I got Water Zebra fever.
- This topic has 17 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated May 10, 2007 at 5:01 pm by
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Hit the water alone this morning on what promised to be a great day for the striped bite on the fly. Jim, if you read this dude you really missed a hell of a good day.
I hadn’t gone very far when the graph lit up with activity. God I love to see this first thing in the trip!!
I was casting 350 and stripping back with various retrieves when the first fish of the day smashed my Clouser. No monster but a healthy fish for an 8wt as you can see by the rod in this photo.
An 8wt is just about too small for these Hybrids and these were small ones. The action was fast for awhle and they’d slow down. Then the’d come back around again.
A little after lunch I was charting fish a little deeper but couldn’t get them to eat. I decided to make a bait run and see if Shad would get em to take. IT DID! I caught fish after fish till I got sick of it. It really just isn’t near as much fun with bait anymore. I actually dumped the bait and started casting again. I was rewarded with four more Hybrids on the fly when a few boats saw what I was doing and started trolling over the fish.
Folks it’s not cool to troll within a rod length of someone catching fish. One of them made the comment that I was their lucky charm cause every time they got by me they caught a fish…. Yea, and every time your 250 hp outboard runs over the
Cameron, that’s just the way Hybrids are built, footballs. A constant diet of protein ensures these guys grow up big, mean, and with a nasty attitude.
These fish are notorious for fighting hard till they see the boat,,, then they give it everything they got. This causes the bends like the one in the picture and I’m afraid it’s going to end in a broken rod if a bigger Hybrid does it. I’ve caught a 20 and several 15’s on gear so its just a matter of time.
While I know glass is better for this rough handling I doubt the action of glass and heavy sink lines would work together.Sage called me and asked my permission to go ahead and replace the last three sections rather then just the one that broke…. Ohhh, okay? Sure I’ll take a new rod.
I haven’t started work on any of them yet.Went back out after work today and found the fish again. Not much to say about it except we caught a boat load and had a blast doing it. May is the month for this stuff but as any Hybrid/Striper fisherman will tell you its feast or famine. Been feasting lately and it should continue for a little while. Wish I could stay on the movements of these fish all week! It will soon be too hot to target them and I’ll move on the other places and fishy’s
All fish were caught on Mike’s Magic Shad fly.
Here are just a few of the fish we caught. Note the graph in the photo of Bill and his hog.
Nice fish and great photography! Hybrids have a loyal following here in Texas, we mainly fish ’em at night around lighted docks but I’m going to try some during the daylight hours with a sinking line this summer. A buddy of mine set a new water body fly rod record this spring, close to a 9# fish on a 4 weight! Sounds crazy I know but this guy loves lighter tackle.
Mike,
What an awesome day of fishing, for some awesome fish.
It should be illegal to taunt us with such pig Hybrids.
Just kidding, I love it.
Would love to come down and experience TN’s great Hybrid fishing.
Questions.
In your photo gallery there are lots of fly photos, but none are identified by name.Bill the bottom fly here is pretty close to the fly I’m having so much success with.
I don’t claim to have invented anything new here and Mikes Magic Fly was an inside joke. So before anyone slams me, I just sat down and made this fly up with a Shad image in my head. I’m sure there is some other fly just like it out there somewhere with some other name. Anyway, here’s how I tie it.
Hook Gamakatsu 2 – 3/0
Eyes Brass small, med, or large, size depending on Hook and the depth you desire
Bottom White Icelandic Sheep Hair with Pearl Angel hair mixed in.
Middle Small pinch of Pink Bucktail (helps hold it togehter) and a large clump of Krystal flash
Top Grey Icelandic Sheep Hair with Polar Ice Angel Hair mixed in.Don’t skimp on the Krystal flash, use a big long clump that extends past the Icelandic Sheep hair.
When mixing in the Angel Hair try to mix it in evenly. I don’t think it matters to the fish but they look so much cooler if there aren’t just big clumps of the stuff. It’s almost like you can’t pinpoint exactly what’s sparkling when it’s done right.
