I'm new to this forum. I'm from Berkley, Michigan, and am an avid fly fisherman. I've been fly fishing for the past 20 yrs, and I can't get enough! There is so much to learn about this very intriguing sport.
I’ve read many books on how to fly fish, and all seem to present techniques for finding/casting/fishing in somewhat “open” water. Yet, I find most people on these forums talking about the big one that got away…in a log jam or that the big ones spend most of their time in log jams.
Question: How do you fly fish log jams??? No book I’ve read so far talks about this!
Why fish log jams? That’s where fish hide! They take cover under the logs and watch the flow of the “crick” as it brings food downstream. Under the logs they’re protected from attack from above (osprey, heron, eagle, etc.), they’re out of sight, the current is slowed in their hidey holes and they can easily slip out of their hideaways to grab food items that are passing by. Float a dry fly along the log, one with a nymph attached to the bend of the hook. Hang on!
Here’s a tip I got from an old wet fly fisherman. He could catch trout in a bucket of spit using a brace of wet flies, but even he knew that sometimes a fly wasn’t the best thing to use.
Drift a big old salted minnie down under that log jam on a stout leader. Just keep letting it drift under and pulling it back out, eventually the fish will hit.
I once saw several guys work a couple of log jam and bring up several fish between 20" and 30" in a river where I had never caught anything larger than 12"
Their secret - electro shock gear! CA DFG was conducting a stream survey and shocking up some huge browns and rainbows.
I have had minimal success floating dries or working wet flies and streams around the edges. It seems when I can see fish in the jams they are usually below and just on the down current side of the obstruction.
Logjams are pretty typical in alot of our Alaska streams. They will collect salmon flesh from carcases that are washing down, so besides the cover, they provide a good food source for trout.
There is no good way to fish them and not loose flies. You just have to get in real tight to it with a dead drift going the best you can. Because of that, you can expect to loose alot of flies. I remember one this spring I snagged up and lost five flies (small micro flesh flies) until I got the drift in tight and not snagging a piece of the jam, and the big bruiser that was hiding there was mine for a few minutes.
