Using foam flies

All about flies Fly Tying
21

Getting away from the issue of 2-3 grains of weight, and leaving spring creeks behind in favor of freestone streams and rivers, my preference is definitely for low riding flies. Foam is an ingredient in several of the flies I use - the FEB salmonfly, golden stone, and hopper patterns - but only the minimum is used, along with a deer hair wing, to keep the fly afloat, barely.

Typically, these flies are about 80% plus submerged, with only the top of the foam bullethead and the deer hair wing above water and visible. The rest of the fly - whichever pattern is considered - the FEB, the tails, the legs, the antenna, and a good part of the forward ( foam ) body is completely underwater.

Two other large flies that get a lot of play on my home water, an FEB skwala and an FEB October Caddis, are also designed to ride very low. These flies use a deer hair forward body with a bullethead since the size of the naturals doesn’t lend to use of foam. But the same 80% plus of the fly is submerged, with typically only the deer hair wing clearly above the surface and visible - again, the FEB, the tails, legs are submerged.

These flies are all also designed to have a LOT of action below the surface. All kinds of flexible things moving around down there to get the fishies attention. And a lot of the time, the take doesn’t even disturb the surface as the fishies ( mostly cutthroat trout ) just inhale the fly.

These five flies also get few refusals, and my sense is that most often the refusals are a result of a drag which puts the fish off, not the design of the fly.

So I don’t agree with the thought that fully sinking a hopper, or other large fly, is necessarily a good thing, but I do believe that mostly submerged flies that have a lot of built in action have a big advantage over all foam or other high riding designs where the main attraction to the fishy is more size and silhouette without so much, if any, pronounced action.

John

P.S. Scott - if you do come on out to Idaho for the Fish-In, I’ll give you a handful of flies and show you a couple places you can get into some nice West Slope cutts.

22

John,

You are correct that drag is the number one cause of a refusal.

I’m pretty sure you have also been in the situation where you cast a fly that brings the fish right up to the fly before it refuses. You cast again and the fish comes up half way and refuses. The on the third cast, there is no reaction to the fly.

In that case, I am convinced that it not drag that caused the refusal. It is the fly. If the fly was correct, the fish would come up to the about same point as before because that was when it would notice drag. Instead it comes up until it can recognize that it is “not food” and refuses much, much earlier, before it could notice the micro drag. On the third try it does not even have come and investigate the fly. It has learned that the “impression” of the fly is not food.

23

Getting back to foam, it does have another quality that enhances the effectiveness of some flies - texture.

The importance of texture in designing flies, by the way, is more former BB member pittendrigh’s take on things than mine. But since Sandy got me to thinking about it and working with it, the more I believe he was really on to something that doesn’t seem to be discussed much.

John

24

… if the article mentioned fishing hoppers in December ???

Today, on my home water in Northern Idaho, had two hits, two long distance releases, and two in hand on my FEB Hopper in about half an hour of fishing.

The conditions weren’t great for dry fly fishing with temps in the mid 30s and with a significant surge in streamflow a few days ago from a big rain event. Even though the flows dropped noticeably, the water was still a bit off color. But the fishies could see through the watered down coffee effect well enough to come up and dine at the surface.

John

P.S. The fishing got a LOT better when I went to my JARS nymph.

25

… if the article mentioned fishing hoppers in December ???<BR><BR>Today, on my home water in Northern Idaho, had two hits, two long distance releases, and two in hand on my FEB Hopper in about half an hour of fishing.<BR><BR><IMG border=0 alt=“” src=“http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj218/jfs_photo/Lochsa 2012/PC050020_edited.jpg”><BR><BR><IMG border=0 alt=“” src=“http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj218/jfs_photo/Lochsa 2012/PC050026_edited.jpg”><BR><BR>The conditions weren’t great for dry fly fishing with temps in the mid 30s and with a significant surge in streamflow a few days ago from a big rain event. Even though the flows dropped noticeably, the water was still a bit off color. But the fishies could see through the watered down coffee effect well enough to come up and dine at the surface.<BR><BR>John<BR><BR>P.S. The fishing got a LOT better when I went to my JARS nymph.

26

John,
Regarding texture…I believe it is quite important in nymph fishing - particularly larger nymph patterns. I have personally watched (in gin clear water where I could see my nymph), a fish suck it in and spit it out without the tippet or indicator reacting. I think these instances are part texture refusals.

27

Byron -

I agree that texture is an important aspect of nymph design. Sandy did some really neat stuff in that regard.

But I was referring specifically to foam and dry flies. Last summer, when I was tying and fishing flies that were tied on straight pins rather than hooks, a good number of fish would take the fly off the surface and retreat to the bottom holding onto the fly. A number of times a fish would hold onto the fly until I physically pulled the fly away from the fish. The most dramatic example was one fish that was big enough and held on tight enough that he broke off a 5X tippet when I tried to pull the fly away from him ( although it is possible that the straight pin got lodged somehow that he couldn’t release the fly, but he still must have been a pretty good size fish to break the tippet ).

Those flies were FEB flies that consisted of furled antron, foam, deer hair and rubber legs tied on a pin that was only as long as the forward body of the fly and fully encased by all that soft material. There was virtually nothing hard for the fish to feel, only the stiffness of the pin. The fishies, not all of them but a good number, were holding on to, not spitting out, the soft materials. That was the effect / result of a lot of texture in the flies, to my way of thinking.

John