[Hardyreels]

I also made some on weighted tubes and will test them as well then add to this post. I was surprised at how that tiny short shank hook sank the stern of the fly. The hooks are heavy wire and short.

This was a prototype for the TOTM fly but I thought it looked way too much like every fly I have posted for years

It has a Medium Flexi Weight under the foil and is fitted with a #10 Nordic Double for the test.

I really like the way a double keeps a tube on the even keel and I wish the people who set the regulations for steelhead fishing actually fished themselves. For the large part rivers where you can fish for the species are limited to a single hook point and barbless. The problem in my mind arises when I consider that anglers are allowed to use hooks like the A.J. 1.5 or size one or two salmon hooks which I believe may be more harmful to a fish than the minuscule double I have in that second tube fly. I've been a bad boy because I've caught a good number of them on the little doubles and was never found out.

What say you? If your intention is to C&R a fish which may do more harm, the huge salmon iron or the minute double?

I'm not suggesting that the Salmon or Steelhead Iron be banned but I do see the ban on the double as punitive. Perhaps some size limits on the hooks when considering the doubles?

 

[Rainclouds]

Great action on those flies. I'm a big fan of little doubles on monkeys. If the wing is right it won't tangle with a free swinging double I find. They swim upside down with the points close to the wing at the strike point. I like owner size 10 but hard to find lately and maybe a bit fine for big fish

 

[Rainclouds]

Little doubles are kinder to fish I belive but need to be well debarbed as smaller hooks are fiddler to remove when you're all thumbs.

 

[iainmortimer]

I also made some on weighted tubes and will test them as well then add to this post. I was surprised at how that tiny short shank hook sank the stern of the fly. The hooks are heavy wire and short.

This was a prototype for the TOTM fly but I thought it looked way too much like every fly I have posted for years

It has a Medium Flexi Weight under the foil and is fitted with a #10 Nordic Double for the test.

I really like the way a double keeps a tube on the even keel and I wish the people who set the regulations for steelhead fishing actually fished themselves. For the large part rivers where you can fish for the species are limited to a single hook point and barbless. The problem in my mind arises when I consider that anglers are allowed to use hooks like the A.J. 1.5 or size one or two salmon hooks which I believe may be more harmful to a fish than the minuscule double I have in that second tube fly. I've been a bad boy because I've caught a good number of them on the little doubles and was never found out.

What say you? If your intention is to C&R a fish which may do more harm, the huge salmon iron or the minute double?

I'm not suggesting that the Salmon or Steelhead Iron be banned but I do see the ban on the double as punitive. Perhaps some size limits on the hooks when considering the doubles?

I am with you on hooks Ard and on many carp lakes barbless hooks are banned because they move around far more than a barbed point creating more damage.

When bass fishing, I hate to see big 1/0 singles that are needed for soft plastics coming right through the fish and sometimes that can be through the eye; not great when the intention is catch and release.

For those reasons I stick to doubles on slamon flies if trebles are banned.

 

[Hardyreels]

The hook argument has no true answer I'm afraid Iain. My own experience with the little doubles has been positive and I credit the fly tiers here for my enlightenment there. I do prefer them but must pay close attention to regional regulations so I don't get pinched for a violation. Recently while fishing down in Washington state on their Olympic Peninsula for steelhead there were 2 fish and game officers who came down one of the rivers via one man pontoon rafts. They stopped and checked me for proper licensing and then wanted a look at the fly. Lucky me, a #6 single with no barb Something told me to leave the Nordic doubles in my pocket while rigging the tube. Nothing mattered due to low abundance of fish (to be read as zero fish) and the weather was actually better up in Alaska than it was down there some 2000 miles to the south so .......... Go figure?

One day when I'm ready for further self flagellation I'll post images and write up the gory details.

 

[GeeBee]

The hook argument has no true answer I'm afraid Iain. My own experience with the little doubles has been positive and I credit the fly tiers here for my enlightenment there. I do prefer them but must pay close attention to regional regulations so I don't get pinched for a violation. Recently while fishing down in Washington state on their Olympic Peninsula for steelhead there were 2 fish and game officers who came down one of the rivers via one man pontoon rafts. They stopped and checked me for proper licensing and then wanted a look at the fly. Lucky me, a #6 single with no barb Something told me to leave the Nordic doubles in my pocket while rigging the tube. Nothing mattered due to low abundance of fish (to be read as zero fish) and the weather was actually better up in Alaska than it was down there some 2000 miles to the south so .......... Go figure?

One day when I'm ready for further self flagellation I'll post images and write up the gory details.

interesting. I always rig my monkeys with the hook up on a 2 or 4 single.

I shall look forward to your report - who did you fish with ? I fished with Trevor Covich and then Jim Kerr. Both great guys who live local. Jim especially knows every pool and run as he guides all year round on the four rivers.

 

[Hardyreels]

Hi Gee Bee,

I fished with a fellow from Idaho who has been out there multiple times and we relied on legendary Alaskan guide Ard as our fish finder. The only people we encountered who had hookups were fishing from boats and drifting what they called 'Soft Beads' under bobbers. Neither of us are into that style or desperate enough to ever do it so ................ Even the boat people with the egg / beads were being blanked and the weather was just a little worse than the normal bad.

Being from Alaska I'm no weather pansy but frankly we were hoping to escape winter by going to Washington, day one we had six inches of snow and at times it snowed so hard that you could not see your cast land. We kept the energy going right up to the last hour of the last day and I really am a fish guide who has always been pretty efficient at finding fish but ........ Even here in Alaska I can't produce a steelhead if there aren't many around when I'm on the water. Every now and then though they are here and I was hoping that our timing would have been good, not though.