# i refuse to catch fish this year...



## iamjaguarpaw (May 10, 2009)

not really , i just keep getting skunked. been out 4 or 5 times this year, haven't even gotten one bite,or nibble , or anything.

im new on the fly , so i didn't expect to go out and pull big numbers,but at least some input from the fish was expected.

i have been to mill creek,milton,mosquito, erie , and LBC,and everywhere i go, i either see spinning guys catching , or i see fish jumping around me. 

i just figured something would be forgiving of a cheap rod and a fairly flawed casting technique ,but it turns out my technique must be like using paracord on a cane pole...

just wondered if anyone has any tips.

fishing times are usually late afternoon/dusk.

im shore fishing and wet wading , but nothing seems to help.

-j


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## Clayton (Oct 7, 2008)

What's really important;

what flies are you fishing? And how do you fish them?


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## wabi (Jun 14, 2008)

What species fish are you after, and what flies are you using?


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## iamjaguarpaw (May 10, 2009)

i have tried everything from a san juan worm , to nead head prince. 

at mill creek i was after stocked trout , trying some wooly's , and nymphs 
and lbc i was after trout and smallies , tried the san juan , some muddlers , a wooly , some poppers , and a couple nymphs.

i use a 2' -3' medium retrieve with the wooly , and a drift for everything else but the nymphs , nymphs were tried at small jerks , quickly , then settle.


i was also using 4# flouro for tippet , loop-loop on the fly line end , and improved clinch on the fly end.


i think it has to do with my cast , and the time of day , because i have tried every fly in my small box , and nothing ever got so much as a nibble.


-j


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## Fishaholic69 (Apr 6, 2007)

maybe you are not getting it down deep enough to the strike zone?


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## iamjaguarpaw (May 10, 2009)

the flouro seemed to make everything sink. even the floaters were an inch under the surface .

even poppers sank...


-j


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## Fishaholic69 (Apr 6, 2007)

ya flouro will do that to ya. if you want stuff to float u need some mono and some floatant helps also too. flouro is ok for streamers like buggers and clousers but not dries or top water stuff.


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## big_fish (Dec 21, 2004)

T N T gets em every time but you better have a good double haul lol


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## flytyer (Jan 3, 2005)

iamjaguarpaw said:


> i use a 2' -3' medium retrieve with the wooly , and a drift for everything else but the nymphs , nymphs were tried at small jerks , quickly , then settle.
> 
> i was also using 4# flouro for tippet , loop-loop on the fly line end , and improved clinch on the fly end.
> 
> ...


On the woolybuggers try a shorter strip retreive. 4 to 8'' Let it set for a second or two and repeat, If that doesn't work try a little longer strip of about 12'', pause and repeat. That is how I usually fish them, and don't strip them to fast. 
With the nymphs try a hand crawl with your fly line ( just use your fingers to to crawl the line into the palm of your hand ) with nymphs slow is better, I think. If you are fishing moving water just let them dead drift. If you are fishing standing water then try the slow hand crawl with the line.
If you move your flies to fast they look unnatural to the fish and might spook them.

Your tippet seems to be OK.


Your casting, can't help you out there without seeing you do it.
The time of day should be OK. You said late afternoon, early evening, right?

I hope all this makes some sense to you.


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## Patricio (Feb 2, 2007)

poppers for panfish. small flies for creek chubs are fun, too. just keep at it. the rewards are greater when earned and not given.


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## iamjaguarpaw (May 10, 2009)

oh i fully intend to keep at it. the wife says she doesn't care if i catch a 2" shiner , shes having it mounted. 

like i said , im new to this so i really have no idea what im doing . 

-j


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## Ajax (May 16, 2008)

I've only caught only a few fish this year with my fly rod. I have been primarily been fishing for white bass. The last few times I have been out I fish my 8wt with a white and brown clouser. I also carry a spinning rod with a shad imitation crank bait. I continue to slay them with the crankbait, but the fish don't like the fly. I continue to change up my retrieval. I get the fly to to the bottom. I just can't connect. I do have an issue with a few of my false casts touching the water, but my casting gets better every time I'm on the water.


