My fishing for stripers is done mostly in salt water. I normally use an 8 wgt but sometimes a 6 wgt, especially if I’m fishing for schoolies, bass 22 inches on down.
I keep my leader simple, a straight piece of 20 lb fluorocarbon. 6 to 8 ft long for surface, and 4 to 6 feet long for subsurface.
Flies
Top water: Crease Flies, Bob’s Bangers, Gartside Gurglers, large poppers. Size to match the bait. White, Chartruese for the Bangers, Gurglers and poppers. Crease flies can be done in shad/bunker colors. If you’re tying your own, think out of the box. Buy the large soft foam popper bodies 2/0 size, and turn it around and make a XL Sneaky Pete style slider.
Sub surface:
Not sure if it happens in fresh water, but more often than not when fish are busting bait fish schools on the top, larger fish often sit below the action, and pick off the dead and dying bait fish as the fall out of the school.
If you’ve got a sinking or sink tip line bringing it with you. The Crease Fly can be fished subsurface. Here’s one of my favorite patterns as tied by the originator. Equally effective in salt and fresh water. http://www.aswf.org/saltwater_flies_for … _pean.html
Also, Lefty’s Deceiver, Half and Half, Clousers, Spread Flies.
Yes they will bust shad near the surface. They live deep most ofthe year, but come up shallow in the fall/winter. This is when the fly fisherman have an opportunity to cast to them when they are busting bait on the surface.
Something in shad colors that you can throw for a
distance. Doesn’t take much to put them back down
and a boat too close is a sure turn off. Even then
you have to get your cast off in a hurry. They don’t
normally lolligag on top for long.G
Warm regards, Jim
There is a guide here on Texoma who carries a fiberglass car aerial. He thrashes the surface with it, it apparently gives an impression of stripers busting up on shad on top and voila! up they come!
We kinda like tossing these thingies when shad are the staple. They might be somewhat limiting as we have only pestered stripes to 17# on’em, but they are quite tossable on a 5wt.
If we have the need or desire to pester sub-surface, we use an Embellished Lefty’s Deceiver (of appropriate size) in the FOTW archives.
…lee s.
Hooks are Daiichi 2461 #1…we like thin wire when possible.
Tail…bucktail and krystal flash, pearl.
Bodies are Wapsi “hard pencil poppers #4” blanks.
Bodies are covered with pearl mylar tubing. Tie tubing, front with red thread (gills), and rear with 2# mono. Leave tubing long and trim after epoxy sets. Add eyes (tying 2# mono over FOLDED eyes is good), Red gills is merely Danville nylon thread. Give a coat of epoxy on body only, not too heavy, but sufficient. Trim. We like 30 min stuff or rod wrap stuff. We use a turning wheel.
…
PS - Gotta work on some weedguards for these, but we do usually use’em in more open water anyway… :roll:
PS-PS - Did you see the Phleuger 8wt on the “for sale” board? We have tossed a 6wt “P” and found that one to be pleasurable to toss… :roll:
Turn those bodies around and you get a pretty nice slider.
I havent figured out a “good” way yet to put a weed guard on those bodies. I like to throw things where there is weeds and such. Hungry things in there.
Thanks for part list. I am going to have to get some of those hooks - the appear to be a better solution than what I hve been using.
craig,
Hi!
We was thinking of heating a pin and burning a couple real small holes in the belly in which to insert (and epoxy?) two single wires. Ya know…the finished thing would be like the two wires on Blanton’s bugs.
Someday…
