Lings on a Fly?

 

I'll bring some flies to this year's ORC for trade &/
or swag, & maybe a keg of this: http://www.ninkasibrewing.com/beers/total_domination

Those are beautiful.  I bet they would work well on northern pike, too. How long are they?  I have to make a pilgrimage back east to where I was spawned this summer so the kiddos can see their Grandparents. Also, because I like pike fishing.  They are such aggressive, mean bastards.  They like to hit top water stuff so I wanted to give the flies a try.  I found some bigger red and white ones last time I went back there, but it was so windy that I didn't try.  I just trolled plugs.

the bigger ones are about 2"

T-14 will work in a pinch (like if you cut a fly line in half or broke the whole thing off). I prefer to use a full fly line. My favorite is Airflo Depth Finder. http://www.gigharborflyshop.com/servlet/Detail?no=2173

For an 8wt or 9wt go with 300 grains. 10wts 400 grains. and 12 weights 500 grains. Airflo makes their Depth Finder with a floating running line and an intermediate running line. I have fished the floating running line for lings and rockfish and it has done fine. The fly and sink tip pull it down. The Intermediate running line would be great for when you are laying long casts out and retrieving the fly deep and you don't want the sink tip to hing like it would with the floating running line. One of the keys to getting down is to cast out and let lots of slack "S" on the water. If you cast out straight and tight line the thing it will take a lot longer to get deep.

I actually just picked up an Airflo Big Game Depth Finder 700 grain. I'm going to rock it on an 15wt Scott Bluewater rod this August and see if I can pull a big Halibut up. It sinks at 11.5 inches per second!

I'll upload pics of the Halibut flies too when I get a chance!

PNW, thanks for the link. I'll check it out tonight.

Great info! Thanks!

I actually just picked up an Airflo Big Game Depth Finder 700 grain. I'm going to rock it on an 15wt Scott Bluewater rod this August and see if I can pull a big Halibut up. It sinks at 11.5 inches per second!

I'll upload pics of the Halibut flies too when I get a chance!

 

Sorry for taking so long. Here's some pics of the flies I was talking about. The first pic is my greenling imitation tied on a 5/0 Daiichi 3847 circle hook with Spirit River 5/16 i-Balz. The material is Olive Yak Hair from Spirit River on the bottom with herring back saltwater yak hair from Hareline on the top. The flash on the inside is copper metallic mylar (or use flashabou), with Flashabou saltwater mirage on the lateral line, peacock crystal splash from Spirit River on the top. This fly is just over 8 inches long and is a big fish fly.

Second pic is of two colors I tied up on a 2/0 hook (same as above). Darker fly is same materials as above. Lighter fly is polar white yak hair and minnow blue yak hair from Spirit River. Glow in the dark white flashabou in the middle with same saltwater mirage flashabou and peacock herl over the top.

Third pic is a fly I tied up for Halibut. Same 5/0 as the first fly with a 2/0 circle on the back. I attached the two hooks with 60lb firewire. Tied in three white rabbit strips on the 2/0 and wrapped them up to the 5/0 and tied them off. For weight I did two sets of eyes. A 5/16 i-Balz and a XL lead eye behind it. I was concerned that all the rabbit hair would make the fly too buoyant so I added a little more weight than the other ling flies. I also tied in a good chunk of white glow in the dark flashabou.

Anyways, I've had some fun figuring this out the past couple years. Full disclosure, I own the Gig Harbor Fly Shop. If you need any of the mentioned materials give me a call 253-851-3474. I was also thinking it would be pretty sweet to hook a ling from a kayak on the fly. Haven't done that yet. If any of you are interested in meeting up to do some ling fishing in Puget Sound after the season opens 5/1 I'm more than happy to organize something.

This sounds like waayyy too much fun.  Hope to be in touch to meet up to try that kind of fishing one of these days.  Might have to wait until the 2013 ling season though.  My biggest fly rod is an 8wt, and so far I have a grand total of <2 hours of seat time on the water on my yak.  Sounds like I'd want at least a 10wt rod for lings, and I'd prefer to have significantly more experience.  But it's something to shoot for!

That said, if you want to meet up this year I do have a bait caster that would be plenty for lings.  I'd probably restrict myself to pretty calm weather/seas this year for anything in the salt though.

Nice flies, Blake!

Sumpnz, You can use your 8wt for Lings. No problem.  I know a guy who used to hike out on the jetty here with his 8 wt and some chartreuse Clousers and he'd usually nail a few. A 10 wt would be better to handle the heavier lines and big flies, but you can just scale down slightly for the 8 wt.

I plan to use my 8 wt again this year for Lings, as well as any fly fishing I do for Kings. I'll just use heavier leader. I had a 25# King bust me off in nothing flat with only 12# Maxima, using my 8 wt. It wasn't the lightness of the rod, but my own less than stellar handling of the explosive fight. Heavier leader might have given me a better chance.

