[Dr. Swing]

A few times a week for the past couple weeks I have been out in the snow and wind tossing streamers in local lakes which are quickly losing their ice. It seems these lakes spit out a few overly large browns this time of year (mostly to guys fishing bait) and this potential has gotten me a little motivated to explore with a fly rod while the water is still cold and these fish are still supposedly patroling the shallows. This type of fishing is a big change of pace for me, and I think that is why I am enjoying it so much, even though the catching has been much slower than it generally is on the area rivers. I've done a little surf fishing for stripers in my past, and this is about the closest thing to it that I have found out in trout heaven.

A nine foot 6 wt rigged with a floating line has been my companion for this fishing. After a few days of dulling hooks on rocks behind me, tangling line in my feet, not getting my big flies to carry out into the lake when casting with very limited backcast room and huge winds in my face, I am begining to think that this isn't the answer. Step one and two are obvious to me, now that I have a few days under my belt. I need to put on my waders instead of rainpants and get my but out away from the rock walls in the places I have room to wade. Step two is a stripping basket (I now remember why EVERBODY out east used one.)

The floating line is going away, as in the waves I cannot keep tight to the fly on a slow retrieve, the next step is a clear intermediate. Shooting heads would be better, but I don't have any, and this is not something I am going to invest in. I do have a T-200 I could use, but I don't need the fast sink rate, in fact the fish seem to like to come up to a fly slowly retrived under the surface.

The past few days I have been out the usefulness of a light double handed surf type rod have been pretty obvious. This isn't something I wouldn't ever invest in, but a stiff 12' 6 wt (the T&T comes to mind) would be money for this type of fishing. I doubt there is ANY market for anything more specialized than that, but maybe the guys in the Salt need a schoolie two hander? I guess the point of all of this is that the more I fish with the knowledge of two handers, the more places where their use would be effective and benifical come to mind. I am curious as to what other "non-typical" uses for doublehanded fly rods you percieve. And if any of you salty guys, or pike fly rodders (these two types of fishing are what I see as being the most closely related to what I am doing currently) have any suggestions, I would be eager to hear them.

 

[brooklynangler]

Loch rod?

What about an 11.xx or so foot loch rod? You can find them cheap on ebay. Something in a 7 weight or so.

just a thought.

 

[brooklynangler]

HERE YOU GO

Ebay # 3673333323 $50!

I'd buy it if i could, but my wife is at the "buy one more rod and I'll..." stage, so i gotta just fish with the dozen or so rods I have...


joe

 

[Dr. Swing]

Ahh, the last thing I need is to blow money on a rod for a bit of fishing that lasts 2 weeks a year. Well, maybe more, we'll see. The Loch rod idea was a good one though. Though I am not a big fan of most of the single handed rods over 10 feet I have cast, I guess you could take one and rebuild it for two hands.

 

[t_richerzhagen]

Meiser 11' 7"

should be ideal for this setting. He also has switch rods in this range at 10' 6" one 11' 4" and a 13" three pliece that has admirers. These rods should be good for a lot more than just two weeks of fishing for early browns. Smallmouth, trout and small steelhead come to mind, as well as float tubing for trout. There will be a longer report when my 11' 7" arrives.

 

[Stefan S]

sea trout in baltic sea

Dr. Swing,
sounds a bit like our sea trout (sea running brown trout) fishing in northern europes baltic sea. The fish are between 1 and 10 lbs so you shouldn´t fish heavy rods to have fun with the fish. But often you have to fight a strong wind. My favorite rod is a medium fast action 10' for 6/7 wt and a fast action 9' for 7/8 wt when fishing in a stronger wind. The fish can be really close to the shore line and sometimes you catch them just in front of your feet. But other days you have to cast a long line to have a chance to reach them. With floating or slow intermediate shooting heads you can do more than 90 % of the fishery because the fish comes to the surface. And... most often you must do many many casts to catch your fish.
Today nearly all fly fishermen uses 7-9wt single handers. But after reeding your posts about fishing for stripers and other salt water fish with short double handers I think they should be ideal for this target as well - easy to cast hundreds of times a day a long line. But it must be possible to cast them single handed as well for close in fishing. My dream rod for this fishery is light, has a fast progressive action and is around 11´ for 6 or 7wt lines.
I´m waiting for my first Meiser. A 106 for 9/10wt for salmon fishing. I´m sure it is what I expect and then the fast action 6/7 or 7/8 should be ideal for surf trout fishing... or a CND Atlantis for 7wt? Maybe my next project for 2005?
Stefan

 

[Dr. Swing]

Stephan,

Sounds pretty similar, though the average sized fish I run into is probably a little smaller. What sort of flies do you like for this type of fishing? Buggers and leeches are the norm out here, but lately I have been tossing some tandom hooked, clouser type, Chub immitations. Can't say that they are setting the world on fire, but hey, they look good and if I were a big ol pissed off hungry brown, I would eat it Any ideas would warrent a try.

 

[Stefan S]

flies for sea trout

Unfortunately I must say, often the average sized fish are closer to 1 lbs than to 10 lbs.
In spring the fish are hungry, not very finical and often feed everything they can get. Simple Buggers and leeches are working good that time. Egg Sucking Leeches, Wooly Buggers for example as well as bigger wet flies and streamers like Bloody Butcher, Big Hole Demon, .... Hook sizes: #2 - #8. In the dawn and dark an unweighted black Wooly Bugger fished close to the surface can be deadly.
Second best time is autum, but the fish can be much more selective and there can be a need for flies that looks like what they are feeding, shrimp pattern for example.
Some pictures from nice sea trout flies:
http://www.angelguide.dk/Kystfluer.htm
Stefan

 

[Dr. Swing]

Thanks, there are a few good looking patterns on that site. thank goodness for pictures, as I certainly couldn't read the descriptions

Well, I have got the stripping basket rigged (cut up a washtub!) and I think I will give it a whirl tomorrow evening. I might break down and downsize the flies from the 4 inch baitfish immitations to something a little more conventional. Well, maybe not quite yet

 

[Dr. Swing]

The improvements have payed off. I'm fishing far more effectively, and the fish seem to think so as well. Love it when they try to kill the giant swinging rabbit:devil:

 

[flyfisha1]

Dr. Swing,
I set out to build a rod earlier this year for the sort of fishing you're talking about, as we have sea-run trout in Long Island that I have great interest in pursuing. Additionally, I wanted the rod for big water such as the Delaware and Kennebec. Streamers and large terrestrials are by far the patterns I fish most; I just get more enjoyment from tying them and watching/feeling the hammering strikes. I ended up building a T & T Horizon 1005-3, which is quite fast and has enough length that I was able to build it as a double-hander. The rod performs well with a standard WF5F (I use an XPS) and can cast some pretty large patterns far enough that I can barely see the fly (if at the surface); farther than that and I have to rely on slashing rises or a vicious hit to tell what's happening. I've tried 6-wt shooting heads and triangle taper lines, but so far the 5-wt is the best performer. Were I to build a slightly heavier version of this rod, I'd probably go with either the 6-wt. version of this rod, or with the 12' 6-wt. double-hander that you mentioned in your first post. One other rod I considered for a long while was the St. Croix Legen Ultra 10' 5-wt, which is also quite fast. I went with the T & T because I believed it to be faster than the St. Croix.

Other rods of early consideration were Bob Meiser's 10'6" 5/6 switch rod and the lightest CND model; unfortunately, I couldn't build either of those from scratch as I wanted to, so I went with the Horizon.