Delta 6-01-08

[Hairstacker]

Fly fished the Delta yesterday morning for a few hours out of my inflatable kayak. Beautiful day but a little breezy and the water temperature at the location I fished was 68 degrees.

Was well into a falling tide when I arrived and, with the receding tide, the banks I targeted with divers were just getting too shallow and I didn’t get any hits. As a result, I moved out to the edges of the weedlines bordering deeper water and tossed a Tap’s Bug for a while but still didn’t get any hits.

I then decided to try a deer hair bug I tied over a year ago for fishing heavy weed cover. Its hook rides point-up with deerhair serving as a weedguard. Perhaps a few of you remember me showing it in the fly tying section – here is a picture showing it from the side:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v484/Sachlil/MatBuster1.jpg

And here is a picture showing the bottom of it:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v484/Sachlil/MatBuster2.jpg

I started tossing it across stuff like this and dragging it in twitches just fast enough to cause the bunny strip tail to jump and dart:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v484/Sachlil/200806014.jpg

It worked, as I started getting hit. Here’s one I taped at just shy of 18”:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v484/Sachlil/200806011.jpg

Here’s another one that couldn’t resist:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v484/Sachlil/200806013.jpg

I did lose a few fish in the weeds – as you know, they tend to bulldog down into the thick of it where they sometimes get unbuttoned.

This fly was almost completely weedless – way beyond my expectations. No matter where on the mat pictured above I dragged it through, it never snagged on the weeds (not once) and would only very occasionally bring back a strand or two of the really fine stuff. At the same time, it seemed to have no problems hooking fish whatsoever. This fly was a lot of fun and relaxing to fish because I could pause it at any time and not worry about it. And yet, I still got to enjoy that Jack-in-the-box topwater action.

The fly floated just below but at the surface, so when it wasn’t on top of the weeds, it was dropping into the holes where it was very visible to any fish. Since it floated at the surface, all the hits were topwater. I plan to tie up some more and make them a staple in my fly box. Needless to say, it was a blast!

[Scott V]

Very nice Mike, I have always liked the idea of the hook poins up. I might have to make a few of those myself. Which hook do you favor when making this fly.

[Hairstacker]

Scott, I'll have to double-check on the hook but I believe it is a size 2 Tiemco 8089, which is the same hook I use for divers and poppers.

By the way, here is the thread where I originally posted about the fly -- if you scroll down in it, there are some tying instructions:

http://www.kiene.com/messageboard/viewtopic.php?t=4961

[Rodney D.]

Hey Hairstacker, I needed to be fishing in your area. I also fished the Delta yesterday morning on the outgoing tide (which I don't like to do) and also fished the edge of the weedline with a clouser but the wind and weeds got the better of me. I could only get a couple of small bass and that was on poppers. That one fish looks like it's got some red on it's side. How deep does that fly sink? It's a good looking fly. I went out on a high tide on May 23rd and did great...I gotta read the tide tables more often.

[Hairstacker]

Hey Rodney! The red in that one fish is merely due to the light reflecting off of my red inflatable kayak.

As far as the fly, it actually doesn't sink -- it floats just below the surface film.

Yeah, that wind can be a pain. I was actually parking on top of that mat pictured above to make my casts and play out the retrieves.

[Rodney D.]

That explains it. I was hoping you had caught that elusive bass/carp hybrid! :D

[slage]

Hairstacker-
Great report!!

I remember reading your original post about that fly, awesome stuff.
I gotta see your fly boxes one of these days, you have a great sense of design, function and aesthetic.
Keep the reports coming.

[Hairstacker]

I gotta see your fly boxes one of these days

Scott (aka slage), I really appreciate your sentiments and you're more than welcome to do so but you give me far too much credit and I think you will be sorely disappointed, as I get the vast majority of my fly tying ideas from others who've done it first. Thank goodness those good folks were kind enough to share them with the rest of us. :lol: