Tippet/leader size for salmon/steelhead

[Richard DeafFly Lin]

Hi - I am preparing to fishing king salmon and/or steelhead in NY next week. It would be my first time. I read stories from different web sites that people caught the fish weight average 15 lbs - steelhead to 30 lbs - king salmon. Will the tippet 0X ok with it? Should I use float line? people said that they lost a lot of egg patterns or hook with sponge and I assumed that sink line is bad chose? I will bring two hands rod with weight 8. Anything I should know? Thanks for your tips or suggests.

Richard

[Danny Barrett]

When I fish steelhead in OH. I tie a ton of eggs and use 0-3x tippet

On Sep 15, 2013 8:27 AM, "Richard DeafFly Lin" <rlin...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi - I am preparing to fishing king salmon and/or steelhead in NY next week. It would be my first time. I read stories from different web sites that people caught the fish weight average 15 lbs - steelhead to 30 lbs - king salmon. Will the tippet 0X ok with it? Should I use float line? people said that they lost a lot of egg patterns or hook with sponge and I assumed that sink line is bad chose? I will bring two hands rod with weight 8. Anything I should know? Thanks for your tips or suggests.

Richard

--
http://www.tpfr.org
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tidal-potomac-fly-...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to tidal-potoma...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tidal-potomac-fly-rodders/14a758aa-03ce-4d71-a1bb-1c864cf4dba1%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.

[Jeff Ford]

Most non spey fly guys use lots of 30 lb backing, floating fly line, then about 6 ft of 15-20lb leader, size 12 barrel swivel, then about 3-4 ft of tippet. Use 12 lb fluorocarbon to start. Increase it if you are breaking off, decrease down if you are not hooking up. Add any weight off the tag end when tying on the swivel. this will ensure your weakest point is there at your tippet end. Take extra rods and reels. I saw 2 rods break on 30 lb kings 2 weeks ago. These guys grabbed their rods above the cork which is a big no-no. I think Spey guys use sink tips with large traditional streamer/salmon flies and they swing with very little weight. Leader and tippet are similar. You can land steelhead with 8lb tippet and 10-12lb is good for landing most salmon.

[Daniel Erickson]

I fish steelhead in Pa.. I use floating line with an indicator and a bead/egg pattern and sometimes a dropper of another bead that is slightly different in color.

[Rob Snowhite]

Anyone fishing with sponge on their hook should be banished from fishing. 

Don't use a leader too strong that they'll break your rod first. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 15, 2013, at 8:27 AM, Richard DeafFly Lin <rlin...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi - I am preparing to fishing king salmon and/or steelhead in NY next week. It would be my first time. I read stories from different web sites that people caught the fish weight average 15 lbs - steelhead to 30 lbs - king salmon. Will the tippet 0X ok with it? Should I use float line? people said that they lost a lot of egg patterns or hook with sponge and I assumed that sink line is bad chose? I will bring two hands rod with weight 8. Anything I should know? Thanks for your tips or suggests.

Richard

--

[Steve F]

Be sure to read up on the regulations, http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/31420.html.  NY is pretty stringent on their regulations for single hooks, single flies, attractors, and added weight. 

[Richard DeafFly Lin]

Thanks ALL - the tips, suggests and the link to regulations. 

I will bring 

Rods - two rods with wt8 - single rod & two-hands rod and two reels, 

Line - float line, tippet X2 to X0. 

Flies - Traditional streamer, eggs pattern, bead head woolly and davala shad pattern.

Just curious - why is bad about sponge on hook? Is that because the sponges fall off from hooks then kill the fishes after they ate them? 

I will take a picture )only if caught one) and give a repot after I come back... Thanks

Richard

[Rob Snowhite]

Snaggers will put a piece of sponge on a bare hook and justify their rig as legitimate fishing tackle. 

Sent from my iPhone

--

http://www.tpfr.org
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tidal-potomac-fly-...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to tidal-potoma...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tidal-potomac-fly-rodders/0648b8f2-69fc-409d-923f-fcbcc981e22e%40googlegroups.com.

