Flyline Configurations

The most important consideration in buying flylines is buying good ones, typically more expensive. Among these lines, each has a different purpose based on its tip taper, head or belly length, back taper and running line. Each component influences how well it will match your rod and cast.

Some manufacturers of rods also make lines that match them. If you have a sweet combination and can’t cast, then you know the solution is to work on your casting fundamentals – something you don’t know if you don’t know the rod/line is sweet. But most rod makers do not make lines, and the fly angler needs a few principles. Remember, even if you can find them, don’t buy double tapered line to save money by turning the line around after the first end is worn. Your being cheap simply ensures you will cast poorly for years.

Tip taper length has great importance. We all use some version of weight forward lines. This puts more weight at the front and thus it helps suck, or ‘shoot’ in fly parlance, more line for longer casts. Short tip tapers, for example 6 feet, help you throw larger, heavier flies, for example, bass poppers and bead-eye or tube flies for steelhead. Longer tips, say 15 feet, allow for delicate presentations of lighter, for example, dry flies. In the latter, using a pre-made tapered trout or salmon leader or dipped poly leader makes sense because self made leader combinations tend not to turn over as easily.

Full sink lines, say a Type 3, also allow you to throw big heavy polar bear creations because the ratio of line weight to fly weight is so high. Lines with heavier sink tips, say 350 grains and above, also allow for throwing heavier flies. But they have an evil reputation for slicing your head off during casting – chuck and duck is the saying.

The head or belly of the line comprises most of the weight that bends – loads – the rod and is typically 30 to 40 feet. Longer ones, say 60 feet, instantly increase your casting distance by 20 to 30 feet, but your fundamentals must be sound. Ones that are supple yet with lots of body (more shooting power) allow you to make roll casts all day – much less effort than double hauling, and the same length – by applying your thumb pressure to the rod on the forward cast.

In Spey lines, bellies grow from 27 feet all the way to 110 feet. The short, Skagit style, are so heavy, but neutral in density, that you can shoot honking big flies and heavy tips for winter steelhead dredging. The longer bellies allow for cast and swing, say for summers on wide rivers, but require the angler to be able to carry that much line in the air in the cast. Scott Mackenzie, 3-time world Spey champion, casts an incredible 275 feet. Mere mortals should aim for 100.

Back tapers should be marked with black felt pen and the last couple of feet pulled into the rod guides before casting. Longer tapers grant more body and thus greater flexibility in the amount of line you have to bring in before casting. They also grant greater mending distances.

Finally we come to running line. These are the back end of the line, typically 50% of line length. They are reduced weight, less slick and limper than bellies and thus aid shooting line to produce longer casts. Do note that most line applications coat lines with glaze and this can actually reduce line life. Pick up a treatment that maintains suppleness by sinking in to the line surface. Soak lines in warm water and dish soap.

Various approaches reduce friction between running lines and line guides to make line cast further. Some running lines have special shapes, for example, a triangle or a half dozen ridges running the length of the line so very few points are in contact at any given time. Another approach is varying the texture and ultimately the micro-diameter of the line for the same effect.

677 Words

dcreid@catchsalmonbc.com

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Eutsuk Lake Rainbows

Objective: To develop more consistent methods of taking the large, constantly-on-the-move, fish-eating Eutsuk Lake rainbows on the fly.

Solution 1: Fish at the crack of dawn.

Eutsuk Lake rainbows are said to be of two distinct stocks: those that eat insects; and, those that eat fish, the Eutsuk kokanee. To find the fish eaters, you must find the kokanee.

Kokanee are, by and large, plankton eaters and thus found most commonly associated with plankton blooms. You need an extremely precise depth sounder to find both plankton blooms and kokanee reliably – and you must go out and find these areas. Plankton blooms are more common where sunlight is high, and will not be deep in the water, just close to reliable nutrients, and certainly not below the thermocline, which good depth sounders will show you, probably not deeper than 50 feet as the lake is pretty cold.

