Leland,
Where are you going bonefishing? I went to Xmas last year. If you're going
there you're going to have a ball! SRARSE Gotchas and Crazy Charleys, tan and
white and some "no eyes" work fine. I tied 15 dozen before I left and at this
moment looking at 13 dozen left over.These work ok on silvers too. At any rate
have fun. Reguards, Chuck Breed ( Ex Redmondite of Wa. now of Eugene,Or.)
Leland Miyawaki wrote:
> This has been a very interesting last three days at Doc's:
>
> Picture schools of 10 to 20 fish moving fairly quickly down the beach about
> 100 yards with the tide, turning around and heading back up again - back
> and forth for about an hour or so. Picture the rise forms to be the same as
> midging trout, sometimes 10 feet off the beach and sometimes 60 feet out.
> Picture the current pulling your fly when you know a dead drift is what's
> needed, particularly when the salmon totally ignore a small and sparse #16
> krill/amphipod tie. Picture the reward when you make a long cast, downtide,
> well ahead of the approaching school, and you've timed the swing just right
> when current pulls the fly into the lead fish of the school just as drag
> sets in. It only worked this way twice saturday and twice today. I lost
> both fish saturday and lost one and landed one today.
>
> Here's the crazy part of it all. On friday morning, the beach was dead calm
> an hour before the low slack with no fish showing anywhere until the
> change. The schools showed up as if by magic. On saturday - nothing at all
> until about two hours into the flood. Then they hung around until we had no
> more beach for our backcasts. Today, they were in the fog one hour before
> the low slack and disappeared two hours after the turn.
>
> My theory is that they are not the same fish showing up time and again for
> their euphasid meals, but rather, schools that are passing through at the
> tide changes and if they find food, they stay. If not, or when they've
> depleted the source, they move on.
>
> Another thing is that they are really skittish when they are in close. If
> you can reach them when they are further out, they seem more likely to
> take. It may be that they feel the safety of deeper water.
>
> Also, on friday, I was fishing a slimeline and on saturday and sunday, I
> switched to a dryline and a 15' leader with a 4x tippet and the same #16
> fly. The reason was that on friday, I crouched down into the water as a
> school passed and I saw that they were taking the feed in the top three to
> four inches of water. Since you would spook the school if you didn't cast
> well ahead of their approach, the intermediate sinker was too deep when the
> fish passed over the fly. The unweighted fly on a dryline was just the
> ticket. I cast straight out, 50' ahead of the approaching school (you must
> be uptide), and let the current swing the fly down to the fish with NO
> RETRIEVE. I found that if the fly swung through the school, I had no takes.
> And believe me, when I tell you that I learned this well. I had to laugh
> out loud as that scene was played over and over again. It was maddening.
>
> Anyway, I hope this helps those of you who have been doing the dance at
> Doc's. I will be leaving for my first bonefish trip next friday. Maybe the
> Narrows' fish will be on REAL FOOD when I return.
>
> Leland.
