Heavy Nymphs on floating lines

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Martin

Fly fishing - Fish Better

I went into the lower Quesnel River this morning, just a few miles up stream from town. There is a pretty canyon with big deep holes everywhere. My first idea was to fish with my heavy full sink line with the Branchu pattern Martin posted here or some of my Icelandic Sheep hair streamer patterns and get them deep into the holes. After trying that for about an hour without even getting a touch, I remembered how well the Brooke's stonefly nymph had worked for me in the Quesnel in the past.

I switched lines to a dry line and rigged up the stonefly under a strike indicator with about a 15 foot leader. The Brooke's Stonefly Nymph is tyed very heavy with at least 15 wraps of heavy lead wire at the start of the tying process. I hooked a couple of smaller rainbows to start with, but as I worked several back eddies I started getting some very nice fish casting up current and mending the dry line as if the strike indicator was a dry fly so that the nymph was basically dead drifting. Was a very nice morning.

[quote:c847ce2bcd="Grant Banes"]I switched lines to a dry line and rigged up the stonefly under a strike indicator with about a 15 foot leader. The Brooke's Stonefly Nymph is tyed very heavy with at least 15 wraps of heavy lead wire at the start of the tying process. I hooked a couple of smaller rainbows to start with, but as I worked several back eddies I started getting some very nice fish casting up current and mending the dry line as if the strike indicator was a dry fly so that the nymph was basically dead drifting. Was a very nice morning.[/quote:c847ce2bcd]

Nice morning indeed, Grant! I looks like you had some fun nymphing. I have always loved that deep nymph stuff - if nothing else then for its efficiency ;-)
And dead drifting - getting the fly to swim freely - is definitely a key to success.

Martin

Yep, the dead drift is crucial when it comes to heavy nymphing. Even if I do enjoy dry fly and streamer fishing more, nyphing does catch fish. I used the same technique today on the Swift River and although the Rainbows weren't cooperating, at least on nymphs, the Mountain Whitefish were. I took several nice Whitefish and then took some small rainbows on an orange Stimulator dry pattern. Too bad I have to work tomorrow, another quiet day on the rivers would have been nice..... :wink:

Big heavy Stonefly nymphs still working well just this past weekend at the Blackwater River. I spent a completely wonderful three days of the August long weekend fishing the Blackwater River about 120 kms north west of Quesnel. I worked about 30 kms of the river, due to rather tough canyons and limited road access, I covered a fair bit of ground. Dry patterns were only of limited success, so I mainly worked the heavy nymphs and streamer patterns. Was a fun weekend. Here's a few pics.

Hi Grant

Nice pics and fish. The Swift Mountain Whitefish looks like an interesting fish. Could you tell me more about it like latin name etc?

Thanks

Hi Grant

Nice pics and fish. The Swift Mountain Whitefish looks like an interesting fish. Could you tell me more about it like latin name etc?

Thanks

Well Moreno, I'm really not sure what the Mountain Whitefish has for a Latin name or such info, but I will look through some of the info I have on local fish species to see what I can find. Funny thing is, most people here don't know much about the species and consider them a bottom "garbage' feeding nuisance species. The truth is, they feed on nothing but nymphs and are actually a great fighting and eating fish. They don't really jump much, but do "bull dog" and make some rather fierce runs. Nice part about most people not considering them a sport fish, no one really targets them and there always seems to be a lot of them around. That's alright, more fish for me to catch then........ :wink: A really big one will reach 2-2.5 kg. but the average is more around the 1-1.5 kg. size. If I find the info your requested, I'll post it soon.

Grant, Moreno,

I'm pretty sure that the whitefish is the [url=http://fishbase.se/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=2685][i:59b24ed353]Pro… williamsoni[/i:59b24ed353][/url], which seems to be common in the US.

I have caught a few in BC too. Nice fish, actually, but not really considered interesting by local anglers.

When we talk whitefish here in Denmark (AKA helt in Danish) I think we're talking [url=http://fishbase.se/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=2674][i:59b24ed353]Cor… nasus[/i:59b24ed353][/url], which is common here, and often targeted on fly in some of our bigger lakes.

I have seen these fish spawning in Sweden, and man, there are some monsters in there!

This fish is probably about 3 kilos or 6 lbs, and as you can see on the next image, there were many. We saw hundreds.
[img:59b24ed353]http://10stille.dk/pictures/10stille/20051129/medium_pict0667.jpg[/img:…]

All the grey contours here are whitefish in the 2-3 kilos class. I litterally stood inbetween them and fired my camera and flash with no reactions at all. They were much too busy...
[img:59b24ed353]http://10stille.dk/pictures/10stille/20051129/medium_pict0699.jpg[/img:…]

Martin

Your right Martin, great pics. There are quite a few different whitefish species around the world. There are lots of the Mountain Whitefish here in BC and a few other Canadian provinces.

Here's a link from the Fish BC website that describes the Whitefish and all the species here in BC. I hope this is the info you were looking for Moreno.

[url]http://www.bcadventure.com/adventure/angling/game_fish/mntwhite.phtml[/…]

Hi,

Really great looking place and nice fishes!

There's whitefish over here in Finland too. Mainly its quite small like 15-30cm but it can grow quite a big too. It's quite common fish in Finland but not really popular fish among fly fishers, maybe mainly because the small avarage size. There is some lakes where you can have really good whitefish fishing and some rivers got really good population (actually coming from lakes) of whitefish but mainly small ones.

