Trout Jack

[Elisabetta Buendia]

Hi there, my name is Jack Shirk, and I love to streamer fish. I am a fly fishing guide in Northeast Tennessee, targeting brown trout and smallmouth bass on the Watauga, South Holston, and Holston rivers. I am putting this masterclass together to help anyone interested...

I am revisiting this article almost three years after originally publishing to make some updates to my thoughts and opinions. Since I originally wrote this, I have switched my vise to the Renzetti Master from the Regal Revolution. Both are incredible vises and their...

=DstJatJDm28 Indicators. Whether you love or hate indicator nymph fishing, it's hard to deny how effective it can be. In my opinion, it should have a place in every well-rounded angler's quiver of techniques. It seems that with...

It wasn't till I got a dry-rotted spool of fluoro off a fly shop shelf my first year in Colorado that I decided to go down the tippet rabbit hole. I couldn't figure out why I had busted off two fish in a row that morning until I started applying some pressure to that...

A trout permit is required to fish for trout in certain waters (tailwaters below Beaver Lake, Bull Shoals Lake, Norfork Lake, Greers Ferry Lake, Lake Greeson or east of Highway 59 on Spavinaw Creek) or to keep trout from any Arkansas waters.

Anglers catching illegally introduced yellow perch are always encouraged to take as many of these as they want. This illegal introduction has only resulted in stunted perch and negative impacts to the bass and trout fishery in this lake and numerous others around the Southwest District. Last updated 7/17/24.

Summer is my favorite time of the year to throw dry flies. While I do spend many spring trips casting dries during the major hatches of the East, I also enjoy excellent nymphing action all through those wet months. So I fish a lot of dry dropper from April to June. And I often tight line nymphs right through a good hatch.

Harvey leaders are designed to land in s-curves. Those swirls, arcs and circles in the leader are absolutely vital for a dead drift. As the fly travels downstream, the s-curves unfold to lend a little slack to the fly. Without some curves to feed naturally into the drift, a dry fly drags immediately.

The George Harvey dry fly leader is designed with a much lighter butt section than other standard leaders. Essentially, some of the power in the fly line is dissipated with the thinner materials. Standard leaders are designed to be multi-functional. They are designed for turnover, to maximize power coming through the fly line and push the leader straight to the target. So their butt sections are thicker. But the Harvey design is different.

After a few months of testing, I reverted back to using Maxima Chameleon for the butt section, and I still prefer it. Perhaps I simply developed my casting style to that leader over so many years. Or maybe the stiffer nylon really does allow me to push and manipulate the front half of the leader more directly, and place the most important s-curves leading to the dry fly exactly where I want them.

There is some diversion above from the formula I listed in the Hatch Magazine article a couple of years ago. Ironically, right after I wrote the piece and gave it to the editor, I started playing around with formulas again.

The setup cast keeps you in control on the river. It allows for repositioning and redirecting the line, leader and fly to the next target. The setup cast gives you a chance to regroup and rethink, too. It keeps you in rhythm by keeping you out of trouble and lending new options to an active angler.

In the formula above, for my favorite Harvey style leader, I listed a foot of Gold Stren as a sometimes-substitute for the 2X section. I often make my leaders that way, because the Gold Stren acts as a subtle sighter in the middle of the leader. I rarely find that fish spook from it, if ever. Yet it gives me a reference in my leader, showing my how the whole thing is drifting.

This is a late comment, so maybe no one will see it, but after years of hearing about the Harvey style leaders, I finally tied one up (I had all the components around) and just cannot believe how great it is for its intended purpose! I had previously used long Trouthunter extruded leaders but really prefer the presentation of the Harvey. Excellent post and this is the best fly fishing content on the web for me! Thank you!

I tied my own leaders about 30 years ago with the Orvis kit. I really liked how they turned over but eventually I tried extruded leaders as well as furled(convenient but not really impressed). So,here I go again! When you write soft tippet material, do you mean Maxima Ultragreen and for the last piece use your preferred tippet material(mine is Rio Powerflex)? Thanks for your help!

It looks like both the original Harvey Leader and your favorite start with 15 pound material. Is there an error in the original Harvey leader Formula, as based on your text you replaced 20 pound with 15 pound? Or perhaps I am reading something incorrectly.

