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Would like hot striper fly recipe

10K views 12 replies 4 participants last post by  zimno1 
#1 ·
Fly fishing for stripers is something I've wanted to try for the past year after seeing a fly fisherman doing quite well from a float tube at our local reservoir, San Luis Reservoir. I have a lot of experience tying flies, but mostly for trout and some saltwater clousers for San Diego Bay kelp bass and halibut. Does anybody have a favorite striper fly recipe they would like to share? I plan on using fast sink tip line on an 8 wt. rod. San Luis held the land-locked world record for many years and a 70# specimen was caught in 2008, but never considered as a record. So, I want to go big in hopes of hooking into a large striper, but will take schoolies all day if they want to play. I have seen several striper fly recipes online, but just seeing what some thoughts are here. Thanks.
 
#3 ·
Thanks for the reply. Yes, I was thinking along the lines of a large clouser in a 2/0 or 3/0. I have many small sizes in the #4 in chartreuse/white with flashabou. I'm considering using white bunny strips for stripers as they work awesome on FL Keys barracudas, snappers and snook.
 
#4 ·
A larger fly,say a 3/0 would be fine for a large striper..But some times you need to match the color & size of baitfish in area..once back east during a good run of stripers & a few blues mixed in,we were crazy trying to figure out the pattern as they were chopping tru the bait..At one point ,the bait was on the beach..It was 1 1/2-2 inch silversides..I had larger(2-3 1/2" baitfish flies in olive, black, & grey, & blue backed over white)...No hits whats so ever? We trimmed down the flies to bait size(under 2"0) & still had to use only the olive backed ones & imediatly hooked fish....When we ran out of Olive backed flies the bite stopped...Only one of the six guys with us ,who had a olive fly was still catching bass . till a blue got the final fly..I had never seen this happed before except with trout or shad...Thats why I said to make a few sizesin each color.. Theres a ton of bait that gets sucked doqn the canal south..Smelt,,suckers,shad, various types of perch..Al different sizes & colors..At times they are particular!!....Jim
 
#5 ·
Thanks for the suggestions. I was wondering as I see a lot of reports of stripers being caught from trollers pulling large Rapalas, Rebels, etc. in the 7"+ sizes, so it kind of made sense to produce larger flies, but certainly not in the 7" range. I tied an interesting fly last night that looks funky, but found the recipe online and it looks pretty cool. It's 3.5" long on a 3/0 hook with barbell yellow eyes and synthetic hair in white, yellow and black. MY next flies will be about the same size, seeing as how I already have a lot of clousers in the 1.5" to 2.5" sizes that I use in San Diego and Key West. If the new larger ones don't work, I have plenty of back up in smaller sizes.
 
#11 ·
a pack of schoolies hitting one particular forage will key in on that and nothing else. it's when you introduce a larger bait to the mix that, even though you are not getting any takes? it's because there is no bigger fish in that school? no... you've not given that fly an even shot or you don't know where to cast it and allow it to work it's magic.. Now, having said that. My point is that,, a larger fish in the immediate area will be down below the melee and not expending much energy to chase bait in certain circumstances... they need a larger offering to pass thier line of site or sometimes right in front of them.. when a blitz of bait is occurring,,, there's no reason to believe there are no larger fish in the mix.. you may get lucky to get the bigger fish of the lot on a fly matching the hatch but,,, your not looking for that fish,,,, your looking for it's mother... if your out looking for a fish to catch and then a few more? then naturally you will make the bait match and get your share of fish.. but if you put in the time to figure out where she will be staged when the situation presents itself.. then a large fly will be well worth escaping the uncontrollable urge to just catch something and hunt for the fish of a lifetime... i've just posted some pics in another thread of larger fly's



 
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