Hey all,
First post here as I'm looking at getting into the sport. I apologize in advance as my lingo isn't exactly up to par for the fishing world.
I live in the lower mainland and am interested in fishing the summer/fall salmon in the Vedder as it's fairly close to me and seems like an incredible amount of fun. However, having never fly fished before, I'm having a tough time differentiating between single hand, spey, and switch rods, besides the obvious. More specifically:
- Which is the easiest to learn, but remains useful well into the future with respect to skill level?
- Which is the most suited to the size of the Vedder?
- Which style (nymphing, dry..) of flies is best suited to each rod type, and with that being said, which fly type works best (if not all?)
- Finally, what would your recommendation be on a first fly rod/reel setup for this situation?
Thanks in advance,
ScottyW
Right on. Personally I fly fished way before I gear fished and for years and years before I ever picked up any gear. Was tying fly's in grade 6 at the age of 11 I got my first fly tying kit for Christmas. Hooked my first Steelhead on the Coquitlam river at the age of 12 on a streamer fly targeting the Dollies. Have fly fished all over BC for Steelhead on the fly and on gear. Fly fishing is my first passion but I now do all kinds of fishing ie lake, river, salt both on fly and gear now.
Saying that you will encounter more Steelies on gear but it is very common to get into numerous Steelies on the fly on the Vedder (and several other lower mainland rivers) if you know what your doing, pick correct fly's, water conditions, and types of runs, tailouts, fans, deeper shoots with weighted fly's, streamers, big and uglies, minnow patterns etc.. Later in the season after the majority of the fish have entered the system and as the water warms, etc it can be pretty good fly fishing the Vedder. you will hear most people say "stick to the lower sections" for fly fishing. Yes the water slows and widens and is more suited for simple swing/drift fishing fly's for Steelies but you can and should fly fish all areas of the Vedder for Steelies if you want to get good at fishing different water conditions, flow types, run types etc with fly's. Technology has come a long way with line types for getting fly's down in all water conditions for targeting salmon, steelies, trout etc.. A visit to the local tackle stores there will give you a lot of insight on all of that and they will have some good fly selections for the local rivers but mostly myself I stick to big and ugly weighted flys in purples, blacks, blues, orange and pinks with added flash, weighted eyes, barrel heads etc. Later in the season when the fry are around the Steelies will and do actively feed on them so at that time I use mostly fry patterns stripping them in with wounded twitch retrieve patterns that entice hits. When a steely hits a fry pattern there's no need to set the hook. They smash them hard and run immediately.
Personally I would suggest learning single handed first then if you like it and do well at it you can get into two handed. But that's personal preference. I like both and both can be used effectively on the Vedder. Early mornings are best for the Vedder with single handed rods as the fish like to lay tight in to shore in slower moving water which is easily reached with a single handed rod. If you want your fly to sink faster and fish deeper you can also cast quarter up stream, let your fly sink, then mend to keep your line taught to your fly. That is key to know when your fly gets picked up by a steelhead. On dead drifts it can be hard to detect a pick up by a fish as they can and do drop back and drift down with the same speed as the fly to pick it up. If you are swinging a tight line to the fly down and across a run then you will feel the fish pick it up or hit it much easier. It is very very important when you finish your swing with your line completely down river from you that you stop, let your fly sit with the current for a minute, then strip it in, hesitating between strip to try to entice a hit from a shallow laying fish. This is a very common spot that Steelhead will hit. Especially early morning in the shallows. If you don't want to be a "purist" in the fly fishing sense then you can also add scents to your fly's, use egg patterns etc.. Just watch the river's regs you are fishing cause bait bans can also include any artificial scents etc..
If you want to fish big wide sections of rivers and cover more ground faster than a two handed rod is very good at doing that. But if you want to fly fish lot's of smaller rivers and still lot's of sections of the Vedder then a single handed rod is very good at doing that too.
You will hear all kinds of new fly tech lingo pushing/suggesting different types of rods for nymphing etc, but if you just want to get started just get yourself an 8/9 weight rod and go for the salmon/steelhead and worry about the specific different types rods/gear later when you decide if you want to get more serious about all that other stuff. I've tossed every type of fly and fly line from all my fly rods both single, and double handed. There wasn't all that extra stuff out there when I learned to fly fish and I caught every type of fish in BC all on my first single handed fly rod changing my line and fly's as needed for the different species I was targeting, water I was fishing, etc.
You will find quite a few fly fishers targeting Steelies on the Vedder later in the season. And a lot of them are good guys that would be happy to show you what they are using and offer advice to new comers to the hobby. It's just important to give respect to the other fishermen on the pieces of water they are fishing. Most guys will start at the heads of runs and work their way down through the tailouts. Proper etiquette is to not drop in to fish below them before they have worked the run. But if they are spending all their time in a certain spot on the run then just ask them if they are planning to work down or if they mind if you drop in below them.
Some pics of Steelhead I caught on the fly on the Vedder River and another river. Didn't have cell phone's with cameras back when I fly fished more than gear fished lol so not as many pics were taken of fly caught steelies unfortunately. Notice the water isn't all "typical" fly water. I fly fish every kind of runs/water conditions with fly's. Of all the water and time of year conditions I love though for fly fishing it would be for clear water canyon summer run steelhead. There's nothing quite like watching a big chrome summer run Steely rip across a pool to smash a drifting or swinging fly. Especially when you watch them come up from 15 feet behind a boulder to smash a dry fly
The crystal clear water pool canyon pic is a run of fish I brood stocked and started the run on my own by pontooning and brood tubing the fish that were returning after being brooded from a different river to start this new run of fish. This was one of the first years of hatchery clipped summers returning to that river in that picture. It wasn't fly caught but to give you an idea of all water types you can fly fish; that very same pool I also fly fish for the Summer runs and you can see the Steelhead laying in the pools and you can watch them follow, and take fly's (as long as they aren't spooked). Quite an exhilarating way of catching fish I think.