Kokanee generally move closer to shore and rise in the water over night. The most likely time they will be found at the surface is at first light. Thus the best chance of catching the large fish-eating rainbows is at the crack of dawn because that is the only time of day they are consistently on the surface, where it is easier to fly fish. And note that this is far earlier in the day than when temperatures have risen enough to allow insect hatches which is your current program’s main aim.

To get your clients on the fish at first light suggests that you are limited in the distance you can travel from the lodge, perhaps 20 minutes. And first light is pretty early, earlier than 5:00 am, in part of your season. This means that you are not likely to get any further south (east?) than Connolly Point or north (west?) of John Buchan Island.

Fortunately, kokanee are often found on the surface right in front of the lodge at the crack of dawn. Thus this is a pretty easy place to fish at first light. In addition, the bottom structure between the lodge and the first point to the left is so exceptional, and all points of land will draw fish, too, that you have a naturally fishy area right in front and adjacent of the lodge.

I both trolled and casted the surface in this area on two mornings. I snapped off one large fish. The chances of landing big fish increases with the number of boats fishing the same spot at the crack of dawn. In talking with Stacey, he offered the opinion, which I agree with, that if a number of boats were to work in front of the lodge in the period up to noon, fish would begun to be caught and allow you to refine your techniques.

The other problem is that these fish are constantly moving around; they may be here one day and gone the next, making consistency difficult. Again, your highest percentage spot is locating areas of consistent kokanee feeding, as noted on your improved depth sounder. Kokanee will also descend as the day progresses as the rainbows do to. Do remember to be watching that new depth sounder throughout the day and try to find places where kokanee are more commonly found every day. If you find such areas, you have found the areas where the fish-eating rainbows are most likely to be.

Dimpling kokanee, usually at the crack of dawn, erupt from the water when chased by the rainbows. Your clients cast right into the kokanee with fish-imitation streamers.

Solution 2: Nymph the inlet streams.

Stacey took the older fellow, Vern, and me up to the Surel creek one morning. A split shot just above a weighted nymph and a strike indicator some feet up the leader keeps the fly moving just off the bottom in the channel fished. Note: Stacey told me he had taken 7 plus five pound rainbows here one morning.

In short order, Vern had a spectacular fight with a great rainbow. When he got it in to the beach, we estimated the fish at 12 pounds. This means that big rainbows will congregate at inlet streams and eat insects.

Across the bay, Vern let me fish the inlet stream there and I took perhaps 12 smaller fish. Then I had a smack from an 8-pound rainbow that jumped to show its size. This was on a bead head nymph without a strike indicator, again a large rainbow on a small, match the hatch insect pattern, that is, these fish are proof of large insect-eating rainbow. (Note, too, that all insects hatch within 30 feet of the surface from the underlying mud – an important consideration in consistently finding fish. For example, this fact allows you to eliminate all areas of the lake that drop off quickly or are simply rock.)

This confirms, as your guides know, that inlet streams are fish producers. Add the prominent above-surface points – not inside bends – and you have the best spots. Connolly Point is the lake’s most prominent, it should be the best place to fish. In addition, on leaving on the plane, I saw a very silt laden river flowing into the lake south (east?) of Connolly. This should be a good fish producer, better than Surel, judging by the size of the flow and the amount of silt spewed into the lake – a kind of structure in itself.

Solution 3: Prove the fish and cast to shore.

After the crack of dawn, have the guide troll the boat close to the shore – they must be committed to doing this – I say this having found I couldn’t get one to do so – he kept zagging offshore after each time I asked him to move right onto shore – with a large plug or spoon on the downrigger and have the client(s) cast right onto shore. This method has the positive advantage in that, while more successful early, and perhaps late, it can be done all day long.

Thus the client is actively fishing and will catch some fish and be happy. But the method is explained as ‘proving the fish’, meaning when a big one is caught on the downrigger, the client gets the fun of bringing it in, and then picks up an already-rigged rod with much deeper sinking line and casts, hoping to pick up another. After casting for the larger fish for awhile, the boat moves on, client casting right onto shore again, the K-14 plug down the other side of the boat. And so on.

