Chuck, Remembering my days when I lived in Villa Rica, Georgia, I fished a lot of crappie in a couple of lakes oddly called Twin Lakes.
I tried to fly-fish for them, but it just wasn't the ticket for the circumstances there. They were down in the deadfall along the shores, and the only way to get a hook-up was sneaking down through the trees and short-casting alond the edges and into the pockets in the deadfall. Big ol crappie (around a pound) would readily grab a white or yellow doll fly, but the trick was hauling them straight out before they could snag up in the deadfall. Usually there were trees overhanging, so casting was not possible even with a spinning outfit. I tried vertical jigging once with a flyrod, but the rod was too limber to set the hook quickly enough and keep them from running into the branches. I remember one other circumstance when we fished on Lake Lanier. THe crappie were located at the bases of the columns supporting narrow bridges. THese were big crappie, and once we found them, we caught dozens on live minnows. But they were 20' down and flyfishing for them would have been difficult at best with the current. Mind you, this was 30 years ago, and fly gear wasn't what it is today. I might try them today at the bridge with a full-sink line and a heavy-weighted clouser, but it would still be hard to feel the bite and respond in a split second. What's popular today around here and Colorado is 'flyfishing' with mono and automatic reels. Flycasting is not used- just drifting, short-line nymphing, and wake free-lining. Much successful nymphing takes place right at your feet, so long casts are not necessary. And if that is the case, the heavy flyline is not needed, and it dulls sensitivity and creates a lot of unwanted drag and flotation. So they use just a few tiny split-shots and nymph the bottom at close range and deep. Line management becomes a problem without the flyline, so they use automatic reels to quickly take up slack. It would be up to a panel to decide on wether this is truly flyfishing. All that is missing is flyline. But that changes everything. It's more like spin-fishing with fly gear, in my opinion. THis might be a decent crappie set-up if the situation was right, like the deep ones, but I would want a very stiff flyrod for quick response in setting the hook. DonO ----- Original Message ----- From: Chuck Alexander To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 2007 5:17 AM Subject: Re: [VFB] substitute for rabbit- yes, please Jim: Thanks.. I'll try the tiny jig heads.. I can catch em all day on regular red headed, with sparkled chartreuse tail on a spinning reel, but want to catch them on a fly rod, Chuck ----- Original Message ----- From: jim phillips To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2007 7:52 PM Subject: Re: [VFB] substitute for rabbit- yes, please Chuck Try small (1/64 or 1/80 jigs 0n casting rods or 1/80 or 1/100 oz on fly rods) jigs tied in different colors. Orange, red, whitr, olive etc... mix and match. Jim On 8/7/07, Chuck Alexander <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Mart, Don O.. Great ideas about trimming AFTER the tie in and for claws..Won't be long (I hope) till the crappie start biting good again..I'll have to tie some in,trim after the tie off, split those and walla, Good Crappie crawfish pattern... Which brings up another question.. only flies I have ever caught crappie on are Chili Peppers and Crawfish. Is there any more good crappie (or made just for crappie) patterns?? Thanks, Chuck ----- Original Message ----- From: Martin Westbeek To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2007 4:09 PM Subject: Re: [VFB] substitute for rabbit- yes, please Yep, and tie in first and then cut to length. Mart ----- Original Message ----- From: Allan Fish To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2007 8:14 PM Subject: Re: [VFB] substitute for rabbit- yes, please Well OK, but as long as I have some "Wabbit Stwips" I'm trying to come up with a good bluegill recipe(s) that uses rabbit in ways other that cutting it up and dubbing with it, or using long strips. I always get those strips too long for bluegills, but if I cut em too short, I have no "hide" to tie to the hook shank and it ends up just being a soft tail.. Anybody got any ideas??? Thanks, Chuck Cut a tiny bit of hair off of the front end of the strip leaving a strip of bare hide about 1/8"- 3/16: long. Taper bare part to a point and it gives you a great tie-in point. a. -- Allan Fish Greenwood, IN [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. 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