The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

The kids are back in school, the kids are back in school!

That means I have many of my mornings free from shooting high school senior portraits, soooo, I can check up on the NCFFB more often.

A question came to me as I'm trying to organize my flies a bit.

I've started using tube flies for steelies when I swing (granted, that ain't TOO often but it's on the increase) and I wondered if I should try them on coho in AK next month. I've already got a nice stash of pink, chartreuse and black streamers (tied to the hooks), flash flies, ESL's in purple and black, and some surface flies in pink.

Steelhead are so maniacal that they can easily work a hook out of their mouths, which is the reason I've started using shorter-shanked hooks with a tube fly.

With my limited coho experience, I ask the question "should I be using my tubes for silvers"?

Thanks.

they should work. where are you going in alaska?

Hey FH,

Yeah, I know they SHOULD work, but I'm wondering if I'll get noticibly better results, as opposed to the affixed-hook streamers that I've been collecting for the past few years. I've got a lot more hook-tied streamers than tubes and I'd like to whittle-down my quantity. (No, I'm not going to just mail you a few dozen! ).

Our sked is to rent an RV the first week of Sept. and hit the Kenai and Russina Rivers, mostly for 'bows, then fly down to Kodiak Island and take a float plane to the west side of the island where we'll camp near the ocean and hopefully find mucho silvers, then it's back to Kodiak City to hit the road system on the east side of the island for more silvers.

We've been fishing stinger style up here lately. Basically same deal as a string leech with a trailer hook on a few inches of some #50 braid off a standard hook shank with that hook cut at the bend. Have seen much better hook up rates.

Haven't dealt with the tubes yet, so can't comment on that one.

Have a great trip north, I'll be stuck here with all these summer runs!

Tube flies allow you to fish a bigger fly with a small hook. They also help you hook the fish get behind your fly suck it it and spit it out.

Silvers like a stripped fly so i think your hooked to landing ratio will be better because the hook is at the back of your fly.Also small hook hold better.