Jump to content

Steve Schullery

BST Users
  • Posts

    817
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Converted

  • About Me:
    Retired chemistry prof.
  • Interests (Hobbies, favorite activities, etc.):
    Besides the obvious, Model A Ford, trains, & guitar
  • What I do for a living:
    retired. deal with Parkinson's

Profile Fields

  • Gender
    Male

Recent Profile Visitors

2,767 profile views
  1. pink and white clouser works for anything anytime anywhere.
  2. I'd rather not catch fish flyfishing than catch fish not flyfishing.
  3. Just trying to concisely answer the man's question. I found that I never got tired of catching fish. "Well, OK, maybe just one more." search this forum under PINK
  4. perfect place;perfect time of year. you only need one fly:pink & white clouser. #4 hooks, 5/32" eyes, 7 wt full intermediate, wade out as far as you can, blind cast all day, short snappy retrieve, catch tons, die happy. next time, consider port st. joe area, dixie belle motel.
  5. Like Suave and MEB say regarding Mr. Clouser's tying instructions. But, note that the clouser residues in the photo were all tied with X-wrapped eyes. With Softex, they're the last part standing; even Spanish mackerel can't tear the eyes off! Too bad toluene is neurotoxic. I hate to think that explains my Parkinson's disease, because it was so much better than anything else I might have stubbornly used it anyway,. Not fishing (or tying) any more, but doing OK, Steve
  6. Boga Grip: Infinitely handier than any net. Carry a cheap cord stringer in your other pocket--if you're keeping.
  7. Peter, We were fishing one of our secret spots--the one with very limited parking and a tortuous rockpile. You were on the point of the rockpile; Bill, as was his wont, was in the prime water next to it; 3 or 4 others were strung out in the adjacent pretty water; with me on the end of the line, in the most baren looking region with a plain sand bottom but, on that day, with an unusual amount of crab litter. I was the only one catching anything--20" schoolies. Finally, Bill couldn't take it any longer and he asked me what I was doing. I told him to just let his fly drift over/on the bottom, with just enough of a retrieve to keep slack out of the line and to allow you to sense a very light tap, whereupon set the hook. He soon was hooked up, spread the word, and all were catching. I don't recall the patterns involved, other than that I had tried some crab flies, to no avail, and returned to the PW. You wrote up a full report on the "non-retrieve retrieve". I can't find it with Search. Maybe Reel-time?
  8. Nope. UNlike my buddy, Pat, who was so easily bored, I have no problem sticking with something that works. After hooking several sharks and tarpon that were bigger than me on the 3", #4 size pattern, I see no need to try larger patterns, and tear myself up casting them.
  9. Peter, DIdn't you post a story on the "non-retrieve retrieve"? Steve
  10. The pattern works for lots of people, who have, I assume, lots of different retrieves.. But, in general, I like a very sharp, jerky retrieve--short and snappy jerks.,,
  11. Eyes control the depth; I use mostly 5/32", but whatever it takes . The bucktail and the retrieve provide the action.
  12. Guys, THanks for all the kind words. Although typing (and writing and speaking) has gotten to be a real chore, perhaps I can clear up a few questions for you here. ORIGIN STORY: When I first started seriously saltwater fly fishing, around 2000, I had tied up a whole world of patterns in every conceivable color, with and without every available flash. As I worked my way thru the pile, eventually I tried the simple pink and white bucktail. and reluctantly accepted that it was an amazingly good pattern ALTHOUGH IT LOOKED LIKE NOTHING UNDER THE SUN. The first several times it worked, I assumed the fish had just started biting so I switched to a "reaI" fly, thinking I would slay them, and the bites would stop--over and over. I called it the Pink Wonder because every time I caught a fish on it I had to wonder, "What on earth was it thinking!?" Originally, this experimentation went on while wading and blind casting around Port St. Joe in the Florida panhandle, often with four of us standing shoulder to shoulder casting different flies to the same spot. None of us could believe it was for real, but soon I was using the PW exclusively, telling myself I would switch when someone else started doing better, and it never happened! Over the years, I have concluded that anything but a PW is a JAF (Just Another Fly). As we all know, ANY color will work SOMETIMES, and sometimes the fish have lockjaw and nothing will work--the PW is a wonder, but it's not magic. SHADES OF PINK: Early on, I found that hot pink or cerise did not work nearly as well as light or medium pink. Similarly, pink pink was better than shell or peachy pink. The so-called fluorescent pink that I've found in stores has been medium pink in color; you can't tell it's fluorescent unless you put it under UV light. Especially troublesome to me is how well light pink works, even in milky water where it shouldn't work at all. It doesn't inspire confidence. like a medium, brighter pink does, but the fact is it works as well or better. I like lighter pink in early morning for stripers. The color rendition in most of the photos