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I've been reading the correspondence on chironomid fishing with great interest, and wondered if UK experiences might be of interest to some of you BC fishers. I fish several stocked reservoirs in the south of England. Chiros - buzzers to us - are a major part of trout food for most of the season. We fish them at all stages from bloodworm to hatching emerger either from boats - anchored and drifting - or from the shore. Leaders range from 12' to 20' with around 16' being my standard. We can use up to 3 flies which I know is out in BC, but which allows us to cover various depths and stages of development. We also use indicators. I use wool soaked in floatant as it can be pulled through the tip ring on the rod. When we first started using indicators twenty odd years ago they were made of short pieces of peacock quill painted fluoro red. Trying to net a trout on the end of a 20' leader with the indicator jammed against the tip ring led to some strange contortions! One of my best waters is near Oxford and produces some of the best grown-on rainbows in the country. Fish up to 7lbs are not unknown, but the best fish run around the 3-4lb mark and they fight like crazy, especially when hooked on a size 14 emerger and 3lb leader on a 5 weight rod. If anybody wants to swap fly patterns just email me. Anybody coming over to the UK for fishing do the same. If anybody can advise me on patterns for steelhead on the Skeena, or for trout on the Clearwater or on the Kamloops lakes this September get in touch. Good fishing to one and all. Bob.
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Bob,at the risk of sounding like a heel,if I'm building my own leaders,what kind of formula would I use,to create a 20'leader.This really baffles me.Also,is this a leader that can be casted effectively,or is all hell going to break loose on me.I've created some real nice 12' and 14' leaders,but have yet to even fathom the 20'er.Please help,as a 20' leader intrigues me. Thanks Dan
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Dan, 20' leaders are no real mystery - honest! I use fluorocarbon straight from the spool attached to a braided loop. Breaking strains to suit the conditions, but I use anything from 3lb up to 8lb. As I said we in the UK can use up to three flies on a leader which I know is not allowed in BC so the potential for tangles is infinite! Don't try casting into a head wind, or try to cast too tight a loop and you'll find 20' is no more difficult to cast than 12' or 14'. I have been known to use up to 25' on rare occasions but for the most part can see no real advantage. If I want to fish THAT deep I use a very fast sinking line and a buoyant fly called a Booby. This is a deadly method at times, but because the fish tend to swallow the fly, it is not a catch & release method. Best of luck. Bob.
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Dan, Casting the "extra long" leaders, self tied or from the box just takes a little practice. The first time I ever cast a 20+' leader I was pleasantly surprised at how easily I got the hang of it. I have fished early in the season at White Lake (B.C. Interior) where 30ft leaders were not uncommon for the floating line chironomid fishermen. Though at that depth, I prefered to use my sinking line with a leader shorter than the length of my house. If you do go 20+', I would reccommend going with a good 18 ft tapered leader and adding length to that as needed. I suspect you will find that the fewer knots(which will be spending some time traveling through your rod guides on the retrieve) the better. Just an opinion. Regards Dave
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Guys,help me build a 20'er,at the kitchen table.Tell me about lengths,pound test,right from the butt section to the tippet.that is what I want to do.Thanks Dan
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Dan I tried sending you the page via e-mail. So far it hasn't gone through. There is a great web site for building leaders. It is in the "tackle" section of www.flyfishusa.com , or you can go direct to the page (if you have enough time to type in this address) www.flyfishusa.com/tackle-tips/leaders/about-leaders.htm I hope this helps. David
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Why the twenty foot leader for chironoids Are you using a strike indicator with this length? I have never fished in water deeper than 10 feet whie using a chironomid pattern.Are you actually fishing in twenty feet of water. Or waiting for a strike while it sinks in the shallower water and then doing a dead slow retreive,pulling your fly off the bottom
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The reasons for the long leader depend on a few factors. The biggest is perhaps water clarity. If the water is gin clear the sun can penetrate into deep water and thus provide photosynthesis for aquatic plants. This in turn provides the habitat nesessary for the chironomids. So in general, the clearer the water, the longer the leader. When fishing chironomids, you'll need to experiment to find the depth the fish are actively feeding in. A good way to find the depth is to drop your anchor to the bottom. Then pull your anchor back up. Measure the rope against your striping apron as it comes up, eg: 10 pulls at 18 inchs a pull and you have 180 inchs or 15 feet. Now simply measure off 15 feet of leader and attach a strike indicator. If after a while you find the fish aren't biting at that depth, adjust the strike indicator by 6 inchs. Don't forget that your leader won't be totally perpendicular to the surface because it will drift with the currents in the lake. Anyway I hope this helps...good luck and tight lines!! Dallas
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Chironomids will commonly emerge from depths of a couple of feet to 70' or more. Early in the year they tend to emerge from relatively shallow water and hatch from progressively greater depths as the year goes on. Just this weekend I was successfully fishing in 8-12', at 8' I was fishing 12' of leader under the indicator and when I was in 12' I fished my 17' leader without an indicator. Later in the year as the hatches progress to deeper water I will be fishing leaders as long as 30' in 25-28 foot depths, in fact if I weren't using flurocarbon leaders straight through then my leaders would need to be even longer! As with most chironomid fishing the takes are normally in one of two places, right at the bottom or right at the top and If you want success then you need to fish these areas. It has been my experience that fish - especially the larger ones spend more time feeding near the bottom, so if you want these fish you need to get down and long leaders WILL do the trick. Tight lines.
