I doubt I can say anything about this subject that hasn’t been said a thousand times before.
Saltwater fly patterns, whether were talking Charlie styles or Clouser’s use a lot of metal eyes, of all sorts, from bead chain to machined brass to lead. Are they Jigs?
In my daily offerings are a series of flies that lend themselves to Sea Habits and Surf Candies, which some might say are like casting a glass vase, yet I wield them with ease and grace.
If I put lead or non-lead wire in a nymph, how many turns of what diameter wire does it take, before it’s no longer light? And what about the hook, 1X fine, standard wire or 4X strong?
Beads obviously can take a fly from being light to some other definition and where would a line get drawn between putting a tungsten bead on a bugger hook vs. simply buying undressed crappie jigs? If the finished " fly " looked like a bugger and was stripped on the retrieve, would it be jigging or fly fishing, or maybe those two things can be synonymous.
Would a glass bead be light? Compared to what and what size glass bead are we talking about and on what size hook? I certainly don’t have those answers, the only answer I ever look for is what kind of response do the fish have to it.
Light or heavy is in the eye of angler. What I find comfortable and commonplace on a large western lake, might seem gargantuan in both proportion and weight to a devotee of small chalk streams. If I use a five inch long Hi-Tie to take a ten pound plus trout, am I fly fishing or am I using a crank bait?
If you were the one stripping that fly back when the fish struck, would that thought even cross your mind?
I’ll bet if anything, you’d be focused on landing the fish and then maybe, your mind would turn to what a great article you’ll be writing soon about this fly fishing experience. If at the moment you landed that fish, I offered up " To bad you couldn’t get 'em on a fly " how would you take it ?
Would the headlines read, " Angler Found Bludgeoned by Landing Net "?
We’ve a fellow of some note just up the hill from my home who’s written, tied and promoted Czech nymphing a fair amount. During the warm weather months, we fish the same waters. I in my way, he in his, I’d like to think we both have something to contribute to fly fishing.
Had you hailed from a little town like Dunsmuir California ( Hey we don’t know each other, maybe you did ), then names like Ted Fey, Joe Kimsey and patterns such as the Black Bomber, Black Spent Wing, Larry, Mary, Leah and the Cro Fly would all be in your lexicon. Based only on this thread, you probably wouldn’t refer to those patterns as being light enough to be deemed flies, nor would you wish them to be. If you came from that little town, you might be use to fishing a brace of those patterns and I doubt you’d find Czech nymphing much of a stretch, more like an inevitability. But I guarantee you this, you’d swear you were fly fishing, on some of the most beautiful water on earth.
For about a third of the year my dry flies are roughly the same length as the cork grip on most fly rods…am I fly fishing or walkin’ a spook?
When the beast blows up on that thing, I call it… Fish On !
Just a few of my ramblings…
[SIZE=1]Be well Bob and get out there and fish ( more ), Dave
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