Technique helps anglers catch big ones on the fly
Area fly fishers have been doing some deep thinking on techniques for fishing the amazingly productive chironomid pupa patterns.
Generally, floating lines and long tippets have been used to hook trout on chironomid pupa patterns in area lakes, but some anglers are turning to the use of intermediate sinking, sink tip and sinking lines and short tippets in the deeper water.
Reason: The traditional method of casting a leader with a 20-foot tippet is for the birds; that is, “bird’s nests.”
The chironomid pupa emerged as angler’s best friend in 1962, when fisheries biologist Richard Thompson, a member of the Washington Fly Fishing Club, developed the TDC (Thompson’s Delectable Chironomid). Thompson convinced Northwest fly fishers that chironomids are the basic food for trout and other species in the region’s lakes, especially during spring.
Two primary chironomid fishing methods have evolved for fishing water deeper than 12-15 feet:
•Rig a floating line with a 15- to 22-foot leader and attach a yarn indicator at a spot that keeps the sinking pupa pattern just above the bottom.
(The indicator must be able to go through the rod guides when landing a fish. Some anglers have fly rods with larger-than-normal guides to accommodate more buoyant indicators for chironomid fishing.)
•Rig a sink-tip or sinking line with an 8-foot leader and fish from the bottom up directly under your boat.
I first used the latter technique one year after fishing the floating line method with no luck in 5-12 feet of water at Dry Falls Lake southwest of Coulee City. When I saw a few rises in the middle of the lake, I moved to the spot and discovered the bottom was 22 feet below the surface.
To get my fly to the bottom, I changed from a floating line to a No. 2 sinking line with an 8-foot leader.
I attached a lead weight to my pupa pattern so it would sink fast. I pulled out line until the fly was on the bottom. I then pulled out two or three more yards of line, marked the line and prepared to cast.
When the line had sunk straight down from my pontoon boat, I began hand-twisting the line extremely slowly. As the fly started up from the bottom, a 15- to 16-inch rainbow grabbed it.
For more than an hour, I hooked one trout after another using the same technique. Other anglers followed and had the same result.
Casting a long leader has the advantage of covering more water than fishing a pupa under a sinking line straight down from my boat. Trout will take a pupa pattern that’s not even moving or is moving only as the result of wave action.
On the other hand, casting an 18- to 22-foot leader can be daunting. An angler must pull enough line out of a rod’s guides to cast the long leader. If the fly pattern is weighted, the fly can hook the leader on a back cast and create a bird’s nest, although with practice fly fishers learn to get the line and leader to roll out smoothly.
Pupae are slow-moving insects. When they start toward the surface to hatch, they wiggle to move up the water column, stop and wiggle again. They’re vulnerable to fish as they work their way slowly to the surface.