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What might commonly be referred to as a junk fly makes its way to the end of my line pretty often. And for certain times of the year, through the summer and through the winter, I lean on junk flies as my go-to staples.
But my understanding of junk flies has evolved over time. I get it now. You can’t just put any kind of bright, flashy materials on a hook and fool trout. There’s a reason why trout eat these flies. And there’s a reason why these patterns shine for so long and then fall off at the end of a season. There’s also a huge difference between the way stocked trout respond to some junk flies vs the way wild trout respond.
We fish junk flies because they are fun. Because trout move to them more than other flies, sometimes. And because we can often see the fly in the water, allowing us to sight fish and learn something different.
What is a junk fly? Why and when do they work? These are the questions for this podcast episode.
I’m joined by the Troutbitten crew: Matt Grobe, Josh Darling, Trevor Smith, Bill Dell and Austin Dando.
We Cover the Following
- Defining a junk fly
- Is it always a nymph?
- Why do trout eat junk flies?
- How do trout respond differently?
- The Bait and Switch
- Are they dirty flies?
- Is it cheating?
- Does it take less skill to catch trout on a junk fly?
- . . . and more
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Resources
READ: Troutbitten | Super Fly — The Story of a Squirmy Wormy
READ: Troutbitten | Mop Fly Thoughts
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Season three of the Troutbitten podcast continues with Episode 12 . So look for that one in your Troutbitten podcast feed.
Fish hard, friends.
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Enjoy the day.
Domenick Swentosky
T R O U T B I T T E N
domenick@troutbitten.com
I suppose that, if there is a place to unburden oneself, this judgment free, I’m okay, you’re okay environment, is it. I have been known to use the junkiest of junk “flies”: pegged trout beads. They work.
“Flies.”
🙂
Eggstasy eggs have been a total winter game changer the past 3y….way quicker and easier to tie than mcfly foam, can build in weight if desired, better hook sets as the material collapses in water leaving a bigger effective hook gap. Easy to tie micro eggs with the 5mm version, and the 10 and 15mm versions allow different sizes as well.
Good stuf.
Another interesting and thought-provoking topic from the TB Crew.
Each of us develops our own sensibilities in this sport, boundaries created by the inner voice that limits what we are willing to do to catch a wild trout on a fly rod. We all have our personal definitions of what constitutes a real “fly” or proper “fly casting” or true “fly fishing” or a legitimately “caught fish”. And our own unwritten and unspoken rules regarding proper and improper, acceptable and unacceptable practices do evolve under the influences of age and experience. Either way, it’s all good . . . unless and until we see fit to disparage or look down on those with different views than our own. So, one angler’s junk may be another angler’s treasure, yet there is much to be learned by being open to the full range of possibilities; ideas can be successfully applied to one’s personal code of fly-fishing ethics.
Keep knocking it out of the park TBC!
I’m not a fly snob, but I really don’t like the commonly used glo bug patterns that get used around spawn time here in Australia. The first thing I don’t like is that they drift poorly. The second thing is that fish often take them deep.
Fair enough. But I will say that fish taking eggs deep is angler error, in my opinion. A good nymphing presentation keeps the angler in contact, and we connect much more often with better strike detection. This can be done even through an indicator. For many years, the opposite was taught — to build up slack to provide to the nymph underneath. This is a mistake that comes from fishing dry fishing principles underneath.
I’ll say that regardless of fly choice, I might have one trout hooked deeper than the mouth a SEASON with the better approach.
Cheers.
I think there’s more to it than just when you set the hook. With many flies, even late sets usually still only grab on to the lip. But the material of some flies, and I think the glo bug yarn is one of the worst for this, stick to the inside walls of the trout’s mouth.
For what it’s worth I rarely deep hook fish either, but it’s almost always happened when I’ve used a glo bug. When trout are eating salmonid eggs, they are quite aggressive towards them. Even at the start of winter (season closed yesterday), when they’re not rising for any bugs, they’ll come up out of the deep to grab an orange thingamabobber.
I find the opposite to be true. Egg eats are the most subtle and lazy takes off the year.
That’s really interesting – my experience is the complete opposite. The fish (always rainbows, usually medium sized but sometimes larger) come charging at the egg fly (or the thingamabobber) from some distance and inhale it with gusto.