Fishing Flies

Flatwater Fly Fishing - Top to Bottom

There’s more to fly fishing lakes than floating
lines and fishing flies near the surface. With the
right choice of flies and lines you can successfully
catch fish wherever they swim in the water column.

Our guide went a little ballistic as George and I carried our long rods to his boat.

“What gave you the idea you could fly fish this lake?” he demanded. “It can’t be done!”

Despite his gruff manner, the guide’s attitude was understandable. Like most people, he thought fly fishing meant one of two things---using little bits of fluff for trout, or using poppers and hair bugs for bass and bluegills – fishing flies on the surface. As it turns out, he’d once had a client who thought trout gear was suitable for deep-water impoundments. That fishless day had made him even more leery. Not knowing any better, he though our equipment was the same as his previous client’s.

“These fish are 20 feet down,” he sneeringly said. “How are you going to reach them?”

Basically, the same way he was. Our guide was crawling soft-plastic craws along the bottom. George and I, using fast-sinking lines and weighted crawfish fishing flies, would match him drift for drift---once he slowed the boat down long enough for our fly fishing flies to reach the bottom. And, as the livewell showed later that day, we matched him fish for fish as well.

The fact is, any fish that can be taken on artificials can be caught on a fly rod. This includes virtually every warm water gamefish, including bass, bluegill, crappie, catfish, white bass, musky, stripers, as well as trout and salmon. The trick is to present fishing "flies" where they are. If it looks edible, the fish will eat it.

Fishing the entire water column does require special fly fishing techniques and equipment. For starters, understand that the term fishing flies means more than insect imitations or topwater bugs. There are streamers, which represent minnows and other baitfish, leeches, crawfish, nymphs, terrestrials, lizards, and fishing flies that represent nothing in nature, but which provide a generic impression of food. Nowadays, there are fly fishing flies that replicate any forage base. A modern trend, in fact, is to tie flies that simulate hard- and soft-plastic baits. There are divers, count-downs, and even neutrally buoyant flies that stay at the same level once you start retrieving them.

All of these are available in both weighted and unweighted versions. Thus, if bass are chasing shad ten feet down, you might tie on a weighted shad imitation in order to reach them. Or, as George and I did, use heavily weighted crawfish imitations to reach the bottom.

The trouble with weighted fishing flies is that they are sometimes difficult to cast. The more concentrated the weight, the truer this is. Thus, a streamer with the weight built in as part of the body casts easier than the same streamer with a cone or dumbbell head. The weighted streamer spreads the weight out, making casting simpler.

There’s a balancing act, though, because weight-forward or weight-to-the-rear flies can be used to simulate minnow behavior.

Another problem with weighted fishing flies is that the weight, in any form, often affects their action. This is especially true with streamers. Weight often negates their lively, flexible movement, eliminating the very action that attracts gamefish.

Ultimate depth control comes from high-density sinking fly fishing lines because they remove the weight from the fly and spread it across all 90 feet of fly fishing line. The casting action is the same as with a floating line (although pickup is a bit different). Once the cast is made, the high-density line sinks, carrying the fly with it.

Sinking lines are made by coating the plastic finish with powdered metal. Traditionally, this was lead. Due to environmental concerns, some manufacturers have converted to other metals and man-made materials. The amount used determines how fast the fly fishing line will sink.

Today, there are at least eight line densities offered by fly fishing line makers. The sink rate is determined by either a name, i.e., “intermediate,” or by a standardized numeric scale, such as “Type V.” With either system, the sink rate is expressed in inches per second. High-density lines are available in most common line weights, so they can balance whatever outfit you currently use.

High-density lines come in two versions---full sinking, in which the entire line sinks, or sink-tip, in which only the first 10 or 15 feet sink. There are times when one or the other makes more sense.

There are also compensating lines that make up for the natural tendency of a sinking line to settle with a belly. The compensating lines assure a straight connection between the rod and the leader.

To pick up a sinking fly fishing line, strip in most of it, then roll-cast a time or two to bring the line to the surface. Immediately pick it up the way you would a floating line. If you delay at all the line will start sinking again, and you’ll have to roll-cast once more to bring it up.

Do not try picking up any sinking line while it is submerged. That’s a good way of breaking a fly rod.

The various sink rates merely determine how long you have to wait for the fly to reach the fish. In lakes, this is strictly a matter of patience. In rivers, however, this could make the difference in whether or not you put the fly in the strike zone. By the time a Type I sinks, for instance, the current may have moved the fly beyond the fish.

Despite conventional wisdom to the contrary, warmwater species can be just as finicky as trout. Sometimes they don’t want to move up or down in the water column to chase food. A fly that’s too high, no matter how perfectly it imitates the size, shape, color and action of the natural forage, won’t do you any good if it isn’t where the fish want it.

Does this mean you have to carry eight different reels in order to fish the whole water column? Far from it. You can build a casting system that, with one reel and one extra spool, lets you fish wherever in the column you need to be.

The heart of the system is the shooting head. A shooting head is a 15- to 30-foot fly fishing line that carries all the weight of that line size. In actuality, you have to overload your line by two sizes to get the same action. In other words, if you’re using a #8 outfit, use a #10 shooting head.

Using loop-to-loop connectors, the shooting heads get attached to a floating, or intermediate rate sinking level line called a “running line.” These are very thin in diameter. The loop connectors give you a quick-disconnect system, so you can easily change heads.

To build the entire system, load one spool with the floating running line. Put an intermediate sink rate running line on the other spool. Then, get a selection of shooting heads, including a floater and several high densities with varying sink rates.

After that, you just mix and match the heads to meet conditions.