I don’t catch fish.

Have you ever used two woolybuggers in dropper style?
Do you use specific Nymphing line?

I use floating lines and long leaders. I attend regular Sunday meetings of the twelve steps program Lead Slingers Anonymous.

https://youtu.be/oqnqlCTm19c

Tomorrow I float again.......Down the sunken Delaware I go. Clear water, too shallow in many places, Eagles above, Bass below and me, the Sucker in the boat.

Here is a quandry: How should I work a Wooly Bugger when fishing from a drift boat? Dead drift, Fast strip. How would you do it?

There is a Creek in North central Montana with roughly equal numbers of rainbows and smallies. If I cast small wet flies uptream and dead drift I get rainbows. If I cast across and down with medium to large sized streamers, and if I wiggle the fly, I catch smallies.

There is a small river in South Central Montana with one ten mile drift in particular that contains rainbows, browns, smallmouth bass, perch, walleye, sauger (wild native river-run walleyes), channel catfish and pike. I hope to get there next week for a day or two of fishing.

Then I be wigglin downstream later today.
New to Fly fishing I've read bright day bright fly, dark day dark fly. Do you concur? or doesn't one need to think that hard?

Roakill Streamers are good smallmout bass flies.............

Roadkills

Dang it all. No fish to report. The conditions gorgeous. Shore fishermen caught nothing also. There were fish everywhere. Nothing biting. A Jet boat guy said that when the water is this clear and there are billions of shad fry available that the bass just aren't hungry, once an autumn rain hit they'll start feeding again. Saw one small muskie and oodles of bass from 10-20"+/-. Lots of sculpin in the shallows, Sunfish too.
I had to get out several times to drag over gravel bars.

Well you all did it, you're all guilty of getting me hooked on this form of river transport. Unbelievable access to the best water and quiet solitude on the Delaware River.

I have a great interest in these "Roadkills" as it would be a catchall for numerous species. have you caught bass in the past with this fly?

When I left New Jersey in 1969 the Delaware still had no dams. A lot has changed. I watched a guy hook and land a 10lb largemouth at the Millstone River Aquaduct once, where the Delaware Raritan Canal crosses over top of the Millstone River. He caught that fish on a large segmented, diving crankbait. I was about 13 or so. 8th grade I think. Later on when I learned how to fly fish I didn't lose interest in lure fishing. That largemouth had a lot to do with it.

Ironically I live at the confluence of the Lehigh and Delaware Canals. But my mother grew up at the last Lock on the Delaware near Bristol. It was very polluted in those days. That part of the Delaware was the first commercial fishery in the USA.........Giant Atlantic Sturgeon. They fished them out pretty quickly as I understand it........up to around 14' long, tales be told.

Back to the Road Kill. I Cant see how you have it attached at the top. Did you use a back turn and a BB shot? It is my feeling that this lure would work very well dragging across the bottom because the Delaware is full of Eel and their fry and they are the primary source of food for Walleye, Stripers, muskie and Bass. In fact the Delaware still has several licensed Eel Wherries left. Once the licenses run out on this generation they are gone forever.

Is 40’ about it for casting? My favorite rod is 8.5’ slow action6wt with weight forward 6wt line. My 9’ fast 6wt only chucks it a little further but is less enjoyable. I thought I had heard that I should be able to hit 70’. Remember, I’m brand new at this fly stuff.

Roadkill: Rabbit fur for sinking and Deer fur for floating? All other fur in btwn?

I just throw a double overhand knot in the leader adn tighten it up at the front of a rabbit strip. Roadkill rabbit that hasn't dried yet works even better.

Well we have them too, lol.

I’m thinking white for starters and then perhaps medium brown as well as black. Thanks for the tips.

ordered Black and white rabbit. will look for red or orange maribou and play around.

How far should I be able to cast with a fast 6wt rod and line?


On a dropper set-up should the upper be tied directly to the line or should it be on a separate tag line and how far apart should the two be?

On the Weber River a guy showed me how he hooks up his droppers. He ties two 12" tags off a 4' tippet and uses 3 nymphs, or two Nymphs and places a bb on the end. I'd love to hear how you set you rigs up.

