Floating the Caney from HH to Betty's Island

[Worrgamesguy]

Originally Posted by Gerry Romer

You'd have had to have supreme vision if you were floating from HH to Betty's Island...

We floated from the dam to HH.

A couple things Brett forgot to mention in his report

The really big fish were all caught on white streamers (including one delusional but fat and sassy brookie). The 10" to 16" fish were all caught on #14 pheasant tails.

Doug and I both tried grey thread midges and a few other secret weapons but couldn't buy a sniff.

I mean, pheasant tails on the Caney??

I just heard from billyspey. He floated the Caney today and absolutely killed them!! He said they were pulling in 20"+ fish all on pheasant tails !!

I mean... The Caney?? Pheasant Tails??

What's that all about??

Gerry

I'm gonna cry now... You have NO clue how badly I wanted to use my fly rod. How do you fish BHPTs? Do you strip them like buggers or do you let the current take them like midges? I need to stock my fly box for the next time, I've got a few midges, a few scuds, 3 BHPTs, and a variety of buggers. Now I just need more colors and sizes of each.

Originally Posted by Fishermansfly

I'm sorry I feel like a complete moron now! I missed the HH to Betty's Island part....My life is always such a rush anymore! When used to log on here I had time to run through every post! Now I'm lucky enough to read through the main forum page! Sorry Worrgamesguy!

Monk, I would love some inside knowledge on why they are eating a mayfly immitation so well? It just really doesnt make anysense to me how the fish get as big as they do! Doug said yesterday that the next state record Brookie will come from the Caney! It's hard not to believe if they do well this year, and I can't see them not doing well! They were to fat, fiesty, and pretty not to thrive! What are these fish eating It just can't be midges? There also has to be a good scud/sowbug population with all the grass....I've been there twice and haven't thrown the first immitation! There is always a next time...And there will be plenty more time to figure that water out when I return from Yellowstone! I plan on making that my tailwater of choice!

~Brett

Don't worry about it man. Of all the 50+ fish we caught between 3 of us, a few of them burped and spat out their stomach contents. One was an extremely tiny black bug that looked like a shrimp that I assumed to be a midge or scud since they look so similar. It squirmed and used its tail to spin itself around in circles in a tiny pool of water in the boat.

[Gerry Romer]

I was just dropping a #14 BHPT about 24" - 30" below a yarn indicator and letting it drift with the current. I also tried a grey midge this way with no luck. I even tried dropping the grey midge about 18" off the BHPT below the yarn with no luck on either. However, apparently Grumpy was throwing only grey midges through the same stretch and killing 'em! Ya just never know...

Gerry

[billyspey]

just fish what you have the most confidence in and learn to fish it well. . most important put it in front of the fish with no drag, equals success

[Worrgamesguy]

Originally Posted by billyspey

just fish what you have the most confidence in and learn to fish it well. . most important put it in front of the fish with no drag, equals success

That's easier said than done. I have NO confidence in any of my flies, except for maybe a wooly bugger that is so simple to fish that a chimp could produce fish off it. My rod and reel are terrible, as well as my line

I need a "Help the fly fishing newbie donation fund" so I can afford a decent rod and reel setup.

[Gerry Romer]

One day, a great many years ago in college, we were doing a group critique of a particular art project. One of my classmates criticized my work as seeming cheap and unfinished. I explained that, as a young and starving art student, I just didn't have the funds to buy the right materials. His reply to my comment was very effective and cut me off at the knees. He simply replied, "It's a poor craftsman who blames his tools." He was right.

Seriously, long before there were "decent setups" guys were doing this quite successfully with cane poles and a few feet of mono.

I don't understand why a BHPT works like it does on the Caney - by all rights it shouldn't. When I say it shouldn't, I mean that a BHPT is an acceptable imitation of a variety of mayfly nymphs, but the Caney isn't known for its huge mayfly populations. However, a couple people told me to try it anyway, and so I did. The first time I tried it, I couldn't buy a strike. But after altering the depth and experimenting with different casts (upstream, downstream, across-and-down) I was able to find what worked.

The first person to tell me to try it was billyspey. He and I had floated the Caney earlier this year and had tremendous success with grey thread midges... and we hadn't tried a single BHPT that day.

The next person to tell me about the BHPT was a guy who lives on the Caney and says he fishes it four or five days a week (must be nice!). He came out of the woods alongside the river and waded in to fish below me one day last week. He was pulling fish in on almost every single cast while I was having considerably less success. We got to talking and he told me he was fishing a BHPT about 24" below a yarn indicator -- exact same setup I was using. Then I noticed that he was presenting his fly across and down (more down than across) and getting hits just about at the end of the swing. I started casting a bit more downstream and giving the line the slightest tug as the nymph started to rise. That's when my fish count started to go up.

That's a really long way of saying what billyspey just said. I had confidence in the BHPT (even though I shouldn't have) because I was willing to trust two people who know more about this sport and that river than I do. Then I was willing to find a technique I could be comfortable with - and stick with.

It could just have easily been with a cane pole and a few yards of mono.

In fact, on that particular day I was using a setup that I had never fished before and I was not comfortable with. I had a custom Sage RPL 9' 4wt. and I had it overlined with a brand new 5wt. SA Sharkskin Magnum taper... big mistake. That Sage will throw a lot of line as long as it's 4wt. line! The 5wt. line kept collapsing on me. I couldn't get the distance I wanted and had very little accuracy. I've since tried that Sage with a 4wt. line and it is killer!

But see, it didn't have anything to do with the rod, reel, or line. I had about 4 feet of 6x Seaguar tied to the end of a furled leader. I dropped the BHPT about 2' below a cheap little piece of yarn. The custom Sage rod, Orvis Battenkill Mid-Arbor reel and Sharkskin Magnum Taper line didn't impress the fish one bit... but that size 14 BHPT made out of some old ratty pheasant tail fibers, some copper wire and a copper bead sure got their attention

Gerry

[Worrgamesguy]

Will you be my father, Gerry?

Good gollee I have much to learn, but just because I'm not using a cane pole and a few feet of mono doesn't mean I have it easy. I'm gonna try out Grumpy's class, and if that doesn't help me then it MUST be my setup. I'm really liking the color and feel of the TFO rods, both the NXT outfit and the Pro series. I need stuff to make my casting easier, tapered leaders and I didn't get along very well and using straight tippet material made a very arc-shaped cast that was wobbly.

[Gerry Romer]

Be nice to him, Grumpy! He really is trying...

Gerry

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by Gerry Romer

Be nice to him, Grumpy! He really is trying...

Gerry

I have anger management classes before each one i do

Grumpy

[fishingman62]

worrgames i have a very inexpensive fly rod.... an 8ft flugler i got at wallmart several years ago.... i fish with the store bought tappered leader and add about 2ft of 5 or 6x tippet to it.... i am a self taught flyfisherman so im far from an excpert... but through practice and trial and error i can make a decent presentation and catch fish .... just keep at it and if you cant get to the river find a pond and put on a pooper and cast to bluegills..... just try varying your arm speed and your wrist movements....watch your loop behind you so you can see if its coalapsing behind you at all.... start with shorter cast then work up to longer ones ...like i said im far from an excpert but am willing to help as best i can ....hope this helps you a little bit ... if i was closer i would take crumpys class to..... he seems to be a very knowledgable guy

[golfballs03]

put on a pooper?