Opener fly selection

[EatSleepFish]

What fly will be on the end of your tippet on opener? for me it will be a size 16 orange scud, and if that doesnt produce i'll probably tie on a size 14 stonefly nymph.

[DEADhead]

I may shoot the moon and start throwing out streamers right away. The spot I am gonna fish is notorius for big browns. I'm thinking white wooly bugger, then a brown, black or olive. I've got some orange scuds in reserve, and maybe a pink squirrel may be in order.

I'm anticipating no BWO hatch, only size 22-24 midges. I don't want to start the season out with 7x tippet

Good luck everyone!

[Quickstrike]

I'm with deadhead, although I'll be chasing steelhead rather then fishing opener. Early in the season I like to start big and work my way smaller. I have seen to have my best luck early in the year and then again in the fall for big browns and the majority of them have fallen to streamers such as muddler minnows, mickey finns, and clouser minnows. I no doubt would also end up throwing an assortment of smaller scuds, PTs, Hair's Ears, and have an assortment of dries ready such as BWOs and EHCs ready to go. But early in the year i almost always start big. Good Luck!!!

[WxGuy]

I'll probably start the day with a scud or prince trailed by a zebra midge or small flashback pheasant tail. There will probably be some baetis along with gray caddis where I'll be fishing, so I'm hoping to get in an hour or two with dry flies in the early to mid afternoon. This 20 degree above normal stretch could offer up some insect treats this weekend. We'll see....

Good luck to everyone heading out this weekend!

[EatSleepFish]

when fishing streamers in the spring do you guys let it drift and swing or swim it across the current?

[DEADhead]

drift and swing. I'll usually try to swing it through a pool or an undercut bank to try and lure the lunkers out.

[Quickstrike]

both!

[-Marc V-]

I've found that striping the fly back with quick bursts with pauses usually will make fish move. I usually try to cast upstream or up/across, and strip it back faster than the current, or cast straight across the stream, and strip it back with the fly moving more downstream. Was out opener where a down/across swing retreive didn't get anything to move in a nice deep running bend in the stream. I knew there had to be a fish there, and was anticipating a nice one. When I striped it back fast and irratic, the same hole brought up a nice silver shimer of a brown to the surface. Unfortunately no hook up, but got, what I think was the same fish to come up again on the next cast, this time touching the fly, but no hook-up. Couldn't get the fish to move again after that. Moved a few other fish that day with this retreive, and have had luck before with it. Give it a shot if others aren't working. From what I understand, missed hook-ups streamer fishing is a fairly common occurance.

Just got a book in the mail Saturday that was suggested to read for trout on streamers. Streamer fishing for Trophy Brown Trout by Kelly Galloup and Bob Linensman. Looking through the techniques is a jerk-strip retreive that does what I described above.

I'm pretty excited to give streamer fishing more of a go this year!

Good luck to everyone this season!

[JP Z]

Do most of you use an indicator while nymphing? I've been contemplating not using them but they make it so much easier. At least in current that is.

[-Marc V-]

I'm going to give nymphing a try without an indicator this year. Just tired of having to deal with casting with so many things attached to my line, and also fear the floating indicators inhibiting nymphs from getting deep as quickly.

Learned a trick on another site by a SE MN fly fishing guru. When constructing leaders, make the butt section out of Amnesia leader line. Chartruse was suggested for better visibility. Then while nymphing, just watch the end of the Amnesia line for takes.

I can't give an opinion on it either way at this point as I haven't used it enough yet.

I'll be wondering the driftless for 4 days later this week. Can't wait. Batteries need a recharge.

[JP Z]

I've also seen folks using an old section of flyline for the indicator....just a little 1" chunk. That would work well.

[-Marc V-]

I've heard of that also. I orginally tried that rather than spending more $ on fly fishing stuff. Tried using a 5wt SA line I believe it is. I wasn't able to get the leader material to even come close to sliding through the fly line. Maybe I should try a section of one of my 8wt lines and see if that is any different.

If you get it to work, let me know how!

[JP Z]

Marc V,

I will be using the ol' indicator. Well actually I am going to make my own. Using a tutorial from the Global Flyfisher. Seems easy enough. And I got some get waterproof yarn on Ebay.