[Interview starts at 34:00]
This week, my guest is author, You Tube personality, and fly tier Tim Cammisa. We have a spirited discussion on fly patterns—which of the most common ones are untouchable, and which do we modify with different materials and techniques. And are they even the same flies if we modify them?
In the Fly Box, we have some great questions, including:
- When streamer-fishing for smallmouths, should I use my existing 6-weight or should I get a 7-weight rod?
- Is the 10-foot 3-weight Euro-nymphing rod the same as a 10-foot crappie jigging rod? If not how is it different? And is Euro-nymphing really fly fishing?
- Where do you use split shot, and where do you use tungsten putty? Or is it purely personal preference?
- I have been tying clinch knots by pulling on the tag end, and it seems to be very strong. Do you think I am doing it the wrong way?
- Can I use a Duncan Loop to attach a leader directly to a fly line?
- Should I use a sinking line for streamer and nymph fishing?
- How can I improve the durability of Dragon Tail flies?
- Do striped bass prey on trout in freshwater rivers?
- If I use a Berkely Gulp on my fly rod, is it technically a fly?
- I am fishing for tiger muskie from shore. What type of line do I need?
- Our rivers in Tennessee have an abundance of non-toxic salamanders. Do you think trout eat them, and if so how can I develop a fly to imitate them?
Striper predation on trout happens, at least in some waters.
By the 1990s, conventional wisdom among striper anglers in Lake Mohave (the Colorado River tailwater below Hoover Dam that forms the Arizona-Nevada border) was to follow the trout stockings: rainbows were regarded essentially as chum for stripers, and the most popular color scheme on for gear guys’ big plugs was green over pink over white.
The record striper caught in that lake topped 60 lb. The biggest I watched caught on a fly was only 25 lb.
The professional fisheries literature has noted striper predation on trout for decades:
The size of the stocked trout seems to affect their survival amid stripers. See: Stewart WT, Burrell M. 2009. Striped bass dispersion and effects on fisheries management in Lakes Mohave and Pleasant,Colorado River Basin. American Fisheries Society Symposium. 80: 431-448..
Introduction of stripers correlated with population declines of other fish species. See: Walters JP, Fresques TD, Bryan SD. 1997. Comparison of creel returns from rainbow trout stocked at two sizes. N Am J Fish Manage. 17(2):474-6.
By the late 1970s, in a river in Oklahoma, trout made up 40% of the food items of sampled striped bass within a week after trout stocking. See: Deppert DL, Mense JB. 1979. Effect of striped bass predation on an Oklahoma trout fishery. Proc., Annu. Conf., Southeast. Assoc. Fish Wildl. Agencies, 33, 384-392, (1979).