My go to is shore fish only til first week of May and I’ll keep up with anyone in a boat for numbers and I’m just throwing fly patterns on jig heads so I can cast and jerkbaits
No doubt, the only thing us boat guys can keep up with is if we’re running smelt, and the bite is on. It’s usually slow for a while once the ice has been out for a bit, but like you said may and when it hits 55 degrees can be a lot of fun.
You've never seen my numbers... YOU'D DECIMATE THEMAnyway, I tend to troll tandem streamer flies and smelt pattern flat fish. Sometimes when none of that works I will drag smaller stick baits.
I'm going to disagree. Smelt can be hot if you're on top of the fish. I don't like using live bait cuz you have to go too slow! If you're not on top of the fish, it takes too long to find them at .5 - 1.0 SOG or pick up and try another spot.I didn't fish ice out last year, but the year before a friend and I picked up 20 salmon one day. Might have been a bow in there? The next day, we picked up 22, mostly all salmon. One day we were off the water at noon and the next done around 1:30. Most fish were caught on hardware. A few on single flies. I don't care for tandems! They look pretty, but get twisted way too soon. It's not easy to get them to travel right afterwards if you can at all?
I have no idea from the outside looking in but I’d try shallower
I’ll have to try some more singles this year, and I completely agree about getting them to run correctly after being hit. My father had the magic touch for that, i usually just go for a new fly. Our best days number wise are usually once the thermocline has set up well, or right as the water is getting to 55.
Flies are way too expensive for me to throw away after a fish or two. Doesn't take many, maybe the first salmon to twist a tandem in to a pretzel.
Same here, I don’t throw them out either. I just find it’s quicker to deploy the same type of fly from the “tackle box”, and then try to straighten out the wrecked fly while it’s “working” counterpart is swimming. My father can manage to get them swimming well quickly, but I always waste to much time trying to get it working again.Heck I have found that a lot of streamers that get shredded by fish and lose feathers or some shape almost fish better then there full bodied counter parts. I had one joes smelt fly that caught a few dozen fish it seemed before it was basically just a hook. The good flys that catch a bunch of fish and get real beat up get “retired” into a box I have, and then I usually buy a bunch of duplicates.