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Had To Retire This Fly...:)


Craiger

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Hey guys this is just a post about a good day I had with one fly over a week ago. It was a big sparse purple intruder made of mostly ostrich and finished with hot orange thread. It hooked 5 and landed 4 fish that day. 4 of them were mine and the other was my buddies fish. I passed him my setup to test out and 2 casts later...fish on!!! I took my rod back right after that...;). The main reason that setup was getting more attention was because of the intermediate head for sure. Getting down in this high cold water and holding a deep slow swing was key. Here's a few pics from that day, and the mangled fly.

Here's the first of the day...nice way to start...smoked the fly hanging on the dangle for over 30 seconds.

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My buddy Andrew's fish taken right after I landed that first one.

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This one was taken on the strip...I knew there had to be one sitting in this deep back eddy where we were. After swinging through the seam I was stripping it right up to my sink tip. This fish took the fly about 20ft or so from me...:)

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Here's the one that finished that fly off...the stinger hook line got wrecked when removing the fly...:(.

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And here's what's left of the fly...wish i had a pic of the pre fish condition for comparison. Not much left now...:P

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Cheers

Craig

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Nice Craig...looks like you got your monies worth out of it at least. Post the recipe for it...i have lots of ostrich, no purple though. Do you weight any of them with dumbells? Post a picture of one before its beat up when you have time and if you dont mind. If you ever need a partner and you dont mind a rookie tagging along to learn what im doing wrong drop me a line. Im casting fine....swinging fine...but havi g trouble connecting with the chrome. No problem with bass in the summer...but thats been the extent of it. No problem on the float rod....so must be doing something wrong or my flies suck...lol.

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Thanks a lot Dave and Brian. I can post the recipe with pics once I tie up another one really soon. Lately I haven't been using dumbells on my flies. Been using the tips to do the sinking for me. Still catching a lot of fish and not losing as many flies this way. There are some places where I prefer a weighted fly though...just not all the time.

Dave I don't mind taking you out sometime to help you out for sure. We could meet up on the credit sometime and I can work with you. I want you to nail a nice bow on the swing man!!!

Craig

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  • 4 weeks later...

People are fly fishing in the same places you center pin. Sometimes requires finding areas with less crowds to allow yourself the room required. A center pin floating bags or beads will almost always out produce someone swinging flies.Craig has some very good experience swinging flys as you can clearly see. Floating beads or bags is a total natural presentation as explained to me by a very experieced fly fisherman. Adapting to the fly rod to present that same natural presentation and learning what works is part of the challange. Anyone can float a roe bag and catch fish...learning to do it properly with a fly rod and a fly you created is the satisfaction of the swing. Tricking the fish into a strike and fighting it on a fly rod is the reward. If numbers of fish is your goal,then yes get yourself a pin but if your looking for a more rewarding challange then check out fly fishing. This is my opinion on both.

Good Luck

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Well said!

It's about the journey for us bug slingers, not the destination, Like chess as opposed to checkers or an 18 year old single malt vs red label.

This is not an insult to pinners, merely an observation on the time and practice needed to be successful consistently.

That being said, I don't see myself as consistently successful yet with only 3 seasons with the rod and half of that on the tying bench.

Fly fishing is also much more of a financial investment in my opinion. If you plan on tying your own, you can save a substantial amount compared to buying your flies, but getting started in tying can be a bit pricey.

My suggestion is to try both. The thrill of feeling a big bow smashing your swinging steamer or a beautiful brown sipping your size 16 dry while rhythmically casting can be quite intoxicating. Then there is center pinning where you are simply watching for your bobber to bounce.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Dave and iHasFish have made some good points. As you can see Perkins, that its not a waste of time at all. LIke dave said you just have to find the right water. Pinners like the deeper, slower runs and I prefer the faster bolder filled runs that they struggle to fish. I pinned for a long time before I made the switch. Don't ever see myself going back...except for when the ice and slush is really bad. That would bw the only time I would consider dusting it off. There's no better feeling the connecting on the swing...:)

Cheers

Craig

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Craig, curious if you've ever tried skating a dry fly in Ontario? It seems like an intense way to catch. Not sure how successful it would be in southern Ontario waters though.

I've seen it done once on TV.

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I have skated a dry up in the Soo for Atlantic's with some success. I haven't done it for steelhead here yet but will be trying this spring. A few of my buddies had some success in the last year with skating dries but it takes a lot of time to find one that's willing to commit.

Craig

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