Lings on a fly

Send me a reminder before GS7 and I'll bring up a load of Peacock feathers. Can't speak for how good they are for Salt. Have tied up a few long shank live bait hooks and Carolina rigged them for rockies. Back to back small eye feathers for the tail and sword feathers and fan feathers for the bodies

I have a lot of feathers from my Blue & Gold Macaw that I could bring if someone things they would make good fly's.  Most of the feathers are either blue or yellow/gold.  Have some that are nearly 2' long.  Lots of much smaller ones, though.

I assume you are using a sinking line? What weight rod? I have a 7wt. My guess is it will be on the light side?

Agreed on the 7 wt. I use both 8 & 9 wts. But in most places you're going to catch more rockfish than lings, even when targeting lings, so try the 7 - it'll work well on the rockies.

I use T14 shooting heads & intermediate running line - very fast sinking line. T17 is even heavier, and I use that too, usually with the 9 wt.

Wind is always a consideration, and the heavier rod can handle strong winds pretty well.

So between needing to use heavy fast sinking line, and cast well in strong winds, and to at least occasionally use large flies, I'd recommend the 9 wt..
Bill

I'm guessing the Macaw feathers might hold up better in the salt than peacock. I've used peacock when I've run out of synthetic flash. I looks good, but not sure how it will hold up in a rockfish environment. Probably work better when black rf are feeding at top water. I'd be willing to give it a try.

Not a fly fisher so I haven't been using sinking line or bug wand gear (on my list of things to learn); usually just cast & retrieve or troll. I tie the fly above a plastic jig (6" big hammer or gulp grub) & get a decent amount of double hook-ups that way. Started tying my own shrimp flies because I can use better hooks & couldn't find any worth buying. It's fun tying them also. Wonder how sinking line would work with spin gear?

What size hook you tying those shrimp?


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Hey Paul, those flies look great, cool eyes. I have a bunch of colored buck tail to trade.  I'll be at GS7. PM if your interested. Mike

What size hook you tying those shrimp?

I like using Owner or Gamakatsu 3/0, sometimes 2/0 for the shrimp flies. Long shank 3/0 for the loud mouth pattern. I want to tie some of these

Hey Paul, those flies look great, cool eyes. I have a bunch of colored buck tail to trade.  I'll be at GS7. PM if your interested. Mike

pm sent