Esox fly fishing

[Long Gray Line]

As if it isn't tough enough, I'm starting up fly fishing for them this year. Managed to get a steal at the Gander that's closing in Maple Grove on a 9wt St. Croix Legend Elite for $125 and then picked a real to match. Anyway, I'd appreciate any tips anyone has about fly fishing for muskies or big pike. Lines your using, flies (making a lot of my own), leader material/types, etc. Tks much,

Jeff

[brad coin]

if your going to do this you really should get the book 'muskies on the fly' they have it at thorne bros it is a recent release and can give you all the info you need

[OnAFly]

You will need to be able to shoot line on your forward and back cast and use a few false casts as possible to get the fly out. Don't try to cast a mile, you will just tire yourself out. Casting big flies is demanding. You need to have good timing otherwise your cast will fall apart and you will wind up with a fly in the back/head/neck/leg/arm. Double hauls are mandatory to get the fly out.

I would line up a weight just to give you that extra ability to load up the rod.

I use a short 4' leader. 2' 40lb FC, 1' 25lb FC, 1' 25lb wire.

Look at Thorne Bros for flies, try to copy some of them. Giant wooly buggers work for me as do giant zonker minnows.

[50inchpig]

always important to have some steel in front of your bait. i would think the nylon coated tieable wire would be good tippet material. tyger makes some good stuff.

i think divers are always great flies, the pike really liked the rabbit fur strips too when i fly fished back in the day and i don't know why the muskies wouldn't like them too.

there is generally a pretty good shallow bite once the water starts to cool down in september and that's the timeframe that i would guess fly fishing would be the most effective in the lakes for muskies. if you're familiar with the Mississippi or Croix backwaters you could probably have lots of fun with the pike.

your biggest challenge will probably be making flies that are big enough to consistently attract esox and still be castable. i would recommend searching out some of larry dahlbergs esox fly patterns and starting with those.

[Long Gray Line]

Good stuff gang. Been fly fishing since I was about 5 so I'm pretty ok on the casting, at least, I haven't hooked myself yet. I have a nice selection of black, white and black/yellow bunnies (zonkers) tied up and I've made up a pretty good batch of game fish patterns in sucker, perch and whatever purple flash represents. Been tying them in the 6" to 9" range. Found some nice Gama hooks from 2/0 up to 6/0 to use too! Since I can make the flies sink by putting on sea eyes or lead dumbbells, what do you think of just going w/ a floating line? I've heard really good things about Rio's Outbound and pike lines. Since it's been mentioned, I just want to check, 25lb Tyger does a good uni to uni w/ florocarbon?

Didn't know about the book - sounds like a must read tho'

[OnAFly]

I would go floating line. If you want to get down, add a sink tip.

Sounds like the right size fly to me.

[smeese]

Purple is probably Tullibee....don't forget to tell us how it went

[Long Gray Line]

The pike/musky fly tying is getting better! Can actually make something like a Dahlberg diver now that doesn't look like a porcupine with a skin condition. Looking forward to testing them on 'Tonka or up on the north end flats on Mille Lacs.

[fishcast]

That 9 wt will be great! I fly fish for skies and pike quite a bit and these are my opinions...

Musky on the fly is a good extensive book on the subject. Do you fish for skies with conventional tackle? If you are familiar with general patterns and locations i am sure you will get on some skies with the fly with a little persistence. Flies can be a very affective tool in a muskie fishermans tackle. Somedays and some seasons i see flies produce more and somedays i see lures produce more.

My favorite 9wt line is cortlands precision redfish line. Casts well in warm summer days and cold fall water. In my opinion most freshwater lines designed for pike and muskie are too limp in warmwater and tend to tangle too easy and not shoot well. Also their super thick weight forward sections and thin running lines are prone to tangles on long casts. I actually use cortland little tunny intermediate sink line when fishing in lakes most of the time. Super slick great casting line.

I nail not 40lb maxima to my fly line and make a loop after about a foot or so and then loop that to about 2 or 3 feet of 25lb maxima and then loop that to about 18 inch of 35lb cortland toothy critter.

My favorite flies are pretty much big versions of whistlers but i have tied many others that work great. I should slap up some pics sometimes.

[Long Gray Line]

I'd like to see some pics! I've been doing up baitfish patterns, Dahlbergs are getting better, I'd actually show them to someone else now. Doing another pattern called a Carpetmuncher, you can see it up on youtube.

Another question - has anyone tried that new leader from Tuf called Tuf-leader? It's supposed to be braided steel over a core of their dyneema. They say it's tie-able and it comes in 50 & 100lb versions. Sounds pretty slick.

[fishcast]

Pics are on my computer in another state but if I get there anytime soon I could put a few up. Never used the tuf leader but it sounds good. Cortland toothy critter and tyger wire are both great products.

[fishcast]

Well I finally got a hold of a few pics... thought i had more but here is a little taste of a few I tie. The ones I posted range from about 8"-12" long. But I've caught them with much smaller flies.

For some reason the hooks appear to be kinda small in the pics, but they are most all 5/0 to 6/0 with large gaps and hook the fish well.

The red and white fly with the two large eyes is a pattern that I've caught most of my 'skies on (some patterns were smaller or had less weight).

The red and black pattern with all the spun deer hair has a sweet dive and rise with full intermediate sinking line.

The foam popper head fly raised got a good like from a 'skie last June that was probably 53" plus.