[Uncle Keith]

Contrary to contemporary myth, kings will strike fl. Red/White flies and All White "puff balls" - IF you can find fish that haven't been hassled/assaulted in the last 25 minutes. Yes, 20 to 25 minutes is how long it takes fish to forget.

[Richard DeafFly Lin]

Hey - I am back from Pulaski, NY and I promised to report it.

On Monday - I went the Salmon River in early morning around 6:30am with 42 degree however 50 fishermen showed up already!! DAMN!! Some were with spin rods and other were use different type of rods that come with similar fly fishing reels - I don't know what it is called. It was so crowd - I hated it but I had no choice and waited until someone fedup and left the spot, then I took over it - in three different places. I used egg patterns like most fishermen used. First 2 -3 hours few of them caught/landed King Salmon and some broken off. All day I did not get any feeling bits or pulls- eggs and traditional flies did not work well. I did it at fly fishing zone (still crowd) at lower area in Altmar. It was lousy day! I went back hotel, surface information online, found some reports and got some feedbacks from a friend of mine who goes there every year. He suggested me to try smaller of natural flies - King salmon are not dumb and wont take egg pattern most time. I looked in my flies boxes and I did not bring everything- AHHHHH... Then I saw some woolly - OK why not to use them tomorrow!!

On Tuesday and showed up 5:30 AM at different place and the fishermen already showed up there - around 30! Anyway....it was slow for 3 hours and only 3 of them caught steelhead and king salmon. I decided going back to fly fishing zone again and found good spot (not really - only 10 feet between each other). After 3rd casting, BIG pull surprised me!!! I was so thrilled and reeling fast, suddenly it flied out of water in front of me - 5 feet above water, after three minutes - BROKEN OFF!! I was liking cry babyyyyyy at the point. After several casting, it did again and broken off.....It was killing my feeling....I decided to change to 0x from 2x. After almost one hour of casting, BIG pull again.....All I was thinking - TAKE YOUR TIME - TAKE YOUR TIME......It jumped and jumped liking bullfighter and tug of war ....I had to ride with it for 15 minutes and finally landed it!!! YEAHHHHHHHH! biggest fish I have caught in my life!!! What a great feeling!!! Asked person to take a picture for me. I barely hard to left it when I was holding its tail. I needed to release it quickly and decided to HUG it as shown as "How much I love it" !!! Then released it. I did had 4th pull and broken it again. Then Woolly were not useful after most noon. It was most awesome day!!! ;-) 

Richard

On Sunday, September 15, 2013 8:27:49 AM UTC-4, Richard DeafFly Lin wrote:

[ROBERT BISHOP]

Loved reading your narrative! Congratulations on your first salmon ,and a fat one it was! Nothing like hooking into those monsters in that river. Worth putting up with the crowds, which actually is part of the charm of the place. Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

---

From: Richard DeafFly Lin <rlin...@gmail.com>;
To: <tidal-potoma...@googlegroups.com>;
Subject: {Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Re: Tippet/leader size for salmon/steelhead
Sent: Wed, Sep 25, 2013 9:56:29 PM

--

http://www.tpfr.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tidal-potomac-fly-...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to tidal-potoma...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tidal-potomac-fly-rodders/23cce93c-9bb1-48e6-b617-c14b286fb1b5%40googlegroups.com.

[Carl Z.]

That's a big fish.

It's great to hear the salmon and steelhead are running.  I expect to hear some other reports soon.  I just hear from someone else that had been catching Erie steelhead (not as big as your salmon though)

The folks with the long rods and reels that look like fly reels are float fishing, the reels are called centerpin reels.  the goal with these is to get the longest drag free drift possible and they can do really well.  

The crowded conditions might not be the most fun, but if you can catch fish like that, it is worth it.

Carl

--

[Richard DeafFly Lin]

Yeah you are right - it is worth!!!...Just need to be patient in crowded place. I also got better skill with casting because of that!  

I did not have chance to measure & weight it - it might be around 25 to 30 lbs and 36" long. I was told that it is female with fat belly - eggs. I guess that it is on the way to spawn place by now because the zone I caught is the last place before the salmon ladder.

Richard