Lizardpuller, Below is another way to get Red's light jigs "out there" that you many enjoy trying. I've been having a great early season on trout (and yesterday bass,crappie, bluegill joined in!) with this method, thanks to unusual open (ice free) water, so did this write-up for a small local magazine
Half headers, full bubbles
by John McKean
Red Denmark and "Eskimo Fats" are two of my grandson's favorite fishing mentors. Young Andraes (11) was expertly casting a filled water bubble, as directed by Alaskan Chris Kiana (Eskimo Fats) in his well written book on employing float and fly, along with a trailing wool/satin jig inspired by ole Red. He retrieved the barely floating bobber beside an old weed edge when a huge rainbow trout exploded on the wooly jig. Used to playing big fish on UL spinning outfits, Dra confidently worked the monster in, only to discover that dad and grandpa had wandered down shore and weren't anywhere around with the family landing net! Yep, the big gal pulled off right at shore.Unperturbed, Dra continued casting, and within 5 minutes had another trout, almost as big, well hooked -this time with dad Sean anxiously standing nearby with long handled net at the ready !
Yes, at this time of year cold water trout are quite active, but often seem "way out there", beyond crowds and, at least in lakes, out of normal casting range. Some years back my friend Chris, a 71 year old Eskimo tribal elder (though a Viet Nam vet , and with a doctorate in business administration !) told me about his unique method with a water bubble and fly, as he has perfected over 55 years in wilderness lakes in his vast home state. It turns out this system is wonderfully productive on our heavily pressured local waters for elusive rainbows, browns, and brookies, as well as most other species.
A water bobber is clear and hollow, with a slideable center stem that can be pushed open for an instant water fill. At about an inch and a half length, when filled it weighs an ounce. This weight will carry a fly or light jig out a "mile" ! Yet,despite the weight, because it is essentially just water, it is neutrally buoyant in the lake. Filled a bit less than full,it floats just as does a regular bobber, tho it seems to retrieve a bit smoother when fully loaded.
We've always found that Red's sparkly jigs are highly enticing to all trout, so we use these, or smaller 1/64 oz home tied models, behind our bubbles. Red usually produces 1/16 oz jigs for his extensive crappie fishing while vertically working brush piles below his boat; these tend to be just a tad heavy for float use, so we often take a pair of side cutters and clip the soft lead heads in half (or less). This yields a flat bottomed head that swims perfectly while steadily reeled behind our clear bobbers.
Mostly, this is an easy, fun method of fishing for most of our shallow reservoirs and wider rivers. But, trouble is, you may find MANY crappies, bluegills, catfish, and bass interspersed within your trout catch ! To this end, if there is interest, I'll do more articles on the water bubble technique geared specifically to these others.