Anyone troll using fly rods?

[CaptSpike]

Was thinking about bringing a couple out. They are a ton of fun around here and would be even better there. Never hear of anyone using them though????? Anyone use traditional flies (not the spiny/fly combo) for browns this time of yr? What fly pattern works best? We use grey ghosts, joe's smelt and a few others here where the water is crystal clear. I imagine a bright fly in colored water would work well......

Thanks,

Spike

[Swingingflies]

I have been fly fishing for over 45 years in this area and and all over. I have tried to troll with the fly rod. You would have to have an expensive reel to be able to have enough drag or hold on to the fly line and pinch the fly line with your fingers so it does not unroll. With this method, it is hard to find a rod holder to hold it because the reel is so close to the rod butt. The next hard thing to do is to get a fly to stay down because with the speed of trolling, the fly and line will want to stay up close to the surface, even with a sinking fly line. If you are serious, look into L L Bean, they are the only ones that have a rod and reel set up specifically for trolling. I have seen it in their catalog.

[CaptSpike]

We have the rods and are quite successful locally. We get about the same sink rate as a 2 color core set up. We use Down East rod holders as they work great for fly rods. Just wondering if anyone else is into it? We are going to give it a go and see what happens.

Spike

[lyteline]

Our spring brown trout and Finger Lakes trolling rods are 7 wt St Crouix blanks.They have trolling eyelets and we pair them w Diawa SG27LC reels.They are a ton of fun.....Zeke & Cyn(Strike 3)

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[Iceman]

Kinda tough getting them into the rod holders eh?

[CaptSpike]

Kinda tough getting them into the rod holders eh?

If your refering to the post above I believe he is talking about the blanks he uses and had custom made rods for trolling while keeping the action of a 7wt fly rod. Alot of people this way use fly rod blanks for "other than fly rods" when custom building a rod.

If your refering to me look up down east rod holder and you'll see it isn't a problem at all.

Spike

[lyteline]

Spike...Many years ago,on a program called Rod and Reel, the guys were using wiper blade motors to pump their flys....It was different but they did fish on it.I believe they were using a Cortland fly line too.Cyn and I thought about it but never gave it a shot.....Zele and Cyn(Strike 3)

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[Mortigan]

... I believe he is talking about the blanks he uses and had custom made rods for trolling while keeping the action of a 7wt fly rod. Alot of people this way use fly rod blanks for "other than fly rods" when custom building a rod. Spike

I run an old pair of 9' Fenwick Riggerstix with twist guides and have read that they're built from 10 wt fly rod blanks. They're great downrigger poles.

[skipper19]

image upload

Add a stinger hook on 50 lb flouro....goby trolling fly

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[Paul Czarnecki]

Was thinking about bringing a couple out. They are a ton of fun around here and would be even better there. Never hear of anyone using them though????? Anyone use traditional flies (not the spiny/fly combo) for browns this time of yr? What fly pattern works best? We use grey ghosts, joe's smelt and a few others here where the water is crystal clear. I imagine a bright fly in colored water would work well......

Thanks,

Spike

Spike when I lived in New Zealand that was my favorite way of fishing when not casting. I would troll my fly rod to the river, park the boat, change reels and then spend the day casting. The technique is called "harling" and is quite simple as you know. It is also highly effective. When I did it I would hold the rod in my hand and pinch the line in my fingers as I only had a single action reel. The strikes are amazing! With today's reels, lines and flies that are available I'm sure it would be even more effective today than it was back then. If you're tying your own flies something like the one above would work in clear water. I would tie up a similar pattern in orange and green or yellow for the stained water.

Have fun! Gosh I miss New Zealand now!

[CaptSpike]

I will let you know how we make out with them, maybe even a little video.

Spike

[KOPPERKLAD]

Spike

Use a Canapache, Tandem Maynards Marvel or a Killer Ghost. They work.

[CaptSpike]

Well it was so rough we never put out the fly rods. We just figured trying to land a fish on oneof the other rods and in the waves/wind we would surely get hung up in the fly lines off the side of the boat. So we opted not to run them. Thanks for the info on the flys, maybe next time we can try them.

Spike

[IRISH56]

image upload

Add a stinger hook on 50 lb flouro....goby trolling fly

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Sweet looking fly .......... what's the head on it? Doesn't look like spun deer hair.

[r wyman]

we used fly rods with pfluger fly reels loaded with mono . worked well except the mono would expand the spool when it contracted after fighting a fish.