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need some tips on chironomid flyfishing, is using a strike indicator easier, if so what is the best way to attatch it to your line. appreciate any input
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The best wayto fish chironomids is with a floating line. Vary your leader length to cover the depth. Some people use up to 20 foot leaders but I usually don`t use anything longer than 14- 16 feet. To fish shallow, grease your leader with some floatant down to a strike indicator. Your indicator will be set at the depth you want to cover i.e. 6inches above your fly. You can use stick on foam or a corkie type or a small piece of floating line threaded onto your leader. There are lots of indicators on the market and they`re all relitively inexpensive. Juat check your local fishin store. My favorite method is to just dead drift with the wind. You have to stay in control of your line at all times other wise you can have too much slack in your line to get a hook up. Just use a real slow retrieve to give it a little vertical motion. The other way I fish is to anchor booth ends of your boat and cast out and use a slow hand twist type retrieve. Most of it will be trial and error till you find what you prefer. Good luck.
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I tend not to grease my tippet as it makes it more difficult to sink the tippet if you want to fish deeper later. Using an indicator with a floating line will give you all the floatation you need. Use weighted chironomids if you are fishing deeper than say 6 feet. Some people also add a small piece of split shot one foot above the fly to really get down. I tend to look for areas that you can see the chironomids actually hatching, not just the empty cases. Drop your anchor and measure the depth to bottom. Measure the same depth on your leader less one foot and that is where your indicator should be set. You'll be fishing about one-two feet off the bottom. If you get no hits, vary your indicator along your leader to fish higher in the water cloumn. Unless I can see fish visably feeding on the surface or subsurface, I usually go straight for the bottom. That bottom, by the way, can be anywhere from 4 feet deep to 25 feet deep. If its 25 then that's how long my leader is. Oh yeah, and I've found that fly selection is important in terms of general size and colour but beyond that the fish aren't as selective as people think. Vary your depth and area fished if you're not getting hits. Also if fishing more than ten feet deep or there is a bit of a riffle making detection of strikes difficult, don't cast it very far, my casts for chironomid fishing are often less than 30 feet away, that way I can detect all the subtle strikes. Good luck !
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I've never tried a 25' leader. I normally fish a 5wt, fairly slow 9' rod. Is that long a leader fairly difficult to cast? I agree, 30' or so is a typical distance for me when I'm fishing the smaller sizes,but with a 25' leader, I assume that to make a 30' or so cast would mean 30' of fly line and let the leader roll as much as it can then sink? Please respond, as this long line idea (which I've heard is a popular technique is popular in the Kamloops area)sounds like something I would like to try.
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I frequent Sheridan Lake in July and it is not unusual to fish 30' leaders. The past couple of seasons I've been biting the bullet and springing the bucks for flurocarbon leaders - what a difference! It is nothing to hit bottom in 25-30' of water. As far as casting these long leaders I've never found it to be a big deal. It is not important to cast great distances so a relatively open casting loop is desireable and it is not critical that the leader even straighten out - the idea is to fish the leader at a right angle to the flyline anyway! A couple of the best anglers I know in the Cariboo have even given up on tapered leaders all together and use level tippet. Their theory is that the puddle of flurocarbon leader will sink straight down very quickly and they will be in the fish zone ASAP. I can say they catch a hell of a lot of fish!
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I'm going to give the LONG leader a try. Do you have any problems with wind knots or the leader spinning onto the flyline on the forward stroke? Mind you, with a fairly open loop I would suppose not? Well, time to quit talking about it and actually DO it! I'm off to Mahood Lk.. Going to fish Howard Lk., Sicily Lk., Italia and Cougar Lks. I might even drop into Colscaur. I will let you all know how it was!
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I must admit that an infrequent wind Knot or two does occur with these long leaders - but its definitly NOT the rule. In fact, the most common time of occurance for me is when there is NO WIND I think its that I don't pause long enough before the forward stroke. However, when the wind is blowing I seldom experience problems - this of course is extremely fortunate for it seems that the wind is ALWAYS blowing at Sheridan Lake - and most other lakes I tend to frequent for that matter! Tight lines!
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Well, the trip I spoke of above got canned. Ended up going to Rupert and Terrace. Had a seal take a nice, but small, steelhead neatly from my line on the Kalum Wednesday ( I did get a nice piece of lower jaw and gill plate as a keep sake). As for the discussion on "wind knots", I agree. Most knots, for me, come from poor casting. You know, 6 hours into the day, the arm is starting to get a tad tired, the frustration may be high and the cast gets a tad sloppy. Funny, I cant remember a time that the "wind" was the actual cause of a knot. But I fish, therefore.........I lie, and blame it on the wind!!!! Bent rods y'all. Ben
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I find the best way to fish chironimid is to anchor over a shoal, measure the water depth where you are going to be fishing, set your corky so your lure sits a couple of feet off the bottom. Then cast out take up the slack line, sit and wait. You realy don't need to retreive until the fish hit. Just make sure you keep an eye on that strike indicator.
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I often like to combine the wind drift and indicator method, especially when there are bulging riseforms. I anchor slightly upwind of where I want my chironomid to be, then I measure the depth, set my indicator so the fly will be about 1 ft above the bottom. I cast perpendicular to the wind, then allow the wind to blow the line and fly in a big arc downwind to the back of the boat. Once it is downwind, the fly sinks to depth. Often as not, I get a hookup on the drift.
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