Rich,
I think you are on the money. Rubber must be too active in the cold water. It is not natural to the fish which are used to slow moving bait. To confirm this consider that the the BASS guys that fish the “Float and Fly” in cold months use hair jigs instead of rubber skirted jigs. I knew that for at least 10 years, but I probably would not have made the connection with fly fishing unless you pointed it out.
:lol:
Mike,
I am sure I am not telling you anything new, but in addition, rubber vs. hair, one keeps the lure in the strike zone longer for the particular weather conditions.
In cold water, it would take rubber or plastic much longer to fall and at least for bass, that strike zone is going to be close to the bottom. (I think)
Rick very interesting thought you provoked with the rubber verse hackle on flies. You know I’ve gleaned much from your writings and who said one couldn’t teach a old dog new tricks. It’s just that a dog never learned to read.
Hobo
I had this happen to me in July. It seems towork also when the water gets warmer.
Rick
Hi Rick,
This summer I was tying Bully Bluegill Spiders, and tied up a few with hen saddle that I had dyed to a color that matched the spider.
They worked fairly well. I don’t know if the regular rubber hackled ones would worked just as well or better, but they might have.
The hen saddle is wonderful stuff, soft, webby, and moves very easily in the water.
I tied them up as a collar hackle rather than as a palmered hackle, because the collar hackle better matched the pattern.
I think your thought that the soft hackle will move better than the rubber with tiny short strips may be right on the money. Especially in very cold water.
Regards,
Gandolf
As Lady Fisher would say, “Oooops!” I missed the date at the end of the article. Because the article had a current sound, and because it has been a mild winter, I took it for a report on recent experiences. Now, does anybody know which hackle material is better for recent open water fishing for panfish?
I tie the hackle flies with about three different size hackle on them. I even tie a few with oversaized dry fly hackle. I let the fish tell me what they like.
Rick