The idea of ‘proving the fish’ came to me one day I spent casting and casting at many different spots on the lake where I read fish. After awhile my enthusiasm would wane and I would put a silver, K -14 Flatfish at 25 feet, that, as a diving plug, reached perhaps 40 feet deep. I continued casting as I trolled along. In no time, I caught a 7 pound rainbow on the plug. So I stopped and cast until my hopes once again dimmed. I then put down the K14 again and cast as the boat moved along. Of course, I caught another large rainbow. In the end, I had caught seven rainbows within 3 – 7 pounds on the downrigger and was happy though on this day I was unsuccessful with the fly. Better success with this method will be early in the day. The two points round the corner from the lodge are good for this one, as is the rocky, loggy shore to the east.

As the day progresses, move from shore and fish structure through the middle of the day. There are many spots in the lake where exceptional underwater structure rises from the bottom, the inside of Le Bordais Point, for instance. Surprisingly, the bay in front of the lodge has great structure including a ridge off the left point that runs south for quite some ways – and there are many other spots.

After all, if you read rainbows first thing and the kokanee don’t move, the large rainbows will probably stay with them. Since neither will be deeper than the thermocline, you can eliminate most of the lake’s deeper water and concentrate ‘proving’ and casting. This would be, of course, more successful with a number of boats where you more commonly find plankton or kokanee

Solution 4: Put a strong light and insect zapper on the point past the firepit.

Pit-lamping – the use of light to lure fish for fishing at night – is not allowed in BC. Thus you should put a light of high intensity at the point, just beyond the fire pit, for the “comfort and enjoyment” of your clients. The light grants safer walking and gives a beacon for those on the water coming back late. Should you wish it be a more environmentally-friendly lodge-feature, add a solar panel to generate power.

Because there are extreme numbers of insects in the region, mount an ultraviolet bug zapper with the light, situated so as to drop the zapped bugs in the water off the point – I have also seen an additional fan used with a zapper for this purpose. This will ensure that rainbows naturally come to recognize this as a point of consistent food. And of course this will aid your morning fishing for them, quite possibly right off the lodge grounds, coffee cup in hand, without having to go out in the boat at all.

In fact, a whole string of lights along this shore would be quite pretty – and useful for fishing, too.

Solution 5: Sight fishing from a carpet- and flat-decked boat.

Using a carpet- and flat-decked boat, put the client in the bow and a guide operating the foot pedals in the rear – on a lee shore, i.e., no wind. Sight fishing is a blast even if the fish aren’t large and some of the fish are actually fairly large.

One afternoon I moseyed past the stream 10 minutes east of the lodge and followed the shore around the corner. A good bit of structure starts a few hundred yards around the corner, quite visible, down to perhaps 15 feet, and continues for a couple of miles. Between 2- and 5- pm in the afternoon, there was a great hatch on the day I did this, and calm water. Fish were jumping within a foot from shore.

I stopped trying to catch fish after catching 20 of them. Among them, I landed two three pounders, three two pounders and saw, but did not catch, two four pounders. This and the Surel fish taking nymphs leads me to suspect a number of possibilities: that the reputed fish- and insect-eating stocks may actually be one stock; there are opportunistic crossover fish that feed on what ever food is presented; or, there are even bigger insect-eaters than I saw.

This is a good thing to know as it means, since all insects hatch from shallow waters based on temperature, knowing your heavily producing shorelines will lead you to be more consistent with catching bigger fish – shallower gradient, more mud (not sand or rock) and weeds, sunken logs for structure.. That means, that when using the deck boat to select a particular fish and then hunt it down, that you may find that there are fish right on shore that are up to the very large range of over 10 pounds.

Note that I went back the next day to check the area again and caught dramatically fewer fish. This again suggests that the Eutsuk’s fish are very mobile. With a shoreline of more than 110 miles, being consistent means understanding all those shallow gradient shores that typically produce insects.

Solution 6: Bucktailing.

In the central part of B.C., Gerard and Kamloops trout are often taken right on the surface at any time of the day with 7” polar bear hair bucktails fished far from the boat. Though you do not see these large rainbows, or pick them up on the depth sounder – because they are beside the boat -, they are there, particularly later in the season.

Put the bucktails out some distance from the boat, because those fish that spook from the engine sound, may have turned and moved back into the wake by the time the flies get to them.

