[SSPey]

I've been fishing the mighty Willamette River, and have located a nice - but difficult - outer seam that holds steelies. I want to exploit that seam a little better with my double handed rod.

There is about 55' of unwadeable faster current between me and the coveted outer seam. I want to get a fly over there (not too difficult), get it deep (somewhat difficult), and make it stay in the zone for as long as possible confused: ).

I've picked up fish in this seam at lower water when the whole affair was a little more tame, but at higher water I'm just not getting down with it. The difference between "low" and "high" water is all of 1' river level, but translates to a lot of flow velocity.

What line/cast/mend techniques might work for this situation?

 

[GBSkunk]

I have a line that I think would fish the situation well. It's a 10/11/12 Windcutter with the middle floating section removed. For a tip I use the Rio Big Boy 400 grain. This line shoots like crazy. The 24 foot sink tip with 20 foot floating belly allows you to hold long distances of running line up and off the water. It also gets DOWN. It's one of my favorite lines.

Do you fish above or below the falls?

TL's

 

[andre]

I do believe the best way to truely determine which line best suites this situation, is to take me there to truely assess the situation.

how deep do you need to get?
how fast is the flow?
can fish from a different position?

andre

 

[SSPey]

The seam starts shallow (2') and eventually goes deep (10++') but I'm only trying to fish the 3-6' depth. Problem is that the speed is pretty quick at higher flows (faster than walking speed) which might send the fish to deeper slower water. At this point I'd trying to go as deep as I can - figure I can always go shallower - and would love to hear suggestions. It don't gotta be pretty.

I was out there with 18' of 8 weight type 6 (on 8150-4), plus a heavily weighted fly, and wasn't even close. The current is pulling it up. I need to rebuild my 9140-3 so I can launch chunks of the heavy stuff (LC13).

and the only other "different position" I can envision isn't acceptable. That would be doing the near-weightless angler's toe dance, which immediately precedes a dunking.

 

[inland]

Gaspe Canoe?

I would take a water craft that is stable enough to anchor in the slot while standing and fishing. I would then do "drops", as in Canadian atlantic salmon tradition, down your seam until paydirt is found. This way you would cover the seam from both sides of the boat.

Of course I could always tow my 26' Restigouche canoe your way to give a personal demonstration. :devil:

William

 

[Rick J]

Have you tried stack mending?

A possible option would be to use a very fast (type 7) sink tip say 15' long or even lead core on a long bellied line. Cast well above your target and using the heavy belly stack mend like crazy to land as much of the floating line above the tip in the same current seam as possible then continue to stack mend the line between you and the current seam as needed.

If you can overhead cast, try a tuck cast, stopping high to get the heavy tip to turn over and drop with the floating line landing above - this would help start the process prior to stack mending

 

[SpeyFitter]

Dump cast

I think your best bet would be to dump cast line over there, if possible. I'm trying to think of how I would do it with the two hander, but the essential result would be to try and have a whole pile of fly line land in a big coil on the other side of the river. While your gear is getting down and fishing the outside seem, the all the coiled up humps of fly line is getting straightened out/taken downstream by the main current, but it takes the current a bit of time before it can work out the dumped/coiled line and by that time a fish should have ample oppurtunity to take your offering. In this case, since your line is landing in what I'm assuming is the slack water over there, or slower water, you can use whatever you think would get down if you were on the other side of the river and you were just fishing the inside seem. I think for all intensive purposes and for an easier cast though, you might want to use a floating line/long leader/weight fly in this instance.

 

[FlyFishAR]

Fast Water

I gotta go with Peter on this one. The surface water is going to be about 5 times faster than the water on the bottom. A full sinking line will keep you in the fishing zone longer. If you are throwing across the fast water you might consider a density compensated line in lieu of a sink tip and make an airborn mend. A pile cast will keep it in the zone longer but it will make it very difficult to detect a take and all but impossible to make a hook set due to the slack.

John

 

[Rick J]

Stack mending

I've used the stack mending technique alot - mostly with single handed rods and while I generally do it with a floating line and long leader with a very heavy bug, friends often use 15' sink tips - before the new regs on the North Umpqua, this was a deady technique (without indicators) and I rarely had problems detecting the strike. You just watch the line where it enters the water and if it pauses, you set. The set with slack line on the water is down and across rather that a lift of the rod - this technique moves alot of line and you can quite easily set the hook. This is really no different than nymphing for trout. The long rod really aids in stack mending long distances.