Top water stripers

[Charlie Bisharat]

Folks,

I hope all of you are having a delightful summer. Sacramento has been about as mild as I can remember. The older I get the less I like the heat. so I have been dancing a jig with this summers weather patterns.

As fall approaches and water temps in your favorite top water striper haunts start to cool down , it will soon be prime time top water season all over our local area.

I want to wish all of you addicts a good fix this fall and I am hoping that you have all your gear together for a fine top water season. Kiene's has been intensely dedicated to the top water fly fisher by carrying all the best top water lines leaders and flies.So if you have missing gear or have questions, see the wonderful folks at the store.They are really excited about top water stripers these days. I believe Andy Guibord brought a fat 15 pounder to hand a week or two ago.

I also know that Capt KD's calender is looking more and more full all the time and he is excited to take all of you that have dates booked with him.

If you are not an old pro at the top water thing or you just want to fish the best areas and not worry about controling the boat, KD is hands down the areas best at the top water game.

I wish I could report to all of you that my new top water fly was on the shelf at your favorite Umpqua dealer but that is still several months away at best. I did however, just today, overnight my first shipment of foam heads to the Umpqua factory so the sample process and quality control process is soon to follow.Umpqua is fully comitted to a hurry up production timeline for special release on the west coast.

I can hardly wait for you to have them in your top water arsenal and I won't mind in the least not tying them any more myself. They are a lot of work no doubt.

I will be on a mission myself to do some top water filming this season, so I am hopeful we can all find some willing fish.Best of luck to all of you this top water season and take some good photographs.

Cheers Chas

[paulegan81]

Thanks for the Primer
Chas
your Air Head has been bringing some very nice fish to the boat in the American this past month........

paul...

[Charlie Bisharat]

Paul,

I am thrilled that you are giving the airheads a workout. That is great to hear. The airhead is certainly not the "catch all" fly but it has a lot of situations where it excells tremendously. It is amazingly versitile with regards to fishing the entire water column.

Soon there will be 5 new colors available from Umpqua. There will be an all black, blue/white,olive/white, red/yellow, and a rainbow trout. The rainbow will be available in all current sizes plus a 5/0 and will be 7 3/4" long. All these colors except the red/yellow have been field tested locally and have done really well.The red and yellow have crushed the pike and peacocks.A single airhead caught nearly 40 pike before showing any signs of wear.

Quick crazy story for you. My dear friend John Sherman was just up in Canada on a pike fishing trip and he and his boat mate were both fishing the 1/0 red/yellow airhead when his partner hooked a nice fish. It happened that Johns fly was fairly close to where the fish was hooked and while the fish was on his partners line it saw John's fly and dashed over and ate a second airhead. He has a wild photo of a nice pike with two airheads, one in each corner of his mouth.

I know you have been bitten by the top water thing and I hope you have a great season, from what I hear a 16 pound striper in the American is a fine way to get started.Go get em!!!!!!!

Chas

[Darian]

WOW!!! Talk about a suicidal fish.... I lost an brwon/white Airhead to a good size Rooster at La Ventana in June. Good fly en la playa....

[paulegan81]

I didn't know we should have stopped tossing Top Water.........

that 16#'er sturmer got was great!!!
but it gave no warning...... and barley made a splash.....
kinda took it like a trout...... then it just shot down stream.....
that fish fought hard it made some real screaming runs.....
I think they fight harder when you get them on TOP!!!!!

Air Heads:
we had a fish on Tuesday and it go below the boat and got off of the hook
Kevin was striping fast with his rod high to get the fly back in and the fish slammed it again on the surface.....
the rod had to much bend to get a good hookset.....

Hey Chas
what is your thought on the Rio Out Bound org. Vrs. the Out Bound short...
do you think they both have a place on the boat???
and when would you use one over the other......

I have a 10wt short on an 8wt rod and people love it......
I have an 11wt org. on a Tcr 9wt and most people can't cast it......

Paul......

[OceanSunfish]

KD had the OBS #9 on a #9 TCR when I fished with him and it cast beautifully while tossing well dressed Bubbleheads. I have not casted this combo with a substantially larger pattern, like the AirHead or the new "Pole Dancer" that will be commercially available later this fall. (I sure wish I could get my hands on one prior to the fall season so that I can do some casting/adjusting of lines, etc.)

Based on my casting experience using KD's setup, I matched my #9 TCRs with the #9 OBS lines.

What make/model of #8 rod do you have the #10 OBS loaded with? My first impression was the #9 OBS would be fine on my #8 TCRs, since the line is only 375 grains, but the rods felt stressed when I tried it, doable, but a tad stressed. I'm sure there is an explanation as to why I can toss 400 grains of T-14 on the #8 TCR, but didn't like the 375 grains of OBS on that same rod.

I'm sure it has to do with wind resistance, etc. T-14/LC being a very thin line.......

I didn't know we should have stopped tossing Top Water.........


Hey Chas
what is your thought on the Rio Out Bound org. Vrs. the Out Bound short...
do you think they both have a place on the boat???
and when would you use one over the other......

I have a 10wt short on an 8wt rod and people love it......
I have an 11wt org. on a Tcr 9wt and most people can't cast it......

Paul......

[paulegan81]

we have the 10wt OBS on a TFO CFR rod and it will through a mile.....
we use 33' of T-11 on this rod (363 grns.)
even the big flies like the Rainy's Teaser.....
I am still working on getting the Tcr 9wt lined right for stroke i like.......
I use 31' of T-14 (434 grns) on this rod
It will toss the 11wt OB org. but I have to really drive it.... or it dumps.....
with a small fly like a 6" 0/3 bubble head it does fine but when I go to the teaser
it seems to be work..........
i need to try the 10wt OBS on the TCR 9wt........
but I cant get it out of the wife's hand......
I also think the running line on the OBS is much better than the Org. OB

I think the deference between the LC or T-x lines and the floating lines is
that with the sinking lines the loop we cast dose not have to be as tight to cut through the wind. and the flies we are tossing might be heavier but not as bulky....