Those fish that do not move back in can be taken by using side-planer setups, for example, those from Luhr Jensen that can place lines to either side of the boat.

Additional comments

Fish only the fishy water. Think of the lake in 3D and the first roughly 50 feet contains all the fish. This means that 90 percent of the lake’s water, that beneath, is eliminated as containing fish. Makes the task that much simpler

Flies: The flies used at the lodge generally match the nymph or hatch and thus are quite small. Develop some larger, attractor, stimulator flies. After all, a K-14 plug is huge and thus very large flies will also work. Remember that you have a pretty much virgin fishery and thus these non-pressured fish should respond to stimulators. I can send some shots of my flies.

Fly rods: for the longer distances required of casting on open lake surfaces, Spey rods can, in the hands of a skilled person, work out 150 feet. And because Spey is trendy, you should have some rods at the lodge. Good value for money lines include Loop, Grey’s, Sage 9140 and Lamiglas’ travel rods. I used the Lamiglas 10/11, 6 piece travel rod. It will overhead cast the entire leader and line and then into the backing. Note that leaders should be short – less than 6 feet – because you want the fly at the same level as the line.

Fly lines: for fish that may be found at the surface down to the thermocline, heavier sinking lines are required. I used a 60 tip of an intermediate Spey line with a sinking running line and it could handle the depth, provided the boat was not moving with the wind. One can also join two sinkers, Type 4 to Type 8, to get a line of 180 feet, for a longer-distance horizontal pull through the fish zone. It can be cast or let out as the boat backs away from the intended fishing target.

I also used a 30’ Type 12 tip ahead of either 200 feet of Amnesia backing or in front of a full sink fly line.

2,415 Words

On Fishing Column, FEb 2010 – Open Containment Fish Farming

Feb 16, 2010 – Georg Fredrik Rieber-Mohn – Norway’s Attorney General on Salmon Farming in Norway

I fear Canada will teach Norway a lesson today (16th February) on the Olympic ice rink but I hope Canada can learn the lessons of Norway with respect to wild salmon and open net cage salmon farms. As a Norwegian judge – the former Attorney General of Norway – I was appointed some fifteen years ago to devise a plan to protect wild Atlantic salmon.
In 1999, I was proud to present the so-called “wild salmon plan” which proposed national protection for the 50 best salmon rivers and the 9 most important fjord-systems across Norway – the national laksfjords – where salmon farms would be prohibited. However, intense lobbying from the salmon farming industry watered down the proposals so that by the time they passed the parliament in 2007 the protected fjords had become smaller and gave less protection against the salmon farming industry
The result has been a heavy defeat for wild salmon and a huge win for sea lice. Scientific research published by the Norwegian Institute of Nature Research indicates that the areas protected from open net cage salmon farms are simply too small to offer adequate protection from sea lice.
Scientists in Norway detail growing sea lice resistance to the chemicals designed to kill them. The Norwegian Food and Safety Authority recently reported nearly 100 cases of chemical treatment failures as sea lice are now immune. So serious is the situation that the Directorate of Nature Management – the Norwegian Government’s conservation adviser – has called for drastic reductions in farmed salmon production and slaughter of farm stock to reduce the sea lice burden.
Put simply, we had an open goal to save wild salmon but we missed the target. Now we are dealing with the consequences of poor defending. Atlantic salmon in the wild in Norway are now threatened with extinction in many rivers in Norway. There are many causes to this decline, but in vast areas the farming of salmon is the main factor. Escaped farmed salmon is a huge problem added to the problem of uncontrolled growth of sea lice. Scientists foresee remarkable damaging effects in new areas in the future.
In Norway we are underdogs to save wild Atlantic salmon – like in today’s hockey game – but nature is resilient and wild salmon can make a comeback if given a fair chance. The lessons to be learned from Norway are painfully clear but the solution is an easy one.
If you want to protect wild salmon then you have to move salmon farms away from migration routes. Juvenile wild salmon have to run the gauntlet past salmon farms on their way out to sea and scientific reports show that they are decimated by sea lice – with reports of up to 90% mortality in some regions.
Even the owner of Marine Harvest – the world’s largest salmon farming company and #1 in both Norway and in British Columbia – agrees that we must move the farms. When he was fishing on the River Alta – one of Norway’s most majestic wild salmon rivers – in 2007 John Fredriksen made a plea as a passionate angler to relocate open net cages to save wild salmon.
Last year, I was honoured to meet with sea lice scientist Alexandra Morton in Oslo. I listened with a sense of déjà vu as she outlined how Norwegian companies – who control over 90% of BC’s salmon farms – are spreading sea lice to wild salmon. I watched Canadian filmmaker Damien Gillis’s film “Dear Norway – Help Us Save Wild Salmon” and I was struck by a strong sense of solidarity and eerie familiarity. Yet there is still hope for wild salmon in both Norway and Canada. With the world watching there is a growing sense of public awareness globally and a passion to save wild salmon.
In today’s hockey game, Canada and Norway may be on opposing sides but in the fight to protect wild salmon we are all on the same team. We must forget our differences and pull together to save wild salmon stocks around the world. Die hard hockey fans may disagree but the fight to save wild salmon means much more than the outcome of today’s game. If we don’t seize the opportunity now to move salmon farms out of the way of wild salmon we will all be losers.

