dead drifting

874 Views 9 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Keith White, Jan 10, 2010

Keith White

Discussion Starter · Jan 7, 2010

How would you define dead drift ?

I've caught alot of Bass and Mullet dead drifting but in the dark it is VERY hard to do.

Reading lots of books over the years I've come to the conclusion that Tabory, Daignault etc are
talking about 'swinging flies' as opposed to real dead drifting.

My dead drift is exactly that, in contact (just) but angler nor line imparting drag
or accelerated tow.

What do you reckon ?

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Tom H 2

· #2 · Jan 8, 2010

myfish said:
How would you define dead drift ?

I've caught alot of Bass and Mullet dead drifting but in the dark it is VERY hard to do.

Reading lots of books over the years I've come to the conclusion that Tabory, Daignault etc are
talking about 'swinging flies' as opposed to real dead drifting.

My dead drift is exactly that, in contact (just) but angler nor line imparting drag
or accelerated tow.

What do you reckon ?

Someone I know who knows someone who is having alot of fish on dead drifted ZClaws (really dead drifted) so yes it does work & very well at times Im told

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Dave Irving

· #3 · Jan 8, 2010

I know what you mean MyFish,
It can be almost impossible to PROPERLY dead drift a fly at night, without the being able to see the fly and the line. It is very hard to stay in contact coorectly without retrieving it alittle. The only time I have really dead drifted flies at night, has been fishing into undercut banks while wading tidal marshes. There the materials in the fly, be it marabou, or bunny fur has so much life in the water, you can get away with slightly less contact with the fly. The takes tend to be savage, and most bass almost self hook as the tend to turn back into their feeding station.

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Tom H 2

· #4 · Jan 8, 2010

Spitfire66 said:
myfish said:

How would you define dead drift ?

I've caught alot of Bass and Mullet dead drifting but in the dark it is VERY hard to do.

Reading lots of books over the years I've come to the conclusion that Tabory, Daignault etc are
talking about 'swinging flies' as opposed to real dead drifting.

My dead drift is exactly that, in contact (just) but angler nor line imparting drag
or accelerated tow.

What do you reckon ?

Click to expand...

Someone I know who knows someone who is having alot of fish on dead drifted ZClaws (really dead drifted) so yes it does work & very well at times Im told

oops - just noticed this was in the fly section :stupid: (suppose a dead drifting plugs relavent mind)

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Keith White

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jan 8, 2010

Tom:

No, valuable input m8.
Keep it coming.

Really interested in the dead drifted zclaws. Tell me more.

The takes tend to be savage, and most bass almost self hook as the tend to turn back into their feeding station.

On fly and plugs, when dead drifting I've nearly lost the rod so many times !
I'm aware of what will happen, I anticipate it yet, still get caught out. Awesome really.

If there is one thing that sums up lure fishing for me it is the HIT. The landing of the fish
is secondary. However, the HIT means you have done your job. Love it.

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Andy Elliott

· #6 · Jan 10, 2010

Keith ... what sort o flies would you be using for dead drifting ..I'd assume flatwings ?

Thinking out loud here, but I presume you've seen boobie flies used in trout fishing ... I've never used one but from what I read you just throw them out and leave it alone. no retrieve necessary

Would a buoyant fly work fished on a sinking line ?.. not a popper ..A baitfish style of fly that floats

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Keith White

Discussion Starter · #7 · Jan 10, 2010

Andy:

Flatwings are THE fly for dead drift. Of course, for Mullet, I use various grayling type 'trigger' flies
(still don't know why they react to red and lime green but they do).

flatwings ? why ?

In current, drifting, even in loose contact, the fly will ride with the micro currents, boils etc
and the fly screams 'illusion of life'. i'd say, out of the 12 flies Alex gave me of your, 70% of them
rode to perfection. That is astounding ! and really difficult to achieve that sort of balance.

On sinking lines, things become much, much more difficult. We tend to fish upstream styles
with sinking, sink tip or weighted leaders. We will let the line sink but..getting the fly and leader to sink
at a uniform rate is virtually impossible.

There is the fly tying challenge for 2010. measured sink rates on attached flies.

Not all of Bass fly fishing is slack line. At night, we use long wet fly swings at narrow
angles, we fish slip styles too, just lifting and backing flies into likely cover in the sometimes
stronger currents.

We fish boondog styles from the skish too. A fast sinking line, backtrolled off the fins mid run
with a booby style fly could work, we haven't tried it. I might though now you mention it.

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Andy Elliott

· #8 · Jan 10, 2010

The flatwings are amazing even in a slight current they seem to flutter with no help from the angler

The booby idea has come about from a fly that I wanted to use over very shallow water for Sea trout , and I thought maybe it might work for the dead drifting if anchored on a fast sinker .. like a T14

If the fly is buoyant its going to move up and down the water table in a current

On one of your previous posts you mentioned synthetics and their tendency to foul the hook and become matted .. I agree 100% . Theres a synthetic called polar fibre that looks absolutely and utterly amazing in the water .. but it matt's very quickly and does tend to foul the hook ..I#m still working on a solution for that I have some light curable adhesives on their way .. which hopefully will be a solution to the problem

Anyway this is the one I'm working on for the white trout ...another very fine synthetic called Craft Fur .. as you can see by the photos its a very fine material and has a fantastic natural taper .. It doesn't foul the hook too much and pulses like marabou in the water .. it does matt up a bit but I carry a cut down tooth brush which is great for brushing the salt out

I've tied this on a gamakatsu sc15 1/0 ... as you can see in the second t picture I've tied in some foam to keep it buoyant .. its an experimental fly so it has no eyes or flash etc .In the sink it floats barely under the surface

If you want ot try it out for me .. I'll stick it in with the others

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Marty H

· #9 · Jan 10, 2010

Great to see a fly section here now.

I have to agree with you Kieth about the swinging/dead drifting thing, diffrent things for diff places. What you describe as dead drifting is no diff to what i would do when fishing that method in suitable places. It can be great at your feet into deepish white water off rocks letting the swell action move the fly around the water table.

Andy how much actual dead drifting do you think your booby will do anchored on a T14? Surly its gonna be tethered to the deck by the leader and not have much freedom of movement? A bit of current might see the T14 moving but then its gonna swing not dead drift unless you can keep the line tension free to allow it to move unhindered.

Marty

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Keith White

Discussion Starter · #10 · Jan 10, 2010

Marty H said:
What you describe as dead drifting is no diff to what i would do when fishing that method in suitable places. It can be great at your feet into deepish white water off rocks letting the swell action move the fly around the water table.

Very productive method. One of my brothers favourites too.

Andy Elliot said:
Anyway this is the one I'm working on for the white trout ...another very fine synthetic called Craft Fur .. as you can see by the photos its a very fine material and has a fantastic natural taper

Sounds great. yes, would love to try it and see how it swims.

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