Southern California Steelhead? 'Against All Odds'........

[Digger]

I went to this screening last night down here in the city of Ventura.
It was put on by Cal Trout and it was held at the original Patoginia store (with free Sierrra Nevada IPA!!!)
Pretty cool. And I met Mikey Weir afterwards.

Tonight's agenda is "Waypoints" by Confluence films at Cal State Northridge

[dpentoney]

Would someone explain "strip casting" to me? TIA.
Best,
Larry S

Larry S,
Strip casting is fishing bait on a fly rod with a fly reel loaded with monofilament. A deadly way to catch trout and steelhead with a worm or a little piece of roe and a few split shot for weight. I used to fish an 8 weight Fenwick with a Pflueger 1492 Medalist, the smallest one, with 8 lb. test for winter steelhead. A 4 weight rod with 4 lb. test for trout.

[Darian]

WOW!!! Does that bring back some great memories. Strip casting was practiced by many steelheaders along the coast in the 60's/70's. Fly casters found it to be a good method to salvage a trip when arriving at their choice of water only to find it too turbid to fish a fly. It worked best when using a shooting head set-up with mono backing. Merely take off the head and replace it with a pencil weight, a swivel, leader and a hook. The cast was made by stripping off enough line for the desired distance, holding the mono in loops in one hand and then lobbing the whole thing out into the river for a drift. Most everyone used cured roe but many used spinners/night crawlers for bait. Saved many a trip for me. Versatile method for fishing....

[Larry S]

Thanks, dpentoney and Darian. Figured it had to involve some "lobbing." I remember that night crawler/harness
rigs were very popular on the Trinity in the 1960's; winter fishing. Fenwicks and Ambassadors.
Best,
Larry S

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I think strip casting with roe and weight using mono on a fly fishing outfit was very popular years ago on small brushy coastal steelhead streams.

I never tried it but I caught my share of steelhead in the fall on night crawlers with a spinning outfit.

[Jeff F]

How the hell do you set the hook with this method? Easy enough with a stiff 7' spin rod. But with a 9' fly rod and all that line out? I'm assuming most of these fish were gut-hooked and whacked.

And oh yes.....there ain't no fish that swims which can resist a juicy nightcrawler! Been trying for years and years to devise a fly-fishable artificial crawler that actually catches fish. I think the smell has to do with it too....

[Darian]

I never found the hook set to be an issue while strip casting. Many fish were hooked deeply and whacked. Catch & release wasn't exactly the mantra in that time. My personal concession to using the method was to quit fishing after catching one fish. Mighty tasty, tho.

[dpentoney]

Strip casting usually involved short casts, often hook-ups occurred right under the rod tip. Using split shot gentle pick-ups could be felt and most fish were hooked right in the corner of the mouth. I felt more connected to the fish strip casting than fly fishing, as the fish didn't have a flyline to drag through the water when hooked.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I would say that catch-n-release did not really exist much before about 1970?

[sfspey]

As dp said it works great for small brushy creeks and short casts with a little split shot. I used egg patterns back then and did well on that.
I made my rod with an 8 ft blank and had no trouble setting the hook. Strip a little line off, cast, feel the tap along the bottom, line stops, fish on, release and repeat.