Not trying to promote another site or anything, just far to lazy to retype all this. Thought it would be cool for you shwinging bums that like big ugly blue and black shat

http://gigharborflyshop.blogspot.com/

Nice lookin' bug.... thanks for the link.

ill take a dozen...call me

You sir... did an awesome job on that fly! I will take 2 dozen!

Where's the rhea

Nice work dude. Pretty for sure.

Trying to come up with an affordable version to sell in the shop..... so the rhea stays in the bin on the tying desk

Keith if you really want some call me, we still need to plan out a spey pride day this spring... you know, the one we've talked about for three years now.... lol

dude, ive been throwing alot lately...I do want a dozen but have some custom colors in mind. ill call ya

It's not about the fly.... it's about the fisher. I'll gladly pay the going rate for a few of those. Nice tie!

Just spent a few days on the Yakima with a friend. Me on the oars and Duane "casting" away. I kept telling him to fling it over there.... or, fling it the other way. He asked why I never told him to CAST here or there and I had to tell him that what he's doing doesn't even resemble a casting stroke.

Is Stam inching toward enlightenment? Careful Stam, the tug's the drug, and even you could be hooked!

Most of the "elitist" flyfisherman have two things going for 'em...they're bummed that we outfish the hell out of them with gear, and they're doubly bummed when they find out that we can flyfish, too, if we want to...and can be plenty successful that way, too, when we do.

Most good gear guys gear fish because we can cover a lot more water in a lot more conditions, and catch fish...not because we can't fish the "fly water" just as well as most flyflingers, with fly rods, and be just as successful.

Fish on...

Todd

May that never happen.

How did the saying go Todd? "I am not gay, but that doesn't mean I can't fly fish."

Seriously, I still think it is hilarious that we have somehow convinced ourselves that using one type of rod, reel, line, and lure to fool a fish is better or more pure than another type of rod, reel, line, and lure. We are good at dividing ourselves, I realize that, and perhaps this thinking is far too simple.

Even amongst the flyfishing community there are factions. Take those like Lemire that feel about swinging wet flies like many feather swingers feel about gear chuckers and bait soakers.

At the end of the day I would hope that at least most of us can respect what I think many are actually after, enjoying the experience in our own way. Hopefully my way doesn't negatively impact yours, and likewise, but some of that is unavoidable with so many people in close quarters these days. More important than respecting your fellow angler is respecting the resource. Without fish in the river, it really wont matter what sort of rod and reel you like to use.

About half my rods hold a fly reel and the other half a casting reel of some sort. I have got 50 skeins of eggs on borax in the fridge, just finished tying a size 16 hares ear, and I will keep trying to see a fisherman, as a fisherman, as a fisherman.

Cheers

Amen CG...

No doubt! I don't really care how you pursue them (within the law), I'll greet you just the same whether flinging flies or gear as I do both as well (except for low-holers, fly-fishermen should know better on this one).

These are a wonderful quarry that we pursue, and what I'll pay most attention to is respect of that resource.

It's OK if they want to be "elitist flyfisherman"....as long as they move quickly through the run.
It's those "mail box" guys that kill me.......the ones that create their own personal zip code and start receiving mail in the middle of the run

It used to be that the fly fishers I met were "kinda tweedy," As in full of it. do gooder, elitist snob, "I know what's best for you" knuckleheads. Not that I would ever be judgmental!

But now I find that many of the fly guys have spent lots of time behind gear, and the gear heads have more than one fly set up. As somebody said, the delivery system may vary but the water, fish, etc are generally the same.

I have picked up fly fishing because some of my buds fly fish and if I want to be in the play group that's what I do, and gladly. And it's a lot of fun.

And now, I'm getting stuck on learning about these gol durn bugs and where they live and how to tie them. Loads of fun.

Just got back from Eugene (gotta say "Go Ducks" on this one) and read ""Barr Flies" going down and "Bug Water" coming back both via train. Good reads for understanding trout, at least, and the things they eat.

As many here know, I am into helping stay out of the way on what our fishie friends do to survive, and I learned a lot from these books. For example, all these bugs are the transition point between plant matter and fish; they consume plant matter and turn it into the first available source of protein in these systems. I used to think that the health of the fish was the key indicator to a system's health, now I'm starting to think it is the bugs' health.

Sorry Stam, didn't mean to slight you. I only saw you trying to fly cast the one time. Maybe you're ascot qualified, and I just don't know it. Yeah, there are times that a well presented fly will outfish other methods, but I haven't seen that time occur during winter steelhead season, even when I caught fish and conventional gear anglers around me didn't.

