Feathers & Fur - Articulated Sex Monkey

It's been a long time due for me to start tying flies. This latest tie is a mix between Kelly Galloup's Articulated Sex Dungeon and the Articulated Butt Monkey. Two flies in which I have caught some of my biggest trout on and figured it was time to create my own junk. Because really, look at it, its a lot of junk thrown on a hook (two hooks that is).

The difference between this fly and the mentioned Galloup originals is that I took all the traits of the original sex dungeon, but replaced the deer hair head for a wool head. This wool head will get down deep, and well my deer hair spinning skills need some work.


The Articulated Sex Dungeon in yellow (look down a few posts for this flies success).

The Butt Monkey (Non Articulated) with wool head.

C & R - Urban Steelhead

Jon and I hit the most local water we could find a few weeks back. Two hours from San Francisco we found an urban fishing opportunity and succeeded to find a few half-pounders and trout looking to take a fly.

NEW PRODUCT REVIEW - Rio Switch Line

Rio’s new Switch fly line is designed for those shorter spey rods out there; or are they long single handed rods for fishing stillwater; maybe they’re nymphing rods built to roll cast 50 feet with ungodly amounts of weight on the line; or maybe, just maybe they’re surf fishing rods that will outcast their shorter counter parts and get the fly in the feeding zone; either way, we all call them switch rods. Today’s latest and greatest trend in fly fishing. Or is it? Only time will tell if the switch rod will be around 5, 10, 20 years from now.

Rio was smart to introduce a dedicated fly line for these rods to take some of the guessing out of the popular question these days. What fly line do I buy for my switch rod? However, the question is not all that easy to answer without some follow up questions being asked. First off, switch rods are built in line weights from 4-8 weight. You can target a lot of different species within that range and you probably decided this when you purchased the rod. 4-5 weights for trout, just like a single handed rod. 6-7 weights for big big trout and steelhead, maybe some other species in there as well. Finally 8+ weights for Pacific Northwest steelhead and salmon. Now, you’ve bought your rod, you know the species your targeting. The questions is, what style of casting will you be using? Overhand, skagit, scandanavian, roll casts, you name it.

Now before the Rio Switch line was developed, what was everyone using? There were two main lines used, and many others out there. For nymphing and roll casting, a steelhead/salmon line was used approximately 2 line weights up from what the rod was rated for. So on a 10’ 5 weight switch rod, used for nymphing for trout, a 7 weight Rio Steelhead Atlandtic Salmong line was used. The 7 weight line had enough grain weight to properly load the deeper flexing switch rod and the long belly with a short front taper made roll casts a breeze. On the other end of the spectrum were the folks using the shorter skagit or scandi lines, with grain weights to match the rod for a casting style like the different variations of the skagit cast, using a sustained anchor. This technique is great for smaller rivers holding steelhead, when a longer spey rod would be too much. The appropriate skagit short head and a running line will make skagit casts 80+ feet a no brainer. Need to get deep, fast? This setup will do it on a 7 or 8 weight 11 foot rod like the Red Truck Diesel or Premium 7110-4. Both of these lines and techniques are widely used and work for their intended purpose, but now onto the Rio Switch Line.

According to Rio, the Switch line is used for...”for a multitude of applications for anglers using Switch rods. The long head and thick diameter tip turns over big flies and indicator rigs while allowing anglers to throw mends and control the fly's drift at great distance. The front taper and weight distribution form tight loops with minimum of effort, also enabling anglers to cast streamers and sinking VersiLeaders. The perfect all round line for Switch rods.”

Do I agree? Yes, but this is not your be all, end all fly line for switch rods. The folks swinging using skagit lines, heavy tips, and targeting steelhead should keep that setup. It works. Now, for those who have been up-lining 2+ with a steelhead taper line for nymphing and overhand casts, or swinging light polyleaders and small flies...Keep reading.

The Rio Switch fly line is for those who are looking for a switch rod line to mostly nymph with using indicators, one or two flies, and maybe a bit of split shot. Maybe even a lot of split shot, because this line can handle it. Nymphing isn’t the only thing it can do well. It will overhand cast, with little effort. The key here is letting the rod do the work. Swing woolly buggers, wet flies, or even big dry flies like hoppers and Stimulator's. It can be graceful and present a fly with little wake. The key once again is letting the rod do the work. This line doesn’t like to be overpowered.

Among those techniques, depending on the line weight you decide to get, you can make effortless roll casts like the single spey. If you want to cast using different spey techniques with sinking polyleaders and smaller flies, this line works, but I suggest buying the line using the second number according to Rio’s specs. For example; You have a 11 foot 7 weight switch rod and Rio makes a 6 / 7 and 7 / 8, buy the 7 / 8 for spey casting techniques. If you’re going to overhead cast and mostly nymph. Buy the 6/7. The grain weight window is 50-70 between lines, which is quite a bit. The 6 / 7 is 410 grains which for spey casting a 7110 is a little light. The 7 / 8 is 460 grains which is right about where you want to be for skagit casts.

