Help, Fly selection for Strawberry...

[Uintaman]

I am taking my step son to Strawberry Sunday, we will fish from a boat. He wants to try out his new fly rod and reel, I think 5 weight. Any suggestions on flies? And best places to try.

We will also do some trolling and tube jigging. Open to tons of suggestions.
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[flygoddess]

I take it he only has floating line. Try deep nymphing (like Jigging) Attach mono or fluoro fishing line as a leader. I use up to 30'. I use a slip indicator, but as I said you could jig.
If fish are close to surface, try a 9' leader and some buggers.
I would try shallower at first then work your way out.
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[kandersonSLC]

I've never much luck fishing drys on Strawberry, even though from time to time you do see fish rising.

On Mon. we did well with white, black or red leech patterns of Mohair, standard bugger, and bunny tail and wind-drifting west to east a bit off shore between Chaplin and Haws Point. Depth of 20-40 ft. All cutts around 17 to 19". With floating line, maybe use bead head patterns to get them down a little more.

However, it was snowy and windy on Mon. so who knows where they are now.
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[FishN2Dmax]

Behind a boat, we've had excellent results slow pulling a #6 black or purple bead head woolley buggers. In the morning, we run them right on top and as the day wears on we put some weight on the line and / or get it down deeper via using weighted fly line. Most fish caught are from top to 20' down in both cut's and rainbow. Strange, we seem to catch twice as many bows on the purple and more cuts using the black woolleys ? Good Luck!
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[flygoddess]

[quote FishN2Dmax]Behind a boat, we've had excellent results slow pulling a #6 black or purple bead head woolley buggers. In the morning, we run them right on top and as the day wears on we put some weight on the line and / or get it down deeper via using weighted fly line. Most fish caught are from top to 20' down in both cut's and rainbow. Strange, we seem to catch twice as many bows on the purple and more cuts using the black woolleys ? Good Luck![/quote]


That is strange. It must be location because it is the opposite where I have been fishing. In fact I can guarantee cutt on Purple the last trip. Fun stuff
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[liketrolling]

if you want to catch a lot of fish try trolling
we were at the berry Wed. and Fri. couldn't count the fish we got
but wed was close to 90 and Fri about 70. Fish are between 5 and 20 ft.
in water 40 to 65 ft. was trolling 2 mph. with neddle fish and jigs.
all tipped with worms. got more fish at 20 ft. we had three lines out one down 20 Feet one at 10 ft and one at 5ft. (Haws point and renegade)
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[Uintaman]

Thanks to all, off at 6am tomorrow, hope to be on water by 8ish. Should be fun. Expect pictures.
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[flygoddess]

I think it depends on time of day and area. I just got back and landed 32, missed 15 in about 4 hours. All were 30 to 40 feet deep and I was on the bottom using a fast sinking line (fly fishing) however I did land 4 of the 32 off an intermediate line.
I agree with the bead head or heavier flies but also harder to cast.
Fast stripping
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[downed_Phly]

How do you fish on the bottom with a weighted fly, on sinking fly line, stripping it quickly, without snagging every single thing on the lake bed?
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[mojorizing]

[quote downed_Phly]How do you fish on the bottom with a weighted fly, on sinking fly line, stripping it quickly, without snagging every single thing on the lake bed?[/quote]
You're not fishing the literal bottom. 18" to 3'-4'
Count down method to get to the right zone, fast strip. Depending on the depth, you use the correct sinking line. You can keep it off weeds if there is any. And remember this, not all flies are tied with the hook down.
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[flygoddess]

[quote downed_Phly]How do you fish on the bottom with a weighted fly, on sinking fly line, stripping it quickly, without snagging every single thing on the lake bed?[/quote]


It is certainly a possibility, but timing as Mojo said. All line will hit bottom at some point, some faster than others. In the situations I have been in lately, faster sinking line gets it past the smaller guys before they can hit it.
The weekend before last, I was fishing 9" to 7' of water with vegetation. It was cast 30' to 40' and start stripping with a TYPE VII. That would be the 5' to 6' zone.

I am using Density Compensated line which is uniform sink the whole line. But for shallow weedy lakes there is WET CELL. It will form a belly with the middle of the line sinking faster than the fly end.

Lastly, I do tie two batches of flies. Most are NOT weighted for the sinking lines. This allows me to put the fly in the zone depending on the sink rate.

I do weight Chironomids so they can sink straight down, but sometimes I will also add split shot to the line.
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[downed_Phly]

Gotcha. Thanks for the info.

The only sinking line I ever really used is a sink tip line - I think the first 30 feet are coated and it is a fast sink line. I snag the bottom quite a bit when I'm fishing it, but I'm typically using some fairly heavily-weighted buggers, so maybe I'll ease up on the weighted flies.
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[flygoddess]

Sink Tips are a different animal for sure. All the weight is in the 30' or whatever. I find them harder to cast as well.
I can see then for moving water or shore fishing though[]
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[mojorizing]

[quote downed_Phly]Gotcha. Thanks for the info.

The only sinking line I ever really used is a sink tip line - I think the first 30 feet are coated and it is a fast sink line. I snag the bottom quite a bit when I'm fishing it, but I'm typically using some fairly heavily-weighted buggers, so maybe I'll ease up on the weighted flies.[/quote]
Don't use weighted flies. Sinking lines are what get the fly down to the zone. Unweighted flies will have a little more action.
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[downed_Phly]

Usually I'm using weighted flies with a floating line. Then if I ever do use my sink-tip, I don't bother to change my fly selection from weighted to non-weighted. I'll have to swap it to some unweighted flies and see if it makes a difference.
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[flygoddess]

When I tie flies, the unweighted I use black thread for the head and red thread head for the weighted (when not using a bead that is)
I can tell at a glance which are which.
It is okay to use a little weight as with some flies it helps get them down (specially bunny). Denny Rickards is very specific on how many wraps of weight help his flies with his preferred Intermediate line. I have to say, the man know what he is talking about, as it works.
As I said, I experiment with both. No wrong way, just some are better than others.
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