I think we are allot alike Lew, except I was very young when I got into ff.
Very nicely put to all that have posted…good stuff for sure, and I would wet a line with anyone, anywhere, anyhow!
I fly fish only on a very rare occasion. Whenever I do, I wish I had my spinning rod. I live in Jackson, and everyone here is a die hard fag rodder. Whenever I do a float with a couple of fly rodders I always seem to catch bigger fish. I dont need a hatch, I dont change flies every 5 casts. I dont have to sit in one hole for a half an hour to know there are only whitefish in it. I guess what I’m saying is that I dont have the patience for it. I have caught some nice browns on dries on the Green, but I can cover sooo much more water with the spin rod, and I dont need to watch my backcast or be up to my pits in the river !! Just my 3 cents !!
Fag Rodders? You realize it was the first form of fishing[;)]
I would take that challenge, but I have as much confidence with my flies as you do your lures.
I don’t back cast either, and I have a heck of a roll cast. The spey just makes it that much easier 
Hello FG-great ?—my wife asked me the exact same thing for the exact same reasons[sly]!! Like many have said-each has their own set of challenges…I actually started ff on the SF of the snake when I was 4 or 5…didn’t really use a bait rod until I started to go steelhead fishing (now that’s a whole other set of costs!) anyway-I enjoy them both, when I go to Alaska I bring both however ff 90% of the time. Fighting a late running 50lb king on an 8wt really is only fun the first rew minutes! I’ve also jigged with my flyrod in 80ft of water on yellowstone lake…much more productive with my spinning gear trolling in my boat[;)]!!
Do you see any Polar bears or Kodiac bears when you go to Alaska??? Only couple months out of the year it is warm up there I believe… What month do you all go up there King Salmon fishing… My father and I have been wanting to take a charter plane in the wilderness to do some Carabou hunting, and possibly bear, if it is in season during that time… Miles of vast prestige wilderness that is untamed… Buddy of mine went up there fishing and was staying in a cabin few hours North of Anchorage… He said, that he woke up one morning and seen a pack wolves outside of the cabin… Funny thing was, he wouldn’t go fishing that day because he was worried about being attached… Salmon population is suppose to be down because of over fishing… Some believe it is the Native Americans up there hurting the population because reservation law lets them basically take what ever you want… Eskimos, they sure do like their Salmon…
I have to say that overall fly fishing is the most satisfying method for me. For many years I was strictly a fly fisherman, but I’ve gotten back into spinning for warm water fishing since I moved up to Cache Valley where there are so many little bass waters nearby. I love catching bass on the fly, and I just got an 8wt I’m going to use for tiger musky this spring, but overall I’d have to say spinning and casting are more effective for warm water fish than flies. You can cover a lot more water throwing a crankbait than you can with a fly. The action of a lot of soft plastics are difficult to reproduce with flies as well. Also it’s impossible to produce the sound, vibration and flash that some lures make with a fly. Maybe part of it is a nostalgia thing too. Back when I was a kid every February I’d take my birthday money and order a bunch of bass lures for the coming season. I still love perusing the catalogs, making my selections. Then they arrive in the mail and I get to take them all out and inspect them, imagining the places and situations that I want to use them in this coming season.
Despite my rekindled love for bass lures, I’ve been busy trying to come up with some flies to entice the bass and musky of the area. I’ve attached pics of a few.
I never intentionally target trout on anything but fly tackle though. It just doesn’t seem right, and for trout, I think flies are usually more productive, and they cause the least harm to the fish as well.
OMG…those are fantastic…Bass are gonna chomp those. That second one I see CARPAGE. Seriously…that is an awesome fly as they all are…just I don’t target bass…but now CARP 
Well thank you. I think warmwater flies are more fun for me to make than trout flies because you can just go nuts and make all sorts of crazy stuff.
I’m hoping that they’ll entice some tiger musky too. Catching one on the fly has been a goal of mine for a while, but I just didn’t feel good about hooking into one on my 6wt and playing it to death. Now I have an 8wt and I’m ready to go.
Carp are tons of fun on the fly. They rip off so much line when you set the hook. I once had one run me right into my backing on the first run. I’ll have to try that fly on The Bear this spring. There are huge carp there as well as smallmouth, which I think will also like that fly.
I really, really love bass fishing. The way I look at it, trout fishing is like reading a deeper, more philosophical book, and bass fishing is more of a simple page turner kind of a read. They both have their place for me.
We went to Rockport one weekend and I used a PERCH fly..similar to the first one. I caught so many bass, it was great. Even a couple perch (I guess they eat their own)
As far as Musky, you could land one on a six. They really don’t fight that hard. They will run however.