Now what about lakes, surf fishing, and all the other techniques you can use a switch rod for? I haven’t tried this rod on a lake, and don’t necessarily plan to, but the Switch line would work. In the surf, this probably isn’t the best line either unless you plan to fish in calm water, with little wind.

Overall Rating

PROS - Versatile line that can be used for many different casting techniques without having to change multiple lines for each technique. The ultimate switch rod line for indicator nymphing.

CONS - For dedicated spey casts or overhand casting, two different lines must be used. Either the heaver line for spey and the lighter for nymphing, or stick with a dedicated skagit or scandi line for traditional casts.

BOTTOM LINE - Finally, a line to take the guesswork out of choosing a dedicated line for today’s modern switch rods. It’s more versatile than using an up-lined steelhead taper or skagit/scandi setup and for the dedicated nympher, you just found the perfect line.

SPECIFICATIONS

Sizes: 4/5, 5/6, 6.7, 7/8 & 8/9
Length: 100 ft (30.5m)
Color:Beige/Pale green

Reviewer: Casey R.
Fog City Angler Contributor

Acension Bay, Mexico to Timbuctoo, California

Miles Driven: 288
Gas: $15

It has been over two weeks since I got back from filming at Pesca Maya Lodge in Ascension Bay Mexico, so this past weekend I decided to wash off the salt and sand, and hit the cold tailwaters of the Lower Yuba River for a day.

It was Sunday morning and the first official day of daylight savings to spring our clocks forward an hour.  I tell ya, losing an hour when your alarm is scheduled to go off at 5:30 am hurts. If it was anything but fishing, I probably would have flaked out. After getting past the much needed two snoozes taps, I was up and ready to hit the road with two buddies from work.

We pulled in to an empty parking lot on the Yuba just below the hwy 20 bridge that crossed overhead at around 9:30 am. The water was looking pretty off color and the forecast was calling for rain in the afternoon. With the water flows running a little high, we weren't feeling too confident-- but hell we had already driven 2.5 hrs to get there and we didn't have a plan B, so we suited up and rigged up the heaviest junk we had.

There's a spot on the river that is kind of like my honey hole and I planned to fish it most of the day before I even left San Francisco. BUT-- I told myself that theirs lots of water between there and the parking lot, so I figured I'd speed fish my way over there. This was my big mistake because not only did I not catch fish, but I saw someone scaling the cliff I planned to climb to get to my hole. I could have almost sworn that no one else knew about fishing that spot because you have to grow a par to get their. Apparently I'm not the only dumb fisherman to risk it all for some trout.

Hoping the other fisherman would walk past my spot I had decided to follow him, at a good distance, up and over the rocky mountain side. At the highest point of the ridge I eventually caught up to him and said hello. My initial frustration with him soon left as we carried on a conversation about fishing  the Yuba and other local spots in CA. After about 15 minutes of friendly talk, he brought out his digital camera to show me some of the fish he had caught. Things got pretty weird fast when the fishing portion of his memory card ended. Kinky stuff--Stuff I'm really not sure what I was looking at--Stuff I don't want to see alone on top of a 100ft cliff looking over a fast deep river. Fortunately he felt awkward too, so he turned it off and put it away. Usually this would have been my time to exit, but he had the right of way to push ahead since he was first to the top. To my luck, he proceeded to gaze off into the distance. Awkward silence was upon us.

Impatient and very weirded out, one of my buddy's Casey caught up to us just in the nick of time.  We offered him the "you go ahead and I'll find another spot to fish" idea, but to our amazement he told us to go ahead and that he was going to head back down. We said our goodbyes and we were off

We scaled down the other side of the cliff to my sacred honey hole where the fish were stacked. Most of the fish we caught that day were super bright, full of fight, and very grabby. They would almost glow against the contrasting rocks in the shallow water when we landed them.

At around 1:30/2:00 air warmed up and the sun broke through for about 10 minutes. Almost instantaneously the air started to flutter with March Browns, Blue Wing Olives, and Skwala Stones. The fish and birds started to feed aggressively on emergers and adults. As I re-rigged to possibly get one of these fish on a dry, Casey managed to hook and land an almost perfectly beautiful resident rainbow on his trusted Sex Dungeon sculpin patter. Strangly the fish was missing part of its jaw, probably a defect from miss handling from another angler years ago. It also had a orange tip dorsal fin neither of us had ever seen before.

 

The rain picked up and the fish stopped biting, so we headed back to the car early and made the long trek back to the city.