I don’t go out on less than 4-5” of ice,and that’s walking not driving out. When you are out there and hear deep, sharp cracking that’s “makin’ ice” which is a good thing.
I agree it is a waste of time. I have caught many fish that show evidence of having been caught very recently. Once released they will often start feeding again with little delay.
I have had several St Croix fly rods. By far my favorite was a 9’ 3wt Legend Ultra. It served me well for 20 years until the tip broke. Had a hassle to return for “repair or replace” they no longer made the Legend Ultra series. They had no tip sections to “repair” mine so they sent me the next closest new model. It wasn’t anywhere close to the workmanship or action of my broken rod. I’ve since gotten rid of all my St Croix rods including the junky replacement rod they sent, and have converted all my work-a-day rods to Redington. Will never own another St Croix. Don’t need the warranty hassles.
Why not use a dry-dropper rig?
I have a theory on critical mass of fishing rods (and shotguns.) you start by proving your rods up in an empty corner. You keep doing that until you reach critical mass. That is when you have so many in the corner that your wife doesn’t notice that you have added another one. Then you are free to add as many as you want.
Whenever I catch a fish on a dry fly, after releasing the fish I swish the fly around in the water to remove any slime, blot it dry on my shirt, a piece of chamois or chamois cloth, and redress it. It will float for a long time if treated this way.
If you want your leader to float whether nylon or flouro, treat it with a little dry fly floatant.
Unless things have changed in the 4 years since I left NYS, each landowner owns to the middle of the stream. And,the landowner owns the stream bed. The water is owned by the state.
Just be aware that some sunscreens can damage the finish on fly lines. Have a towel or clean rag to wipe your hands on.
See if this helps you at all. Try to place your backcast as high above your head as possible. This will cause you to make a crisp stop of the rod at about the one o’clock position. I find most beginner to intermediate casters tend to wimp out on their backcast. No need to double haul for a forty foot or less cast in most circumstances.
Cicada. I’ve watched them emerge from their nymphal case. The nymph emerges from the ground in the evening and climb onto a tree or rock or whatever is available nearby. The final emergence is a slow process. They don’t do anything fast not even flying.
The newly emerged adult is almost entirely white and slowly (again) color up overnight. They lay their eggs in the tips of branches that brown off and die. The branch tips fall off and the newly hatched nymphs burrow into the ground
Since the cicada has a 13 - 17 year life cycle, most fish live and die never having seen one. Trout, bass and other larger mouthed fish will eat them, but once the Cicada invasion is over you might as well tuck those lures and flies away for the next 13 - 17 years.
St. Croix has cheapened their fly rod selection, and I don’t mean the prices. I recently broke a 15 year old S. C. Fly rod. It was the one that saw 95% of my use. I loved it. The one I finally got as a replacement was a very poor imitation of the original. I used it once, then sold it on e-bay. No experience with other than their fly rods. I was once a dealer for them and sent a lot of them out the door.
It is north of San Francisco. It also is the village where the movie “The Birds” was filmed. I don’t know about the salmon fishing there.
Flytier,
It’s on the Klamath River.
First, I find it difficult to believe you are consistently making 60’-90’ casts accurately to rising fish without putting them down. My maximum cast with a dry fly is maybe 30’ with a double taper line. Beyond that you have no control over your drift. A weight forward line, which you would need to make long distance cast, won’t allow you to mend that much line. Keep your casts to 25’-30’ maximum, use a double taper line to help with your mend, use a 10’-12’ leader with about a 3’ tippet and just accept that there are some fish you won’t be able to reach. That could be the reason there are some very large fish in those spots.