Walleyes And Flies

Skeena River, Terrace, British Columbia

2011-07-17T13:02:00.000-06:00

Went to Terrace to visit my wifes relatives and hooked up with some locals and slayed a few Chinook Salmon and Dolly Varden.. Such an awesome place to be and excellent fisherman to hang with.
Bathtub shot is a 50lb Chinook caught by a fishing partner.

Surface fishing Walleye video

2011-06-14T15:02:00.003-06:00

Wife came down and surprised me with a visit so I convinced her to make a video to show a little bit of what I've been up to. I'm not much into editing video so please just enjoy the simplicity!

When surface fishing Walleye they don't seem to be overly fussy, similar to Pike they will readily attack mice, Bass bugs, poppers and even smaller dry fly's commonly used for Trout such as Humpty's and Stimulator's. The most important aspect of this style is to key in on feeding time and create a wake.

I will typically head out between 8-10pm and begin fishing sub-surface with a Clouser and locate the school or pockets where they will hold up. If things slow down or I notice any rise on the water I will switch to a gurgler in a 1 or 2/0. Most of the action heats up when it becomes dark and usually continues longer than I can.

At some point I will put up more fly pics and show a bit more of the leader system I'm using and an explanation as to the reasons. Cheers!

Video taken with Iphone by my wife who filmed with no knowledge of how to use it. So sorry for not having the video in widescreen!

Few pics

2011-06-14T12:35:00.003-06:00

40+ in hours

2011-06-13T10:46:00.004-06:00

Last night I had the most phenomenal experience! I went out to my hole at about 8pm caught about 4 pike and a couple Walleye in an hour and then switched to popping at about 9:30 and the bite was on, the fish were voracious and schooling aggressively, nearly every cast was a fish landed. It was beyond anything I've ever experienced, I lost count at 10 and would say 40 Walleye landed conservatively. My Iphone lost power way before the stupidity began so I couldn't get enough pics or video.

Few pics

2011-06-11T23:20:00.003-06:00

Had an hour to spare this evening and checked out a few local spots. Things were a bit slow at first and decided to move out of the faster water to a nice calm area under a bridge and started catching as soon as the hook hit water with a Pike around 5lbs, moments later a Goldeye and 3 Walleye on White/Black Clouser. It was one of those moments that was turning into an awesome outing that unfortunately had to be cut short. If only for another hour!

Fishing lessons

2011-06-08T00:48:00.005-06:00

I had a chance the other day to get down to the river and give the boys a lesson on catching Goldeye with a float and a little piece of Deer meat. We had such a great time. Marshall the youngest at 3yrs caught 3 while Judah at 4 landed 1 and was a bit miffed that his little bro out fished him.

Late Walleye

2011-06-08T00:30:00.006-06:00

First Walleye of the season caught on a white bunny. The Peace River has been high and muddy and hasn't been very productive for fly fishing at the times I've been able to get out. I finished my week on at work and had the opportunity to stay out a little longer and landed one, they were just starting to feed on my offerings at 11:30pm but was cut short by some company and decided to pack it in.

Nice Pike but skunked on Walleye

2011-06-01T23:55:00.004-06:00

All of my fishing holes are officially open for business so I went out for an hour this evening and was hoping to land a Walleye and hooked into a nice Pike on about the tenth cast.

It was a little tense because I was using an 8lb mono tippet. The river was high and he headed straight for fast current providing some great runs, as I neared him to shore he fought hard and headed into some floating driftwood amongst flooded willows. I was certain he would get off but remained patient and landed him with a graceful face wash and a boot full of water.

Below is the fly, Orange marabou, silver silly legs, and I think finn raccoon head with silver cone on Gamakatsu sl-12s, size 1/0.

Unfortunately no Walleye!

Bench work

2011-05-28T15:56:00.004-06:00

Have to get back to the bench and get this season ready with some unchewed hooks. Here are a few Clousers to start. For me they are the cats @ss working them off the bottom.

Colton fly rods

2011-05-28T15:31:00.003-06:00

Last year my niece somehow broke my favorite 7wt. with a truck door none the less, a fishing rods worst enemy so I just replaced with a Colton Tradewinds 9'0 7wt. Pretty excited and can't wait to rig it up with 8wt. Wulff Triangle taper and my Waterworks ULA Force 3x

http://www.coltonfly.com/

http://waterworks-lamson.com/

Fish on

2011-05-27T20:09:00.004-06:00

Well its certainly been awhile since I made a post. Nearly a year!

I must say its been a hectic one at that with three young boys and the eldest being 4. Now there is a vague picture planted in your head of consistent nagging, whining, crying, fighting, pooping, puking... etc. etc. Of course there are the great moments as well that goes without saying.

Its a new season and I hope to be around the fishing holes and maybe a few trips and get this site back in action, so until then I'll leave a pic of a nice Pike I hooked a couple of days ago.

I caught her on a chartreuse deer hair, fleye style 4/0 that she inhaled to her gills, I snipped the hook and left it in, snapped a crappy pic with the Iphone and sent her on.

Fiver caught tonight

2010-06-23T22:58:00.002-06:00

Caught 5 pike today and a nice Walleye at 5lb 10oz. Sorry about the same old boring photo's everyone I'll try to get things a little better.

Nice Walleye

2010-06-23T00:18:00.003-06:00

I sent a text to find out how JS has been making out and he sent me this pic via Blackberry so the quality is not that great but you can see he managed a very nice Pickeral. He never specified weight but I would guess by looking at it to be a 5-6 lb'er. Good job

Walleye first timer

2010-06-22T20:56:00.003-06:00

As I was out the other day a fisherman from Quebec approached me and inquired about what specie I was targeting, he moved to Peace River in February and never new the possibilities outside his front door and instead was opting to fish the stocked ponds. I lent him a 7wt rod to use for a bit and told him it would be best in the evening after sunset so he joined me then with his own equipment. He was ecstatic that he could now fish for something wild after being more familiar with Sea trout and Salmon

Congratulations JS on your first Walleye on the fly and will see you out there soon!

Furled leaders

2010-06-14T00:43:00.004-06:00

last month after a few years of thinking about furled leaders I was looking through eBay and thought about buying some and wondered really what was involved in creating one instead of having to pay 10 bucks and sit and wait for the mail man so I started with YouTube and searched and found one video in particular that made it a snap to do. I finally used one last night made from 30lb mono and use a 20lb tippet and a Southbend Invisileader which is a 36lb ultra strong, ultra thin wire with a good snap lock for changing hooks quickly and had alot of success in the Walleye department and never really had a chance to chuck the real heavy flies to test the turn over. really excited about the potential, I was never really content with my leader set up but think I may be onto something more permanent.

2010-06-14T00:09:00.005-06:00

Went out tonight at 9 pm and did really well catching 18 Walleye and 3 small Jack in just under 3 hours. I thought I would make a video and try one handed fishing and looks like it worked out.. thankfully the fish wasn't large enough to mess the viewing up.

Walleye

2010-06-13T15:15:00.004-06:00

Many apologies to those who check in with my blog occasionally I have been fairly busy enjoying the great weather with the kids. I have been out fishing a few times but I've lately been having issues with my point and shoot camera and then I've been having a few problems with the old pc and programming errors.

Routinely I wander down to a little trib that flows but only a few hundred meters from my step at around 8 to 9 pm and fish until after 12 and usually catch between 10 to 15 Walleye and the odd foot long Pike. All of the them under 2 lbs, fun.. yet frustrating waiting for the big boys of last year and hoping its not going to be this way until fall.

The fish in the photos are caught on 1/o Gamakatsu sl12s Clousers and a few on small gurglers with a foam wing that make it look like an airplane (GurgleBombers?) I started putting a wing in my poppers last year thinking maybe they would be similar to a Stonefly.. not really sure it makes a huge difference but my kids get a kick out of them.

(My nephew Dustin featured in pics)

Pole Dancer fly

2010-05-18T21:26:00.001-06:00

Goldeye

2010-05-12T17:08:00.003-06:00

Went out to my local fishing hole last night expecting to catch myself a few Walleye but only managed a couple small Pike and a couple Goldeye. This one pictured was caught on a red and white zonker.

Finally first day out fishing

2010-04-30T11:02:00.005-06:00

Finally had a chance to get out and do some fishing yesterday with my nephew who has become in the last 2 years, a fly fishing addict. The days forecast was to be 10C and gusts of 50km from the north, which wasn't going to stop us from at least getting our lines wet.

We started off fishing tight to the shore and in behind the reed beds. We had good luck avoiding the winds and with landing a few small Pike, 7 for me and 3 for my nephew ( his first Pike on the fly and all smiles) who also landed a small perch. All things being said we did have a great time and are looking forward to a great summer. Tight lines.

Bench Work

2010-04-22T19:55:00.003-06:00

Some Gurglebug patterns... Hope to get a few of these done.

Bench Work

2010-04-21T22:50:00.003-06:00

Zonker bunnies are another simple and effective pattern for Pike and Walleye. When using on Walleye you can feel the subtle tug on the tail so you have to either tie them with a stinger hook or snip the tail.

Bench Work

2010-04-21T22:30:00.005-06:00

Tied up a few Clouser minnows and ran short on bead chain for eyes/weight need to tie a whack of them up. Clousers, rabbit zonker bunnies and poppers were my primary Walleye flies for fishing rivers. Clousers are so easy and quick to tie so it really pays off to make up a few different colors and always have them with you.

My babies

2010-04-20T00:33:00.002-06:00

I'm seriously itching to go fishing, so much so that I thought I would show my babies.. I could easily become a addicted to spending money on reels if I had any. These aren't the most pricey but are more than enough for me. I friggin love Lamson conical drags, ultra smooth and powerfull. Check em out. http://www.waterworks-lamson.com/indexnew.html

2010-04-14T01:30:00.002-06:00

My oldest boy Judah is 3yr 5mth and tying very well.. I have to upload his creations on here someday. This pic was of his first tube fly and a little lesson on palmering spey feathers.

Sure make a guy proud!

2010-04-14T00:12:00.008-06:00

Living in northern Alberta does have its faults and one being that I have to drive 2.5 hours to buy tying materials in Grande Prairie and have limited choice or drive 5 hours to Alberta's capital city, Edmonton. Well I mostly have opted out of doing either. Having three boys at 3, almost 2 and 5 months can make the trip very exhausting to say the least. So what I have been doing is searching and ordering over the internet and surprisingly its very difficult to find an online store in Canada that has anything that I want, which forces me to make purchases from the US.

The reasons I bring this some what of a rant to light is that I recently ran out of hooks and have decided that I needed to learn about Tube flies.. and of course we all know how thrifty we can be when it comes to scrounging the thrift stores for fur or the Dollar Store for whatever the hell they have. Prior to the day I'd decided tube flies were the ticket I was checking out wigs (I swear this town thinks I'm up to something) when I came across some flexible colored tubes for crafts, I thought they would be fun for the kids, and they played with them for hours and then it hit me..

So I tied a few with obvious struggles being that they were too flexible to tie tightly with my crude coat hanger mandrel. I started searching the house and found Heat Shrink tubing that I had from repairing my fly line. ( remember previous post.. well it worked like shit!) So I melted a shape out and it works actually pretty good. I also stole the tubes out of the Windex bottles and tried them too.. they're even better. Anyways for now I think I may get into this for awhile and see how well they fish. Top one is an Intruder type fly with the heat shrink. Bottom one being a bunny using Rabbit zonker and Ostrich, yellow Finn Raccoon and marabou dubbing looped with Windex bottle tube

Feathered fur streamer

2010-03-21T12:03:00.000-06:00

Here is a beautiful fly from Simon @ Pike Flyfishing Articles demonstrating a dubbing loop.

Click picture to go to his site for the tutorial.

2010-03-20T14:43:00.000-06:00

Pike fly from rummutt on Vimeo.

Very informative lesson on using dubbing loops for Pike flies.. its in a foreign language but the actions speak volumes.. Great fly, and a great lesson, many thanks for the tutorial!

2010-03-20T14:34:00.000-06:00

Apologies to anyone who may have been trying to make a comment on my site. I was informed by Simon @ PikeFFarticles and should have it remedied now.

Michael and Pike

2010-03-18T23:05:00.000-06:00

Here is some food for thought from http://pikeandferrets.blogspot.com/

Michael and Pike: "The Size Thing. Is bigger better? I don't want to get in a 'big' discussion here but probably will? Although there will be exceptions, big pike take big flies! In many waters most fish are caught on middle size flies (15-20 cm) and the fisherman are happy. Every once in a while a big pike (10 kg ) is taken. When using big flies (25-35 cm) you will get fewer strikes and catch less but when you do they will be bigger pike! The same applies to trout in lakes on a different scale, I have caught countless trout (50 cm ) on pike flies 15-20 cm long. There are big pike in every pike water, why are they so seldom caught? Three main factors; 1) Large baits aren't used that often. 2) After eating a big meal they may go a week before feeding again (especially in winter). 3) They haven't lived so long by being stupid! The flies shown above are 28-34 cm long. Tied in Popovics 'Hollow Fleye' style on a extended length of 60 lb mono with Ad Swier Absolute Pike hooks. They are durable, shed water quickly, have little or no wind resistance, and swim perfectly. And yes they catch pike!"

PIKESABER - Specialist Pike Fly Rod

2010-03-17T21:04:00.000-06:00

PIKESABER - 10 Weight 9'00" 4 Piece Specialist PIKE Fly Rod

The PIKESABER is the Pike Fly Rod that all others will be judged by. It has been specifically designed for the rigours of Pike Fly Fishing. It is made from the finest materials. From the bespoke and unique fighting butt, to the un-ground blank finish, everything has been thought of, and though about. This rod has been designed by anglers for anglers, and this is evident in the look, the feel and the handling. This pike fly rod is a delight to use. It is both light and strong and throws large pike flies with ease. The unground blank finish adds strength and the spiral wrap cuts down on friction on the line. It allows the line to slip through the rings without ‘sticking' to the rod. This is something we have yet to see in any of our competitors. The unique aluminium fighting butt allows the pike fly fisherman to exert pressure on the fish, whilst keeping full control of the rod. This is something that pike fly rods have been criticised for in the past. A pike when played for too long can take a while to recover. With the PIKESABER the pike fly angler can control the pike without needlessly tiring it. The extra stiffness of the unground blank allows the pike angler to punch out heavy pike flies with little effort. The turnover is superb, it forms tight loops on the cast and the rod feels very light at only 140 grams.

My Wife is getting good!!!

2010-03-17T20:36:00.000-06:00

After convincing my wife to start tying flies she tied a couple that were rather hideous so I told her so and asked her to put some effort into it.. And this is the result.. Clearly she took the advice and has made some beautiful flies.

Popovics' Hollow Fleye technique

2010-03-17T19:56:00.000-06:00

When I saw this it got me excited to tie with Bucktail again.. Makes nice flies that are light and appear to be full of volume.

Bench Work

2010-03-17T00:29:00.000-06:00

Bench Work

2010-03-17T00:27:00.001-06:00

Bench Work

2010-03-17T00:25:00.000-06:00

Bench Work

2010-03-17T00:17:00.000-06:00

Wig hair streamers

2010-03-17T00:02:00.001-06:00

This is Fly | Fly Fishing Magazine

2010-03-13T22:32:00.000-07:00

This is Fly | Fly Fishing Magazine

WalleyeFishingSecrets.com - How to Catch Nets Full of Walleye

2010-02-08T22:08:00.000-07:00

I certainly won't claim to know all the ins and outs of Walleye fishing and will take in any amount of information as I can to not get skunked. I found this site to have many different snippets of sound advice.

WalleyeFishingSecrets.com - How to Catch Nets Full of Walleye

Bench work

2010-02-08T20:45:00.001-07:00

At night I like to use mainly foam type poppers for Walleye. A few times I've tied mouse patterns like this and ended up giving them away.. so I thought I would make a few and keep them for myself. I only wish they would last longer.

Bench work

2010-02-08T20:37:00.000-07:00

Flies tied with Finn Raccoon and strung saltwater hackle, Gamakatsu sl12s 6/0

2010-02-07T23:08:00.000-07:00

With some inspiration from Simon at Pike Fly Fishing Articles I've decided to purchase some Finn Raccoon fur and get tying some more flies and have some fun putting a little more panache into my Pike selection.. yes I know they will be torn to shreds but it makes me feel a whole lot more proud to have a nice selection when the doubters with they're spin cast set-ups are out fished. Here where I'm from people look at me and shake in disapproval thinking that I'm trying to catch trout.. then I haul out Pike or Walleye and soon have an audience

2009-12-14T22:43:00.001-07:00

Its been awhile since I've made any effort to post, let alone fishing. My last post was on the 10th of August and where I'm from, Bowhunting season starts on the 25. So yes I was a little sidetracked to say the least. Opening day I connected with a nice cow Elk and my other hunting partner arrowed a nice 46" bull Moose and its been balls to the walls for the better part of fall and just recently have been fantasizing about fishing again.. problem is is that its currently -38C and the only way I can satisfy myself is with ice-fishing. which I hope to do after the holidays. until then its just great to look at everyones Blogs and flies and pics and .. well the list goes on.

Mending a broken fly-line

2009-08-10T12:15:00.000-06:00

Well yesterday I went fishing at my nearby hotspot and after a half hour and three Walleye I made a cast and heard a SNAP and my line collapsed to the ground.. I was in shock, in the middle of a good time my Mastery pike line failed! Why? I somehow formed a knot before the first rod guide and when I shot my line the knot loop caught the guide and just like that I was decommissioned. I had another setup with me but I had the wife and kids with me and they were itching to go so I left.

I had never had a line break on me before so I was curious as to some of the technique's used in line repair which brought me to this link: http://www.ukswff.co.uk/Tips_Flyline_Repair.shtml

Walleye

2009-07-28T23:40:00.001-06:00

Pike

2009-07-26T16:32:00.000-06:00

2009-07-26T16:21:00.000-06:00

Welcome everyone to my Blog.. I am new to this and mostly wanted to show some pictures to my friends and family of the fish and flies I'm using. I hope to get as many in here as possible but when you fish alone the photos tend to be a little bland.

I would like to say that I'm mainly a Pike fly fisher but this season is proving to be somewhat difficult in getting to the quality destinations. I do have a productive confluence to the Peace River 2 blocks from my house and have been targeting walleye, which promted the title. Anyways thanks for looking here and I hope to get more pics up soon.

Walleye

2009-07-26T16:03:00.000-06:00

Walleye

2009-07-26T16:00:00.000-06:00