Ian Crabtree
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I actually talked with Clark Reid – the Clark in Clark’s Cicada, about his fly, and the somewhat humorous anecdote behind his Cicada pattern is that the fly was actually tied by him while he was in the Umpqua factory (in Thailand I guess) right before his break to pursue a country music career. The fly went into full production without ever having been shown to a fish.
Clark thought his cicada pattern should come with a warning label. He genuinely believed that once a fish (at least in New Zealand) has been caught on it, it wouldn’t take the pattern again.Check out Carty’s GT – it’s a good impressionistic Cicada pattern.
I played around with the Orvis braided leaders for a little and was troubled by their tendency to throw spray over the water during presentations unless I was conscientious about false casting the water out of the braid – which isn’t really practical when the fish is close. A furled leader is also another option in this category.
Somewhere (I think it might have been DB’s board) I read a thread where someone was looking at the possibility of using the new translucent GsP braids as tippet. I don’t know if it ever got out of the discussion realm and into actual use.
Here’s what I’m talking about: http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/pod/horizontal-pod.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/pod-link.jsp_A&_DAV=MainCatcat20166-cat600395_TGP&rid=&indexId=cat600395&navAction=push&masterpathid=&navCount=1&parentType=index&parentId=cat600395&id=0041307
Zach, those are all Feild’s photos.
As far as the impact of rdtm, I can’t put it any better than Grant Hartman did on Dan Blanton’s board:
“I know I am going to get hammered again, but I just have to speak out.
Although “Running down the man” is a cool flick, it has already overcrowded the overcrowded beaches off the East Cape.
Last time I checked, there was 10 guys camped for two weeks straight at the light house, one every 100 yards or so, slashing the water at every roosterfish that comes by.
Hey, it was bound to happen, but I for one frown at Frank Smethurst for making the flick. I know Frank well, he’s an okay guy, but he did this as a self promotion stunt, an ego booster. Now calls himself the “fish whisperer”. Wow, I’m impressed.
There is only about 10 miles of prime roosterfish water on the East Cape. Prime conditions- one mile, one fisherman, any more than that, and the fish get spooky.
Someone comes along and makes a unrealistic flick and glorifies it to the world, now every fisherman is going to want to be chasing the man. Frank shot himself in the foot. Frank, next time you want to fish the East Cape, get a ticket and take a seat.
Frank fished for over a month straight to get that fish, I estimated just over 30 lbs. Frank is a very good roosterfish-fisherman, but Franks main secret of success, is that he is willing to wait in the 100 degree plus sun and walk the soft hot sand, day in, day out for a month straight every June for the last 5 years. Sometimes you only get one or two shots a day. To be successful, you have to be stubborn as hell and determined to the bone.
Okay, there I said my piece of mind.
I know I sound territorial and that’s just not the case, I have always encouraged folks to come down and fish the beaches. It’s a lot of fun.
If you plan on coming down, and you don’t have any experience with roosterfish, I recommend getting a guide for at least a day to show you the ropes. Lance and Josh at “Baja on the fly” are great guys! Jeff de Brown at “Reel Baja” is also a very good choice.
If you plan on going it alone and just want to catch fish, size not counting, blind cast sardine patterns at the bait balls early and late. If size counts, your fishing needs to be tight, Permit tight.
The best places to fish are both light houses, Las Ventanas just South of La Paz and Punta Arena near La Riebera. The next best spot is from Hotel Rancho Leonero to Punta Colorado. About a three mile stretch. Everything else is much less productive.
The waters are generally calm, and the fish are spooky. Once a fish is spooked, chances are he won’t bite for quite a while. When they get hammered hard, I have seen them go off the bite for days. Often the fish run quite close to the beach, so don’t wade! Stand back off the beach. I have seen huge fish swim just feet away from guys wading up to their waist. The fisherman didn’t even have a clue the fish was there.
“Running down the man” is a gimmick, once in a blue moon, you can chase them down and get one to eat, but the smart strategy is to wait for them to come to you. If the fish swims past you and you make a cast at the tail, all you will accomplish is to spook the fish. How do you know you have spooked a roosterfish, he will be swimming swiftly, and he won’t even pause to look at your fly. Flies are simple- mullet patterns, Franks “Rasta” is as good as any. 6 to 8 feet of straight 20 flurocarbon will do the trick.
Use plenty of sun-block, Stay hydrated, be stealthy and good luck!
You probably wont be seeing me on any of my old runs, I have gone to exploring different parts of Baja in look for my new favorite roosterfish spot, so “running down the man” has expanded my horizons. Travel farther, less people. I have been searching far, but I haven’t seen anywhere yet where the roosterfish roam like they do on the East Cape.
One thing for sure, I wont be sharing any more of my new favorite spots with Frank in the future.
Grant”
Haha.
What are you using to glue the rabbit strips together at the tail. I can’t find tear mender anywhere unless I want to order online.
Cool flies Brian.
Out of curiosity, why not just tie double bunnies and add dumbbell eyes at the head?
