Spring Brookie and Laker flies???

[muskymatt]

I'm headed into the park for a week of opener brookies and lakers and have been researching flies to try. So far I've come up with

 

• Sparkled checkout girl fly
• Green butt monkey
• Borger strip leech
• GRHE-pheasant tail
• Parachute adams fly
• Muddler minnow black dace

If anyone has any suggestions or likes for tying, I love to hear it.

 

PS.....No Maple Leaf flies please....lol

[jedimaster]

You might want to wait and see whats hatching. The last 3 years we have seen crazy variations up on our lake for the opener. 2 years ago there was ice on the shaded bays, 3 years ago we were wearing tshirts and shorts, last year if I recall the bugs were out in full glory but not biting yet. (neither were the fish) Give 3 or 4 weeks before you finalize your selection.

[muskymatt]

You might want to wait and see whats hatching. The last 3 years we have seen crazy variations up on our lake for the opener. 2 years ago there was ice on the shaded bays, 3 years ago we were wearing tshirts and shorts, last year if I recall the bugs were out in full glory but not biting yet. (neither were the fish) Give 3 or 4 weeks before you finalize your selection.

 

We had a pretty good bite last year, I think about 57 fish in 4 days. All on either rapalas or blue fox spinners. I think bringing a wide variety would be wise, as you said, the conditions will dictate.

[jedimaster]

The jointed rapala's and spinners are must have's. We normally bring worms up as a tough day backup but we forgot them last year.

Edited March 16, 2013 by jedimaster

[Christopheraaron]

wooly buggers! And maybe a couple crazy flashy flies, they work well on migratories, why not resident

[Sinker]

My go to is a gold beade headed wooly bugger. A lot of times I troll it 18" behind a spinner.

 

S.

[Leecher]

I'd concentrate my efforts on the shoreline since trout in spring, will hunt for forage around points, drop offs, fallen trees, structure, etc...

 

For lakers, Berkley 3" power tubes in white tip with a worm will get them to chomp on your offerings so is Mepps Black furry dressed pokadots love them Cast to shore as your drifting and retrieve slowly

 

But don't tell anyone you got those tips from a Habs fan cause that would be a terrible thing

TKunkie

[Walleye'm Fishing]

wooly buggers! And maybe a couple crazy flashy flies, they work well on migratories, why not resident

Wooly buggers for brookies for sure!!! Black or olive have always produced for me in the spring.

[Moosebunk]

 

 

This Matt is a picture of a Hammel Killer. The fly is meant to immitate young of the year crayfish. It's easy to tie with any wet fly hook in sizes 6-12. Body is tan, olive, yellow or brown dubbing or chennille. Squirrel tail for the tail on the fly and a single olive mallard flank wing. When wet, it actually does compress and look like some of the small crayfish I've pulled out of the bellies on early season specks. This is a fly I know guys have used in Algonquin and Zecs north of Deep River. Trolled slow behind a float tube or in the boat. Even a fly fishing noob like me has actually caught specks on this fly.

 

 

For lakers, because they're feeding shallow in the spring, they're often after minnows. John (of John's Fly Materials) and I spoke a fair bit back when I used to tie flies, and when I asked him about an early season fly pattern for lakers he told me about "The Incredible Silver Minnow." On a longer shanked hook it was a trickier one to tie. It's in one of my old fly pics here in the top left corner...

 

 

To tie... long shank streamer hook. Wind .30 lead around the shank because this is a weighted fly. Build up chennille or dubbing around the shank then slide mylar tubing over the shank to give the sliver flash of the body. The tail can be either short white bucktail or polar hair. The throat is a just a single red, saddle feather and the wing should be white mallard flank. According to John, this was a killer ice out fly for lakers in the shallows on Temagami Lake.

Edited March 16, 2013 by Moosebunk

[Christopheraaron]

Nice Bunk! But I think you mean top left Looking at some hatch charts it might also be worthwhile to bring some BWO's.

 

Edit: Sweet looking blue charms! Real nice heads

Edited March 16, 2013 by Christopher k

[Christopheraaron]

Was just looking around, came across this article, good read.

