Treefish... leave no fly behind

[Rip Tide]

Leave No Fly Behind and Avoid "The Hanging Tree" - Orvis News

I have heard numerous fly fishers criticize spin and bait anglers for throwing trash on the ground as well as leaving large bobbers and monofilament in the trees. This garbage becomes an eye sore for the next angler travelling through, and there's always the possibility of a bird accidently eating the bait or lure hanging on the tree. In that case, the tree become a literal "hanging tree", where bird corpses hang. In 2017, I cut down four dead swallows that mistook a hanging fly for live insect.

 

[brownbass]

Last year I as I was starting out in the morning there I spotted a Kingfisher fluttering, hanging upside down tangled in some line left in a tree. I managed to get him untangled and he flew away just fine. I have made a hook and line that slips over the tip of the rod so I can reach a limb and pull the limb close enough to get the fly untangled. It works pretty well. There is a commercial version available but you can make one and carry it in a vest or pack.

Bill

 

[smilingduck]

I live in Colorado and all the fly shops suggest using 3 flies when nymphing. Every time I get stuck in a tree I look for hanging line and find half a dozen flies. I haven’t seen any injured birds but still remove all the flies and lines from tree/bushes.

Thanks for posting Tight lines!


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[dakotakid]

Never thought about the risk to wildlife, though I always try to retrieve my fly anyway. Thanks for posting.

 

[rodneyshishido]

I agree with dakotakid, never thought about wildlife. I try to follow the saying "leave nothing behind but your tracks".

 

[flytie09]

Be sure to retrieve those mop flies guys. :lol2:

 

[bumble54]

I found a Tawny Owl hanging from a leader left in a tree, unfortunately it was just long enough to leave the owl at water level and the owl had drowned. It must have happened during the night because it was not there the previous day.

 

[ejsell]

I've ruined holes to retrieve flies. I try to wait until I'm done fishing it and no one is looking though...

The first time I went steelhead fishing, I was still very new to fly fishing. We went to Michigan and the Salmon run was still going strong. The first day I was fishing near a tree just down river on the same side as me with what looked like100s of flies dangling 30+ ft up. For the life of me I couldn't figure out why. It was really not in line with the hole to catch it on a back cast and everything was really high up. Then I hooked into a salmon that bent my rod almost in half before spitting my fly leaving it with the rest. Lesson learned.

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[DonW]

"Then I hooked into a salmon that bent my rod almost in half before spitting my fly leaving it with the rest. Lesson learned."

Thanks that gave me a laugh, wish I could claim that's how all my flies got up in the tree.

Lost enough flies to trees but the best was when caught a bird, many years ago was just learning how to work a fly rod when a bird (swallow maybe, it was small) kept diving right over my head. I'm thinking great it's eating all the pesky gnats, but it was actually trying to catch my fly as I cast. Finally it made contact with leader which wrapped it up in a perfect harness around neck, crisscrossed over chest and around both wings. As I'm now hanging onto my rod with a bird trying to escape from my line and struggling to get back onto dry land so as not to drown the poor thing, my soon to be wife starts yelling at me as to what am I doing to the poor little bird? With her help I soon had it untied and set free to fly back into the tree where it continued to watch me but made no more attempts to capture my fly as it went by.

 

[flytie09]

"Then I hooked into a salmon that bent my rod almost in half before spitting my fly leaving it with the rest. Lesson learned."

Thanks that gave me a laugh, wish I could claim that's how all my flies got up in the tree.

Lost enough flies to trees but the best was when caught a bird, many years ago was just learning how to work a fly rod when a bird (swallow maybe, it was small) kept diving right over my head. I'm thinking great it's eating all the pesky gnats, but it was actually trying to catch my fly as I cast. Finally it made contact with leader which wrapped it up in a perfect harness around neck, crisscrossed over chest and around both wings. As I'm now hanging onto my rod with a bird trying to escape from my line and struggling to get back onto dry land so as not to drown the poor thing, my soon to be wife starts yelling at me as to what am I doing to the poor little bird? With her help I soon had it untied and set free to fly back into the tree where it continued to watch me but made no more attempts to capture my fly as it went by.

Good thing it wasn't a pelican...You might have went for a ride. :flypig: