I’d use downriggers but the Pink Lady objects

July 30th, 2008 by fishing_expert

What’s really needed is some clever technical name like “Pre-emergent Taut drifting” or “Kinetic Nymphing” - something with enough action verbiage to engage the print media into reams of “how to” literature.

I figured it was trolling mostly, what with the wind blowing you in one direction and frantic paddling to counter wind drift, hoping to preserve your orientation to the bank and fly.

Kelvin used it to great effect and converted us skeptical types after only a couple hours on the water, more importantly, it produced fish during midafternoon when everyone else was thinking sandwich.

The weeds are about six feet below me

The above picture shows the bottom of Manzanita Lake and its stunning water clarity. Them monstrous feet are submerged - and the vertical weeds are about 6 feet below me. Getting a fly into the weed was a bad thing - and fish head for those tough stalks the moment they’re hooked. A third of the fish hooked were lost on the initial burst of flight.

The trick is to use a mixture of tackle that keeps the fly about midway between weed and surface. This is the exclusive turf of the intermediate sink line - one of the slowest sinking lines available - or adding 5 feet of tippet and a beaded nymph on a floating line.

Sink tip lines would work as well, but the key is to keep mindful of the depth to the weeds, if you stray outside the limitations of your tackle the fly is toast, or the fish are too deep and the fly passes above their visual range.

If the fly is at the right depth, the cruising fish will oblige you. We landed about ¾ of the fish using a simple “fling and retrieve” and the balance from dry flies and nymphs stripped through the rising fish.

Brown J.Fair Wiggletail and Algae CarpKiller

Pre-emergent Taut drifting flies start with the J.Fair Wiggletail nymph (in brown above), Olive was the preferred color - which matched my most productive, the Algae CarpKiller. I had these in the box from the Little Stinking and equipped with a 4mm bead were heavy enough to drag 5 feet of 5X down to the appropriate depth.

My deteriorating eyesight has a new wrinkle for me to overcome with each trip - and the larger tippets and bigger hooks of Kinetic Nymphing gives me a chance at threading a tippet come dusk.

Tradition is useful as long as it doesn’t interfere with the fishing, and delicate sensibilities we trod on with gusto, it’s all part of the obsession. Unfortunately there’s more hours between bugs than with bugs and with us weekend warriors, every hour is precious.