Tag Archives: drop shot

Ling Cod Meets Largemouth

The earlier Indian Valley expedition got my creative juices flowing. Knowing how fly fishermen view big water with suspicion  – and meeting no like minded anglers in my lake and estuary travels, has lent an element of sadism to my determination to make big water fly friendly.

Big water is winning … if you’re keeping score …

With physics stacked against us large water tends to be the  Achilles Heel of fly fishing.  Strong winds, deep water, and no visual cues on predator or prey, and no visibility of bottom structure and environmentals, all put the fly guy at a disadvantage.

On creeks we can sample the bugs, can watch the fish, and neither winds nor water depth are insurmountable. Big open water is much less forgiving as our lines can’t sink fast enough, nor deep enough, to make fishing deep efficient. The bigger the water the stronger the wind, which makes painless fly fishing only possible down wind, and even then we need to ensure the line and fly is outboard of us – instead of on a collision course with our spleen.

With the kayak I can now carry more than fly gear, and am always equipped with a spinning or casting rod and related sundries to keep fishing in the most hostile conditions.

The issue is success (or failure) with lures doesn’t translate to flies, and what I learn with one type of tackle isn’t always exploitable when the wind dies, or I move into shallow water. Fish eating a Purple Worm might mean a Purple fly is the hot ticket, but I’m not carrying any of those at the moment, they’re in my steelhead box at home.

Fast forward to this morning as I’m reading about Ling Cod fishing in Pacifica and I realize that I can transport the same solution to freshwater fishing, and at least home in on what flies the fish like …

We’ve all admired the brightly colored “Shrimp” fly rigs used for Rockfish and Ling Cod. A heavy weight coupled with two or three synthetic flies to jig off the bottom …

RockfishShrimp500

… I can use two of my regular flies in a “drop shot” configuration, that would give me the same capability to fish off the bottom in deep lakes. This would allow me to try two different flies at once to see which they like better – and I can change them out at will with a simple “loop to hook eye” knot.

DropShot500

Early Spring always features a warming lake with recalcitrant fish hanging in the deep water until temperatures rise to optimum. Spring fishing can be hit or miss due to “too early” – and this would allow me to confirm the fish are still deep AND what fly color they liked best (although depth does alter color perception).

I’m sure the Purist’s are aghast at the potential marriage of fly and salt, but our collective definition of “fly fishing” requires the device to be hurled by a fly rod to be considered really fly fishing … “Hurled” is apropos as jig-headed flies and beaded monstrosities cannot be cast … ever.

I could still claim, “I caught them on flies” … if I wanted to be perverse …

It’s something. It’s also better than the “Purple Worm, ain’t got no Purple flies” Conundrum. Can’t wait to try this out on the next trip.

Fatty Eats frog meat

It was the prudent thing to do. Prior to scaring hell out of everything by sky lining myself hop-skipping across all that erosion inhibiting rock, I flung that big weedless frog past the debris field of dumped roadbed just where the boulders disappeared into deep water.

Naturally there was something big and mean waiting for something small to do just that, and my morning was shattered by an aerial display worthy of a steelhead.

FattyBass600

I figured it was one of two options; either he’s given up on rain and was learning to gulp air, or was intent on all those bikini clad college girls drinking and screaming from mid channel.

While the college gals were friendly enough to make me suck in my gut, I figured the return voyage would feature a lot less sweaty and “Gone Wild” – and more sunburnt and heaving … over the side.

The Sheriff thought so too, and his boat followed the flotilla at a discrete “binocular” distance. He was “fishing” too … kind of like the shadowy edge between rock and a hard place …

berry62715

As this is peak irrigation season – and were in the grips of drought, I have been curious how the local impoundments are being drained for water deliveries to farms.

They’re already talking about Folsom Lake going dry by September, and both Berryessa and Oroville are reeling due to drought, so each trip I eyeball the banks to get a feel for releases. The above photo shows the more than 200 foot distance between underbrush and current lake levels, and the encroaching brush that covers the exposed banks as the water recedes.

It’s our fate that “fly eating” foliage pops up to cover anything older than a couple of months, and fly fishing is limited to the points of coves where a back cast can parallel the bank. While far from ideal, we’re spared the shredded flesh and indignity of a Blackberry thicket.

GeorgeSpotted

This is “Meathead” from work with a nice Spotted Bass, who graciously instructed me in the finer points of “drop-shotting” bass. I gave him the “frog” and insisted he dump his inexpensive and highly functional tackle for something that costs ten times more and can’t sink very fast.

Neither side had a convincing argument yet both had moments.

Most of our fish came from 20-25 foot of water (as measured by casting gear), and outside of the “Fatty” going for a top water offering, most were eating on the slopes of points close to the bottom.

I returned the following day with both fly rod and drop shot rig, and tossed large minnow imitations when the water depth was friendly, and practiced drop-shotting when perched over deep water.

We’d seen balls of Shad and bass giving chase, but those eruptions are temporal and never sustained. Just about the time you change your fly both predator and prey are gone.

I’ve got a few ideas on how to better imitate the fish, but I’m puzzling over the notion of a drop-shot bait being used on a fly rod – and whether I can dress something with a similar action.

KikiSpotted640

I got one Spotted Bass on Sunday. I figure he collided with one of those Party Barges that were parading past – and got disoriented enough to want to eat.

I wasn’t complaining much at the sudden attention – and it was nice to see fat healthy fish in their element, rather than gasping Carp in a mud bucket.