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## fishon (Apr 20, 2004)

when you get your first fish.. you will feel like 1000 bucks.. it may be small but you will remember it fondly.. than your next one: your gonna nail a 12 inch smallie and than your gonna feel like a 12 yr old kid again and that my friend is priceless....LOL

Frank


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## Clayton (Oct 7, 2008)

Yep yep, your first fly rod fish seems like a TITAN, no matter how small it is 

Just tie on a bugger, cast it toward the bank of the stream, then hold the line tight and strip 6-8" at a time with short pauses. Against the current, always against. And make sure it's an olive or black bugger... I dunno why but everything seems to treat those like candy! haha.


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## iamjaguarpaw (May 10, 2009)

i only used black & olive with some beadhead and some with flash tails.

i think i was pulling with the current...hmm..


thanks everyone 
-j


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

Although not usually a great idea for a flawed casting stroke, some sort of surface fly with a dropper has been hammering bluegills and panfish for me all spring. The idea is to take a surface fly of some kind, say a popper or a buoyant dry fly, tie a 12-18" length of tippet to the hook bend of the surface fly, then attach to that line a sub-surface fly, like a beahead nymph. The combo that has been working for me lately is a size 10 parachute hopper (grasshopper impression) with a size 14 beadhead black hare's ear nymph. Sometimes fish will hit the surface fly, sometimes the nymph and you see the surface fly twitch or go under like a strike indicator...and sometimes (like my last trip) you double up and catch 2 fish on the same cast, which is a blast. 

As for bigger fish, I have been catching big crappies and some really nice bass on Clouser minnows and some variations of that pattern. Usually I am fishing those with a "strip-strip-pause" retrieve, with the strips being short (maybe 5-7") and fast, then the pause lets the fly suspend if it is light weight or sink slowly if it is a heavier version. Strikes on streamers tend to be more violent and easier to pick up on, too.

Hope this helps!


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## iamjaguarpaw (May 10, 2009)

i dont know that my cast is bad, i seem to get fine turnover, i just really have to muscle over 25-30 feet. i kind of lift the rod on the backstroke, then strip line in on the forward arc, it sort of slingshot'ses the line.

i had to do this with the popper b/c of my leader being a 4/5w it seemed to be too heavy. i would have a nice loop but the fly was below the lower part of my line...

i have been wanting to try a p&d , but with the flouro , everything sank.

-j


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## Guest (May 13, 2009)

really have to muscle over 25-30 feet

do you practice on the lawn at all? are your flies or poppers too big for the rod you are using?


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## iamjaguarpaw (May 10, 2009)

yup , on the lawn i was getting 40-50 foot casts with no problem. its a super cheap setup , so i may pick up a cabelas prestige double taper this pay , and some mono. 

it seems like when my line is in the water , its hard to get it out of the water without getting rip-spray from lifting. i may mark my line so i know how much is out , but even with light san juan worm , i still had to slingshot the line once i had a good bit out...

-j


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## iamjaguarpaw (May 10, 2009)

edit : i have been getting smaller and smaller flies , my first ones were for spinning gear that were just little jigs with rubber legs , and i hooked my jacket a good 4 times before i realized it was too heavy. since then i have been sticking with 14 and smaller. i still have to work once i get a bit of line out.

-j


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## Clayton (Oct 7, 2008)

iamjaguarpaw said:


> yup , on the lawn i was getting 40-50 foot casts with no problem. its a super cheap setup , so i may pick up a cabelas prestige double taper this pay , and some mono.
> 
> it seems like when my line is in the water , its hard to get it out of the water without getting rip-spray from lifting. i may mark my line so i know how much is out , but even with light san juan worm , i still had to slingshot the line once i had a good bit out...
> 
> -j


You DO NOT WANT double taper line. Don't be silly, double taper was invented to work well when we used silk lines, so you could swap it out and have the dry side be the same as the one you used to be fishing.