*Georg Fredrik Rieber-Mohn is the former leader of the great wild salmon commission of Norway. This commission had one task: to outline the many threats to wild salmon in Norway and propose adequate measures to save, protect and strengthen our salmon stocks. This was the first and so far only holistic approach to solve the problems of the wild salmon in Norway.

Dec 31, 2009

2009 Tipping Point

2009 may well go down in history as the tipping point for west coast salmon. Four scientists left DFO – one ‘retired’, two quit and one jumped to the Pacific Salmon Foundation. If the best and brightest can’t take the political interference and lack of action, DFO is policy bankrupt and moribund.

We do like hatcheries, volunteer restoration and school programs. But the largest part is bad. For starters, DFO let the Fraser River sockeye collapse. Had Stephen Hume in the Canwest Vancouver Sun, and brother Mark Hume in the Globe not been documenting the problem, DFO might have gotten away with doing nothing. But it didn’t.

DFO brought in a council, under judge Bruce Cohen to take off the heat. Don’t hold your breath – the final report is two years away. And don’t think DFO will do anything. After all, the 2009 Auditor General’s report lambasted their lack of action and 148 year failure on water pollution. DFO acknowledged its lack of action, but here’s the clincher: the Auditor General has been making the same recommendations in reports spanning a decade.

Then there is the damning evidence DFO knew about the collapse two years before it happened. The 2007 Georgia St. seine found a miniscule 159 fry from a massive 139 million Chilko/Quesnel output. Yet DFO came out with a 10 million estimate for 2009 only to see it come in more like 1 million. Were they surprised?

Then there was the minister in Norway, wooing more fish farmers to BC. Minister Shea did this even though BC residents have been shouting about closed containment and effluent treatment for a decade. Oh, and an aquaculture lobby has sprung up in Ottawa. Hmm.

Then there was the fish farmers’ ‘science’. The gist is this: the Alberta sea lice research was funded by American salmon interests who want to put BC fish farmers out of business and sell their wild Alaska salmon into the vacated market. (I have asked for environmentalist opinion, but it is not yet in). Here’s the point: fish farmers like to claim any request for change is intended to put them out of business. But this is not so. All we have asked for is closed containment.

Then 40,000 Atlantics escaped in the Broughton Archipelago in October. Alexandra Morton, sea lice scientist, pointed out to Shea that 20,243 BC residents have signed her petition to eliminate the sea lice problem. And this includes pro bono lawyers for court cases, other costs paid by our $10s and $20s to prevent Atlantic eggs importing ISA virus into BC. She continues to lay charges against DFO under its own Fisheries Act for failure to act.

Then the most important casualty of this terrible malaise: the precautionary principle: lack of scientific evidence is not a reason to fail to take action to save wild salmon. DFO lacks science because it doesn’t fund it properly, but hides behind that lack, when it suits its purposes. And remember the Province’s own figures show fish farming contributes only 2100 jobs to our economy. And, at 0.2% pf GDP it can never be a major player in BC. But we give up wild salmon, bears….

