Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition 3807 Mar 15-29 2019 | Page 10

8 March 15 - 29, 2019 VOL.38 • ISS. 7 Catch & Release Fishing! Hook More & Bigger Fish With Flies... Why Flies? by Cal Kellogg Why does an angler start using flies? That question has a lot of different answers depending on who you ask. Some folks see fly fishing as a more challenging way to fish. Others perceive it as a more sophisticated approach. There are even some people out there using flies or at least hybrid flies without even realizing it. Don’t those hoochies you pull for trout, kokanee and ocean salmon look a whole lot like streamer flies? And those marabou crappie jigs sure look like bead head Woolly Bugger flies, or do those Woolly Buggers look a lot like crappie jigs…. Hmmmm the lines just got a little blurred for both the dyed in the wool fly guys and the gear guys reading these words! Here are some of the offerings I use during any given fishing season. Live 3-pound rockfish, 7-inch-long minnow plugs, flies, big 3 and 4-inch- long trout spoons, 2-pound frozen mackerel and 7-inch-long plastic worms. I use all these baits and lures in different situa- tions for one reason and one reason only, to catch more and bigger fish. I view all the offerings I’ve listed as tools that make me more effective on the water in certain situations. Nymphs and wet flies like these I’ve been using flies and fly gear since my early are dandy offerings for stream teens. During my college years, I was tying and trout. Fly tackle is not required selling about 10,000 flies per year. In fact, my first to fish these bugs. A sensitive paid job in the fishing industry was selling my graphite spinning rod spooled with light fluorocarbon line is hand tied flies at the old Castro Valley Sportsman a wonderful tool for fishing Shop in the East Bay. The point is, that I know a subsurface flies. little bit about flies and fly fishing. Photo by CAL KELLOGG, Fish Is using flies and/or fly gear more challenging Sniffer Staff. or more sophisticated than fishing with gear? Not in my experience. What I can tell you is that if you are a multiple species angler residing in California and flies are not part of your arsenal, you aren’t catching as many fish as you could be throughout the year. That’s a fact! As I said above, I use flies to catch more and bigger fish. In reality, there are a lot of situations when fish are ridiculously easy to catch on flies and in other situ- ations you can catch fish on flies that you’d struggle to hook using lures or bait. Flies are an especially good tool for hooking pressured fish. Here are a couple examples that will strike a chord with the trout anglers out there. You’re up on a Sierra lake and you are doing well hooking fish trolling lures, casting lures or soaking bait and then it happens…Mayflies start hatching, the trout start dimpling the surface and the bite completely shuts down for you. If you want to go on hooking fish, the solution is simple. Break out a fly rod or rig up a spinning rod with a “bubble and fly” and get a fly out on the water that For the gear heads out there looking to dip a toe into the waters of fly fishing few offerings are as versatile or as deadly as a small beadhead Woolly Bugger. Hmmm that bug kind of reminds you of a marabou crappie jig…. Photo by CAL KELLOGG, Fish Sniffer Staff. imitates the basic size and color of the mayflies the trout are eating. It’s as simple as that…Fish On! When we go from getting hit to getting ignored it’s easy to think that trout or other fish flies? Because they’ll allow you to hook more and bigger are really smart, but Why fish. This holdover Deer Creek rainbow is a prime example. that isn’t the case. In The stream was low and clear and the fish had learned the the case of the trout ropes and was feeding on hatching caddis flies. Brightly colored baits and flashy hardware would have been rejected, eating mayflies the opposite is actually but a small Humpy dry fly was just what the doctor ordered. Photo by CAL KELLOGG, Fish Sniffer Staff. true. The behavior is described as “selective feeding”. At that moment, the most abundant forage is those mayflies and the fish will ignore anything else. If you and I were standing next to a conveyor belt covered with Jelly Beans and a cheese burger came along we might grab it for a change of pace. Trout aren’t that smart. They’d keep on eating the same boring Jelly Beans… Moving on, imagine a destination teaming with freshly planted trout. It could be a stream or an urban lake. There are lots of trout in the water and you can actually see them. They’ve been pounded with every sort of spinner, spoon and trout bait that spinning rod armed anglers typically carry and the bite has completely shut down. If you start presenting those trout with flies, particularly small flies you’ll hook fish after fish after fish to the point that the folks around you will start shooting you the stink eye. Why? The trout are hungry, but after a while they’ve started associating standard offerings with danger, but they will happily suck in that No. 14 light color caddis nymph again and again and again…LOL! Upcoming we’ll be talking about gear, flies, different species of fish, different situations and how flies and fly gear fit into the broader puzzle of becoming the most effective angler you can be. Heck, I might even recount the story when my Dad and I caught and released over 250 When trophy trout are on the menu a lot of gear anglers reach for a minnow trout in a single day on the heavily planted or large spoon. These are tried waters of Hat Creek using flies. When’s the plug and true offerings, but if you want to last time you and your partner trolled up take the trout by surprise show them 250 plus rainbows during a single outing on a big streamer fly like these beauties from Arctic Fox. minnow plugs or threaded ‘crawlers? Photo by CAL KELLOGG, Fish Sniffer Staff. Check Out Huge Selection of Discount Flies Online WE COULDN’T STOP AT JUST FLIES. NOW CARRYING EVERYTHING BUT THE FISH Guided Fly Fishing Trips www.theflystop.com (858) 500-2761 RETAIL STORE 9275 Trade Place Suite E San Diego, CA 92126 info@theflystop.com