Get some tapered leaders, clean your line with warm soapy water and some kind of cloth, clean your rod guides and try again  you'll be surprised i bet. A line lube would be useful too, but I don't recommend spending a zillion dollars until you know you like fly fishing.... I crossed the $1000 dollar barrier a while ago on fly fishing gear. Worth every cent.

A better rod will cast better, or at least be easier to cast, to a point. But the weight forward line will make a huge difference.


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## Flyfish Dog (Nov 6, 2007)

HUH?? DT line can be casted quite far in the right hands and a good caster! I can cast my lil 2wt 5 ftr and get 40 feet on a DT if I wanted to. If your casts dont need to be more 35 ft than DT line are great and have 2 lifetime on the lines also by reversing it. WF and DT line are exactly the same per each 40 ft. on each manufactors specs. so therefore your qouting the DT line have no sense! Where you get the wrong ides Clayton.


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## Flyfish Dog (Nov 6, 2007)

Here is a better idea! Will some one take this dude fishing and get him going on catching so he will not be discouraged from picking the fly rod! I would but I am to far away at the moment.


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## Clayton (Oct 7, 2008)

I think WF line is easier to fish. With a 2 weight, a DT or a triangle taper is the way to go, naturally. But for versatility, throwing a WF is easier. Does your DT setup throw a big streamer as well as it does tiny flies? That's why I recommend WF line to _everyone_ is because you can do damn near whatever you want with it 

But that's me. Keep in mind, I have full sinking line too lol, so I'm all about impracticality for a purpose at times


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## Flyfish Dog (Nov 6, 2007)

Yea Clayton, The thing is that both DT WF line are identical per AFtMA standard of the first 40 ft so its redundent since most everyone and myself dont always sasts farther than 30 ft most of time for bass and gills, also for salt to as they got everyone to believe you need 75 ft or more which is pure bunk as I found out myself a few years ago. But I did find that it was easier to cast shorter distance to close quarry with overlined rod or using Rio's Grand or SA GPX which havealmost 3/4+ weight siz than normal. When I had that mindset of casting 75 ft ,I was spooking and missing all the fish that was in closer. Pity me I changed my tastics and now had brought in 8 bass so far over 20 inches biggest 25 1/2 and losing a lot of more after bringin them to me but falling off. All these fish were caught no further than 30 ft. So this tells me why bother going the distance. It the same for big trouts down here also.
I was using a 10wt and Teeny 500 gr FS the other night off the ramps for walls but they werent biting, but everything was perfect though just they were not in the spot. Oh well!


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## Clayton (Oct 7, 2008)

a 10 weight? Sheesh man, what exactly were ya fishing for?


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

Clayton said:


> a 10 weight? Sheesh man, what exactly were ya fishing for?


Apparently something big!


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## Flyfish Dog (Nov 6, 2007)

TheCream said:


> Apparently something big!


LOL!! I can't imagine someone trying to throw Teeny T500 gr. Full sinking line on a 7wt! Even a 9wt is to hard but my 12wt. does it better. When you got to get deep that what you need to do but I dont want to do it every day though. Targeting anything that would hit a fly is all that matters but a 7lb SMB would make me real happy!


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## iamjaguarpaw (May 10, 2009)

well i got one today at mill creek.i caught a 11-12" carp (white carp?). it was definately worth it. me and the g/f are going back tomorrow. shes wormin it , and im picking up some BWO and BHP , i caught the carp on a bead head prince. 

was reelin in getting ready to try my minnow/spinning combo , and thought i had a snag. tried roll casting , and it took off. 

ended up having to life him 4 feet outta the water from where i was , but he stayed on.

thanks everyone.
-j


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## Flyfish Dog (Nov 6, 2007)

Congrats! Patience with it and it will pay off for you. Your confidence should get better also.


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