Here's one picture about whitefish, its 38cm, caucht with #14 size dry fly from a lake.

By the way. Indicators are not really popular here in Finland. More popular is to use 2-3 weighted (lead and tungsten beads) larvas and/or nymphs and short line, fishing with Czech nymphing style. Short casts upstream and weight and size of the flys depending on depth of the stream. Main point is that you get your flies to the bottom of the river and flies swim free :)

[quote:c847ce2bcd="Grant Banes"]I switched lines to a dry line and rigged up the stonefly under a strike indicator with about a 15 foot leader. The Brooke's Stonefly Nymph is tyed very heavy with at least 15 wraps of heavy lead wire at the start of the tying process. I hooked a couple of smaller rainbows to start with, but as I worked several back eddies I started getting some very nice fish casting up current and mending the dry line as if the strike indicator was a dry fly so that the nymph was basically dead drifting. Was a very nice morning.[/quote:c847ce2bcd]

Nice morning indeed, Grant! I looks like you had some fun nymphing. I have always loved that deep nymph stuff - if nothing else then for its efficiency ;-)
And dead drifting - getting the fly to swim freely - is definitely a key to success.

Martin

Yep, the dead drift is crucial when it comes to heavy nymphing. Even if I do enjoy dry fly and streamer fishing more, nyphing does catch fish. I used the same technique today on the Swift River and although the Rainbows weren't cooperating, at least on nymphs, the Mountain Whitefish were. I took several nice Whitefish and then took some small rainbows on an orange Stimulator dry pattern. Too bad I have to work tomorrow, another quiet day on the rivers would have been nice..... :wink:

Big heavy Stonefly nymphs still working well just this past weekend at the Blackwater River. I spent a completely wonderful three days of the August long weekend fishing the Blackwater River about 120 kms north west of Quesnel. I worked about 30 kms of the river, due to rather tough canyons and limited road access, I covered a fair bit of ground. Dry patterns were only of limited success, so I mainly worked the heavy nymphs and streamer patterns. Was a fun weekend. Here's a few pics.

Hi Grant

Nice pics and fish. The Swift Mountain Whitefish looks like an interesting fish. Could you tell me more about it like latin name etc?

Thanks

Hi Grant

Nice pics and fish. The Swift Mountain Whitefish looks like an interesting fish. Could you tell me more about it like latin name etc?

Thanks

Well Moreno, I'm really not sure what the Mountain Whitefish has for a Latin name or such info, but I will look through some of the info I have on local fish species to see what I can find. Funny thing is, most people here don't know much about the species and consider them a bottom "garbage' feeding nuisance species. The truth is, they feed on nothing but nymphs and are actually a great fighting and eating fish. They don't really jump much, but do "bull dog" and make some rather fierce runs. Nice part about most people not considering them a sport fish, no one really targets them and there always seems to be a lot of them around. That's alright, more fish for me to catch then........ :wink: A really big one will reach 2-2.5 kg. but the average is more around the 1-1.5 kg. size. If I find the info your requested, I'll post it soon.

Grant, Moreno,

I'm pretty sure that the whitefish is the [url=http://fishbase.se/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=2685][i:59b24ed353]Pro… williamsoni[/i:59b24ed353][/url], which seems to be common in the US.

I have caught a few in BC too. Nice fish, actually, but not really considered interesting by local anglers.

When we talk whitefish here in Denmark (AKA helt in Danish) I think we're talking [url=http://fishbase.se/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=2674][i:59b24ed353]Cor… nasus[/i:59b24ed353][/url], which is common here, and often targeted on fly in some of our bigger lakes.

I have seen these fish spawning in Sweden, and man, there are some monsters in there!

This fish is probably about 3 kilos or 6 lbs, and as you can see on the next image, there were many. We saw hundreds.
[img:59b24ed353]http://10stille.dk/pictures/10stille/20051129/medium_pict0667.jpg[/img:…]

All the grey contours here are whitefish in the 2-3 kilos class. I litterally stood inbetween them and fired my camera and flash with no reactions at all. They were much too busy...
[img:59b24ed353]http://10stille.dk/pictures/10stille/20051129/medium_pict0699.jpg[/img:…]

Martin

Your right Martin, great pics. There are quite a few different whitefish species around the world. There are lots of the Mountain Whitefish here in BC and a few other Canadian provinces.

Here's a link from the Fish BC website that describes the Whitefish and all the species here in BC. I hope this is the info you were looking for Moreno.

[url]http://www.bcadventure.com/adventure/angling/game_fish/mntwhite.phtml[/…]

Hi,

Really great looking place and nice fishes!

There's whitefish over here in Finland too. Mainly its quite small like 15-30cm but it can grow quite a big too. It's quite common fish in Finland but not really popular fish among fly fishers, maybe mainly because the small avarage size. There is some lakes where you can have really good whitefish fishing and some rivers got really good population (actually coming from lakes) of whitefish but mainly small ones.

Here's one picture about whitefish, its 38cm, caucht with #14 size dry fly from a lake.

By the way. Indicators are not really popular here in Finland. More popular is to use 2-3 weighted (lead and tungsten beads) larvas and/or nymphs and short line, fishing with Czech nymphing style. Short casts upstream and weight and size of the flys depending on depth of the stream. Main point is that you get your flies to the bottom of the river and flies swim free :)

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