I’ve been tying flies for pike fishing for about 10 years now. Some have not caught anything, others have been very successful. About 5 years ago I started tying a variation of the clouser minnow, using crystal flash. I cast that into a very pike infested bay and hooked pike after pike. The color combination that worked best was a red “bloody cheek”, white underbody and blue upper body.

In the years since I have come up with a couple of my own fly patterns that work really well for pike so I gave them names. My top two go to flies are the Go Go Ray and the Iron Butterfly Minnow. The Go Go Ray is named after a drummer in a blues band. Not because they look alike, but I did give the fly a set of “drumsticks”. The Iron Butterfly Minnow is named for the band, Iron Butterfly, of “Ina-Godda-Da-Vida” fame. Me and my fishing buddy snuck in to a bar in the mid-80’s to see them live.

Today I’m going to tell you about the newest of my flies for pike, the Double Bass Go Go Ray. This fly features lead wire wound around the length of the shaft, making it heavy enough to sink to deeper waters in the heat of summer. The ingredients include (in order of appearance):

• 3XH/7XL streamer hooks
• black thread
• lead wire
• red crystal flash
• black crystal antron chenile
• white crystal flash
• Semperfli predator fibre baitfish olive
• dumbbell eyes
• head cement

Even thought that’s a lot of ingredients, it’s at most a 2 out of 5 for tying difficulty. Remember this is a fly for pike fishing so if in doubt, add a few more wraps of thread and an extra of glue.

Pinch off the barb and put the hook in the vice. Wind on the thread near the head and catch in the lead wire.

Wrap the lead wire all the way back the shank to a point opposite the point and then snip it off. Overwrap the thread all the way back over the lead wire. Add enough wraps of thread to secure the tag end of the lead wire. You can add some head cement here for extra hold.

Over wrap back up the to just short of the eye and catch in the “bloody cheek” section of red crystal flash. Normally I will keep this to about an inch long. I went a little longer on this fly.

Cut about 2 inches of chenile for the “drum sticks”. I usually use olive chenile for this but only had black in my stock pile. Fold in half and lay over the hook, about a 1/4 inch behind the eye. You want these to dangle downwards. Wrap it in. Add some head cement.

Cut some white crystal flash, about 2-1/2″ long. Lay it on the top of the hook and wrap over with about 10 tight turns. Add a few drop of cement. Cut the olive Semperfli predator fibre slightly longer than the white crystal flash. Lay it on top of the white and wrap it in with another 10 wraps and add some more cement.

Wrap forward with the black thread to just behind the eye and wrap in the dumbbell eyes. Add another 5 or 6 wraps behind the hook eye and tie it off, adding some more cement atop the dumbbell eyes and the final wraps.

I would rather catch a fish, any fish, on a fly rod. A big pike, head shaking, pulling line, is tons of fun on a spin cast rod and reel. Catch the same pike on a fly rod (pic below) and it feels completely different.  The pull is different, the fight is different, and of course the technique of casting and hooking a fish is very different.  I like to fly fish for pike from my boat, either anchoring or drifting through pike waters.

But now let’s talk about fly fishing for Perch.  Most people associate fly fishing with casting dry flies on a river for trout.  It’s also a great way of fishing for trout in lakes.  But fly fishing is also a tremendous way to catch Perch, lots and lots of Perch.  So I have decided to compare fly fishing for trout in still water (lakes and reservoirs) with fly fishing for Perch on a lake.

First of all, like any fishing, go where the fish are likely to be.  Perch will hang out in weed structure and under the shadows of above water structure, such as docks and fallen trees so these are great areas to target.  If you have access to a dock on a lake in the southern half of Saskatchewan, you probably have Perch around.  Where there is one Perch, there are likely many.

I have realized, but trying every method I could think of, that you can catch Perch as long you put something attractive in front of them with some movement.  I have had success with all of the following fishing techniques:

• by wading out into the water and casting back to the weeds
• casting from a dock over weed structure
• casting from a boat back over weeds
• from a kayak positioned to cast along the edge of the weeds or beside the shady edge of a dock
• from a belly boat beyond the weeds, casting back to shore

So, just about any method that let’s you get a fly to the weeds, within a couple feet of where the fish are.

