Not alot of Fly fishers here?

Just posted it for sale in classifieds.  10wt Temple Fork Outfitters with Triton reel.

Hi Wizz. I would say that whether or not an 8 weight is undersized for salmon depends on where you will be fishing. If your are just going to be using it on small to medium sized rivers, like up to the size of the american, and 8 weight would be fine. If you are going to hit larger rivers like the sacramento, the backbone of a 10 weight might be nice to help turn fish so the don't just spool you. Another thing to factor in is your casting ability. For the average caster, once you go beyond an 8 weigh casting becomes much more difficult and tiring. An angler that I know doesn't use anything larger than an 8 weight ever. He has landed 30+ pound stripers and salmon up to 20 lbs on the America.

My current go to quiver consists of a 4 wt for trout, a 5wt 2 hander for trout and small steelhead (I have landed fish up to 20 inches with this rod, it is currently my favorite rod), a 6 wt 2 hander for larger steelhead, a single hand 8 weight for stripers, bass and rockfish. I only break out the 10 weight for fishing deep (up to 40 feet) because I can through a very heavy fly line that will sink quickly. I have a 1-piece 10 weight that I am can throw an 850 grain shooting head with, which sinks like a rock. Good for lings and I hope to try sharks with next year.

Awesome info bio-bill. I think a 2 hander will be my next step for these north coast rivers. The smith and chetco salmon are a particularly large strain of salmon, but steelhead are what I fish for most.

Whiz -  you are lucky to have such great fishing near you.  I am so envious.

Bio Bill-   850 grains!   That's a ton of wt!   I tried throwing 600 gr with my 10 wt and it was way too heavy for me.  I think it whacked out my shoulder joint.

Have an up and coming fly fisher here.  He ties and fly fishes any chance he gets.  I spend double duty trying to get pictures of him and casting myself.  Best hunting and fishing buddy I could ask for.

That's awesome, the more the merrier.

You all just got one more on board. I am still working on the how to's for fly fishing out of my yak, especially deeper saltwater. I'll read through the posts here before I start asking all the same questions that may already have been asked. I live near San Luis Obispo, so fly fishing the big pond is one of the fastest ways to get my fly fix. The fastest is Santa Margarita Lake which is nearly in my backyard. Here are a couple of pics of local fly caught fish. Shakedown I put one up of my youngest fly buddy for you as well.

Hey FlyYaker-
Welcome on board!

There are a few of us that fish deep in the ocean with our flies for pretty good results.   It is so much fun I can't go back to conventional.

Read the thread on it and feel free to ask any questions. 

Hope to see you on this water!

Lawrence

FlyYaker, good deal man.  So much fun to watch the young ones get into outdoors activities and yak fishing opens up so many. 

What weight rod are yall using? I have a 5wt for trout and such and an 8 wt for steelhead. I was thinking of adding a 9 or10wt for salmon (8wt a little undersized?) Will the 9/10wt be a better allround ocean rod as well? Are yall using 7 or 8wt for your 2handers? Do you use the 2handers for both Salmon and steelhead?

Ive been half-assin it for a while but now Im committed to the learning how to do this right.

I have a couple of 5 wt rods and reels that I rarely use anymore since I started using 2 wt rods with small click and pawl reels.  The 2 wt gear is super fun to use on smaller trout in small rivers and creeks (W. Walker, E. and W. Carson, etc.).  I do lose more fish with the smaller gear though.  Since I use a Hobie pedal yak I only troll with the fly gear as the line tangles in the Mirage drive too easily if I try to cast. 

Question for the 2hander spey steelhead fishing officianados:
If you have a line system with multitple changeable tips, how do you get a full sink? Fished the smith yesterday, and while it no trip is unfruitfall on that river simply because of its beauty, I never felt like I was getting my fly down enough in the big water. My full sink on the single is 24' I think, so do I tie on another length of sinking line to the full sink tip?

In other news, anyone want to get out on the south fork (or chetco or any of the rivers really) before the season ends?

What depth is the "big water" you're talking about? Some water is just not conducive to swinging flies. For winter steelhead, big tips and big flies I fish skagit heads exclusively, anything from  20ft to 24ft heads. These can be either floating or intermediate heads, substrate and depth determine which I will use. To that I will attach anything from 8ft of T11 to 13' of T20 but most common is 10-12ft of T14. This is not pretty casting especially with the heavier tips and short heads but it will turn over a 1/2 chicken with no problems.

While many people think you just quarter down and let the fly swing across there are a lot more subtleties to being a good swing fisherman. There are many things you can do to gain depth, casting 90 deg. or even a little upstream, mending, feeding line, stepping down after the cast. You can also change the angle of the line to control speed as well. Also laying out straight casts is important to being consistent and have the most control. Sometimes none of this matters and just casting and letting it swing is fine but you need to know the tricks to fish mo' water mo' better.

If the Miranda gauge is around 8ft. I will probably be somewhere on the SF this weekend...
 

What depth is the "big water" you're talking about? Some water is just not conducive to swinging flies. For winter steelhead, big tips and big flies I fish skagit heads exclusively, anything from  20ft to 24ft heads. These can be either floating or intermediate heads, substrate and depth determine which I will use. To that I will attach anything from 8ft of T11 to 13' of T20 but most common is 10-12ft of T14. This is not pretty casting especially with the heavier tips and short heads but it will turn over a 1/2 chicken with no problems.

While many people think you just quarter down and let the fly swing across there are a lot more subtleties to being a good swing fisherman. There are many things you can do to gain depth, casting 90 deg. or even a little upstream, mending, feeding line, stepping down after the cast. You can also change the angle of the line to control speed as well. Also laying out straight casts is important to being consistent and have the most control. Sometimes none of this matters and just casting and letting it swing is fine but you need to know the tricks to fish mo' water mo' better.

If the Miranda gauge is around 8ft. I will probably be somewhere on the SF this weekend...

What he said.
It's not my style but you could also slide on a worm weight in front of your fly to get it down too. 
I've been digging my intermediate skagit so far this winter.

Hi Wizz. I would say that whether or not an 8 weight is undersized for salmon depends on where you will be fishing. If your are just going to be using it on small to medium sized rivers, like up to the size of the american, and 8 weight would be fine. If you are going to hit larger rivers like the sacramento, the backbone of a 10 weight might be nice to help turn fish so the don't just spool you. Another thing to factor in is your casting ability. For the average caster, once you go beyond an 8 weigh casting becomes much more difficult and tiring. An angler that I know doesn't use anything larger than an 8 weight ever. He has landed 30+ pound stripers and salmon up to 20 lbs on the America.

My current go to quiver consists of a 4 wt for trout, a 5wt 2 hander for trout and small steelhead (I have landed fish up to 20 inches with this rod, it is currently my favorite rod), a 6 wt 2 hander for larger steelhead, a single hand 8 weight for stripers, bass and rockfish. I only break out the 10 weight for fishing deep (up to 40 feet) because I can through a very heavy fly line that will sink quickly. I have a 1-piece 10 weight that I am can throw an 850 grain shooting head with, which sinks like a rock. Good for lings and I hope to try sharks with next year.

thanks for the info.  Ive been using a 4 wt. with floating line for trout for years. This season I really want to start using sinking lines and go for rock fish and trout in lakes. Where can I buy the 850 grain and what brand? thanks

+1 fly fisherman here.  I fly fish far more than conventional fish,  I've just never done it sitting down or on a kayak