Did my first day of cold weather fishing yesterday with my son (13). Traveled up to Big Hunting Creek in north central Maryland. Ice and snow all over the banks and rocks, good flow, tempting pools. First area couldn’t be passed by without getting a hook wet. Rigged up an imitation brown trout streamer and proceeded to play fisherman. To my dissmay, my line got hung up between some rocks midstream. Had pulled in a crevis and wouldn’t budge. Without a stick long enough, and the rod was way to short, I had to leave the rod stream side and trudge back through the snow to the truck to put on a set of waders in order to rescue my fly.
All said to ask/pursue a different “line” of thought…to what length have you gone to “rescue” a fly? And/or, what was the most precarious errant jam that your offerings found themselves in? Body parts excluded. If this has been “threaded” before, please forgive me.
Warming up,
Mike K.
Live each day as if it were your last, some day you’ll be right!
Let’s see I’ve climbed trees,dove under water,shimmied onto log jams,bright huh?
Risk your neck to save a fly that usually i’ve tied myself at an expense of what .20-.31 cents? I guess it’s the challenge of saving it.
Well since I use only Orvis tied flies ( nose sufficiently elevated) if I’m ever snagged, I hire a crane to retrieve my fly. It’s a “cost-benefit” thing.
I tie for a living and would rather break them off than spook a pool or run that I am fishing. Less see? maybe two or three trout or one fly that took about 2 or 3 minutes to tie??? By By Fly. Ron
Fishing time is precious. Tippet and the flies I tie are cheap. No issue for me.
One day, though, I snagged the last “hot fly du jour” I had on a submerged branch. I pointed the rod toward it and pulled, expecting to break off. Instead the branch came loose and I was able to reel it in. Got back not only the hot fly but several others --including other copies of the hot fly, some of which might have been mine from prior days.
When I was in my early teens 11 or 12 yrs old . I had only one flatfish lure that I had found . They were 75 cents each and there was no way I could ever buy one of my own . I was fishing an eddy in the creek when I snagged it on a log and broke it off . The water was deep , cold and too fast to wade . Right overhead of where it was stuck was a fence suspended over the creek . I crept along the fence above the water , hung upside down by my legs and managed to retreive it . An older fellow watching from the bank gave me one of his lures , He said it was for the daring act I had shown . Heck any kid in my neighbourhood would hang upsidedown on that fence on a dare . Now-a-days I shudder at some of the things we did as Kids.
I tie my own flies now and If they get stuck , they are on their own . I once got my feet wet because my fly line got caught between two rocks I didn’t want to yank on it and abraid it on the rocks . A $60.00 fly line is worth wading out for , a fly ? Not so much.
I read about a fellow being guided that thought he was hung up. Jerked his rod back and forth a couple of times. The guide yelled you have a fish on…it is 25’ deep here and you only have a 9’ leader! So…he held the rod up and within 60 seconds the fish started moving around and I think he landed it. Anyway…I am not going to give up on a snag that soon anymore…and I have many many times. I have often wondered if one of those snags was a monster. After reading that…I going to try to hang on awhile before I decide it is a snag.
Anywhoooo…2 weeks befoe Thanksgiving I left house and made quick trip to stream. (7 min I can hav a fly in the water) Do this often, tell wife chores are done…I be back just after dark. But I never leave soon enough. Darkness always comes before I fish much. This night darkness coming even faster. I was only upstream 150’ and was fishing there. Snagged on a reed across stream. Heck it’s getting too dark too fast anyway…I reeled up all loose line taught, to be able to find fly on other side. Tightened up the drag. Layed the rod down sticking about half way out in stream. Strolled down to the two steel beams you can cross. Strolled up to fly, took it off and just threw it into the stream and immediately headed back to the cross beams. As I was strolling back to my rod I thought I saw my cork handle move in the weeds. I said to my self…yeah…wishful thinking. As I got closer I saw my rod dipping…pulled in a 15" rainbow! Now…I had been fishing there wit nuttin’ happening. What’s the deal here? New technique? Heck the fly wasn’t even being drifted or played (small beadhead black wooly bugger). Does this mean it took the fly because NO ONE was near the stream? Hmmmmmm
Gem
PS…I have saved a lot of flies also by steadly pulling something out of the water. But…then I cut the fly off, check it out, and retie it back on. Sooooooo…guess I could have just as easy, maybe even faster, broke off the snag and just tied on a new fly anyway. Probably would have eliminated any weak spot I might have had in the leader or tippet in the process.
Ron