Fly Fishing,    Leaders

Fly fishing Friday... with FREE prize inside!

By Tom Chandler 7/21/2006

Well, the heavens have opened up and the rain is coming down, and the Trout Underground saw that it was good. Great, in fact. Suddenly, it's ten degrees cooler, no sun, drizzle... if it holds up through the afternoon, I'm out the door with float tube in hand.

Forecasts for the weekend have similarly dropped a good 8-10 degrees, so your Quality Fly Fishing Experience should involve more fun and less heatstroke. Sometimes life gives you a good bounce (ever smack a tree limb with a cast only to have the fly fall in exactly the right spot?) and only the most morose would fail to take advantage.

Absolutely FREE Today Only....
And speaking of advantages, we're offering a special treat today - another one of Sully's marvelous leader "double taper" leader designs. This one's a short 7.5' model that I fished extensively in the tight Brookie streams of Tennessee. He describes casting it as being similar "to throwing darts" and I have to agree.

Pinpoint casting is the only way to catch fish in those tiny streams, and this design couldn't have been better.

Sully's Short Double Taper Design
(note the alliteration)

Dia. Length (inches)
.019 27.5 (Rio Powerflex)
.017 9
.015 8
.013 7
.012 6 (Rio Salmon, Bass, Steelhead for this segment only)
.015 7
.011 6
.009 5
.007 (4x) 18 or more

Coming soon, the Big Leader Payoff -- a 16.5' design that really, really works. Like every time....

Also, we've got some Underground Entertainment headed your way, but I'm going to start separating those posts from the others. Easier that way. So until then, see you in the float tube, Tom Chandler
AuthorPicture

Tom Chandler

As the author of the decade leading fly fishing blog Trout Underground, Tom believes that fishing is not about measuring the experience but instead of about having fun. As a staunch environmentalist, he brings to the Yobi Community thought leadership on environmental and access issues facing us today.

7 comments
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Hauling 'em to Lake Shastina would be a lot of work. On the other hand, hauling them home and transferring them to a hot frying pan is less labor intensive and insures that they won't have to suffer in the cold water of the upper canyon :-). Brian
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Yes. Smallies have been caught, but only the handsomest, bestest-looking fly fishers can lay claim to such a feat... (wait for it...) I've caught two on dries upriver, and both looked as surprised as I was. I felt kinda bad; I know they can survive in that water, but the upper canyon water temps are quite low and I had to fight an urge to put them in a bucket of water and drag 'em back up to Lake ... more Shastina, where presumably they could hang out with their buddies, telling bad smallie jokes while they watched fishermen make fools of themselves...
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That's probably how those browns ended up in the upper section of the river....... I've heard of a few brook trout being present in the upper section of the river due to the same reason. I've never taken one there but hear of one being caught in that section every now and then. Wonder if any smallmouth bass ever end up in the Upper river for that reason? One thing that would be interesting to find ... more out is just how far do hatchery fish migrate up the river from the uppermost stocking point at Shasta Retreat/Dunsmuir City Park?? I caught a hatchery trout just upstream from Prospect Ave fishing access area last Saturday so they get up at least that far. There was no doubt about it being a hatchery fish as it had the classic stubby/worn pectoral fins. Are these fish interbreeding with the wild trout? Possibly. But consider this. Of the hatchery fish that are still in the river once the annual stocking ends in the fall (I think Labor Day Weekend is the final stocking of the season but I'm not sure), the attrition rate among hatchery trout is so high that the vast majority of them do not survive the winter. Especially in a river like the Upper Sac with the extreme changes in conditions/flows during the winter/spring months. I used to have the Bucks Bag Bullet float tube but finally replaced it a couple years ago with the Creek Company Original U-Boat. Nice tube and very lightweight. I have no plans to get another water craft either since I have that float tube, plus the TU Kennebec Float Tube/Pontoon, and a pontoon boat.
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I like that. "How far upriver...?" Brian plays a very subtle gambit designed to get me to reveal my fishing spot under the auspices of fisheries science... 8-) Well played, Brian... Seriously, it was far enough upriver that it's possible these browns had washed over the dam from Lake Siskiyou and found their way down to this slower water. And yea, I'd heard about the backcountry float tubes, but my ... more decade-old Bucks Bags Mustang isn't so heavy that I can't handle it for reasonable hikes (despite my whining). And I already have two float tubes and a pontoon boat, so the madness has gotta stop somewhere....
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Took a look at 10-day forecast and decided to pass on going tonight and will wait until next weekend since temps are supposed to get back to more normal levels then. Yeah should have gone last night. Oh well. How far upriver did you hook those browns? I've never taken one on the Sac. Wonder if they're starting to increase in numbers in the upper river? Have you considered getting one of those ultra-light ... more float tubes? The Creek Company makes one that is pretty good. Doesn't cost that much either.
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Brian; You might have waited an evening too long. Back to sunny and hot today, and it was an odd - though very, very fun - evening's fishing on Friday night. The LT Nancy and I are heading for the hills (just as soon as I get this $%**$$*** float tube in a backpack). Let us know how you did...
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Yes this rain is a blessing indeed. Think I'll hit the river tomorrow evening since this bout of rain may get the morning/evening mode of fishing going again on the Upper Sac. Maybe the hatches will get rolling again after the sabbatical they took this week? Only one way to find out.......... Brian
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