by Uncle Wes, February 19, 2005

Last November I was fishing the North Fork of the Noosack, using my usual spoon or spinner, and happened to witness something I thought was extraordinary. I was watching a fella fly-fish and he was getting hook-up after hook-up. I decided to see just what he was doing and also to check if these were legitimate hook-ups, that is, in the mouth. And, yes, it turned out every one was legitimate. So I watched his technique closely. Using a fly, he would make a few false casts, and drop it right in the channel and drift it down. Bang! He would have another one on.



Now this was refreshing to see, (considering the last guy I saw trying to use a piece of yarn on a hook was casting out with his fly rod, and then reefing it back in hopes of snagging one). This got me to thinking how much fun this could be, and I wondered if I could come up with a similar set-up to use on my spinning rod. So I thought about it for a day or two and came up with an idea.



I gave my friend Chris Hoag a call. He has done some guiding in Colorado and Montana, and asked him if he would tie up some proto-types for me (he ties some beautiful flies). He told me he would go one better and give me a crash course on fly tying. I thought that would be great and told him my idea of making a fly out of yarn and adding some tinsel and silver ribbing to it. He told me know problem.



So I went out and picked up a few things – tinsel, thread, barbless #4 fly hooks, and a finishing whip. He showed up with a vise and we were set. He tied up three proto-types and then I started. Not being the brightest bulb on the tree, I needed one more lesson and Chris was happy to help out. Now I had it down: a pink body, white tail, silver ribbing, and some tinsel for flash. It was beautiful and I also knew that I could tie any color I wanted- red, lime green, orange, any color I desired. This was just great.



Now I had given much thought to how I would make this work. I got a three-way swivel and set it up so it looked like a “T” attaching the main line from my rod to the left side of the swivel. On the right side I hooked up my yarn fly adding a corky right in front of the fly with about 36 inches of leader. This would help float it up off the bottom. On the bottom of my three-way swivel I added 4 inches of leader and some split shot for weight. I was now ready for action.



I planned to cast out, let it bounce back through the current, and hopefully get a take. My thoughts were that this might be an effective method for small stream steelhead. But at the moment the river was full of Chum and they were very finicky at taking to much of anything. This would be a great test.



I went down to the North Fork and worked this method for about three hours and had hook-up after hook-up. What I thought was really amazing was that these salmon were rising to take the fly and in all that time I had only one foul hook-up. These fish ranged in size from 10 to 15 pounds and a couple in the 20-pound range. Much to my surprise one weighed at least 25-pounds. What a great day! If you want to try something new, give this a whirl.



On a side note, this year’s steelhead run was much better than the previous two. In fact, my favorite checker at Nugent’s Corner told me her husband and two sons had seven fish between them. Now that the native fish are in the river, don’t forget to release them.

So until next time may the fish at the end of your line be the one of your dreams.