Re: Popping on the Shrimp
Spring 2001 Archive
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Re: Popping on the Shrimp
From: Ken
Date: 14 May 2001
Time: 16:50:06
Remote Name: 207.180.0.8
Comments
When you hear the popping sound at night they are taking something that is either touching or so close to the surface that the difference is negligible. If you fish very close to the surface within a few inches and keep your fly in the fish's feeding lane you are doing it either right or close to right. I like to fish when fish are doing this because it heightens my awareness and forces me to pay close attention to each fish. I often have success using some form of muddler minnow that I grease to float and I splay the wing to have a vague outline against the sky. It is the appearance against the sky that is important not that it looks like a shrimp in your hand out of the water. Shrimp are transparent to translucent and when you look at them from underneath against the sky you will see this as their most outstanding characteristic. This look is what the fish are seeing. They are not seeing the "Shrimp," as it looks to us in our minds eye. They are seeing a shape that is very close to the surface perhaps touching it and that shape is distorted by the tiny ripples it is making as it moves in the surface film. A foam fly or a cork fly does not have this look because the light does not pass through it. Sometimes they work on a few fish but often they do not bring consistent results.
In A Perfect Fish there is a fly called the river shrimp that I have had outstanding results with in the circumstances you describe. I sometimes tie it with the deer hair flaring out in front to make it slide or ride up when it is moving. The Bomber an Atlantic salmon fly by Rev. Smith uses this same principle but is too bulky when tied in the traditional fashion. You could easily tie this fly with a skinny body and use grizzly hackle for palmering and create a fly that would be translucent and would stay in the surface. Here are a few other flies that also work if you incorporate shrimp like adaptations to them. The Greased liner by Harry Lemire, Steelhead caddis, Bill McMillen, Steelhead Bee by Roderick Haig-Brown. Jack Gartsides' Gurgler uses the same principle of a projecting prow that all these flies use - except the Steelhead caddis which uses the splayed deer hair streaming back. Try Jacks fly tied in such a way that it will imitate the look of the shrimp. It does work because I have had success with it. I find it fascinating that fresh water dry flies that were designed for river fishing for salmon and steelhead work with a little tweek here and there. The design principles are what is important in terms of function. The function is the same, to hold a fly on or near the top and be able to move it, wake it, make it skip, hop, pop, swim or just float lazily down the stream. These flies and their original dressings are in the introduction to "Greased Line Fishing for Salmon and Steelhead," pub. Frank Amato Publications.
Last changed: July 04, 2001
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