Here’s the good part: the December SFU Think Tank on salmon. Media reported DFO instructed its scientists not to attend. Its own data show the Fraser sockeye collapse began 15 years ago. Former Fisheries Minister, John Fraser, said DFO had the stats and it is incredible they did nothing. In part, the scientists left because the word in Ottawa was: why should we give you more funding for salmon research when there is no value in salmon?

The entire symposium gasped. No value in salmon? I think it will prove the moment people in BC began realizing it is up to us and our organizations to save the salmon. Like east coast cod – the first time I have ever been willing to make this comparison – they are being “managed into extinction” by DFO. In the long run, DFO may be put to the sidelines and milked for funds while the BC public, aboriginals, environmentalists and sport fishermen get together to save west coast salmon.

Dec 24, 2009

Have a Haig-Brown Christmas

I was standing by the Nimpkish River last week at 11 below. The fish were huddled among the bottom rocks trying to keep from freezing to death, something I was doing quite well. The Spey line crossing my rod hand’s stripping finger left a line of white with each strip. I put my rod butt down and snapped the ice-balls from the 13 line guides. In the few minutes it took to do this, my waders froze and I found I could hardly bend my knees to move back into the water.

The Nimpkish was one of Rod Haig-Brown’s most favourite rivers, a goodly portion of his young life being spent on the bottom end, working for Wood & English Logging Co. He was 19 and there were no roads. So he came up with the tide and moved up on foot through the lower canyon. His A River Never Sleeps has a tale or two of this; his long-time friend Van Egan has now revealed more in a neat, numbered edition from Canwest: Shadows of the Western Angler.

Of Haig-Brown’s favourite rivers (many others cannot be mentioned in print, only pass from mouth to ear down the generations): the Stamp, the Campbell, the Nimpkish, I was on the last, thinking about the usefulness of Van Egan’s book. It has several maps, and two of the lower Nimpkish, where it has a canyon character and broad tidewater estuary. These were drawn by Roddy and given to his friend.

The two hand-drawn maps have not seen wide distribution until now. The lower Nimpkish is the place where Rod dumped on a winter trip at Siwash Rock. He offered up the vastly understated: “Too bad for me, I lose my gumboots”, before being swept away (and later rescued); it was so as it was first intoned by a native on losing his wife and children at that spot. A sad thing

You must have this book and the maps. This one gives the trail access, the railroad line, and Lansdowne Farm. Drawn in 1962, it notes, the ‘new bridge’, which is the highway bridge one crosses just before Port McNeill today. And there is a map of the Island Pools. The Campbell has to be considered one of the most difficult rivers to wade. That is because of the high gradient, the algae, the lack of silt under the rocks and that most rocks are at least basketball size. Though 100 kg or more, they move when you put your foot on them. A tough day on the feet.

Most logging damaged rivers change almost every rain. But the Campbell has a dam above to prevent the silt and gravel passing down. And so, much of it looks today, 55 years later, almost as it did in the drawing. But not quite. The perilously slippery crossing to the Upper Island Pool is still there, but the good steelhead run immediately below has been somewhat filled in. And the Upper Island has narrowed, but its run has deepened, so that your fly is taken in a curve and deposited in the absolutely best looking water as though you were a magician. The pool of the Lower Island Pool is pretty much as it is today. And of course, the spawning channel with its fist-sized gravel is not the major challenge it was in years past – at least until the rains begin.

I will return to the Nimpkish with Haig-Brown’s map. I will take what is today a rather pudgy fly compared with what he made and called the Brown and Yellow Bug. It is known today as the Steelhead Bee, but our copies are not as malnourished as in the days he and Van Egan tied them. Do pick up this book, and perhaps in July you will find yourself with your dry flies and #4 weight rod to fish the lake’s exit for drop down cutthroat and rainbows. Not as I was the other day, worrying about the ice on my line hitting the ice-balls and chipping the running line coating, rendering it waterlogged. Sit by the fire with your favourite line, read the book and plan your trip north.