I agree with most of what you said, especially about the lines but, it is possible to fish deep without full sink lines and jig flies. It's just rather difficult at first and requires someone to pay a lot of attention to what's going on. The tricks I have been shown involve occationaly using a sink tip made from various lengths of lead core (or I suppose short lengths of sinking line would do also) but the majority of tricks involve a systematic approach of sequentially varying tactics.
Let's assume I'm using a simple unweighted streamer like a ray's fly. The process starts with varying the angle at which you cast the line upcurrent. If you mend the line so the current is never allowed to pull the floating line down stream with the current faster than the fly (minimize the drag on the line) and you do this through the entire swing, the fly will sink at whatever rate is natural for it and the leader. As you fish the entire swing it will sink and hover undisturbed until the swing is complete. The further upcurrent you cast and the more you mend, the deeper it will go. Varying the length of the leader will allow you to go deeper or shallower in the area you are fishing.
Next step is to add split shot to the leader. It brings the leader down more effectively than the fly weight alone (in some situations) and will still allow the fly to hover and move naturally in the flow as it sinks. Add more shot and change leader lengths for different sinking characteristics. Use this along with different swings and you'll cover more, deeper water. I like this approach better than weighted flies because you don't add any jigging action to the fly (that is if you don't want to). It gives you more options. The fly is free to move and flow in any direction and you are not limited to the up-down action of a jig fly.
I'm no trout fisherman but from my recent reading and conversations with other fisherman it looks like most of these tricks came out of that world. They've been doing this stuff for a long time and I think it's a good idea to take advantage of the wide array of techniques developed over the years. Also, I think deviating from things you have found that work in the past is the only way to get better and learn more. If you get stuck in a routine (and I'm guilty of this most of the time too) then you really limit yourself as to how much you can learn. I like starting with an idea, trying it and seeing where it takes me. Sometimes I completely abandon the original idea I started with because it takes me somewhere else more interesting.
I agree most fishing occurs below the surface too, but this is where we should begin to differentialte between night and day. We are all taught to scrape the bottom during the day and sometimes this is what is required. It also depends on the mood of the fish and what they are after. If they are bottom feeding then yes, scrape the bottom, but if they are hanging low and feeding on something above them as it comes to them, I've rarely found a fish that won't "rise to the occation". I've found that fish are more likely to rise greater distances to intercept forage in feeding lanes than they are to move left or right. During the night, they are typicaly feeding just below the surface anyway. This is just my observation though. Finding those boundaries of there strike zones on a particular day in a particular place is what keeps me coming back for more. It's always different but somewhat the same everytime. This why avoiding getting stuck in routines can make you more well rounded as a fisherman.
I'm not trying to knock anyone's methods here I'm just trying to open up some dialoge. Thanks for sharing your views on the subject.  |