Northwest Fishing Reports

Fellas, I've often times mentioned the technique where I fish chironomid patterns vertically in deep water with full sink lines. With my 12-year old boy big enough to handle his own pontoon, I had to come up with an easy way for him to get onto deep water fish, initially minus a fly rod, which I considered overwhelming. After consulting with a couple of my partners, we decided that a spinning rod with light test and a quick release indicator would do the trick. Boy, did it!!!

After carefully watching him make his maiden voyage in his boat, which he handled quite admirably, we lashed our pontoons together. I had him rigged up with a simple 6' Shakespeare Sigma rod with a Mitchell Excellence II reel with 6-lb. test, two chironomid patterns, the quick release indicator and a single split shot. I clipped forceps to the bottom fly, dropped it straight down in 28 feet of water until it hit the bottom, then reeled in the slack until the rod tip came tight at the water. I then pulled it all up by hand and set the indicator about 18" below the rod tip, thus ensuring both flies would be tight to the bottom. I then hand fed it all back into the water, a process expedited by the single split shot. The indicator ended up positioned right under his rod tip just a foot or two off the front of his pontoon.

I had him jig this setup every so often. It wasn't long before he was onto fish. It was a different experience watching an indicator go down just a few feet in front of me! You see the slamming hits, the slow pull downs and the "hit and runs" as I call them. At the hook set, the indicator released flawlessly and he was able to fight the fish unhindered. The Mitchell's smooth drag was a huge help, for some of these fish were large and strong. He ended up with 7 fish in this manner and gained confidence and an understanding of this technique, and as you can imagine, had a boat load of fun!!! Soon he was pointing out chironomids and water boatmen, too! This prompted him to want to try the fly rod, which got him a couple more with a bit of coaching. Yeah, he's hooked now and I've got a lifelong fishing partner!

Just a technique you might want to try if showing a new fly fisherman the ropes. It was dirt simple and ultra-effective, and in my boys' case, led to the fly rod!

That sounds awsome Raff! If you have the resources, it would be great to see pictures and/or video.

I've been thinking about this for a few days now. People who normally fish bait from a boat could throttle trout with this technique. They'd just have to get the indicators and chiros and they'd be in position to catch more fish than they can imagine! In a month or two they could go to damsel, dragon fly, PTs and hares ears nymphs, etc. And, during the peak of the bite, one wouldn't even need to put movement on their flies.....just hanging it suspended would be enough. I've had hundreds of takes, and Jonny had several the other day, where fish were cruising at the peak of a hatch and hitting suspended, motionless flies.

P.S. Jonny was doing so well that I actually heard a guy tell his partner "that guy and his kid are using bait". Negative!

When the fish are deep and taking chironomids I often use a 10' piece of lead core trolling line between my sinking fly line and leader when I want a vertical application. It gets down in a hurry and stays down. I don't use an indicator, just watch the line at the rod tip.

so if i under stood that right you are fishing a deeper hole with a fly and split shot below how ever many feet of line to get the fly down and the a strike indicator?

My usual setup is a Type VI sink line with a short leader, usually 4-5 feet, fished off a stout, fast action 9' foot 6-weight. It gets down in a hurry, too. That's the rod the youngster got his last couple fish on once he understood what to look for. I've thought about getting a Type VII sink line but figure if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Fear no Fish, yep that's it. The split shot and flies were positioned about 26-27' feet down. The quick release indicator serves the purpose of any other float, but in this case is designed to release and slide down the line, allowing the angler to play the fish unhindered.

Good, detailed report Raff. I've used a similar setup with 18-20' of 6 lb mono below my flyline. It's worked very well at times.
Could you describe the quick-release indicator in more detail? I've always used a small red or orange slip float (can't think of the proper name) jammed lightly to the monofilament with a piece of round toothpick.

bboard, this indicator has two pieces, the float itself and a 1" stopper or stem which serves a similar purpose of your toothpick. Both have holes through and through. You run the line through the stopper first, and the float second. To set it you simply position the two a couple inches apart, forming a small loop with with the line between the two. The stopper is then slid into the indicator, gently pinching the line between the two. At the hook set the loop pulls out and the two pieces separate and slide down the line while you play the fish. The trick is knowing what pound test to use. In my case 6 lb was perfect. 8 and 10 lb test were too heavy and were pinched too tightly between the stopper and indicator and would not easily release. I was given these indicators several years ago. The guy got them somewhere on the west side, possibly Red's on the Yakima River.