 

http://www.hatchesmagazine.com/page/month/342

[singingdog]

My 2 best all-round flys for stillwater trout are

1. black leach pattern: wooly bugger or rabbit-strip

2. Zonker minnow.

[Moosebunk]

My 2 best all-round flys for stillwater trout are

1. black leach pattern: wooly bugger or rabbit-strip

2. Zonker minnow.

 

 

Pretty well just like The Incredible Silver Minnow except rabbit instead of feather. Hard to beat Zonker... it's full of life even when the fly is dead in the water.

 

 

This is an early-mid May speck. Yellow Stones, Caddis and Craws all in it's belly. Can't find the pic of another one caught same time of year, in it's belly were 8 sticklebacks, a leech, maybe a dozen waterboatman (surprise) and a black mush of what were likely midge.

 

Come spring they'll eat whatever is available.

 

 

[danc]

I wouldn't be too picky. I've caught both species in the spring on dozens of different colors and patterns.

[Christopheraaron]

Interesting, was that from a stream or lake? Just wondering cause I don't think I've ever heard of stones in a lake, then again I might just be an idiot LOL

[Dabluz]

Hello Muskymatt.

 

I see that you are from Ottawa so probably the park you are speaking of is the La Verendry Park.

 

I do a lot of very early season fishing for brook trout in lakes....starting with ice fishing for the few days that the ice is strong enough. When it's open water, I like to troll streamers. The only surface activity I have seen has been large brook trout running after minnows in very shallow water. When icefishing, I start out in only about 2 feet of water in the early morning.

 

When trolling for big brookies, I've had my best results using a trolling fly called a Tri-Color. I like to tie them in size 6 to size 2 on a 4X long streamer hook. The recipe is a white underbody tied under the hook shank, next bright orange over the hook shank, medium green over the orange and then a few strands of peacock herl over the body. The real recipe asks for jungle noodle cheeks but a painted eye works just as good. The shank of the hook is covered with hammered gold tinsel.

 

Since one of my favourite lakes has smelt in it, I also like to use a smelt imitation like a Magog Smelt or one of the other smelt imitations that I tie.

 

For lake trout, I like to use a tandem trolling fly and my favourite one is a smelt imitation that I tie using mostly polar bear hair. The fly has small amounts of pale blue, dark blue and purple sandwiched between the pearly white underbody and the pearly/light blue upper body. The back is black (not too much) with a bit of peacock herl over all. The eye is white with a black center or jungle noodle. The hook shanks are covered with hammered silver tinsel.

 

The lake trout fly is trolled deeper and often behind a large silver spoon. (a good 24 inches behind the spoon)

Edited March 17, 2013 by Dabluz

[singingdog]

Pretty well just like The Incredible Silver Minnow except rabbit instead of feather. Hard to beat Zonker... it's full of life even when the fly is dead in the water.

 

 

This is an early-mid May speck. Yellow Stones, Caddis and Craws all in it's belly. Can't find the pic of another one caught same time of year, in it's belly were 8 sticklebacks, a leech, maybe a dozen waterboatman (surprise) and a black mush of what were likely midge.

 

Come spring they'll eat whatever is available.

 

Agreed on the similarity of those 2 flies. Really, I think any decent minnow imitator will work. I have caught the majority of my big spring brookies on a very simple bucktail jig: olive over white.

 

Another agreement on the "they will eat anything". One day it took us a couple of hours to figure out we weren't going to catch any brookies unless we were throwing right against the bank. Those fish were nose-in and not even looking at presentations 2' away from shore. When we cleaned one, it was absolutely full of salamanders.

[muskymatt]

Awesome input guys, thanks very much. I guess its time to hit the tying bench, I'll post my efforts for your critique.

[DRIFTER_016]

I like to troll large flashy streamers on a full sinking 7wt line for lakers.

My streamers are mostly purple crystal chenille bodies with lots of blue and silver tinsel & crystal flash for the wings.

Hooks are 2/0-4/0 and the average length of the flies is 5"-6".

 

 

 

 

 

[Musky or Specks]

My favourite brookie fly is the Bow River Bugger. All the sexy movement of a woolybugger combined with the waterdisturbance of a muddler

 

[SirCranksalot]

At the risk of being blasphemous---worms!!!