Lings on a fly

had my 1st successful opportunity to try some of these flies at the end of Feb. camera batteries died so no pics. used a 2 oz jig motor oil curly tail w/ a smaller shrimp fly 12" above it. caught 2 greenlings & 1 brf on the fly & 3 brf on the grub. had a larger ling on but made the mistake of using a wire hook on the fly, so got a straightened hook for my efforts. seem to lose more larger fish than i catch.

Beautiful flies!  Are the flies attached to the banana weights fished from a casting rod? 

Beautiful flies!  Are the flies attached to the banana weights fished from a casting rod? 

Nice work on all the creations. More importantly, imho, they're Fisshhyy looking creations. Sweet.
I'll be eyeballing those pictures and trying to make 'em come to life.

 I'm not grasping how the lings are being inticed by a fly and a fly rod.

I fly fish. Today I managed to touch a couple of decent lings, but was pitching 1oz. heads and plastic into 10 to 30 feet of water. The water is really moving with each turn. How does one go about fly fishing it?

I'd suspect a spey and a super fast sinking line. The casts are short, thank the fishing gods. My worry is: what fly rod is going to lift any good size ling, before it takes me on a tour of Rock City?

In other words, what weight rod are we talking about?

Thanks

seem to lose more larger fish than i catch.

I'll accept it that way, if I must, and I must, but it sure is nice when the "more" isn't way out of ballance with what I touched.

But, a 60lb. striper, I'm done. Where do I go from that? So, 'knowing' me, the fish gods take pretty good care.

Beautiful flies!  Are the flies attached to the banana weights fished from a casting rod?

yes, the large clousters are. i've also been using shrimp flies that i've looped above a curly tail grub jig or swim bait with some success. i'll have to reconfigure that setup for large fish also. sometimes the line breaks at the loop knot (using power pro). thinking about a mono leader.

Nice work on all the creations. More importantly, imho, they're Fisshhyy looking creations. Sweet.
I'll be eyeballing those pictures and trying to make 'em come to life.

 I'm not grasping how the lings are being inticed by a fly and a fly rod.

I fly fish. Today I managed to touch a couple of decent lings, but was pitching 1oz. heads and plastic into 10 to 30 feet of water. The water is really moving with each turn. How does one go about fly fishing it?

I'd suspect a spey and a super fast sinking line. The casts are short, thank the fishing gods. My worry is: what fly rod is going to lift any good size ling, before it takes me on a tour of Rock City?

In other words, what weight rod are we talking about?

Thanks

seem to lose more larger fish than i catch.

I'll accept it that way, if I must, and I must, but it sure is nice when the "more" isn't way out of ballance with what I touched.

But, a 60lb. striper, I'm done. Where do I go from that? So, 'knowing' me, the fish gods take pretty good care.

not a fly fisher, but would like to learn. was on the water at Cape Arago Lighthouse (Oregon) last weekend for some blacks that were feeding topwater. caught a limit in short order w/ some double hookups on a shrimp fly. also got two small but legal lings. 2 days of great fishing.

Dang; I wanna be a non flyfisher and have a stringer of fish like that taken on the fly . That must have been a kick in the pants. Well done.

I ahve been tying my own shrimp flies for quite some time. I dont get too fancy, but catch a bunch of fish on them every year. I use a two fly setup for the kids, and I put a teaser above my jig or swim bait. doubles are common when you get into a school, I like doubles.

NWKA has a similar thread with a lot of great input on what fly gear to use.
basically a shorter 8-9 wt up to 11wt with T series front ends attached to a braided or dyneema running line, heavy flies short stiff leaders.

You can also find some more info on feltseoul.com. Paul does a lot of damage to ling populations with a 9 wt.

In the Keys, for fly fishing clients who wanted to catch fish in blue water top water, we would get the fish to the surface by pinching the eyes of pilchards and throw them out.  Being blinded they skirted along the surface just like a top water lure.  That generally attracted anything below.  Once we got them up, we would just slowly toss out more occassionally to keep them interested.  The fly guys could then do their thing.

glad i am not a pilchard, whatever that is.    I am heading for Florida in August and hope to toss my fly around there.    Will look for some of those blind pilchards.     

I also tie my own shrimp flies. They catch small lings all the time.

Tied some more shrimp flies. will bring 'em to GS-7

Sweet looking flies Paul, those should rock thier socks off 

Sweet looking flies Paul, those should rock their socks off 

Thanks Tim. I've caught lots of fish on the smaller shrimp flies. Haven't tried the loud mouth shrimp pattern yet. Will you be at GS-7? I'm looking to trade flies for some tying material: buck tail, raccoon tail, boar or other stuff that would work for saltwater flies.