Only one fish I have ever hooked while actualy fly fishing. Was a 14 inch Northern Pike Minnow, aka squawfish, on the Wynoochie while fishing for summer runs. Hit hard enough I thought it was asteelhead but soon realized it would have to be another day before I hooked a table fair fish while actualy fly fishing.

Dragging a fly line in the lakes doesn't count as fly fishing but have got many that way.

Twenty inch rainbow on a cigarette filter on Lake Victoria. I had snapped off the handful of flies I'd hiked in with and couldn't find anything else to tie up into a fly pattern......the filter made into a fair representation of a streamer. Was the biggest fish of the trip.

Back when I was a kid, I used the my own flies. I used to visit my sister in Spanaway, where a certain creek flows. Well you know where there was water, I was there with my fly rod. I pulled out a fly that I thought looked good and to my disbelief, I caught a many cutthroat that summer. Never saw anyone else fishing either......hope I was fishing open waters!!!! Steve

Only one fish to my credit on a fly, but I've only made a total of probably three casts . Nice little 12 inch bow.

CM

I was fishing cutthroat with a 4 weight rod on the Snoqualmie. I casted to shore in gin clear water, and as I retrieved, I watched about a 12 pound mint bright silver come from about 30' away and nail that fly. With 3 pound test leader and about 15 minutes later, I got it right up next to me on shore. It decided it had one more explosive run left and snap goes the leader. Not landed, but certainly my most memorable.

7wt up on the Situk for Spring Steelhead, fishing the lower river for fresh fish when I hit a dandy, that fish turn for the ocean and took every inch of fly line off my reel before I could take three steps!
It was still going full blast when it hit the end of the backing and broke off, spent the next 10 minutes putting all that line back on the reel. Had to wade out of course to get the end back!
Oh, and I was using a yarn fly that had rabbits fir and some UV yarn that
stalker sent me to try out!

Mine was fishing for trout with my uncle when I was younger. I caught two upper Rogue River trout on dry flies at the same time, one on each of my flies. One of the fish broke me off but the other I landed. Pretty fun August day!

My best on a bug rod was back in Utah. 23" brown on the Weber.

I called it. Casted anlong the shoreline after my friend. Took a bullet hopper on the surface just behind his coachman.

Would be cool to fish those same waters with today's products this next year.

Most memorable was the cutthroat trout I caught on the Yakima about a month ago, which was the first fish I ever caught on a fly rod (after fishing gear for years and years).

Here are a few jigs and flies tied up with this new dubbing. The flash is an iridescent violet that is hard to capture in a picture.







This dubbing works extremely well with the dubbit tool! It makes a really buggy looking body. If you want a less buggy body then you just dub it onto your thread on wrap it on.

Summer of 1978 Spade Lake on the west side of Mt. Daniel, its about a 12 mile hike in. Digging thru my Weber fly tote I pull out a #16 black gnat.

All I had was my 7' Lamiglas telescoping fly/spin, chucked that little fly out & the next hour was the most fast paced fishing I'd seen to date. Just filled that creel w/ 12-14" cuttthrout......



Dinner was good that night



c/22

One of the best memories was one that was lost. Upper Elwha, Tiggle Territory, tossing the old standby...jumbo orange stimulators. Casted behind a rock in about a foot of water, I was guessing a smaller bow would hit there....boy was I wrong. Line ripped off the 4wt faster than I had ever seen it and the fish shot out into some heavy water. Thought to myself I need to turn this thing or its gone. Bad idea, turned it right onto a rock and that was it. Never saw it but knew it had to be huge! Never had been so abused up there.

Most memorable fish landed was a SRC on the same 4wt. Early June. It's a different fishery over this way than that of the Canal. The fish aren't around year round and it's small 8-12 inch fish from June to the middle of August when the bigger ones start showing up from August to September. 18-20 inchers are jumbo over here. I went down to the beach, or "the estuary" as the TGL crew calls it, for my first trip of the year. Stopped at the local fly shop before I got there and Dave hooked me up with fly he said was popularized in the Whidbey Island area, said it was called "Neal's Beach Fly." I was skeptikal of it, because it was a small buggy kind of fly, and im used to baitfish patterns, but I tied it on. Threw out the first cast, and noticed my line was wrapped around the ferrel. As I had a hold of the rod, half way up, line started ripping off. A fish grabbed it on the drop. It's tearing me up and cruising off line, and I'm thinking a blackmouth must have made its way inside the harbor. The fish jumped and to my suprise there was orange all over it! After an amazing 5 minute battle I put a FAT 18" cutty on the beach. The largest I have ever seen in years of fishing that beach in June. It fought harder than any fish I've hooked there as well. Never will forget that one.

What the hell. I am not much of a writer, but here it goes.