The only good reason to fly fish for steelhead, unlike trout where it can be far and away the most productive method, is because you want to. About the same as choosing to fly fish for tropical flats species like bonefish, permit, and tarpon. Fly fishing for many species isn't about gaining membership to the club of ascot wearing elitists, wherever they are. Fishing for a lot of these fish species is about the personal satisfaction of doing something by other than the easiest way, learning a little more, working a little more, like shooting a deer or elk with a long bow instead of a compound or a scoped high power rifle.

And even if peculiar, there's something strangely satisfying in hooking a steelhead with a strange looking contraption like an Intruder when we know that a hunk of colored yarn most likely would have done the job just as well. Fishing, I think, is something that if one must explain it to someone, there ain't no way that person is going to understand it.

Lastly, like Salar says, where the hell are these elitists everyone keeps talking about? I may have seen a couple, but I'm not at all sure.

Sg

Go to BC and throw spoons...you'll see a side of a few otherwise mild-mannered flingers that you didn't know was there, quietly lurking just below the surface...

Fish on...

Todd

I have fished BC, but I didn't throw spoons. Fall steelhead fishing in BC usually has fly fishermen outnumbering conventional gear guys 3:1 or more, kinda' like inland Columbia tribs where spinning and casting rods are noticalble exceptions.

Good spoon water and good fly water are usually the same. More gear conflict with a greatly increased angler population?

OTOH, maybe I'm less likely to see it after spending years winter steelheading when 98 to 99% of the anglers out there were tossing conventional gear and treating us few in number fly fishermen like we were an alien aberration.

Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see if Stam takes a hankering to fly fishing, after he's quoted as saying nothing good can come from fly fishing.

Sg

That they do! Dedicated fishing bums, the perfect life . . . for some.

Looks like they got there at the perfect time. I talked with a friend who spent over a month up there this fall, in two trips actually, but also had to sit out the rain and river's being out. But his last nine days he averaged a steelhead per hour fished. Now that's some consistent fishing! He too is a fishing bum and doesn't have to deal with the burden of steady work, etc.

Sg

OK, lets get some of us together for a fly/spoon ONLY day. I love both, some love one or the other but they are both solid styles to hook chrome on. Time and place TBD...cheers

I agree with you Summerun. I to love both spoon and spey fishing. While i try to split it up evenly during the winter, I just cant do it... Spey and switch rods have been making an appearance more often than not the last few winters.

Sounds awesome!


Wait...


Who gets to go first?

Flies go first and get the enjoyment of watching the spoon pick up a fish behind them...

Ahhh, the ol' BC special.

To make it fair the 1st Annual SpoonFly needs to be in April when the water warms, flies will hold their own if we are all wading and swinging.

What's fair got to do with it? Anyone who would make a contest out of fly fishing clearly doesn't understand fly fishing.

And isn't fishing with both fly and spoon considered bi? Not that there's any thing wrong with that, of course.

Meanwhile, let's see if Stam gets hold of some Intruders and starts taking casting lessons. Given the forecasts for this winter, that could be the most enjoyable part.

Sg

Nice

Fish on...

Todd

Seems like the hardware fish would have to be valued at .5 or .3 to make it fair.

The best part will be when I pull out a chromer behind Todd on a swung fly...

Thanks! I just spit coffee all over my computer screen.

I think that would be very likely to happen...'bout as likely as the Coogs winning by 30 on Saturday...I mean, not 100% impossible, but not something I'd hang my hat on, either.

Fish on...

Todd

Hardware chuckin' fly fishers. gotta love it!!
Good luck!

I hereby sign up as the first registrant for the first annual SpoonFly Festival.
Too much fun!

Every spey fisherman I know has at least one Dick Nite in their fly box...and there are several who fish northern BC who now have Rvrfshr spoons in their flyboxes, after they asked me for some

Fish on...

Todd

Todd,

Now let's not be tellin' falsehoods. You know me. And I do not have any Dick Nites in any of my fly boxes. I do, however, have Dick Nites in my Dick Nite box, but I don't use them on Spey rods or any fly rods, though I hear they work OK. I have a very light and sensitive Daiwa spinning rod ($30 at Sportco) for Dick Nite backup, should I encounter some finicky coho somewhere. I know that spinning rod is going to bust in a thousand pieces one day, but so far I'd have to rate it as the best value I've ever gotten from a piece of fishing tackle.)