Dom, once again you provided good advice! I finally tied a Harvey leader and noticed improvements immediately. The longer drag-free drifts were most impressive. I thought I had a bit more time to react to strikes, too.

Today is Jan 29th 2022. i would like to try your assembled Harveys Dry Fly Leader but you are out. How soon are you going to have some spools tied and for sale. of course, D.F.A. is 3-4 months off. I have purchased all the materials and tie my own standard troutbitten mono rig. Thanks much, John McDermott.

I tackle the big projects in my off-season from guiding. I plan to get another round of the leaders going next, but I cannot make any promises about that. I suggest just tying them yourself, if you have the materials. You learn better that way, anyway.

Hey Dom,
Great content on your site. I fish the Upper Delaware and typically throw dry fly leaders between 12 and 17 feet. Would you recommend adding the overall length in the first few sections of chameleon? Thanks in advance.
-Marc

From August 16 to September 30: Open to open water fishing using artificial lures or flies only. General law length and bag limits apply, except daily bag limit one landlocked salmon and one brook trout.

This is the most basic of the gurglers I tie and fish for stripers. It's my first choice when the baitfish being fed upon are on the small side, 1-4 inches--small silversides for instance--and stripers are being picky about size. If stripers are actively feeding on these fish up on the surface, I generally fish the gurgler in among the school and work the fly relatively slowly back towards me, giving it a gurgle about every foot or so. If no fish are showing or showing only occasionally, I'll fish it quite a bit faster, with more frequent gurgles or even louder pops to attract fish that may not be actively feeding. Important here, as with all gurgler fishing, is to vary your retrieve from time to time; sometimes slower, sometimes faster and more energetically; sometimes with short pauses, sometimes with longer pauses. You'll often find that the fish will prefer one speed or rhythm to another at the time you're fishing for them.

I fish this fly, tied in flatwing style and anywhere from 4-7 inches long, whenever larger baitfish such as herring or pogies are in the area and stripers are looking for a larger lunch or whenever I want to attract fish--especially large fish--up from the depths when they aren't actively feeding. Unless I'm working a school of actively feeding fish, I often fish this fly very fast, with a very sharp retrieve involving synchronous hand and rod-tip motions--much as a plugger might sometimes work a plug--sometimes moving the fly two to three feet with each movement. This very active retrieve can induce many hard strikes and is especially useful in the dog days of summer when the fish may be lying deep and might not be so inclined to come up to the surface. When fishing over actively feeding fish I'll slow down my retrieve and keep the fly in among the fish for as long as I can, gurgling it only occasionally to draw attention to it and to make it stand out from the large numbers of natural baitfish.

Sand worms or clam worms are found in profusion on many flats. Although they are bottom dwellers by nature they often swim to the surface to feed on detritus, especially at the lower stages of the tide when the current is not very strong. At such times a Worm Gurgler can be a real killer. Worms are not fast swimmers and therefore the Worm Gurgler should be fished very slowly and rather smoothly, with only occasional gurgles to attract attention.

The Cinder Worm Gurgler is tied to be fished when the sandworms or "cinder" worms are spawning or "hatching," as anglers sometimes describe this spawning activity. Often these worms will swarm in great numbers and stripers will simply move in among them, open their mouths and slurp. These slurping stripers can sometimes be difficult to catch simply because the number of worms available is almost countless at times. At these times it's best to simply toss your fly into a group of feeding fish and let it sit there, popping it only occasionally but not moving it very far from the mass of worms. Stripers will not often chase a fly when there's an abundance of easy food available.

Like the cinder worms when they're "hatching," sand eels often appear in large numbers, easy prey for hungry stripers. When stripers are feeding on sand eels, I fish the Sand Eel Gurgler--in a size slightly larger than the size of the natural--with a slow and steady retrieve, almost a hand-twist retrieve for best results, giving the fly only an occasional gurgle to draw attention to it. If this doesn't work, I'll often tie a Sand Eel Gurgler of a smaller size to the bend of the larger--with a 6 inch distance between them. Fishing two flies can be a deadly technique when stripers are gorging on large numbers of sand eels.

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