A couple of steelhead come to mind when I think about my most memorable a fly caught fish. Without a doubt, I would put my first fly caught steelhead on that list, as well as the steelhead that I caught this past summer using a near surface grease line presentation. However, most memorable fly caught fish was a steelhead that I caught last winter.

I had started my day by fishing this particular run at first light. I did not have any luck, so I hiked up river quite a ways. My plan was to fish my way back to where I had started. When I retuned it was almost dark and there was only a hint of light on the horizon. To be honest, I almost passed the run up, figuring that I already covered it that morning and would most likely just end the day fishless. The holding water in this run consisted of a deep boulder strewn slot on my left hand side, which ended in a tail out approximately 90 feet below me. Instead of working my way down river after each cast, which is my normal routine, I had to use a large boulder at the head of the run as a casting station. I started fishing with only a short length of line, which I gradually lengthened after each cast. It wasn’t very long before I had worked out about 40 feet of line. I had just set up my fly for a nice, deep slow swing when I felt something plucking at it. I immediately recognized that this was a fish. Within seconds my line was taut and I could feel something heavy on the other end. My excitement did not last, as the fish came unbuttoned.

Someone once said “'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” Someone else said that “Hope springs eternal in the heart of the winter steelhead fisherman.” So despite my disappointment and the fact that by this point it was completely dark outside, I decided to make a couple more casts before calling it a day. Like before, I started short and increased the length of line with each additional cast. A short time later, I had about 30 feet of line out when suddenly, a steelhead hit my fly with the most powerful, no holds barred, head and shoulders take that I have ever felt. This fish did not pluck at my fly, it did not grab and it and then stop; it did not do any of the numerous things that I have experienced with other steelhead. I realize that this is somewhat far fetched, but imagine that you are fishing when suddenly, out of nowhere; a missile flies by and snags your lure. That is how this fish took my fly. My running line, which was only visible for approximately 20 feet, was leaving my reel at an extremely fast rate. To say the least, watching it disappear into the dark as the fish raced down river was intense!

The steelhead stopped just before the tail out which in turn, gave me some time to climb down from the boulder and wade to shore. I had almost reached the gravel bar when it began racing back up river. My excitement then turned to concern as I struggled to retrieve enough line to keep the fish hooked. Fortunately, my barbless hook remained in place and after a few more runs I landed beautiful, chrome colored native hen that I estimated at approximately 10 – 12 pounds. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of her. I really didn’t want to handle her for any longer than necessary, and my fear was that attempting to operate my camera in the dark would only result in a delayed release. So instead, I simply removed the hook from her jaw and sent her on her way.

Those are some nice flies, might just have to get some of that dubbing and give them a shot. Can't hurt my success with a fly rod.

I did need to throw in I have hooked a small bat on a fly rod. Thankfully it got loose before I had to try and deal with it and getting the hook out of it's mouth. Is thelast time I threw a black gnat when those little buggers are buzzing around early.

Most memorable is a pretty lofty tag for any fish - I think they're all cool. That said, although I've certainly caught bigger fish, I guess I'd have to go with a wild summer run steelhead I found by chance in the canyon section of the Skokomish River. I'd caught nice rainbows in the same little stretch before, so the anticipation was thick as I started through the run. Right at the top, I hit a 12" rainbow. Two or three steps down, a 15" cutt-bow hybrid. Three more steps, and another rainbow, this one about 16".

Next cast, a big something swirled on the big dry I was fishing but didn't stick. I tried a couple more casts, and nothing. I decided to throw a changeup, and a peacock bugger did the trick. WHAM! A hard strike and then nothing. Next cast, same thing. Finally, it stuck and went ballistic. Ended up being about a 5 pound buck, which is by no means a big steelhead, but the reckless abandon with which that thing kept attacking flies, plus the fact that I was not expecting to hook up with anything like that (I was fishing a 4-weight) made it a contender for most memorable.

That dubbing looks great!

My most memorable fly caught fish was on a side channel below the Navajo Dam on the San Juan River in New Mexico. I didnt bring my waders as I was on a cross country trip.. Bad choice.. Anyhow I waded up the side channel, quite possibly the coldest water I've ever waded in. As soon as the sun peeked over the canyon, I could see hundreds of trout all around me. I tied on a rabbit fur streamer style fly that a older gentleman had given to me the night before at our campsite. First cast, i got a nice 20 incher!

Favorite days were when I stayed in Montana on a remote creek and could walk out the door within about 200 yards from where I was staying and catch 18 " browns on streamers.

That dubbing looks great!

Looking forward to seeing the winner!

And the winner is.....................





















































Brad_tgl

PM me your address and I will get it out in the mail! Thanks for everyone's stories, they were fun to read.

Way to go tiggle!

Right on! Thanks a ton! I've been impressed with your yarn so I can't wait to incorporate the dubbing into my jigs. Hopefully I'll have a picture or two with a jig hanging out a metalhead's mouth in the coming weeks. PM coming your way.