Rvrfshr spoons for their Spey rods? You serious? That's some serious weight, but maybe with a 750 gn Skagit head like Stam found it's doable.

Sg

No Dick Nites here either Toff Ripley...but that is an interesting idea to chucknduck a light spoon on my 9wt spey, gonna give that a shot in honor of this thread. Cheers

That's actually a pretty deadly method.

OK I am talking totally out of my non mouth body orifice here, but I think I could just cast a spoon with a fly rod without a lot of trouble. Strip off some line, short tippet, and load the rod on the back cast with the spoon and then let 'er fly just releasing the stripped line.

It's the kind of thing I would have done as a kid, and now that I feel more like a kid than I have since I was a kid, maybe I'll try it.

And maybe I'll try dropping a spoon under a bobber float and trotting it down a slot like a plug.

Have we figured out a date and location for the SpoonFly Festival yet?

Assuming Skagit system is toast this spring, I would say an OP river in March makes the most sense...we could floatilla a river and still have a few days to go do our own thing.

Im in, who else?

I already registered.

I'm in, Keith!

I'm either going to cast spoons with my spey rod, or swing flies with a centerpin, or maybe driftfish nymphs on a casting rod...maybe all three...



























...at one time.

Fish on...

Todd

No driftfishing, no floatfishing, no baitfishing, no plug fishing, no scent...however ya wanna fish a fly or spoon that gets it down with the weight of the lure or leader/line (no lead other than tied into fly or weight of spoon) would be about the extent of the rules of SpoonFly 2011. Oh and minimum 6 pack of Busch per person to be drunken by end of day...

Oh crap! I'm disqualified already. No problem with any of the fly restrictions, but ain't no way Busch is passing my lips, let alone a 6 pack of that [censored].

Sg

OK, fine Scotch and Cigars for The Order of the Ascot President...:) or just give your Busch to Todd and he will drink it, that counts!

KK,

You should. It seems to like you as much as you like it. You gonna' cast Rvrwagglers on your Skagit Specialist?

Sg

I'll bring cigars (good ones).

Would that make it the SpoonFlyWorm Festival?

NO WORMS!!!

DR,

No, still the spoonfly fest, but bourbon for KK. It's hard not to like a guy who disdains cheap beer. Plus his in person personality is far more agreeable than his internet persona. And he casts Spey rods, original Spey Pride member.

Sg

I'm still in.
I can prolly persuade Fog Ducker as well.
Jack Daniels after the event for me, cause I may get "kinda silly," as is said in the south.
Maybe we can persuade Brewer to make a trip north and cast flies with a spinning rod?!!

WOW, think KK has officially lost it...Worm FLIES are good, spoons on spey rods r good, a fly trailing a spoon is good, spoon trailing a fly is good, a fly tied onto a spoon is good...


Think the Trophy will be a cold Busch Tallboy wrapped in an Ascot/Bandana and held in place with a Rvrfstr 50/50 and an Intruder?

Do you think he wrote it ? .......that's gangsta Spey, the baddest of all Speys.

I will start working out with a "fly" behind a spoon o the 8 wt. Sounds like fun. Some sorta leach, color to be determined.

For a guy who "disdains" cheap beer, KK's drank plenty of mine in my boat...not to mention that he throws spoons and worms, and not a spey rod, most the time...

Fish on...

Todd

I knew there was issues with your boat Todd. Spoons, worms, . . . cheap beer.

Be kind to worms; fly fish!

Sg

Did this Spoon-Fly gig ever get off the ground?

I think that notion was just the cheap beer talking...

I dont drink cheap beer copper:)...no one seemed serious but i am still game for buggiespoonathon. Heres two weekends I can go: March 12 13...or April 9 10 whos in?

Atta boy.

So how does one buggiespoonathon? You have to connect a spoon to your fly or a fly to your spoon in order to fish? This seems ill conceived to me in the same way as slinging split shot, bead, and indicator with a fly rod instead of a spinning rod, which just seems naturally so much better suited to the concept. Pinch those barbs! Just in case angler body piercing results.

If this thing happens, I'd love to witness it. Should be all kinds of humor to go around. Not sure how the invitation system works here, but if you'll have me, I'd be game for either weekend, given sufficient notice (at least three hours so I can get to Forks). Not sure which setup I would go with; I have a hard enough time chucking big flies on a Spey rod, let alone spoons.... Sounds dangerous and fun.

Did someone say Scotch?