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I watched chironomid fishermen clean up this weekend while almost everyone else got skunked! We ate one of the fish we caught (on a damsel fly) and his stomach was absolutely full of chironomids! My question is how important is the strike indicator and do you have to watch your line and indicator as closely as everyone says? I tend to drift off and forget to watch the indicator if there's no action. I've caught lots of trout before, but not one on chironimids. Not for lack of trying. I need to sponge up all the info I can!
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For me the strike indicator is only important if I'm fifhing shallow - either shallow water or just under the surface. If at all possible I try to fish without an indicator. When I first started fishing chironomids I too read the stuff about watching the indicator or tip of your flyline for the subtle movement that some Zen-like sixth sense would register as a strike. After many years of successful chironomid fishing I can say that I would catch as many fish with my eyes closed and completely dependent on feel as I would watching a bobber (oops - indicator) like a hawk!. I regularly fish 2 rods and many days catch way more fish on the rod in the holder. As well, most days there is at least a breeze that riffles the water enough to make it impossible for my sorry eyes to see too far anyway! Honestly most of the fish I catch on the retrieve I feel the take, I know the writers say different but I've never found the ulra-subtle take to be very common in fact often the opposite.
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Do you fish with a wet line? I'd think it would be convenient to use a dry and then as much leader as you need to get to the bottom. What about just letting the line sit vs. a slow retrieve?
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I have fished 2 kinds of wet lines, a Hi-D and an intermediate. I only go to these in very windy conditions where boat swing (even with 2 anchors) and wave action create unatural movement of the fly. I will use the intermediate when in shallower water (up to 20') and the Hi-D in deeper water. Although sinking lines are effective especially in deeper water I will when at all possible go with full floaters and long leaders. This is my first choice as they are much more versatile. By this I mean that I can use a variety of retrieves from dead drift to slow pulls to wind drifting and any combinations thereof, with the sinkers especially the Hi-D you are limited in variety. Furthermore, I want to fish 2 lines when at all possible and sinkers make this impractical. As for how much leader to use with a dry line I usually go with 4 or 5 feet more than the depth of the water and I rarely hang up. The extra length allows for the slight angle that your line will invariably develop. However, the use of flurocarbon leader material like Deciever and its heavier density will give a much steeper angle and require less leader. Last year I went with deciever material from the butt all the way to the tippet and it sank like a stone! This had some drawbacks, however, as it also sunk my new XPS line and when I tried to use a corkie as an indicator when fishing shallow it sunk it as well! This full deciever set-up was also difficult to break free of the water for the next cast. So this year I'm only going to use it in the bottom 2/3 of my leaders and use a regular butt material. As for retrieves, I feel that experimenting is critical as it seems that what the fish want changes from day to day, or even during the same day. Complete dead drift can be deadly, slooow pulls are good, quick jerks with long pauses are excellent, as are multiple combinations of each. I usually start with a pattern that uses a number of combinations until I recognize what they want. All the while, I have a second line drifting in the wind then hanging downwind of the boat and some days THAT is what they want. Tight lines - kush.
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