Oh, and while I’m thinking of it. You can also filter photos with the metadata browser. For example if you’re looking for white river photos, you can navigate down through – us – arkansas – mt. home – white river. But… if you only want white river photos from say… 2004, then go through and select white river photos. Then, scroll up to the date section of the metadata browser and command click on 2004. This will only show you white river photos from 2004. You can also go even further by filtering for only photos taken with your D70… with a specific lens even. Amazing.
Just highlight multiple groups of photos with a shift click if they’re in a row or cmd click to highlight random photos if they’re scattered, editing the metadata on the right will change the tag for all of the selected photos.
The browser on the left has a section for photos that haven’t had any location information attached to them that makes it easy to determine which photos haven’t been categorized yet. Photos without a country label will be identified as “unknown country” ones without a state – “unknown state” etc.
Hey Jay,
Here’s a link for the rasta: http://www.bajafly.com/Flies/rasta.htm
The bugeye bait looks like it’s tied with white bucktail, wing colored super or unique hair, wing colored bucktail, flashabou and krystal flash, and peacock herl.
The recipe for the woolly mullet was in the latest Fly Tyer magazine. I’m doubt it’s legal to post this information sourced from the magazine, and I can’t find it anywhere on the web, do you get fly tyer?
Hope that helps a little, two out of three isn’t too bad.
Mike or Bryan – Do either one of you have a picture of the flies you’re tying with icelandic sheep hair?
Mike – I hadn’t really thought about the barb being a factor in keeping a fly fouled, but it makes sense… I’ll give it a try.
Bryan – We’ll mainly be targeting roosters and jacks off of the beach. We might go out in a panga one of the days if we can find someone competent to take us out. It sounds like you need to be pretty careful who you go out with unless you want to troll. Do you have any pictures of your bunny clouser?
Cameron – Thanks, wish I had tied the flies. I don’t really have much free time these days. I figured the investment in fly tying materials and hook plus my time more than equaled the price I paid to have these tied for me. Peter is an incredibly knowledgeable fly tier. I’ve always considered myself a competent fly tier, but I was blown away by his understanding of all the intricacies of tying, it made me realize just how much I have to learn.
I can’t remember where I read about this method of attaching spinners (may have been fish alaska).
Simplest explanation:
1. Take a hole punch and drive it through the plastic retainer around soda cans. Hang onto the plastic discs.
2. Take your spinner blade and swivel assembly and thread it onto the bend of an assembled fly.
3. Pierce the plastic disc with the hook point and slide it up the bend of the hook (two may be necessary to hold the blade).
4. You’re done.Easy to do on the water and retro onto existing flies.
I’d also tie up some spoon flies. Put some dumbbell eyes on the bend of the hook and leave eight to ten rubber legs hanging off the back. You should be able to throw pretty large spoon flies on the larger rods you’ll be using for pike.
Ian
Well you did ask for pike flies that actually work…
I haven’t thrown these at any pike, I imagine they’d work, but I can also imagine a lot of other flies working for pike.
I don’t think any of these flies would hold up really well with repeated pike encounters.
I’m glad to see I’m not the only one to put mickey mouse rods to the test on salmon. We actually landed a good number of chums on a Shakespeare push-button Yu-Gi-Oh (I’m almost positive I didn’t spell that right) we bought at the village. It finally bit the dust when we hooked up a big king. After that fish the drag would either slip and go into free-spool or lock up completely.
Never been to Juneau, but look like you’ve got some sweet fishing.
Any cuts in the area?
Where are you counting fish?
Ian
Last but not least.
Rasta
Tied by Peter Smith
Hook: Owner AKI 2/0I have both tan and olive variations.
Woolly Mullet
Tied by Peter Smith
Hook: Owner AKI 2/0I have this fly in three varieties: olive, chartreuse, and brown.
It’s not that bad Rusty…
It’s sometimes easier to work backwards. What kind of flies are you tying, how big are the flies (length), how big are the fish?
Hey Rusty,
There are probably sites that can give you a general idea of what you’re dealing with when it comes to hook sizes. The problem is, hook sizes can change drastically depending on the style (i.e. shank length, gape width, bend, etc.). Hook size can also be pretty different depending on the manufacturer. If you can narrow down what you’re looking for to a specific style – for example, a standard length shank dry fly hook, it might be a little easier to point you in the right direction.
That probably didn’t help at all…
Ian
They’re effective, no doubt. Even hard pressured fish that see a lot of glo-bugs don’t know what hit ’em.
There’s a thread somewhere where Zach was asking about how to use glass beads. In that thread I describe the method I use, it’s a little different. I use that style when I’m guiding for securing beads to the leader. When I’m feeling lazy or using really light tippet I use toothpicks.
I’ve seen the knot you’re describing, and I know a lot of alaskan bead fishermen use it, but I still like the bead to be able to slide down toward the hook when a fish hits it. I think this helps a little in preventing ugly hookups on the fish. I’ll fool around with that knot this summer on the dollies and grayling.
I ended up doing the same thing by removing the foam fly holders from my Fishpond Waterdance pack to use as a boat patch. You can order the replacement foam from Fishpond for 10 bucks.
The foam comes mounted to hard plastic with velcro pre-attached to the back. I stuck some soft velcro to the side of the boat and I was in business. I’d take a picture, but the boat is several thousand miles away buried in snow.
