I went out tonight fishing only with a spinning rod with the terminal gear shown above: A SEP side dodger attached to a FLUR (Fly / Lure) sporting a red and blue sparkle black mohair leech. I could not believe how many fish hit it as the same conditions last night hooked only one fish, small, with fly gear. In 30 minutes I hooked 6 fish, landing two, the largest 15 inches in length. Fish were hooking up as fast as I could get the gear back fishing. It was awesome!
Years ago I came up with the idea of making and selling spinners with flies on the end. I thought the idea was unique until a friend recently told me about Joe’s Flies, who has been making these for 50 years. However, I have spent about $150 to buy wire, Colorado blades, wire forms, beads, and clevis pins. I’ll probably never get my money back in gross sales, but it is fun, and relatively cheap as a hobby.
However, I miss doing field research so I will be testing my spinners against the ultimate challenger: Nightcrawlers. I have purchased two identical rod/reel combinations, two identical rod holders, and have used a random number generator (random.org) to design a two rod, 100 hour experiment.
I will run 100 one-hour test segments throughout the winter. One rod will have either a silver or copper FLUR, while the other rod will have a threaded Nightcrawler. The color of spinners has been randomized, and the side of the boat for the spinner and Nightcrawler has been randomized. Results will be recorded as: a Strike (tugging but I didn’t get to the rod in time); a Hookup (I got to the rod and had the fish on the line but lost it); and Landed (the fish made it to the net). The left rod will be the first rod put out each sample period, and will be the first rod retrieved (while the boat is running to give the right rod as close to equal time in the water as possible).
The fly used will be constant. I have been tying up black wooley buggers for the experiment, but after tonight the black mohair red/blue sparkle was very effective. I have to decide if the fly and worm hook will be barbed or unbarbed. They will be the same to be consistent.
Oh, yeah, there has to be a Null Hypothesis / Hypotheses.
1: Ho: There is no difference in the catch rate of trout on Lewiston Lake between a trolled Nightcrawler and a trolled FLUR.
2: Ho: There is no difference in the catch rate of trout on Lewiston Lake between a trolled silver FLUR and a trolled copper FLUR.
Regardless, this will give me something to do, meaningful to me, during the winter. I plan on running a 1 hour trolling session each day I’m on the water, followed by figuring out to fly fish when fish are roving schools of fast moving projectiles.
Tight Lines!