Like Buzboat said, Banks Lake is dead. But ice fishing is just getting started on Sprague Lake. Albacore and Yellowfin Are hitting Silver jigs with a touch of red about 4 feet below the ice.
Lines are paired with rods by weight. The goal is to have the weight of the line to load the rod on the back cast and to carry the fly out on the forward cast. By the same token we choose rod weight according to conditions and the flies we will likely use. Heavier rods for bigger fish but more likely for heavier lines since the large range of flies can be cast with a large range of rod weights. As to choice of line weights, it’s said one can go up in line weight but not as easily down in line weight. I would stick with the #5 line. If casting technique is spot on, good fly presentation, even with very small flies shouldn’t be affected. That of course calls for fineness in choosing the right leader and tippet to allow for a proper presentation. And I don’t know of any formula for hat other than experience. I throw flies over lake water mostly and use home made furreled leaders and store bought tapered leaders. Store bought leaders intended for trout. I find heavier leaders work best for a nice long presentation and pair the tippets to the fly. The smaller the fly, the finer the tippet.
I use 30lb braid on my steelhead rig and about 3’-4’ of 10lb flouro for a leader. The braid is to give a deep hookset on a bite as it doesn’t stretch and the Fluoro To fool the fish yet strong enough Incase I hook anything in the higher weights. We normally catch fish in the 8-10 lb range but there’s always a chance of a 24 pounder. The braid also casts nice from a spinning reel.
Hemostats In the fly fishing section are great for most anything and look for the ones that have a scissors section back from the tip and lock at different closed positions depending on the strength of grip you want. They are light and hang easy from a retractor pined to your shirt. They don’t replace other tools that you may need but likely fit the bill for the first thing you reach for whether is getting a hook out or clipping leader.
As a practical matter if your style of fishing doesn’t allow you to see or feel a take, your gonna miss them. That’sProblamatic with drys because of the little bit of slack in your leader.. with nymphs you can fish with a tighter line and do a simple pickup of your pole if you feel any thing. That precludes using an indicator if you can’t see the indicator or any significant slack in your line if you can’t see it either. Techniques like euro nymphing or tight lining high sticking might solve that problem if you can still feel a pickup or bump. But fish eat at night.
Last time I was there I can’t say I was very successful but in a fly shop I overheard a guy coming back from fishing his morning fishing below the dam in Estes Park. Bragging about the double he hooked. Implying that he was using a couple fly’s or three. Like a floater with a couple small nymphs on droppers. Learning the ways that can be rigged can be perfected before you go. Likewise investigating the hatches that are expected during your time there would be valuable. Perfect Fly web site has a page of hatches for various rivers and dates. They Wil also respond to questions and offer packages of appropriate flys. Would also investigate high stick techniques for nymphing and Euro nymphing. The latter utilizes a 10’ #3 rod and special long leaders rather than fly line but I think it can be adapted to a 9’ #5 weight rod with a purpose made leader. Basically 12’ of 12# plus three feet of colored sighted then 18” 24” of tippet. And the use of tungsten bead nymphs.
Transducers mounted inside the hull have to be below the waters line regardless of which way they point. Exterior mounts just need to be covered with water. As we know, they usually work by detecting the air bladder in a fish as I understand it so if there is an air space between the transducer and the water it won’t work. I have a regular transducer mounted to the side of my Minkota Bow mount that gives a side read in the direction it’s pointing..
Asked a fish bio locally after bad flooding on a local trout stream that had a lot of river bed rearranging. He said they mainly just move out of the way and most survive. Water is moving fastest in any conditions at the surface and in the middle so naturally, it’s less of a fight with the current near the bottom or Near the edges.
Within the past two decades it was widely claimed by some that these rifles would not shoot as far as Dixon’s shot was claimed to be. An arraignment was made by modern shooters of the Sharps Rifles to have a test done at the Army Proving grounds north of Yuma AZ. The range had known distances for testing artillery and even a radar system for tracking projectiles. The chosen rifle Was set up at an optimum angle for optimum trajectory and fired. Might have been a 45/2 3/4 or larger, I don’t recall. The bullet traveled in excess of 1500 yds and impacted with enough retained foot lbs of of energy to easily pass through a human body. I have a 45/3-1/4” Bullets used n these rifles range from around 390 grains to over 500 grains weight. Recoil can be brutal.
Wrap above and below the joint with reversed duck tape to give traction and twist. First normally then back on itself. So there’s sticky on the rod and sticky in your hand. After the sections are separated, lube with body oil from behind your ear or along the side of your nose. Two pieces of rubber or rubbery shelf liner should work as well.
As long as your into taking good care of your gear, the biggest difference is between a small fighter like a bluegill and a hundred pound + fish that can stripe your line off your reel or eat you. Or both.
Clear bubble bobbers that can be partly filled with water to give just the right amount of casting weight are the go to for a none fly rod fisherman wanting to cast flys. For dry flys it’s common to put the bobber at the end of your line and tie in a dropper line up a short ways, 18”-24”, from the bobber with a few inches, say 6”8”, for the dry fly to hang off that dropper. Or if you want to drift wet flies like nymphs and woolly buggers, etc. then tie the bobber on the end of your main line and add finer tippet line past the bobber that is long enough to reach the bottom of the stream and tie your wet fly to it. Get a small spool of tippet leader material of fluorocarbon or mono n 4X or two lb test for your dropper. Go with small parachute Adams and skeeter patterns along with elk hair Caddis patterns with a few hopper patterns for fall fishing. and small nymph patterns. Some nymph patterns have tungsten beads tied in for a head and thinly dressed bodies and work great. Keep in mind the size fish your targeting and don’t use flys bigger than the fish. And sharpen the hooks and crush the barbs down for easy release. Tight lines!
It’s like brushing your teeth. I use my right hand and a certain pattern to brush my teeth because I’m right handed. When I fish whether it’s fly, spinning, etc. I do it right handed, hold the rod in my right hand and reel with my left. . Were I left handed I would do it left handed and that would call for me to retrieve line with a handle or crank on the right side. I have fly and spinning reels that can be switched. My level winds are not reversible and I bought them specifically to reel with my left hand. My personal philosophy on this is simple. I control the rod, cast and fight a fish with my strong hand, my right hand and arm. I retrieve with my left hand and control the fly line with my left hand. And I don’t have to switch the rod from one hand to the other just to retrieve. And yes, doing that calls for training my left hand to do that job just as it calls for me to train my right hand and arm to do it’s assigned and assumed job. There are others who do it different than me and that’s their choice.
And finally, the casting in any case is just a mirror image of either side. Like casting motions in front of a big mirror. Just the same only opposite.
The printed regs indicate it’s open but to be sure you need to check emergency regs or rules. At this time there are not very many steelhead going up the river. You can check fish passage at fpc.com.. it gives daily counts at each dam and yearly totals.