I've tried to publish over the years has been awful, as you can see in posts #16 and #18. Those in Chuck's pictiure in post #5 above are pretty good, except the chartreuse looks yellow and the light pink looks white--yes, that all-white looking clouser is actually half pink (It really does NOT inspire confidence, and it's hard to make yourself tie it on when you are holding both it and a prettier brighter pink in your hand.). If you find a nice quality bucktail matching pink 3/0 Uni thread, BUY it. My thoughts on dark pink are captured by the following incident: One day, a friend, retired guide Bob Nicholson (RIP), invited me up for an evening smallmouth fishing on the Muskegon River with him and a friend visiting from Wisconsin Upon arrival, I was aggravated to discover he had in mind a sort of contest between me and a former client who he described as the best smallie fisher he had ever seen. I don't like contests but had driven 100 miles and wanted to fish. It turned out that the guy was an expert caster too; I felt unworthy to even be in the same boat with him! I used a little #6 Pink Wonder (light); he used a much more compelling version of a small streamer tied with a dark pink, magenta-ish crystql flash wing. Bob, who had become obsessed with the question of was it me or my fly (in his words: It's the Indian, not the arrow) had tipped him off to use a pink clouser. After catching a dozen, I took a sandwich break and compared notes; he had caught none. I offered him one of my PWs, which he accepted, and he proceeded to rapidly overtake me, as anyone comparing our casting skills would predict. It was the arrow, not the Indian. I believe that of all the species I've caught with it, the PW is the most effective with smallies. Typically, companions using more sensible weighted crawdad patterns, etc., are out-fished ten to one. Occasional carp as a by-catch, for extra fun. OTHER VARIATIONS: In general, all-pink is not nearly as good as pink and white, and bucktail works best. And, of course, you're supposed to use all-pink squid imitations when stripers are after squid in the Monomoy rip, but I have found that the pink and white PW works well there too. Depending on the species, the white belly hair often gets chewed off first and the fly will then not work nearly as well. So, after much trial and error, I started using more durable yak hair for the white belly when toothy critters were around. The further you get from bucktaiil , the more it becomes a JAF. Too bad it's so fragile, but for many species it's tough enough; one all-bucktail fly will last all day for stripers, redfish, seatrout, etc. The flies in the photo in post #17 are the residues left after a week of Spanish mackerel fishing; more were bit off and lost. I recycle the hooks and eyes. If you substitute chartreuse for white, you get the Electric Chicken, which is nearly as good as the PW. THe pink seems to be the important part. Reverse the order and you have a Tutti Fruiti, which is sold in stores on the Cape and with which I've no experience. For the first several years the PW was a simple bucktail streamer. Pat Karkanen (RIP) convinced me that a clouser style is even better. I've only made half hearted attempts at other styles, but I'd be surprised if they didn't work. I've yet to find any eyes that do not work, including no eyes. My theory is that to the extent that fish key on the eye, it is the large black pupil they key on, so I use all-black eyes . Brass hourglass eyes are more durable than lead. In the smaller sizes, like I use in freshwater, I follow Lefty's recommendation and use a stacked white-under-pink wing--supposed to give it better action than the traditional clouser tie, but it works so well I never tested it. In the larger sizes (4, 2) the stacked wing definitely is NOT superior.. Flashtails or much flash at all doesn't help.
  13. Guys, thanks for the concern and interest. I'm OK, but Parkinson's has pretty much shut down my fishing lately, although there is hope that some combination of meds and electrical setting of my deep brain stimulator will let me get back at it in the future. The DBS totally fixed the tremor but necessary reduction in dopamine therapy has brought out other PD symptoms, including balance problems that make wading too risky and fatigue that makes any sustained activity impossible. But, it's been a hoot, from my first sunfish on a cane pole and worm in the Ohio canal, through all the carp on doughballs, a childhood spent dreaming with the Herters catalog, the beautiful Michigan trout, the astounding Florida saltwater fishery, and, of course, those wonderful stripers!!
  14. squammer, cheer up! these are dumb fish. they will take a clouser fished like a crab for a crab, in my experience, whether it's pink and white or olive and white! once upon a time, 3 or 4 of us were fishing over scattered rocks and bare sand where there was lots of crab fragments-litter in the water. we were catching squat, until I started letting the fly settle and drift on the bottom on a snug line with only the very occasional short tug. then a fish on every cast, first for me and my PW, then for my colleagues using the traditional olive/white clousers.. btw, the crab fragments were orange/white. Also, in my experience, the PW works well enough when the bass are feeding on squid.
×
×
  • Create New...