I've an aversion to weighted flies. Must be cuz I clunked myself in the back of the head when I tried them.

I have some friends that use tube flies and normally tied flies with the addition of the little dumbell eyes as weight for steelhead patterns. Last year I was talking to a fly shop guy who began using jig hooks, tied with marabou or whatever, and either a foam bobber (strike indicater) that looks like pieces of rubber bands or polypro yarn saturated with floatant. He said it works real well, altho he admitted the casting isn't real stylin'.

I've always been partial to sink tips and the classic wet fly swing so that I don't have to expose myself to the risks of weighted flies. But I am curious about the potential for fishing pocket water with a technique like this.

Any of you ever try this? If so, what'd ya' think? And was the casting hazardous?

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

Casting weighted flies is always A challenge and never fun. BUT! You do need to get down to the fish. When casting weighted flies you need to slow down. You know you are not slow enough when the fly goes careening off the top of your head. With a weighted fly you should feel A deffinet tug when the line straightens out behind you. That is when you start the foreward cast. Oh yes, you also need to throw A big open loop. Put these two thing together and your there. If you have done any Spay casting you can also use a Single Spay or a Snap-T cast with your single handed rod as long as your not throwing A lot of lead.
The Spay casts I mentioned are good to know because no matter what you are throwing they give you some options during the course of A long day. They will give you A chance to rest your tired and sore shoulder and wrist. It is well worth the time and effort to learn. Give me A holler if you want to discuss any further.

Dutchman,

Thanks. I can slow down my cast and throw weighted flies, but since it isn't as much fun, I tend to avoid it, along with the unpleasant side effect of an errant cast. It's probably more amenable to the two-handed rods, as it usually means throwing heavier lines.

I know fishing weighted nymphs under strike indicators is common and popular among trout fishermen. I was wondering if there is an analogous following among steelheaders, using floating lines, 1/16 or 1/8 oz. jigs, or other weighted flies under a larger strike indicator for steelhead fishing. Seems like it would be much like jig fishing with spinning gear. I read that jig fishermen even put mucilin on their monofiliment spinning line so as to mend it. A floating fly line would handle that task nicely.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

has worked well for me on the oly pen area and the boulders on the kalama

Fishing jig heads under an indicator is a deadly
technique. Fish a lot of frog water for pinks, silvers and chums. They love it. Try purple for
silvers and chums. Takes both of them

Salmo --
In the mid 1980s when it became legal to use weighted flies on the North Fork Stillaguamish I played around with floating lines (heavily dressed) and weighted buggy nymphs (stonefly?). They worked very well, especially with an upstream approach in pocket water, as the riffles dumped into the sweet spot, or along logs etc. However I quickly tired of the game (and the hits to the head, neck etc) and returned to my skated dries. Using a float would make it easier to track the path of the fly/jig and detecting the take though that generally wasn't a problem. The float and jig is deadly for steelhead and other anadromous fish. Such a approach is most effective on "stacked" or holding fish. A more classic approach for me has proven to more effective in searching for fish or covering lots of water.

For steelhead I have used floats with bait, yarn or jigs (first jigs I used were small crappie jigs - dynamite) since the early 1970s with bait casting gear. I found that conventional gear much more user friendly and efficient the fly rod. For the last couple decades my use of weighted flies have largely been cofined to trout and then limited to bugs that a large dry fly can support.

Have fun experimenting!

Tight lines
Smalma