Tie it medium sparse to sparse. Once the fly is tied I’ll use taperizer scissors to taper it a little (if needed) and then I’ll use a fine hair brush to blend all the material (mainly the Angel Hair) together. You’ll get excited when you start to see it taking shape while you brush it.
Lastly, I Loon Hard Head (clear) everywhere there is exposed thread and sprinkle it with pearl micro glitter and Red Micro glitter around the underside of the eyes, after it dries I cover it again with another coat of Hard Head. The Loon stuff does not turn yellow like Epoxy and IMO is heads and shoulders above 5 min epoxy.
I’ve tied all kinds of stuff trying to match Shad and this one is the most effective subsurface one yet. I proved Sun that it isn’t as effective as live bait but what artificial is? It’s effective enough that my bait days for Hybrid are over.
The black stuff on my grips is Rod Wrap, I think that’s what its called. It feels good in the hands IMO. I tried it out on a whim and I kinda liked it. A little extra cushion on the grip dosent hurt anything while casting shooting heads. It wears pretty bad after one season but its cheap and saves the cork all that wear also.
Mike it’s kinda’ funny that you include pink bucktail in your fly pattern. My buddies record hybrid was caught on a pink over white Clouser and it’s been a consistent producer all spring for both hybrids and white bass here. Everybody gave him a hard time about the girly color until he started catchung fish on it, now all of our little group has some pink flies in their box.
Mike, what lines are ya’ll using for fishing deep like this? I’m currently throwing a SA Streamer Express on both my 6 & 8 weights but I’m considering going to a head / running line combo.
Right now I have several reels and rods with anything from 125 to 600 grain integrated lines. It’s all a matter of where I mark fish when fishing the lake. In the river I like 250, 350 and Intermediate.
Bill that fly doesn’t have the extra flash and stuff in it. That was the first one I tied and I’ve refined it a bit since then. I haven’t had any significant problems with missing fish on the up hook config. I’m not saying Dave is wrong, just that I haven’t had that problem. I’ll remember that if I do start to have a problem with missing fish. I’m also considering trying jig hooks but I’d like to find some that are sharp right outa the box.
As far as size, I tie about the same lengths and hooks sizes as you do. That sheep hair is pretty long so you can either separate the short from the long or I’ll cut a small clump, pull out the under fur, pull the tips until they are real uneven, fold the clump in half and cut the loop. This speeds up the tie for me because I don’t’ have to separate the fur. I think Dave W uses Sheep hair in some of his patterns. Did he have any input on the stuff?
What’s your go to fly?
I gotta say I am really digging the discussion between the lineside experts. Those are some brutes Mike! Striper on fly are a major goal for me this year so I am soaking this in. Thanks.
G
Gotta’ love warm water threads!! I’m enjoyin’ it my self 😎 BTW, I’m no expert just engrossed and involved.
Bill, you’re right there are a ton of good lines out there! I’m pretty happy with my SA’s but to really dig deep you almost have to go to a head. Texoma isn’t all that far and the last time I fished it what few fish we caught were in 25′-35′ of water and huggin’ the bottom, took a LONG time at 6″ / second to get down. We were drifting on flats and I would cast out, strip almost to the backing after the cast was in the water, and wait….the guys with heads were getting down alot faster.
The 60* jig hooks made by Eagle Claw are the most well known and widely used but obviously not the best right out of the box.
I’ve started experimenting with the 60 deg jig hooks this spring. I tied on the Eagle Claw 413 to start with but decided I wanted some smaller sizes so just ordered in some Mustad 34184’s in #2 & #4. Hybrids and stripers are a blast and I’m fortunate enough to have no less than 3 lakes within 45 minutes of home with healthy hybrid populations plus Texoma is only about 1.5 hrs if I get a striper itch.
BTW, I order the Mustads from Captain Hooks Warehouse: http://www.captainhookswarehouse.com/index.cfm?page=products&manid=2&catid=5&sizeid=0&view=1&offset=11.
They have a good selection of hooks and they ship quickly.
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