Fly’s that work:

• Mickey Finn
• Caddis Fly
• Egg Sucking Leach
• Bead Head Nymph
• Muddler Minnow

When I fly fish for trout and they are actively rising to feed at the surface, I will try to cast to the rise, bringing the same fish back up to the surface for another bite.  While that has worked with rainbow trout on lakes, ponds, and rivers, it’s rarely successful with Perch.  But a similar technique will work, cast beyond the rise and strip line to pull the fly back over where the rise occurred.  When doing this, I have often seen Perch nipping at my fly line, right at the tip where I have my fly line looped and secured with black thread.  I think the Perch are mistaking the black thread for a leach or other small black worm.  So when I then drag my leader followed by an egg sucking leach across the same spot, I often have a bite.

Perch are very aggressive feeders and because they hand around in schools of many fish, it’s quite common to see fish moving in small groups of anywhere from 2 to 10 fish at once, chasing a fly.  There is competition among the fish in the group to take a run at the fly/food so if one misses, it’s often followed by another. So because I’m often casting beyond the rise, it’s not critical to land the fly softly (which you MUST do fishing to the rise with trout).  But it is important not to let the fly line slap the water, or you will spook away the whole group of Perch at the spot of the rise.

Now for the best part, catching a Perch on a fly rod makes them feel bigger.  I catch Perch off my dock (boat, kayak, belly boat), from sun up to sun down, as many as 30 in an hour.  Most of them are small, less than half a pound (and smaller) but I use a 4 weight fly rod with very light tippet so when I hook the little Perch, they actually can put a little bend in the rod and a one pounder can strip line from the reel.  Perch don’t really run much but they shake constantly when hooked so if you let up on the line tension, they are going to shake themselves off.  So it’s not the fight, it’s the thrill of the hook set, and the release, that make Perch on the fly a lot of fun.

Last year I tested all the flies from an Outdoor Canada article titled 7 Easy to Tie Flies That Will Catch Fish Anywhere in Canada.  I tied and tried them all, taking pictures, and writing my own experiences in a series of articles on PrairieOutdoors.com titled, 7 Flies That Catch Fish in Canada.

This year I plan to do the same, with a similar but more relevant Outdoor Canada article from this year, The 7 must-have flies for trout anglers in the West.

So this year the series of 7 Trout Flies for Western Canada will be written based my newest summer obsession, testing these 7 flies.  Watch for the follow up articles of 7 Trout flies for Western Canada as I post the tying and trying results.  Special bonus, I know some of these flies are also well suited for other species across the Prairie’s so expect some perch, walleye, pike and maybe some goldeye to be included in the stories.

This year’s line up of flies includes:

1. Adams
2. Catatonic Leech
3. Elk Hair Caddis
4. Hares Ear Nymph
5.  

   Letort Hopper

6. San Juan Worm
7. Zebra Chironomid

In one version or another I have fished all these flies in the past.  The Adams is a great dry fly that can be used almost anytime there are winged bugs of any type hatching, and it’s a pretty easy fly to tie.  Just have plenty of size variations to match size to what is floating on the surface.  The Catatonic Leech is like a Woolly Bugger, minus the hackle wrapping, so it’s even simpler, but just as effective.  The Elk Hair Caddis is probably my #2 Go To fly in my fly box.  i will tie on the Hare’s Ear Nymph anytime the trout are not rising.  Often I will use this fly in tandem with another larger heavier nymph to get deeper quicker.  The Letort Hopper is new to me.  i have fished other hoppers and they are fantastic for a windy sunny day when natural hoppers are getting blown off the tall grass next to the bank.  The San Juan Worm is responsible for the best Brown Trout of my life, on the Bow River a number of years ago.  I’ve also found that it works well for a few other species.  Lastly, the Zebra Chironomid is a great fly for mid-summer lake fishing.  It takes a bit of trial and error to get the tying process right.

The fishing season is open in parts of Alberta and will soon be open in Saskatchewan and Manitoba as well so my fly tying efforts over the next few weeks will focus on early season species and I’m looking for a reason to get out on the water.  Any reason, any excuse.  See you on the water!