walleye fly fishing.

[delopez]

I've tried several times for musky there and haven't landed one. Now, I got to close to them with the boat and watched them jet off (really frustrating when you were trying to throw into that area and they dart off because the wind blows your boat too close...). The only reason that I didn't try throwing the fly that day was because I didn't have the proper line on there to handle the large flies. I have a GPX line on there, now (which I hate) and I'm getting ready to go to a rio outbound for tossing big stuff like the flies above and wind-resistant poppers. This doesn't include the wind issue...

I was actually out there yesterday, trying to spey cast an old rio switch line (6/7wt) that I had on my single hand 7wt, using a 10' 20lb test floro leader with a #4 black wooly bugger on it. I just wanted to see how well the long belly would perform with a sunken, heavy fly. Btw, it wasn't so good... Of course, I don't like the switch line much, either... Again, this is where that nice 15' spey rod would come in handy. Also, In the particular spot, I walk to feet into the water and I'm likely to be 50' under the water. So, I don't dare walk into the missouri.

To address the spey issue, since I'm directly on the bank, wouldn't I want more of a skagit style head for lanuching these heavy flies and sink tips out there?

I'm also interested in these flies! I am a novice at fly tying!

[Diver Dan]

For big flies I like the SA Pike/Musky taper line. I can put a pretty big fly far enough I won't spook 'em unless the fly does it.

I love the 15' two hander idea. As for single hand spey casting, experiment where on the line you should start at.

For Walleye I don't use sink tips. Or at least almost never. I get fish from really deep as well. It's a personal thing on how you want to do it, but I don't like Skagit or Scandi type stuff. I'v seem the Missouri by KC, is there some reason you ca't wade a few feet out? Your banks are a lot clearer than mine are and I don't need to get very far in the water.

[delopez]

I don't usually walk out in water that I can't see. Considering how dirty and muddy the missouri is, I get a bit nervous about that water. I guess I could tie a rope to myself and walk out on the sand bars.

I'm headed to the lake, this upcoming weekend. This will be a good learning experience.

[Diver Dan]

You don't need to walk very far out in it. I don't go more than 12 or 15 feet and I'm casting straight across. If you do any down river angle to it you need even less. In fact I can cast down river at a 45 and do it without getting my feet wet. I pretty much don't ever do the 45 thing because I want as far out in the river as I can get. If you do like I do and count the fly down before you start to strip, you loose to much of the 'out' before it gets down. You don't need to get deep either. You just need a little water for your anchor. If you are leery of it you can always use a wading staff. I am going to this Fall. You have a lot more mud there than we do here so I would assume it is less of a slip and fall hazzard than here is. Another thing you can do if you want is to wear a CO2 inflatable life vest. They have those suspender type that are pretty out of the way.