.
I just happened to have another scanned pic that includes a couple of patterns with some of the rainbow material. Whatcha think? You will also notice a couple of other patterns with craft cord bodies. That stuff rocks.
THOSE ARE SOME MIGHTY FINE LOOKIN FLIES…I HOPE I AM ABLE TO TIE LIKE THAT SOMEDAY…LOL…WHERE DO WE FIND THESE CRAFT CORDS…LIKE A FABRIC SHOP OR WHAT? IF YOU WANT ME TO I WILL TRY OUT THOSE FLYS ON A FEW “LOCALS” BUT I GUESS IM NOT VERY GOOD AT CATCHING EYES YET…FISH 1, BADFISH 0, NIL, NODDA, ZERO, ZILCH, ZIP. BUT I SMILE AND TRY AGAIN…IM A GLUTTON. COURSE IM SURE IF I CHANGED MY WATER I COULD LAND A FEW…BUT IM DETERMINED TO GET MY FIRST FROM DEER CREEK. THATS MY FAULT. OH WELL…ITS GONNA BE WORTH THE WAIT. I WILL HAVE TO TRY TO TIE THOSE UP AND SEE..THEY LOOK A LITTLE LIKE THE JIGS CEPT’ WITHOUT THE LEAD HEAD. COOL.
GOOD LUCK WITH THE DYNAMITE…PATTERNS. LOL.
LATERS,
I get both the craft cord and some of the metallic rainbow braid at well supplied craft stores. Here are a couple of pics. Actually, some of the craft cord colors you can get in the hobby and fabric sections of some of the larger WalMarts.
I use about twenty or more different colors of craft cords. They have some really good fishy colors…many with either gold or silver sparkle woven in. I started using them for baitbugs, but found they are super for fly bodies too.
The good news about fly tying is that it is a lifelong enjoyable hobby, that lets you create things you can’t get elsewhere. Sometimes you get lucky (or good…or good and lucky) and your stuff works better than the commercial stuff.
More good news is that the fish are not nearly as snooty about the quality of your work as other fishermen. I caught fish on some of my earliest and roughest creations. Some of the greatest satisfaction, however, comes from making real works of art, and then being the only one catching fish when they are ignoring everybody else.
There is no substitute for practice, but you can get a lot further a lot faster if you find somebody to work with you. Take advantage of any classes available, and make friends with others who are more advanced than you are, and who will share the knowledge they have probably also gained from others.
That’s what it’s all about…caring and sharing. It sure is more fun when everybody is willing and open about helping others.