One of these days I hope to get a 10 wt for Kings and Lings, but for now I will make do with my 8 wt and heavier tippet.

Right now I can't afford to spend too much on expensive 8 wt saltwater "integrated shooting head" flylines, as I don't fish big game in the salt much, so I will continue to experiment with making my own with T-14, 30# Amnesia running line, or maybe if I'm feeling rich, I'll spring for an Airflo ridge running line.

I might get some T-11 to make a shooting head for my 6 wt for surf fishing. The t-14 is for my 8 wt, since any head I would make out of that for a 6wt would be too short (20' or less). Any heads shorter than about 25'  start getting funky to cast. I might just cut the T-14 to three sections: 20', 4' and 6' and use the 20' on my 6 wt rod for surf casting for Redtails from the beach. Then I can loop on either the 4' or 6' section to use with my 8 wt from my yak. My cheap spool of Amnesia is 200 feet, and that's enough to make two shooting lines: one for my 6 wt reel, and one for my 8 wt reel.

I already own a couple of integrated shooting heads, and they were expensive! I think they now retail for about $70 or $80 a pop.  Other than the cost, Blake is correct. The new integrated shooting heads are often much better than the home-made shooting head systems us cheapskates try to get away with building and using. But its fun to play around with this stuff and learn the hard way.

Pretty flys!!!  Since I have moved up here from Sacramento, I have not even touched my fly gear and kind of miss it.  I cannot imagine the chuck-n-duck casts with that heavy a fly and that grain line....  I had a hard enough time with the 1/0 clousers with intermediate sinking line on my 7wt I used to use for stripers in the delta.

On another note, I would love to hear more on how effective flies are for all types of rockfish.  I can see slinging a clouser at the jetty (from a yak of course) and letting them bounce down the rocks....but going deep for 'buts or deep structure....wow, that would be a different technique to learn and play with.  I could not imagine palming the reel when a big one decides to make a good run back to the bottom....

Tight Lines!!!

There are loads of places in MA 4 & 5 that you can get into piles of 16-30" ling in less than 20 FOW. This would be a hoot ... especially from a yak you could stand on.

OlySpec,

We're just up in Gig Harbor, if you are ever up this way stop by and say hi. We'll show you some spots to hit up and what to use. Puget Sound is a fun place to fly fish and there's a lot of water to cover. I'm originally from Sacramento too and I remember fly fishing for stripers and struggling with shooting heads, etc. Fly lines have come a long way in the last several years and have opened up new opportunities and techniques. I've actually been itching to go back to Sac to chase some stripers....we'll see!


Blake

Pretty flys!!!  Since I have moved up here from Sacramento, I have not even touched my fly gear and kind of miss it.  I cannot imagine the chuck-n-duck casts with that heavy a fly and that grain line....  I had a hard enough time with the 1/0 clousers with intermediate sinking line on my 7wt I used to use for stripers in the delta.

On another note, I would love to hear more on how effective flies are for all types of rockfish.  I can see slinging a clouser at the jetty (from a yak of course) and letting them bounce down the rocks....but going deep for 'buts or deep structure....wow, that would be a different technique to learn and play with.  I could not imagine palming the reel when a big one decides to make a good run back to the bottom....

Tight Lines!!!

Blake, Oly,
IF you have any hankering at all to fish the Delta one more time you might want to hurry.

As always this has been a contentious place and current legislation in front of Cal House and Senate pushed by big ag would put it off limits to all but agri business.

Also going thru the same bodies is an  opposition bill that would remove a huge chunk of dams and levees in favor of restoration in support of the fish and wildlife. Agri business would take a huge hit as you can imagine.

Last i looked, the dam busters might win.

Looks like business as ususal in the Delta, doesn't it?

Just sad.  One of the many reasons I left that area.  Fishing and riding my MC were the only things I enjoyed about my 10 years in that state and both were starting to get more and more regulated.

I really wish I would have found the NW about 20 years ago.

Blake, Oly,
IF you have any hankering at all to fish the Delta one more time you might want to hurry.

As always this has been a contentious place and current legislation in front of Cal House and Senate pushed by big ag would put it off limits to all but agri business.

Also going thru the same bodies is an  opposition bill that would remove a huge chunk of dams and levees in favor of restoration in support of the fish and wildlife. Agri business would take a huge hit as you can imagine.

Last i looked, the dam busters might win.

Looks like business as ususal in the Delta, doesn't it?

When I moved from California to Washington my dad told me, once you leave California, you can never afford to come back. Best decision we ever made was to get out of California. It's a nice place to go visit though!

This has been a great thread guys. Thanks to all who posted!