If I want a bobber I use a big foam hopper, because that way the bobber catches fish too.



A heavy fly on the end with a 5" dropper 12 to 16" inches up the leader is easiest to cast, but the reversed arrangement (light fly on the end with a heavy dropper) might be more effective. The heavy fly on the dropper with not-weighted bait, oops I mean fly out at the end is the fly fisherman's equivalent of a drop-shot rig. When it's windy I put the heavy fly at the end. Else the other way around. I've been trying to fish less with bobber hoppers, just using a sparkplug and a nymph. I can't see dry flies anymore so I don't fish them much anymore.

I often fish a heavy nymph or streamer with 16" inches of tippet knotted to the bend of the heavy nymph.


Here's a Sparkplug fly. Sort of the opposite of a foam hopper.

Spark plug, Eh?

That is cute.

What is your favorite nymph for your fall fun?

The Spark Plug is a very brief fly. I think it would catch panfish.

Sandy,

I received my rabbit furs today. One white and one blackish/gray. Gonna make some Roadkills. Gonna play around with ideas like brief marabou streamers, weights and sizes.

What is your best or most productive size for small streams?
Don

I can cast the whole fly line with most rods. It's all about timing and line speed. And double hauling. I don't catch much past 40 feet but I can do it. Shine Greene watched me catch a bonefish at 85 feet in the wind once. He still mentions it. Many moons later.

Well then Alright, I'm doing fine for distance and will concentrate on accuracy going forward.


Roadkill:What is your best or most productive size for small streams? Do you vary the hook size when you vary the length?

Do you ever use a roadlill as a dropper?

I use two flies more often than not. But not with Roadkills. Roadkill Streamers I usually fish as a single fly. I have tied small ones (small Roadkill Streamers) and they work well enough. Just as well as any other small to medium sized streamer. But not necessarily better.

The Roadkill is a way to fish big. I haven't had a lot of luck with Roadkills in the middle of a hot sunny summer day. They're primarily useful at dawn and at dusk, or any time--including the middle of the day--if it's stormy. Some of the best streamer fishing I've had is with Roadkill Streamers in a slow steady wet snow storm.

Sometimes luck shines the moment. Back in the early 1990s when I was fly fishing guide working out of the Yellowstone Angler I had a day on DePuy's Spring Creek where my customer left early. He had a plane to catch. So instead of driving straight home I took the opportunity to fish.

I went to the big road culvert over the creek right above "Betty's House." I tied on a huge 7" inch long Roadkill streamer. River keeper Bob Auger spotted me and walked over to have a chat. His eyes bulged out when I saw what I was about to fish with. I grinned and made a looong cast down stream into the center of current. I let the fly swing to the right, into a back eddy current that swam the fly back towards us. I let is sink. Gave it a twitch or two and hooked a 20" inch brown. Bob never forgot that moment. I run into him every now and then. He often mentions that story.

PS....deja-vu all over again I had another day just like that a year or so later, when my customer went home early. Once again Bob spotted me and came over to have a chat. This time he had a gentlemanly-looking fly fisherman with him. I was tying on a Riffle Dart. Bob didn't say anything but the tweedy proper fly fisherman guy looked indignant. "Is that a fly?" he asked. "Is he allowed to fish that here?"

Bob grinned and said "Sandy made it with feathers fur and a hook (not mentioning the foam). In my book it's a fly and Sandy's welcome to fish it here. Any time he wants." That time I scared up a big brown trout that followed the wiggler (the Riffle Dart) for two or three feet
but didn't bite it. It was still a pretty good show.



dart page

So you do or don’t vary the hook size? I could be wrong but I bet this would do well for late season bass and pickerel as well. Saw a bunch of natives today. Up to 17-19 “ +/- . I could see them from up on the bridge but I couldn’t get close enough to cast at them. I’ll figure it out on a nicer day.....hot and humid today. Please don’t order us any snow. I’d love some frost, slightly dirty water and sunny 55 degree days.

Ah hooks size. No not much. I make them with what ever big but not long shank hook I have hanging around. Usually a #2 of some kind.

4” x 1/2” . Should I have tapered the tail end?