Quick morning, well in terms of snakehead fishing. This isn't you go down and make some casts and catch a tide. In a boat, yak, canoe you can spend hours sitting and watching or making blind casts covering the miles of "shorelines" between the shore and around each lily pad clump.
Weedless flies? Well, not really working. Yes they can be weedless, like some occasional grass, but really throwing flies into the thick stuff they don't work. The elevated pads grab your line or your fly and stuff just grabs to it. Today I had one HUGE snakehead come into sight and a bunch of casts just didn't raise it, but it did follow it for a bit. Problem was, there was a wind and it pushed my drift into the fish. Before I left I switched flies and went to something that was more flat, and hopefully
less apt to pick up the grass. I decided to fish in the muck and mire, like really thick stuff, like stuff nothing could live in or under, or so I thought. I made some casts and it didn't matter, the goop just
clearings where I had two blowups on the fly, one larger than the next. You know when that happens you could spend another 10 hours in pursuit but life and work are happening so that was it. But before I left I decided to check out the tidal section on the outgoing tide. Took the walk down with the frog fly and as soon as I got there there was a 30 incher just breaching the surface in the middle of the current, not eating, but I think breathing.
Since I didn't think it would be natural for a frog to drop from the sky and swim to the shore I walked back to the truck and switched flies, didn't matter, I had no love with it, but another did the same thing as the first. So I think I learned a huge lesson today, snakeheads do like it in the thick
stuff. But using these flies in that and having to clean up after each cast isn't productive. So, for a shot, I ordered some of the below baits. I went with the rubber legs to reduce the weight. If they are too heavy I'll take out the .40 oz weight inside. If worst comes to worst I'll just use the hook harness and come up with something myself. I have been following some posts from a fly guy in Maryland
named Fred Deewes. He seems to be dialed in and has a healthy fishery down there. He ties his own flies and uses the below pattern very successfully. Either he fishes clearer water or has to go through the cleaning it off after each cast as well. Below is one of his ties. Looks like a simple enough tie, but that can't be weedless, if it doesn't land perfect your coming back to the basket with a trial full of green.
