Fall salmon fly fishing

[brandon4455]

I called it quits at the end of November, even though there are still some ocean fresh chinooks being caught. That being said, it wasn’t a bad fall. I fly fished more than anything this time around though I did bonk a few fish with bait and twitching jigs.

I caught chinooks,cohos,and chums this fall all dead drift with a bobber (indicator) and jig fly things in several colors. This was my first time fishing for chums in 3 years. It was good to shake fins with a few of those mean dogs again. They bite feathers so well it’s almost like trout fishing sometimes, but more often than not I was targeting chinook and getting them as by catch.
And for the second straight year, I busted the drag on a cheap fly reel salmon fishing

Not fly fishing to some, but to me it’s a load of fun and the most effective way to catch salmon and steelhead with a fly rod period (upriver anyways)

fly rodding salmon you get a lot of dirty looks mostly from local coastal folk because all of the people stomping redds and flossing spawners, but when they see a bobber on the leader the demeanor usually changes. If you’ve never done it before give it a try!! Unless you are against bobbers... and jig hooks

 

[Echskech]

Nice haul! Gave me the motivation to chase em' on the fly next spring. What rod weight and line weight are you using to cast such a heavy rig?

 

[brandon4455]

Nice haul! Gave me the motivation to chase em' on the fly next spring. What rod weight and line weight are you using to cast such a heavy rig?

If you have an okay amount of experience roll casting a thingamabobber it can be done on a single hand 8wt with a standard floating line, which is what I used this year and last year. When I moved to New Mexico for a year, I sold off my gear and thought i wouldn’t be back anytime soon, so I was on a budget and have made it work with that. But with that being said I’m fishing smaller streams that are much easier to fish with a fly rod and I’m casting relatively short and feeding line to achieve my drift by positioning at the top of a hole.

some cons to using a standard 9ft 8wt rod.. not much length to make drifts easier, can’t high stick as much, or pick up as much line on the hook set, not as easy to cast. Just not very good line management. And the single hand 8wt is a little too light for big chinooks. I caught a handful last year and one over 30lbs took me way way too long to land.



my preferred rod and line for this rig is an 11ft 8wt switch rod or a single hand 9/10 with a 9wt WF floating line. Something with a longer head definitely helps as well and something that is high floating and good quality is a must because I’ve had lines that will sink if fishing boily holes or choppy water and it makes things near impossible. but it is much easier to cast than you’d think.

the dumbbell eye jigs/jig flies that I use are with hareline XL lead eyes which are approximately 1/10 oz, and I’m fishing anywhere from a 1/0 up to a 5/0 jig hook depending on conditions. I actually caught most of my chinooks this year on the 1/0 because I was fishing clearer water and a few pods of pressured fish.

I also prefer this method over stripping clousers because I can fish a heavy leader.and this method can also be very successful in tidewater,I can fish a jigged clouser under the thingamabobber too.
I typically use 20-30lb fluorocarbon leader, fall salmon are usually not leader shy like springers seem to be. Only con to this is if you snag up on a tree or a rock and can’t get it out, I have had the loop on my line break before the leader does. But I do not like to use light line for chinooks if I don’t have to. Fighting a fish for 20 minutes isn’t good for the fish and I hate not having what I need to keep them away from snags especially if I plan to bring the fish home. You will want an XL thingamabobber to float these, and no split shot is needed as long as you cast ahead and mend to flick your bobber upstream giving it a few seconds to sink before it hits where the fish are holding up.

I have also never fished springers with this method because they’re less plentiful and less likely to bite than fall fish, but I know without a doubt you just need to find the right place a fly rod is applicable and find bitey springers and it’ll work.
Here are some photos of these down and dirty hunters that caught fish this fall

shrimp pink in my #1 favorite followed by all red with a black head, but there are tons of colors and combos that catch fish. It’s just jig fishing with a fly rod basically. Simple and very fun to tie and fish!

 

[TheKnigit]

I am definitely going to have to give this a shot next year. Nice looking fish and thanks for the patterns and info!

 

[brandon4455]

It’s a load of fun, I hope you have fun and catch fish with it! Though simply put it is bobber and jig with a fly rod.. I love it. I wanted to do a tutorial/ article on this subject but just haven’t had to time to photograph rigs and all of that. It’s very simple and straight forward. the best way to catch fish on a fly rod is fish the fly rod and commit to it. I had days where my buddy hooked a bunch on his spinning setup and I caught very few fish or even none, but the next trip out I caught almost all of the fish. It’s worth the effort

 

[TheKnigit]

Do you retrieve or strip these flies in at all? Or are you dead drifting them through a hole under an indicator?

 

[brandon4455]

Do you retrieve or strip these flies in at all? Or are you dead drifting them through a hole under an indicator?

Upriver in freshwater I prefer the indicator rig. Swinging and stripping flies is most effective in tidewater/bay areas where the fish are more active and willing to follow.this is speaking for chinooks and chums of course, cohos are in a class of their own and chase stuff down more readily.

I also don’t like to swing upriver because you’ll tend to foul hook or line/floss a lot of fish and that’s just not fun for me personally, I try to avoid it at all costs. It’s different for salmon than it is for steelhead because you have a lot more targets bunched together in a small area and they are much larger. There are exceptions and this is just my personal opinion and what I’ve experienced though.

 

[Echskech]

If you have an okay amount of experience roll casting a thingamabobber it can be done on a single hand 8wt with a standard floating line, which is what I used this year and last year. When I moved to New Mexico for a year, I sold off my gear and thought i wouldn’t be back anytime soon, so I was on a budget and have made it work with that. But with that being said I’m fishing smaller streams that are much easier to fish with a fly rod and I’m casting relatively short and feeding line to achieve my drift by positioning at the top of a hole.

some cons to using a standard 9ft 8wt rod.. not much length to make drifts easier, can’t high stick as much, or pick up as much line on the hook set, not as easy to cast. Just not very good line management. And the single hand 8wt is a little too light for big chinooks. I caught a handful last year and one over 30lbs took me way way too long to land.



my preferred rod and line for this rig is an 11ft 8wt switch rod or a single hand 9/10 with a 9wt WF floating line. Something with a longer head definitely helps as well and something that is high floating and good quality is a must because I’ve had lines that will sink if fishing boily holes or choppy water and it makes things near impossible. but it is much easier to cast than you’d think.

the dumbbell eye jigs/jig flies that I use are with hareline XL lead eyes which are approximately 1/10 oz, and I’m fishing anywhere from a 1/0 up to a 5/0 jig hook depending on conditions. I actually caught most of my chinooks this year on the 1/0 because I was fishing clearer water and a few pods of pressured fish.

I also prefer this method over stripping clousers because I can fish a heavy leader.and this method can also be very successful in tidewater,I can fish a jigged clouser under the thingamabobber too.
I typically use 20-30lb fluorocarbon leader, fall salmon are usually not leader shy like springers seem to be. Only con to this is if you snag up on a tree or a rock and can’t get it out, I have had the loop on my line break before the leader does. But I do not like to use light line for chinooks if I don’t have to. Fighting a fish for 20 minutes isn’t good for the fish and I hate not having what I need to keep them away from snags especially if I plan to bring the fish home. You will want an XL thingamabobber to float these, and no split shot is needed as long as you cast ahead and mend to flick your bobber upstream giving it a few seconds to sink before it hits where the fish are holding up.

I have also never fished springers with this method because they’re less plentiful and less likely to bite than fall fish, but I know without a doubt you just need to find the right place a fly rod is applicable and find bitey springers and it’ll work.
Here are some photos of these down and dirty hunters that caught fish this fall

shrimp pink in my #1 favorite followed by all red with a black head, but there are tons of colors and combos that catch fish. It’s just jig fishing with a fly rod basically. Simple and very fun to tie and fish!

Brandon do you have a name for this fly? I'm starting 2 time or salmon flies and this looks like a great option. Is there any reference on patterns or a tying demo you could help me find?

 

[brandon4455]

Brandon do you have a name for this fly? I'm starting 2 time or salmon flies and this looks like a great option. Is there any reference on patterns or a tying demo you could help me find?

It’s nothing special really it’s basically just a fly castable jig type deal so I never thought about much of a name.I’m not the first to tie things like this. There are multiple variations and materials and ways of tying these. You can tie them with or without tail, you can use rabbit or chenille, add rubber legs and shrimp/crab eyes and all kinds of stuff for them. if you go to Google and look up palmering marabou or YouTube and look at marabou salmon jigs it’ll show the gist of it. I could probably do a step by step with photos tonight even if you’d like on these specific ones.

The full recipe for the jig fly fall salmon size
Thread: ultra thread 140 to match head color
Hook: owner saltwater jig hook 3/0 or 5/0
Eyes: hareline lead eyes XL
Tail: shrimp pink saddle, UV pearl krystal flash
Body: marabou blood quills shrimp,hot pink,with light pink over the top


They also work well for steelhead in a smaller size.

 

[Echskech]

It’s nothing special really it’s basically just a fly castable jig type deal so I never thought about much of a name.I’m not the first to tie things like this. There are multiple variations and materials and ways of tying these. You can tie them with or without tail, you can use rabbit or chenille, add rubber legs and shrimp/crab eyes and all kinds of stuff for them. if you go to Google and look up palmering marabou or YouTube and look at marabou salmon jigs it’ll show the gist of it. I could probably do a step by step with photos tonight even if you’d like on these specific ones.

The full recipe for the jig fly fall salmon size
Thread: ultra thread 140 to match head color
Hook: owner saltwater jig hook 3/0 or 5/0
Eyes: hareline lead eyes XL
Tail: shrimp pink saddle, UV pearl krystal flash
Body: marabou blood quills shrimp,hot pink,with light pink over the top


They also work well for steelhead in a smaller size.

 

[Echskech]

That U.V. purple flash collar looks great on the pic u posted

 

[Chromatose]

That should get you headed in the right direction Echskech

 

[Echskech]

@Chromatose @brandon4455
Much appreciated, gentlemen.

 

[TheKnigit]

I am defintely going to have to try tying some of these.