8 weights are great for the bigger flies though. I actually have a couple, but one of them feels like a 5 weight.[;)]
I think it depends on the time of year with the musky. I caught some on a spinning rod in the summer time that gave up fairly quickly. I went back in October, and they were nuts. They’d leap 3 feet out of the water when you set the hook, and if that didn’t throw the hook they’d peel off a ton of line several times before coming in. I think part of it was that they were in shallow, so they couldn’t dive straight down like they like to do, so they go airborne. I hear that they can get exhausted fairly easily, so I’m just extra cautious about hurting them. I’ll be glad to have it slinging those big flies for sure. That baby bass popper is a 2/0 and made of hard foam. It’s pretty weighty.
Rockport has been good to me in the past. I remember one summer evening fishing leech patterns off the dam I caught over 100 smallmouth and perch. I was using a two fly rig and many times I caught two at once. Those perch are little pigs, they definitely eat their own, though I guess bass, musky and even trout will do it too. I still remember fishing Hobble Creek, (which is certainly not know for big trout) and I watched as a 2 foot brown came out from under a log and swiped at the little 8 incher I had on the end of my line. Dang I need to get out. Come on weather, behave next week!
My reason for doing both is purely a matter of my seeing myself as “an effective fisherman”. In other words I use whatever method will catch fish most reliably. Depending on the species or water conditions flyfishing is more effective. On another spot either same species or different that may not be able to easily get where the fish are and then the bait or lure set up works best. The more skills you have in the arsenal the less often you will get skunked.
As for the question about having multiple rods but all w/ the same line, you’re looking at it from the wrong perspective (somewhat). It’s not the line so much that dictates depth, presentation, and function. It’s more what’s tied to the end of the line. For bass I often will have a rod rigged w/ a jig, another with a spinnerbait, and a third with a crankbait. Plus I may have different action rods depending on what I come across. Medium for bass, medium light for trout/kokes, and ultralight for perch.
I have to agree w/ Belasko. For me I only fish for food and I use whatever method produces the most fish. Growing up in northern ID it was all fly fishing cuz that’s what caught the fish, be it trout or crappie. When I moved to southern ID I started using a spinning outfit more because that is what filled the bucket. Living in AK I started using the fly pole more because it was a little more or a challenge and regardless of what method you used you caught fish. I even started ff for Sea Bass and Halibut. So for me I like to use any method that works and I like to buy fishing equipment. Last time I counted I had like 45 different poles setups. That was about 3 years ago and I’m sure I’ve added another dozen or so to the collection. What can I say I’m an addict! [:/]
Well I added to my arsenal today. I picked up a 4 wt 6’6" rod at sportsmans today to use on the small streams I want to hit this year. So now I own three fly rods. This puts me up to about 22-23 rods. About four of them are the cheap ones that I lets scouts use for I don’t care if they get broke or lost. Now to get a reel and line for it.
Those are great flies. I’ve tied some perch, bluegill, and pumpkinseed flies up in the past and haven’t been able to use them yet. I like your patterns.
Thanks! I’m very eager to give these a try. I’m absolutely in love with this Icelandic sheep’s wool that I just got a hold of. It makes amazing baitfish patterns, and it’s cheap. I used it on the perch, and I think I’m going to be making a bunch of flies with it.
I found the patterns in a magazine around 12 years ago. I they called for a similar type of material.
I didn’t have any recipes, but I saw it on a fly fishing website and thought it looked like it would work well. I initially ordered two colors, but I liked it so much that I got six more. Cool stuff.
I have heard similar things like natives or otters or sea lions bringing down fish population but I don’t buy it. They have been there a long time. I think it has to do with large scale operations by modern man.
Mega Ton Factory Trawlers - That is the problem! Not all salmon are hurting it’s the Yukon Kings that are coming up short. Natives along the Yukon are starving because of the Pollock fishery in the Bering Sea. The natives have no voice ($) to fight the big corporations or NMFS (which is bought out by the fish corporations). The money in the fishing business rivals that of the oil companies so good luck fighting them. Some of these plants process 3-4 million pounds every 24 hrs so even a small % of bycatch results in several thousands salmon a day being wasted at each process facility. People think Pebble Mine is going to kill the salmon but the Pollock fleet has already beat them to it. Enjoy them fish sticks!
I grew up fishing with worms, salmon eggs, and then spinners. No one else I knew used anything else. While I was in college I got started on fly fishing. At first I did both depending on conditions, now I only fly fish.
I feel more involved in the whole experience, and it is a more active than sitting and waiting for them to come to me. To me it is so much more fun and challenging, especially top water. I don’t care if it is a six inch brookie on a small stream or a 3 lb bass(I’m not too good at bass yet
) in the lily pads, when they attack my fly it is AWESOME!