Nat Greene Flyfishers    November 2006

Alaskan Combat Fishing

Dick and I scheduled a free day in Anchorage before the flight to the lodge. This allowed us to get adjusted to the time zone a bit and explore the area. We thankfully didn’t use the day to make up for a delayed or cancelled flight, the main reason we booked some extra time. In the fashion of true fly fishermen, our first task was to explore the local fly shop, McAfee’s. We were pleasantly surprised at the moderate prices. I picked up a pair of fingertip-less fishing gloves in addition to my license. I assumed that being prepared for cold weather would ward it off and, as time would prove, I was mostly successful.

The clerk at McAfee’s had a pulse, I think. I didn’t press my thumb against his wrist so I can’t definitively state his heart was beating but he moved slower than a snail. After I told him we would like to buy our licenses, he stared at the computer screen for what seemed liked ten minutes. Maybe the Alaskan state web site moved like a glacier and he was just following suit. Anyway, we got our licenses squared away and he pulled out a map from Anchorage north to Fairbanks detailing the highway that leads to Denali. He circled several streams where salmon were being caught. We had several targets to choose from.

Dick is an excellent driver and likes to drive so I am content being the navigator. It took about an hour to reach Willow Creek. He instinctively hit the brakes and we ran to the bridge to scan the river below. Large chum salmon, decked out in their bizarre, irregular red and green stripes, swam lazily in the clear water. We needed no further provocation to suit up. But after an hour, Dick had not connected and I had one strike. Whatever we were doing wrong, we were doing a lot of it. I was using the traditional cast across stream, let the fly swing and retrieve when the line straightens out below. The fish were having none of it. I finally caught a female pink salmon and we broke for lunch.

We decided over lunch to go to the mouth of Willow Creek where it dumped into the Susitna River to try for silvers. This spot was a state recreation area and it seemed everyone within miles knew the silver salmon were in. We found fishermen nearly shoulder-to-shoulder heaving large spinners and salmon eggs. Some fishermen were actually playing fish and we passed a cleaning station, complete with a pile of entrails. This scene had not come to mind when I thought about fishing in Alaska. It was more like Opening Day in New Jersey. I saw one fisherman declare his intention to cast and everyone close to him ducked. Dick and I shook our heads and we crossed to an island in search of an isolated spot.

I found a small hole against the bank hemmed in by brush piles sticking through the surface on the upper, lower, and river sides. It figures fish would be holed up in there. I caught a few pinks on a Sparkle Shrimp, a bright pink thing supposedly mimicking a shrimp. The fish didn’t argue with it but the brush claimed a bunch of flies. I called Dick over to take a shot at the hole while I searched for another spot.

He really went to town on those fish. Pinks, silvers, and some chums paused in the hole on their way upstream. Dick landed about ten pinks on the shrimp fly and had a silver come four feet out of the water, almost hitting him in the chest. He too lost a lot of flies. He gave me another shot at the hole after my unsuccessful wanderings brought me back. I hooked one or two before switching to a sink tip line so I could lose flies really fast. I finally quit becoming concerned about running my supplies down before the fishing got serious.

We slipped-sided away in the thick Alaskan mud back-tracking our steps downstream. A clear view of the horde now revealed people were indeed shoulder-to-shoulder. In addition to being crowded, now it looked dangerous. But a glance at their stringers showed most people had a silver or two in tow. We trudged back to our car smelling freshly grilled salmon. Some fish didn’t even make it out of the parking lot! The on-again off-again drizzle that followed us all day gave way to a magnificent rainbow on our departure from Willow Creek. This was at once a beautiful and hopeful sign of things to come. For tomorrow we would leave civilization behind and fly into the bush.

Jim Brady

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Take Me To Your Leader

Understanding leaders is an important skill for the fly fisher and was a particular impediment for me when I started out in this game. I bought knotless tapered leaders and proceeded to ruin them. After a while, I couldn’t get decent turnover at the end of the cast no matter what I did. Part of my problem was using a line too light for the rod, but that’s another matter. What I’d like to talk about today is what I’ve learned about leaders over the years in the hope it will speed up your learning curve.

Only two or three types of leaders cover most situations. Dry fly fisherman should use a tapered leader, about 7 ½ feet long for mountain streams and 9 feet or longer for larger, more open streams and rivers. Places like the Holston have very clear water and wary fish so a 12 footer or longer may be needed. Purchase a few leaders (knotted or knotless) of the length and test that you typically use, cut off about two feet of tippet and tie a loop such as a double surgeon’s loop. Tie a similar loop in a piece of tippet material, loop it on and go fishing; make sure the two loops form a square knot when pulled up tight. As you are aware, the tippet will gradually shorten due to changing and re-tying flies. When it becomes too short, simply clip it off and loop on a fresh one. This way you never cut into the base portion of the leader. With luck one leader may get you through the year.

The length of the tippet is critical. For dry fly work, I always use the longest length I can get away with. In the tight quarters of a mountain stream, I might be restricted to about 24 inches but otherwise I start out around 40 inches. This ensures I can get a drag-free drift, the key to dry fly success.

For other situations such as popper or streamer fishing for bass, bream, redfish, or stripers, Lefty Kreh has published a simple but nearly universal leader formula. It’s easy to tie and requires only a few different diameters of starting material. At the risk of copyright infringement, I won’t print it here but rather refer you to his excellent book co-authored with Mark Sosin, Practical Fishing Knots (Lyons Press). Look in one of the later chapters for the discussion on leaders. If you don’t have this book, you should anyway. Look for it in fly shops and bookstores.

Fishing a weedy pond for bass or bream presents another problem. Namely, your leader knots act as weed collectors as you retrieve the fly. The fish quickly recognize that something is amiss and won’t go near the fly. The solution is not to use anything knotted. You can use a knotless tapered leader or just a six foot length of eight or ten lb. test mono. Both will slide through the vegetation cleanly. Lily pads and other junk allow you to get away with a short leader if you wish. The fish don’t care.

When fishing a fly below the surface, you have to account for the density of nylon, which is less than that of water. In practical terms this means that leaders like to float, not sink. If you use a long leader attached to a sinking line, the line will sink but the leader will rise towards the surface, defeating the purpose of the line. You end up fishing the fly well above the end of the line. Use a short leader to fish deep. This may sound like heresy but fish are not leader shy or afraid of the fly line underwater and a short leader can’t physically prevent the fly from staying down. Decide how deep you want the fly to swim and go from there. If it’s just a foot or two under, add a few shot to a surface leader or use a weighted fly. To probe the depths use a sinking line and about two feet of tippet material, no need for an actual leader. This applies to using a sinktip or full sinking line. I thoroughly enjoy the spring fishing on the Roanoke River for hickory shad using a shooting head line to which I add two ft. of eight pound test mono. It doesn’t hurt that I use Clouser minnows with lead eyes tied in.

This discussion could go on forever, including specialized saltwater leaders but I’ll spare both of us that digression. Suffice to say, leaders are not the complex black box I once thought. Buy just what you need for your application and tweak them until you get it right. Always soak and stretch the leader before use, this takes out the kinks and straightens the nylon so it lays out straight. My personal preference is to tie my own because they cost about a quarter to make although I readily admit I’ve invested about $50 in spools of varying types and diameter. If you want to tie your own leaders there are plenty of resources in books or on the net to help you. Drop me a line and I’ll share my information with you. If you simply want to buy pre-made leaders, that’s great too. Just get what you need to make your time on the water more enjoyable. Tight lines!

Jim Brady

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