Last time I went with KD. the OBS was not in the shops yet.......
they were talking about it but it just hadn't hit the market......
I had bought a new Org. OB just for the trip....

Striper "Tec." sure has picked up as of late.....
I think Trouters still out number us at least 4 to 1 but we are picking up speed.......and the market is catching on.....

I have an ABLE 8wt I like for Top Water
and I have an 8wt Rainshadow rx8 custom built by L3 rods that is very nice also

[Charlie Bisharat]

Paul,

I think the OBS is more user friendly than the original OB.As you said the running line on the original is harder to work with than the new OBS.

However, there are two key things to getting along with the orginal OB line. First. I stretch the hell out of that line as I strip it from my reel. I mean hard. In fact I broke one line in the middle while doing my stretching routine. I have to believe it had a knick in it from all the abuse as it was an older line.

Secondly, as with many other lines,it is critical that you only strip off what line you are going to be able to throw each and every cast. If you leave some in the bucket each time you cast, you will have serious issues in no time.I often clip off my fly and strip all the line from my reel and drag it behind the boat at a very low speed to untwist the whole line.

As for it's usefullness in the boat ,absolutely! I would limit it's use to longer leaders and smaller flies ,that have minimal wind resistance by design. A 2/0 crese fly for example. It will carry a fly like that a country mile.

If you want to turn the original OB into an OBS feel free to cut 6' off the front of the line and install a braided loop. It will then be damn close to the new OBS with the only difference really being the running line.Truth be told, that is how the OBS came about. I was unhappy with the effort that it took to cast my larger flies and studied the structure of the line and started cutting it back from the front. I started with 4 feet and it was immediately better. I then went to 5 feet and then ended up at 6 ft and it was exponentially better at that point.I packaged one up and sent it to John Sherman the Rio rep at that time and he fished it and passed it on to the folks at Rio and in less than 9 months you could buy one at your local Rio dealer. That is amazing, and speaks volumes to how a company has it's finger on the pulse of the market.Kudos to Rio for that.

With the type of top water fishing I do the OBSCW is a god send.It is true that the running line is much more user friendly but as with anything, there are tradeoffs and you will sacrifice a bit of distance.I am happy to do that at this point.As for matching rods and lines that is a very individual thing ,clouded by lots of variables. Rod flex, casting style,physical strength, fly size and configuration, etc.My approach goes like this. I can always put a smaller fly on my leader but if I can't always put a bigger fly on , it won't work for me. In other words, I want any of my 4 or occasionally 5 top water rods to be able to use either large or small flies based on a given fishing condition.As a result I do not top water fish with anything smaller than either of my 9wt Sage TCX's. I have 2 10 wt Sage TCX's as well set up with the largest top water fly I fish. One of a light color, like the rainbow trout and one with black.That way during the majic hour I do not have to clip and retie anything in dim light or fumble for cheater glasses.I can grab a different rod and fly that is already flaked out and cast.

So my set ups are like this. I use a 10 wt OBSCW on my 9 wt TCX and an 11wt OBSCW on my 10 wt TCX. I also use an 11wt OBCSCW on my 9 wt XI2 and that is a sweet set up as well. The TCR's that you mentioned are very powerful and were my favorite rod until the TCX came along. You got the good stuff for sure.

Hope that helps out and good luck this fall.It will be a good time catching or no catching.



Cheers, Chas

[paulegan81]

Paul,
So my set ups are like this. I use a 10 wt OBSCW on my 9 wt TCX and an 11wt OBSCW on my 10 wt TCX. I also use an 11wt OBCSCW on my 9 wt XI2 and that is a sweet set up as well. The TCR's that you mentioned are very powerful and were my favorite rod until the TCX came along. You got the good stuff
Chas

Rio really hit a home run when they made the OBSCW
best big fly distance line on the market

so you up line only one on the TCX but go up to sizes on the XI2

the stretch really helps the OB org. it just seems to have a very long head and takes a ling time after the stop in the stroke to unfold......
I think i am going to cut it.........
I have been tempted but if I cut it and don't like it I cant put the piece back on
it is casting well over 80' but it is work..... a lot of work......

so you use all OBSCW lines now....
I am going to do that as well when my OB org. where's out.

missed one grab and got one to the boat tonight
with the 7" adjusted bubble head!!!!!

[Charlie Bisharat]

Paul,

You will not be disappointed if you cut the first 6 feet off the original OB line.Basically you will be reducing your overhang by 6 6eet and that is just enough to make all the difference in the world. You will no longer have to do everything perfect every cast.

Removing the first 6 feet and then adding a twisted leader will also keep the line from a possible dumping issue.In essence what you have done with a furreled or twisted leader is replace the factory tapered fly line that goes from the full diameter weighted head thickness to a far reduced welded loop diameter at the end of the line.However in doing so you have reduced the amount of fly line that has to be airealized to get the weight of the head to operate and carry the fly the greater distances.

The 9 wt XI2 is very a powerful rod especially in the butt section ,and I have no issues with casting the 11wt OBSCW with it.The TCX is more like a Ferrari , fast ,light and nimble and the XI2 is like a more solid American muscle car like the Corvette or Camero.Both have there place . Both are a total pleasure to fish.

Cheers Chas