How many others go fly fishing for walleyes????

[flyman]

Last fall I found myself specifically targeting walleye with the fly rod quite often. I'd say I caught around 100 'eyes on the fly rod last year. For me, the limitations hasn't been getting hits but getting flies into the strike zone and locating fish (I don't have a boat, so sometimes I just can't get to the fish). I'm hoping to apply some techniques that are used in salt water to be able to fish deeper (10-20 ft.) to expand my opportunities. Anybody else try fly fishing for 'eyes on a somewhat regular basis?

[mac]

I would like to try it this spring and would appreciate anything that you can share on flies, lines, stripping techniques(retrieve for you walleye fisherman). Here in NE SD that's one of the only things you can flycast to. It would be good for my casting as well. I think it would be great during the early shore fishing season.

If you want to continue the discussion off site, my e-mail is mhmiller@dailypost.com (Why do I hate to use the word walleye on a flyfishing site and trout on a walleye site?)

[flyman]

Hey, this board is for sharing info, so I'll share what I know here. If poeple aren't interested, they don't have to read it. Up to this year, I've been using an intermediate line or a sink tip. A 6 wt. will do, but I use an 8 wt. in case I want to throw big stuff for bass or pike. I've done quite well wading when fish are in less than 8 ft. of water. I usuall outfish guys with spinning gear right next to me (maybe just because it is a bait they haven't seen). Deeper than that, and it takes too long to get the fly down. I'm going to use a 225 grain this year, which sinks 2.5-3X faster than an intermediate. The saltwater guys fish down to 20ft with this line.

The retrieve depends on the mood the fish are in. Sometimes they like it slow 'n steady, othertimes a darting retrieve. Sometimes it has to be right on the bottom, other times the middle of the water column.

Most of my flies are size 1-4. For flies I have had success with zonkers (basically the same and as effective as using a curly tail grub), woolly buggers (great leach imitations), clouser minnows (yellow over white), and a few concoctions I tie myself. My most effective is a 3 to 5 inch perch epoxy pattern. It is similar in construction to the fly at the attached link, but made with supreme or ultra hair in perch colors and markings added with permanent marker.

http://ij.net/danscustomflys/PolarMinnowPage.html

I know some people who catch 'eyes on the surface during hatches while fishing for panfish. I've done well enough with the streamers mentioned above that I haven't tried that yet. The hook up when stripping a streamer in is one of the best feelings in the world. A different feeling than you get from any other way of fishing, and fighting the fish in by hand is also a lot of fun. Good luck if you give it a try.

[mac]

Thanks for the reply. I'm getting started into tying also.
Do you fish the salt also? I'm going for bones in April and salmon in Alaska in JUly. Probably won't get soft water here for 3-4 weeks as we had 11" of new snow yesterday and more predicted for next week. Oh well, it's where the water comes from.

[flyman]

Haven't fished the salt for 15 yrs. I've just been looking for solutions to some problems that they have already addressed. Deep water, toothy critters (most trout-designed flies get torn up by 'eyes pretty quickly), ultra-realistic flies that are easy to tie. Some of there solutions seem very applicable to me with just a little tweaking. Synthetic materials and epoxy really broaden what can be achieved at the tying bench. Do an internet search on for saltwater or epoxy fly patterns and you'll see some really neat ideas.

[mac]

I used a Teeny T-200 which is 5.5 inches per second for salmon last year and it throws well and gets down plenty far and fast.
I'm thinking I need to make the flies all some kind of hook turned up pattern or put a weed guard on them. We have a time in the spring here when the walleyes have nothing but some kind of black nymph in their stomachs, so I'm thinking that it will work out well. Leader must not be a problem as far as length.

[flyman]

I use a 6-8 ft tapered 10-13 lb leader, connected to the fly line with loop to loop connection. I also tie a perfection loop on the end of the leader. To this, I use a loop to loop connection to attach a 2-4 ft. flouro tippet, usually 10 lb, sometimes 6 lb. The loop to loop makes changing the tippets so easy. Leader and tippet combined is usually 8-12 ft. You could probably get away with less, especially in stained water, but I always use the longest leader I can cast with a given fly.

Good catch on the "hook up" flies. I tie many of mine that way by attaching hourglass eyes or rattles to the top of the hook.

[Steve(CO)]

I haven't tried a fly rod for walleye although I do fish bass, (small and largemouth), pike, bluegill, crappie, trout, salmon, saltwater, etc. with flies. I have Teeny 200, 300, and 400 lines that I use for salmon in the NW and Alaska which should cover me. I'll give it a shot this spring. We don't have the big Hexagenia mayfly hatches here in Colorado, so that might limit things a bit. Will report back any success.